[L-I] WWP On Imperialist 'Regime Change' in Haiti

EMERGENCY DEMONSTRATIONS:
*San Francisco - Monday, March 1, 5 pm, Powell & Market
*New York City - Tuesday, March 2, 4:30 to 6 pm, Times 
Square to the UN

WORKERS WORLD PARTY STATEMENT:
ON THE IMPERIALIST 'REGIME CHANGE' IN HAITI

The Bush administration has carried out another 
imperialist "regime change" through military force, 
political trickery and economic strangulation--this time 
in Haiti. Despite the media conspiracy to present this 
violent coup d'etat in a favorable light, the fact remains 
that U.S. Marines entered Haiti with absolutely no legal 
authority on the night of Feb. 28-29 and abducted the 
popularly elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. They 
snatched him from the Presidential Palace, after he had 
vowed to the nation that he would never step down 
voluntarily, and removed him physically from his own 
country.

Without even a figleaf of democratic process here at home 
or in Haiti, the Pentagon has already begun what it 
projects will be a long-term military occupation of the 
poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

This was the culmination of a long campaign to overthrow 
the Haitian government that included economic 
strangulation, encouraging and bribing a political 
opposition drawn from the exploiting classes in Haiti, and 
finally the unleashing of armed contras, known for their 
history of massacres and mayhem, to try to force Aristide 
to resign. When all this failed, the U.S. government 
resorted to outright kidnapping.

No matter how the monopoly media package what has 
happened, the truth is that the billionaire ruling class 
of the U.S. has abandoned any pretense that it respects 
democracy and the popular will. Not since the April 2002 
U.S.-supported coup against President Hugo Chavez in 
Venezuela, which backfired when hundreds of thousands of 
Venezuelans surrounded the usurpers in the seat of 
government and demanded his return, has Washington's 
contempt for a popularly elected, constitutional 
government been more clearly displayed.

The U.S. Embassy in Haiti made clear what was coming a day 
before the abduction when it branded as "thugs" those 
Haitians trying to defend their government from the 
heavily armed contras advancing on the capital. Ambassador 
James Foley had the gall to demand of Aristide, who didn't 
even have an army, to "stop the violence." Even as Foley 
made that statement, he was abetting a conspiracy in 
Washington and in Paris to violently overthrow the Haitian 
government and trample on Haiti's sovereignty.

The responsibility for what happens next lies with those 
who have destabilized the only government in decades 
chosen by the Haitian people.

The criminal overthrow of the Aristide government will 
open up a new phase of the struggle of the Haitian masses 
for national independence and economic justice. 
Progressive forces around the world must reject this 
neocolonial scheme of U.S. and French imperialism and 
support the resistance of the Haitian people, which is 
sure to grow as the true character of the compradore 
regime now being installed becomes indisputable.

This first Black republic, founded by former slaves who 
fought to free themselves from brutal colonial domination 
two centuries ago, has suffered an unending, racist 
campaign by the large capitalist powers to starve the 
people and break their will. But the struggle continues. 
We demand reparations from U.S. and French imperialism for 
their egregious exploitation and abuse.

Power to the Haitian people, not the hand-picked 
representatives of the transnational banks and 
corporations!


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Workers & oppressed peoples of the world unite!
Visit Workers World Party at http://www.workers.org/
You've heard what's been said about us.
Now hear what we really have to say.
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