Autonomous Confederation of Haitian Workers (CATH) on June 19 against the anti-labor policy of the CNG. It was to take place on Monday, June 22. This action was in response to increasing military interventions against strikers, who in some places were demanding the resignation of Macoute officials [Duvalier's gangsters] and in others wage rises.
The section of the democratic movement grouped in the National Congress of Democratic Movements (Conacom) described the strike call "an irresponsible provocation apt to favor the antidemocratic designs of sections of the Macoutes." It was seconded by the United Party of Haitian Communists (PUCH), which judged the demands raised by the CATH to be maximalist, and declared that "the CATH wants to divert the minds of the people away from the important political problems that are posed today."
With the CATH isolated, on the morning of June 22 the army invaded and pillaged its headquarters, arresting several unionists - including three leaders of the organization — who were beaten up and tortured. The CATH was banned.
On the same day, the CNG decided to violate the constitution that had been approved by a referendum on March 29. It issued a decree depriving the Provisional Election Council - a nine-member independent body appointed a few weeks before — of the responsibility for organizing the local elections scheduled for August and the internationally. general election scheduled for November. This was clearly unconstitutional. The minister of information declared, "Regardless of whether it is constitutional or not, the decree will be applied."
Already on the morning of Monday, June 22, it was clear that the strike was a great success, to the surprise of many people. Port-au-Prince and other cities were paralyzed by the transport strike, which was a response to the CNG's measures. This action was backed up by the growing power of the CATH, which claims about 150,000 members -blue- and white-collar workers and farmers — and by the confederation's militant image and methods. It was also based on a determination to fight "Duvalierism without Duvalier."
Tonton Macoute thugs are still armed
Sixteen months after February 7, 1986, the date of Duvalier's departure, the Tonton Macoute are still armed and remain as a reserve force of the state -that is, when they are not actually included in the repressive forces. Every day, the army and the Macoutes apply pressure. None of the demands of the masses, most importantly the demand for agrarian reform, has been met.
Despite the change of rulers on February 7, the minimum wage is still $3 a day in Port-au-Prince and $2.64 in the 1. See also IV 93, February 24, 1986; 94, March 10, 7 1986; and 102, June 30, 1986. September 14, 1987 • International Viewpoint
HAITI provinces. The labor code established by François Duvalier ("Papa Doc," the father of dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier) remains in force, severely limiting trade-union freedoms. The new constitution, which stipulates that "unions are essentially non-political," is also a basis for restricting the activities of the labor organizations.
Moreover, the minister of finance, Leslie Delatour, is hell-bent on wrecking agriculture and industry in the name of "joining in the international division of labor." Many local products are suffering from the tariff cuts made in February. Smugglers are doing their bit to push many other local products off the market, including crops essential for the survival of the farmers, such as sugar, rice and maize.
Drug trafficking and smuggling
All the sugar mills, both public and private, have been shut down. The main administrative services and public enterprises are "trimming down." The latter, when they have not been shut down, have been designated for reconversion and privatization, according to a timetable worked out in Washington and in the offices of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
In the society, nothing has changed. The ruling class continues to contemplate the unbearable poverty of the poor neighborhoods and the desertification of the countryside from its villas, night clubs, its "Parisian restaurants" and its diplomatic cocktail parties. One thing perhaps has changed. A broader section of the bourgeoisie is sharing the loot from the flourishing drug traffic and smuggling with the Macoute and military chiefs.
However, why did the CNG attack the democratic movement and the ambitions of the politicians on the same day as it did the mass movement represented by the CATH? It is hard to imagine that this was a tactical political error. The most likely hypothesis is that it was a deliberate provocation aimed at precipitating confrontation and maintaining a dictatorship after the November elections, or to do away with these elections altogether. That would explain the flutter in the Western embassies. After years of efforts to get rid of Duvalier and to divert the popular revolt into electoral channels, the old process threatened to start again.
In fact, after June 22, Haiti has experienced a chain reaction of strikes, demonstrations and other forms of struggle throughout the country demanding the resignation of the CNG: "Rache manyok ou, bay tè a blanch!" ("Pack your bags and get out!"), was the cry Bishop Romélus raised from International Viewpoint • September 14, 1987
Jérémie on June 29. The demand for the CNG to get out has been the focus of major demonstrations in the past. Now it is becoming the central slogan.
The brutal repression carried out in the week of June 29 caused dozens of deaths and more than a hundred other casualties. However, under increased pressure within the country and from the foreign embassies, the CNG had to backtrack. The ban on the CATH was lifted; its leaders were released and the minister of information was sacrificed. But it was too late. The protests continued in other forms.
