When students demonstrate in solidarity with
workers against the established order, it is qualified as violence by
the press while the daily violence perpetrated on the working class of
the country by paying them wages that do not allow them to feed or
shelter their families is qualified as benevolence. The Delmas police
commissioner, Carl-Henri Boucher, swiftly arrested two young men who
tried to show solidarity with striking workers on August 10, 2009. The
two, Guerchang Bastia, 21 years old, a student in Sociology and member
of a revolutionary student association ASID, and Patrick Joseph, 36
years old, of Komite pou Relà vman Divivye (KRD). They have been
detained without charge and denied their fundamental right to counsel
as required by law. No visitors, either family or human rights groups,
have been allowed.
These two young men brought the revolutionary spirit of Boukman to the 21st century. Since the beginning of June, the students of the Universite D'Etat D' Haiti, have made common front with the Haitian proletariat and have regularly taken to the streets to support the increase of the minimum wage to 200 gourdes. They understand the reality of this great social struggle and their dedicated involvement has awaken many citizens of good will to the magnitude of this social upheaval. The occupation forces, given the deceptive acronym MINUSTHA, along with the National Police have reacted with brutal repression to the extent of gassing the teaching hospital of the university without regard for the sick who had to flee the facility or suffocate.
Is this the Haiti that Bill Clinton has given his blessings to? He has been given the official title of "Special Envoy of the Secretary General of the United Nations to Haiti. But it could very well have been Plenipotentiary Pro-Consul of the New World Order to promote the hegemony of multi-national corporations over Haiti. This, in effect, is the new colonialism of centuries past in a barely more palatable packaging.
Upon further meditation, I could not help wonder what fate the likes of Bill Clinton have in store for these two young militants, especially Patrick who has gone on a hunger strike. After all, the national police or the occupation forces are merely the enforcers of this new world order of which Bill Clinton is a paragon. And while they talk of Haiti being the poorest nation in the hemisphere whose people's labor is not worth more than 70 gourdes/day, they pay one of their minor subservient guard dogs in the Chamber of Deputies US$9,250.00 (or, 370,000 gourdes) per month.
In
the time of Boukman, the colonial institutions, Catholic Church
foremost, taught our people to accept their miserable faith in exchange
for a place in heaven, while the slave masters were acquiring enormous
fortunes off of slave labor. Such riches that Haiti was called "the
Pearl of the Antilles while its main population languished in bestial
slavery.
Just as these conditions created men like Boukman, the new form of neo-colonial bondage through debt and below subsistence level salaries enforced with barbaric brutality will create thousands of new Boukman and Dessalines in 2009. The spirit of Boukman is alive and well.
Let me now pay a final homage to Frantz Fanon (1925-1961) author of the celebrated "Wretched of the Earth and "Black Skin, White Mask among others who reminded us with eloquent words what our valiant barefoot ancestor warriors taught us with their deeds: "Violence bows only to a greater violence.
These two young men brought the revolutionary spirit of Boukman to the 21st century. Since the beginning of June, the students of the Universite D'Etat D' Haiti, have made common front with the Haitian proletariat and have regularly taken to the streets to support the increase of the minimum wage to 200 gourdes. They understand the reality of this great social struggle and their dedicated involvement has awaken many citizens of good will to the magnitude of this social upheaval. The occupation forces, given the deceptive acronym MINUSTHA, along with the National Police have reacted with brutal repression to the extent of gassing the teaching hospital of the university without regard for the sick who had to flee the facility or suffocate.
Is this the Haiti that Bill Clinton has given his blessings to? He has been given the official title of "Special Envoy of the Secretary General of the United Nations to Haiti. But it could very well have been Plenipotentiary Pro-Consul of the New World Order to promote the hegemony of multi-national corporations over Haiti. This, in effect, is the new colonialism of centuries past in a barely more palatable packaging.
Upon further meditation, I could not help wonder what fate the likes of Bill Clinton have in store for these two young militants, especially Patrick who has gone on a hunger strike. After all, the national police or the occupation forces are merely the enforcers of this new world order of which Bill Clinton is a paragon. And while they talk of Haiti being the poorest nation in the hemisphere whose people's labor is not worth more than 70 gourdes/day, they pay one of their minor subservient guard dogs in the Chamber of Deputies US$9,250.00 (or, 370,000 gourdes) per month.
It was
exactly 218 years ago, on August 14th 1791, that Boukman, one of our
valiant rebel for Liberty, spoke these words at the revolutionary
political congress he assembled in Bwa Kayiman: ""The God of the Whites
demands barbarities for offerings, ours demands good deeds. Our God who
craves justice demands vengeance. He will guide our arms and help us.
Throw away the images of the God of the whites that thrives on our
tears and suffering and listen to Liberty that speaks to our hearts"
Just as these conditions created men like Boukman, the new form of neo-colonial bondage through debt and below subsistence level salaries enforced with barbaric brutality will create thousands of new Boukman and Dessalines in 2009. The spirit of Boukman is alive and well.
Let me now pay a final homage to Frantz Fanon (1925-1961) author of the celebrated "Wretched of the Earth and "Black Skin, White Mask among others who reminded us with eloquent words what our valiant barefoot ancestor warriors taught us with their deeds: "Violence bows only to a greater violence.
The time has come for our battle cry of LIVE FREE OR DIE to once again resonate.
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