Haiti suffers Neo-liberalism

By peg:jclancy in cdp:reg.carib, 18 December 1995

Whether its neo-nazism or neo-liberalism, or a few other brilliant neo's, their birthplace arises from America's attitudes and policies towards the rest of the world in general, and towards the accumulation of wealth for USA's wealthy in particular. And so it is in Haiti, whose people are still basking in US slavery. Why can't these Republicans/Democrats come up with something new and decent - even honest, and give the world a break?

Haitians realize that there is nothing new for them in the sale to US corporations of all national assets. The local land- owners will still own their bodies and souls via dividends from investing in the US corporations. The repression and threats of torture, murder and injustice will still be there. The US does not believe in education or health care for its workers, which of course is the reason it must kill all Fidel's happy Cubans.

The position on Haiti on election day is clouded by the presence of 6000 foreign troops -Americans definitely included- to watch out for US plans and interests. The US ambassador proclaims that the people want democracy! True, but that is not what they're going to get -only US neo-democracy. The Constitution disallows any persons associated with the Duvalier regimes from holding public office until 1997. There are thousands of these lurking in the lists of candidates, but the new world cop will brush that aside for the moment and install a new constitution later.

Preval, the new President has called for land reform and more food for all, insisting that the world's banks and private enterprise will correct the economy. A group of US economists, activists and developers heard of the peoples' main concerns of jobs, food, homes and real fair justice, which eclipse the importance of the elections. But the US masters will not collect taxes from the rich, or provide social security for the poor, so how, exactly, will the brains trusts scheme a system whereby the foreign debts will stabilise, then be repaid, in a climate where the US cannot repay its own massive $5 trillion plus debts.

The people also know that if the industry and services that do have Haitian workers are sold off for 'efficiency', then where will the sacked workforce earn their 5-10cents per hour and still pay tax? One peasant described these neo-liberalist methods as a death plan. The people also know of the resultant starvation futures being suffered by others in US enforced client states, which, like Mexico and Brazil work in US industries and cash crop enterprises, produce cheap tobacco, sugar, timber, rice, meat, for US profits, but have a future clouded in misery, death squads and injustice.

And, as in those poor US client states, Haiti is to have an enforced 'reconciliation' legitimising all past US CIA and Fraph crimes. Thus the US will control any attempted Justice system. All proposed changes are said to be a knife in the back of Haiti. Another advantage for Fraph members was the Pentagon revelation that it had only 150,000 pages of detail seized from Fraph and Cedras' Army, yet it arrogantly insisted that the documents belong to the ousted Army not the Haitian parliament. Hence they now belong to the USA as US troops had 'seized' them. These papers detail the history of CIA involvement in this poor Country. JC