Strikes cannot be resumed indefinitely without directly endangering the survival of a population that is living from day to day. They regularly give way to other forms of struggle, before being touched off again by repression. These other forms include demonstrations, civil-disobedience actions, such as refusal to pay taxes, protests espe-, cially in the markets or in front of public services, forcing the closure of official offices and demanding the resignation of top functionaries.
On August 10 and 11, when people thought that the movement was marking time, we saw a powerful upsurge of civil disobedience showing the extent of popular rejection of the CNG. At this time, 90 per cent of students — all of them in some cities — boycotted their baccalauréat examinations. The boycott was accompanied by a sympathy strike, which in Port-au-Prince hit transport and stores the hardest. Then, the teachers' union decided to boycott correcting the exam papers.
During the strikes, barricades were erected at the entrance to certain neighborhoods to make it harder for the repressive forces to get in. At the same time, given the inability of the demonstrators to organize to defend themselves against the army, exasperated elements - sometimes manipulated by the CNG extremists — attacked symbols of wealth, especially luxury cars.
Such exasperation was all the greater because of the movement's incoherence. Still divided by the electoralist illusions and ambitions of the petty-bourgeois formations that had taken the lead, it did not develop an organization going from top to bottom. It failed to unite around a strategy and governmental alternative in conformity with its interests.
Taking advantage of the movement's lack of unity and strategic objective, the CNG mounted a counter-offensive. First, on July 17, General Namphy held a military ceremony of "pledging allegiance" to the constitution. To the great disappointment of the Western embassies, he gave a speech in the Macoute tradition.
Decked out in dark glasses and in consummate "gorilla" style, the general said, notably, that the Haitian people "deserve to be understood, organized, protected — sometimes even in spite of themselves." Along with this, he praised the "manly courage" of the military in "dealing with some manipulated groups."
Since the recipients of this accolade had opened fire at point-blank range against unarmed civilians, who had a kind of courage quite different from that of the general's "manly" Macoute soldiers, the speech was a clear warning.
Parallel to this, the army, which had remained in barracks for about ten days, began again to sow death in the streets of Port-au-Prince. Demonstrations of women, unemployed and students were deliberately attacked. On July 29, tension reached a peak. Under Duvalier this was the day of the "National Security Volunteers," that is, the Tonton Macoute.
The opposition organized an antiTonton Macoute demonstration. It was to fall into a fully-fledged ambush mounted by a military company. The Militant, published in New York, reported: "Several demonstrators wanted to walk along the sidewalk in front of the telephone company. They were brutally shoved back by a soldier. A few seconds later, this same soldier jumped between two cars and pointed his automatic rifle at young demonstrators. They dispersed.
"The soldier then turned his rifle around and fired a volley over the demonstrators' heads. Other soldiers then started shooting, this time into the crowd itself." 2
Dozens of people were killed, and many were wounded. Serge Gilles, an opposition spokesperson, said that the soldiers aimed at his head and that he only escaped because some young people covered him with their bodies.
Radio stations machinegunned
The following night, six radio stations were machine-gunned. The day after, the army general staff charged that there were phoney journalists about armed with stones and firearms. It also said "individuals trained in Cuba and pretending to be boat people in order to be repatriated are now at work, using arms landed clandestinely at certain points in the country or concealed in sacks of rice coming from abroad."
Moreover, disguised cars were spreading terror and carrying out kidnappings in the style of the Duvalierist death squads. Sometimes, to the great annoyance of the foreign diplomats, the CNG did not even bother to disguise the 2. The Militani, August 7, 1987.
In the provincial cities, similar events were taking place, even though some major cities in the north (Gonaives, Cap Haïtien) were little affected by the strikes. On July 28, a curfew was established in Jérémie.
It was in the countryside that the counter-offensive mounted by the CNG was most extensive. The government considers the rural areas, where three quarters of the Haitian people live, as its home base. Country people have been particularly hard hit by the effects of smuggling, and they have not been exempt from the general aggravation.
A large number of farmers are aware that there is a threat of returning to open dictatorship, and they reject the CNG. Relying on the Duvalierist networks, the government is trying to stamp out the first sprouts of an opposition movement that could prove very dangerous. The still fragile farmers' groupings are special targets. Anti-communist campaign in full swing
Every week, the paper Haiti Progrès cites cases of villages where ex-Tonton Macoute have been trying to intimidate the farmers. An anti-communist campaign has been in full swing. Helped along by statements from the churches, it is having a certain impact on the farmers. There has been an attempt to set some farmers against others. It was in this context that hundreds of farmers were murdered in Jean-Rabel. [See following article.]
