Form Action Committees and Self-Defence Guards! For an Anti-imperialist and International Struggle! End Colonialism in the Caribbean!

Statement of the Revolutionary Socialist Vanguard (RSV), Nigerian Section of the RCIT, 18th September, 2022, https://communism4africa.wordpress.com

Fresh bouts of unrest have hit Haiti again. The people are asking for the resignation of the new prime minister Ariel Henry over the newly announced price raise on fuel which has caused hikes in food and utility prices in a country already suffering from crushing inflation. No doubt, this is a reflection of the slump in the capitalist economy; Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine — a product of stiff inter-imperialist rivalry — and the general accentuation of contradictions in the capitalist system.

While it has been possible for politicians, both “progressive” and right wing, to talk about rising and falling tides in the economy, especially in the imperialist countries (mostly due to bail-out funds). A poor semi-colonial country/neo-colony like Haiti stifled with mass hunger and endemic gang violence finds itself falling through a downward spiral of worsening social crises.

Mainstream media tries to root the political instability in Haiti in the assassination of former prime minister Jovenel Moise, just as they still blame the failure of the capitalist economy to recover from hiccups on COVID. The reality is that Haiti has been made a pariah by world imperialism because of its revolutionary history of anti-imperialist uprising. Haiti is one of the very few former colonies whose initial independence in 1804 was not due to some political calculations by her colonial masters. And unlike the US where the settlers led the remonstrance against colonial rule it was the slaves who emancipated themselves in Haiti.

For this cause, Haiti serves, even if little known, as a beacon for Black resistance against colonialism and imperialism. Hence the long-borne hatred of Western imperialism for the country. At every point after the Haitian Revolution the colonisers were always afraid of slave rebellions in the Caribbean and the American mainland but this did not stop the revolution from spreading throughout the world until it culminated in the final termination of slavery in the American Civil War. Nevertheless, the imperialists, like the colonists before them, have took turns and collaborated to perpetuate the subjugation of Haiti, hence its current status as a neo-colony.

We support the masses on the streets fighting to remove Ariel Henry from government. We say not just Henry but the whole regime must be purged. We call for the formation of action committees in the cities, neighbourhoods, workplaces, schools and all protest grounds. These action committees must be democratically constituted and independent of ruling and opposition politicians. Protesters must protect the movement through the formation of armed self-defence guards to fend off police and state forces as there are already reports of fatal clashes between police and protesters.

The action committees must coordinate to form a national leadership for the struggle. For us, only a workers, youth and poor peasant government can kickout the imperialists and their puppets; expropriate the local capitalists and multinationals; and insulate Haiti from the maladies of the global crises of the capitalist economy by distributing resources evenly amongst the masses.

* Form Action Committees to coordinate on a national scale the struggle on an anti-imperialist and internationalist basis! For Armed Self-Defence Guards to protect the movement from attacks from police and other state forces! For an Indefinite General Strike To Bring Down The Henry Regime! For A Total Overhaul of Haiti’s Political and Government Class!

* Mobilize Food and Monetary Aid from the Imperialist Countries For Haiti! Immediate Price Caps on Food and Utilities! For Public Regulation on Fuel Prices and Energy Bills! Tax the Multinational Corporations and Energy Magnates!

* Cancel All Domestic and Foreign Debts! Expropriate Without Compensation the Transnational Corporations and Local Capitalists! Put the Energy and Other Important Sectors of the Economy Under Workers’ Control! For A Public Employment Program to Provide Jobs with Living Wages for the Youth and Unemployed!

* For A Workers, Youth and Poor Peasant Government in Haiti! End All Colonial Governments in Central America! For A Socialist Republic of Haiti as a first step to Constituting a Socialist Federation of Central American Republics!