Geography Archives: Haiti

The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) condemns in the strongest possible terms Kenya’s proposal to lead what amounts to a foreign armed intervention in Haiti. 

Ever since the Haitian people successfully overthrew slavery and colonialism in 1804, they have been subjected to interventions and policies by the French and U.S. governments–from devastating “debt” collection to brutal military occupation, from coups to neocolonial puppet dictatorships–designed to destroy their existence as sovereign people, as an independent nation.

If Haiti is “the poorest country in the hemisphere” it is because imperialist policies continue to impoverish and destabilize that nation.

Military intervention into Haiti is in the air again.

October 18, 2022–One day after the Black Alliance for Peace—and other individuals and groups from Haiti and the Haitian diaspora—requested that Russia and China oppose the Biden Administration’s UN Security Council resolution providing cover for another Western invasion of Haiti, the Security Council delayed consideration of the vote.

At the United Nations General Assembly on 24 September 2022, Haiti’s Foreign Minister Jean Victor Geneus admitted that his country faces a serious crisis, which he said ‘can only be solved with the effective support of our partners’.

Citizens flooded the streets across Haiti in rejection of President Ariel Henry’s request for international military assistance, demanding that foreign powers stop interfering in Haiti

In recent weeks, the streets of Haiti have once again been occupied by large marches and roadblocks. Banks and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)–including Catholic charities–faced the wrath of the protesters who denounced U.S. interference in Haitian affairs.

The Americans mined a million tons of guano on the island without paying a cent to the Haitian authorities. Other countries have sold the product for hundreds of millions of dollars

A popular uprising has paralyzed life in much of Haiti. While police are violently suppressing protesters, don’t expect Canadian officials to criticize security forces they fund.

Rosa Luxemburg popularized the dictum “Socialism or Barbarism”. Since World War I Leftists of various stripes have adopted or modified the maxim. In Haiti the struggle has been between those seeking “poverty with dignity” and oligarchic gangsterism. Unfortunately, Canada has been on the side of barbarism.

Empires never forgive rebels; an insubordinate rebel plants a seed that can sprout many generations later.

Scientists theorize that empathy developed as an evolutionary strategy to build stronger bonds among animals that depend on cooperation for survival.

Capitalism’s need for labor is the determining factor in immigration policy. Its contradictions create a system that is consistently inhumane.

Black women in the French-speaking world have been marginalized throughout history and even if they did not lack autonomy within the family unit (which often they did), they certainly suffered as a result of their colonial status. This often created double oppression.

Toward the end of his life, Frederick Douglass served briefly as U.S. ambassador to Haiti. The disastrous episode reveals much about the country’s long struggle for Black sovereignty while always under the threat of U.S. empire.

Pigs and Canadian imperialism. Most people would have difficulty understanding the connection. But for many Haitians the relationship is a historical memory.

Re-reading Guy Endore’s “forgotten masterpiece” it is striking how this novel from 1934, long-noted for its shocking and sophisticated account of slavery and resistance in the lead-up to the Haitian Revolution, is also a penetrating account of the ethical and political deformity and alienation perpetuated by the ideology of “whiteness.”

The Washington Post has a piece on the current deportation of Haitian migrants from the U.S. and how it is charged with racism.

The spectacle of violence against Haitians at the U.S.-Mexico border needs to be seen in light of ongoing U.S. imperialism in Haiti.