Other bloody confrontations have occurred, as on Gonâve Island, or barely been averted, as in Gros Morne. In other localities, facilities set up by development associations have been destroyed in the name of fighting communism. The activities of the Tonton Macoute have been reinforced by those of the army. This happened in Jean-Rabel. It also occurred in the Jérémie area, one of the most militant regions of the country. According to Haïti-Observateur, "Although there was no government Order for this, the department of GrandeAnse — and one might even say, the southern region of the country — is in practice living under a state of siege. Some military officers regarded as counter-insurgency specialists have set up their headquarters there. The top circles of the government have sent in their right-hand men." In several villages, farmers have been subjected to interrogation, threats and various types of coercion. The army tried to kill two birds with one stone in this area. In fact, it claimed to be looking for Bernard Sansaricq, whom it accuses of setting up a
CONSTIT
ONSTITUNNO,
VOTE
MWEN
HP/ta
Why vote? Drawing from Haïti Progrès (DR)
guerrilla movement. Sansaricq had come to Jérémie to attend the preliminary hearings in the case of the 1964 "Jérémie Vespers," during which his entire family was massacred. The army tried to get its hands on him because he has accused General Regala, a member of the CNG, of being one of the organizers of the massacre. According to Monsignor Romélus, the bishop of Jérémie, "Everyone knows what happened in 1964 in Jérémie, and 23 years later they want to start it all over again."
As the slogan calling on the CNG to resign caught on, the various components of the movement were obliged to offer governmental alternatives. The Group of 57 (essentially Serge Gilles' Patriotic Unity Bloc (BUP), which is supported by the French Socialist Party, and the organizations that came together in the Conacom at the start of the year in support of the draft constitution), was quite embarrassed by a strike it did not want and a movement that was going over its head. Governmental proposals no real alternative
On July 18, the Group of 57 proposed at a press conference that the CNG be replaced by a CNG-Il, made up of four civilians and "a military officer ranking just after generals Henri Namphy and Williams Regala." When you think that one of the tasks of this new CNG, and therefore of the officer in question, was supposed to be to "clean up and 'de-Macoutize' the state apparatus," you realize the people who concocted this "alternative" had a strong stomach. Not surprisingly, the announcement of this proposal provoked unrest in the hall. One of the participants demanded who in this council was supposed to "represent the people."
After negotiations with a rival coalition, another "alternative" of the same ilk was proposed on July 13. It was supposed to be made up of "a highranking military officer prepared to respect the 1957 constitution" (who apparently had not been found); Claudette Werleigh, general secretary of Caritas (a Vatican-sponsored organization), who was supposed to represent the rural people and women; Gérard Duclervile, a member of the Christian base communities; Pauris Jean-Baptiste, representing the Protestant churches; and Maitre Félix Kavanagh, vice-president of the Supreme Court of Appeal, who was described by Haïti-Observateur as a "drinking companion of Namphy." 3
The United Party of Haitian Communists has long had a governmental formula, which has been left on the shelf for months in expectation of the elections. It calls for a government of "the representatives of the nine departments," who it has sometimes been said should be elected by "people's committees." Since no such network of people's committees exists, the formula remains vague and abstract, and is of little use in mobilizing people.
In fact, the electoralist dreams of the petty-bourgeois sectors were disturbed when, despite the withdrawal of the CNG's electoral decree, the movement continued around the demand for the CNG to go immediately. At the time, Jean-Louis Bajeux, one of the leaders of the so-called Strike Coordinating Committee and of the Group of 57, told Associated Press: "We are practical people... We know that we have nothing to gain from anarchy." This com-
Eg 3. Haïti-Observateur, July 10-17, 1987. September 14, 1987 • International Viewpoint
HAITI mittee tried to ride and channel the movement that was forging ahead and which it claimed to represent. But it never took the measures needed to build a movement capable of bringing down the CNG and of resisting what was described as an attempted fascist coup. Its participants were counting instead on pressure from the foreign embassies.
According to the Miami News, Bajeux said that he wanted the United States to replace the CNG with civilians and to order the army back to barracks "and then in two days you would have peace in the country. » 4 But the foreign embassies turned a deaf ear.
