Washington's plans THE REVOLUTIONARY upsurge was not ended by the flight of "Baby Doc" Duvalier. It is continuing to threaten more and more the props of bourgeois order. The most spectacular example recently is the mass mobilizations on the day of the restoration of the national colors (Duvalier changed the colors of the Haitian flag), during which a crowd prevented the new authorities from sending the former chief of the political police, Luc Desyr, safely out of the country.
According to the February 27 issue of the Paris daily Liberation, the crowds on the day of the return of the colors chanted "Duvalier is still there," and "Cineas - Macoute." Alix Cineas is a member of the new ruling junta. On February 26, the Banque National de Credit, went on strike demanding the removal of the management linked to Duvalier.
The following article written by a representative of the Paris organization for solidarity with Grenada, was recently published in a magazine of the solidarity movement. The second article has just
HAITI from US surpluses. Another part will go to swell the shantytowns and try to get jobs in the industrial zones, where already some 200 assembly businesses employ 60,000 workers, mainly women, for pittance wages.
On the political level, the US plan is to establish a strong regime subordinate to it but endowed with a democratic facade. Washington will pay special attention to the Haitian army, many of whose elements have already been trained by the United States. Some of the Tontons Macoutes will be integrated into the army (the process has already begun). Other elements can be used, if necessary, to form secret paramilitary gangs to "disappear" activists who cause too much "trouble."
For a long time, the US embassy has had a network of informers extending throughout the country. It is based on the ministers of certain Protestant seets which were established in the country during the US occupation that lasted from 1915 to 1934. The CIA is no doubt going to perfect its intelligence network and focus on the left organiza. tions that are still working underground.
The concerns of the US embassy seemed to be reflected in a dispatch published in the February 13 International Herald Tribune:
"Diplomats here say they do not know who organized and led the street revolts of the past few months or who is issuing the unsigned communiques now spreading rapidly around the country.
"However, the diplomats note that the documents are well-written and suggest there may be a real organization or leadership behind what appeared to start as spontaneous street protests. "
The junta has announced that unions are going to be allowed to form. It is a sure thing that agents of the American Institute for Free Labor Development, the CIA's cover organization in the union field, already have their tickets for Portau-Prince.
In Haiti, militant unions grew up after 1946 before being crushed by Francois Duvalier. Rebuilding them is one of the tasks of the period opening now. We might ask if unions in countries that have considerable investments in Haiti, as is true of France, could not play an important role in helping their Haitian coworkers to organize themselves freely.
More generally, opposing the interference of foreign powers, above all the United States, in the affairs of the Haitian people must now be a concern of the entire movement for solidarity with the peoples of Central America and the Caribbean.
5 been received from inside Haiti. It JULIEN LARIVIERE
Jean-Claude Duvalier and Somoza once told each other that they were "inspired by the ideals of solidarity coming from a common destiny." So far this prophesy has been borne out to the letter. But the United States is going to do its utmost to assure that Haiti does not follow the road of Nicaragua.
Contrary to what a lot of the press has suggested, the United States no more put an end to Duvalier's reign than it did to that of Somoza. maybe the pressures brought to bear by Washington gave a final tip to the scales, but the dictator's position had become untenable in any case.
The whole society, including the bourgeoisie, had rejected him. In particular, the movement of the poor masses had taken to the streets and had been growing steadily for two months. Repression had fanned and spread the flames of the revolt.
The regime still had the capacity to mount a campaign of massacres and could have held on in that way for some time. But it knew that in the long run, the game was lost. The mobilizations that were being built for the carnival time threatened to prove fatal for it. And involving the army in a fierce repression could discredit it in the eyes of the people who had been shouting, "Long live the army" up till then. Baby Doc
International Viewpoint 10 March 1986 has been somewhat shortened. could still slip discreetly out the back door, which is the solution he chose, after taking the precautions of emptying the state coffers and turning power over to a junta.
Fearing the worst (it had already prepared its troops to intervene in order to restore order), Washington could only encourage Duvalier on his way.
Will the United States now succeed in imposing its plan on Haiti and making the country into a colony patterned after Puerto Rico?
As regards the economy, the United States has not concealed its intentions. They have been described in several documents submitted to congress. In outline, the plan has two main aspects:
- To reduce the land devoted to food crops by 30 percent in order to expand export crops. This involves breaking down the traditional structures in the production and trading of food products, which are to a considerable extent controlled by the peasants (unlike, for example, the coffee industry, which is dominated by the exporters and big merchants).
- A part of the peasants driven off the lands they cultivated, by debt, poverty, or force, will go to work on road construction. They will then get not wages but food rations drawn