Haitian army trained by
US and France
In a press conference held after the CNG withdrew its electoral decree, Richard Holwill, US under-secretary of state for the Caribbean, described the opposition's demand as "a fairy-tale wish," saying that "any attempt to force the CNG to relinquish power will be met with the stopping of American aid."
The United States and France had put too much effort in training and equipping the Haitian army for over a year to let it be weakened in that way.
A week before this proposal was made by the Group of 57, the National People's Assembly, a grouping of radical activist forces including the CATH, put forward an alternative designed to be something other than a "new version of the CNG."
It proposed the formation of a government by Maitre Gérard Gourgue, chair of the Haitian Human Rights League; and Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a genuine mass leader, who has not hesitated in his sermons to call for "resistance" to "American imperialism," the "Big Blacks" (that is, the rich) and "the bourgeois army that is forcing the people to live with hunger." On August 24, Father Aristide was attacked by the anti-Communist groups mentioned earlier. They were armed with clubs and machetes.
It is true that there can be reservations about Gérard Gourgue. But nonetheless this proposal for an alternative government could have quite a different effect for mobilizing people than that of the Group of 57.
After the killing at the end of June, the Provisional Electoral Council (notably including representatives of the churches) was tempted to break with the CNG. But it quickly thought better of it. On July 14, it presented a new version of its electoral decree that. had been rejected by the CNG, the new draft making some major concessions 10 to the CNG.
Even the initial version had conInternational Viewpoint • September 14, 1987 tained some rather undemocratic points. For example, Article 103 stipulated: "Those who mislead the aforesaid voters to abstain by means of false news, slanderous rumors or other fraudulent maneuvers will be subject to a fine of 100 to 500 gourdes [$20-$100] and imprisonment of three months to two years." Moreover, these penalties could even be doubled.
It took a month for the CNG to accept the Provisional Council's new proposal. In the meantime, the US had brought pressure to bear on the CNG. The Protestant Federation had condemned "mutual intolerance and rejection of dialogue." The Conference of Bishops had issued an appeal "to the Haitian people and all men of good will" to get the "concerned parties to sit down at the negotiating table."
The Provisional Council itself had proposed "a series of measures capable of putting minds at rest and restoring the people's confidence." Finally, Leslie Manigat, one of the main presidential candidates, called for a "truce." Moreover, referring to the CNG, he raised the pitiable slogan, "Help them to rehabilitate themselves!"
But, perhaps, in the last analysis, it was the boycott of the baccalauréat examinations that settled the matter by showing the extent of the rejection of the CNG - including by the bourgeoisie.
However, scarcely any political parties harbor illusions any more about the framework in which the elections scheduled for November 27 can be held, which are the only ones that are planned today.
Speaking of the murder on August 2 of Louis-Eugène Athis, chair of the Mouvement Démocratique de Libération d'Haiti, Louis Déjoie, one of the candidates, raised the question: "Was this a deliberate conspiracy to scuttle the election campaign only four months before the elections? Will other leaders fall into other ambushes?"
Christian-democratic organizations have challenged the contents of the electoral decree and questioned whether they should participate in the elections. Even the very bourgeois Eugène Roy, one of the architects of the Constitution, has said: "We are definitively off the democratic road....I see three options: a military junta, civil war and a faint hope of achieving democracy."
In any case, the CNG is actively preparing the ground for the last two options. The weekly Haiti Progrès has even revealed a vast scheme for counter-insurgency Salvador-style under the pretext of "protecting the forests"! S
The documents that fell into the hands of Haiti Progrès announce a program of preparing so-called forest rangers in nine months of intensive training, including, among others things knife fighting, hand-to-hand combat and population displacement!
It is a good bet that the American organization USAid, which has granted $9.6 million for "forestry works," would be delighted to help in the training of these new forest rangers!
Reagan administration prepares for the worst
The Haitian events - and in particular the televised military oath-taking ceremony at the time of the July 29 demonstration — have, however, raised some waves in the United States. Some senators have called for suspending military aid to the CNG. But the the Reagan administration has taken quite a different attitude. It is preparing for the worst.
It is rumored that the United States has made contacts for a possible intervention, including with the army of the Dominican Republic, which borders Haiti. According to Le Monde, Louis Déjoie asked the US ambassador what the United States would do "if the situation became untenable," and got the answer: "We would all go home, and maybe we would go back to the times of Vilbrun Guillaume." 6
That was an ambiguous but very suggestive statement, referring to the landing of US Marines in Haiti on July 28, 1915. This followed the uprising of the people of Port-au-Prince, and the assassination of President Vilbrun Guillaume
Sam. The US troops were to remain in