[RSCT] Fw: Supporting the People of Haiti

Tue Jan 19 16:02:26 CST 2010

and

haven't had time to read this critically (have only scanned it) but
fyi

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/project-haiti-holding-a-teach-i
n/?src=twt&twt=nytimes

(media literacy, as well as the content itself?)

Janet


> From: <jwall5 at igc.org>
> Reply-To: <jwall5 at igc.org>
> Date: Sun, 17 Jan 2010 09:14:36 -0500 (GMT-05:00)
> To: rs listserv <rs at criticalteach.org>
> Subject: [RSCT] Fw: Supporting the People of Haiti
> 
> I thought folks might appreciate the text below for several reasons:
>
>-1) It
> gives place to send donations so you know they'll actually be used to help
> those impacted (unlike so-called "aid organizations"- remember Katrina!)  The
> email address in NYC is http://www.fanmilavalasny.com/
>
>-2) It gives an
> important perspective on the role of US in aid efforts. there is a reason
> Haiti is so impoverished; they've been kept that way since their
> history-making-&-changing slave revolt & revolution. And, as with Katrina
> here, the US government uses crisis like this to further control the people.
> (Little known facts: John Brown studied & was inspired by Haitian Revolution;
> that revolution changed US history by creating conditions for French to make
> Louisiana Purchase--But how much do any of us even know about, much less
> mention, this (finger pointing at myself).

Jim Wallace  ESCHS

>--- Original
> Message  ----

>-----Forwarded Message-----
>>From: Facebook
> <notification+kjkv-kjm at facebookmail.com>
>
>>Subject: Solidarity with Haiti's
> people: Workers World Party statement
>
>>The earthquake that flattened
> Haiti¹s capital and brought a new calamity to millions of people in that
> heroic but impoverished country has awakened calls for solidarity and aid from
> the vast majority of the world¹s people. The number one priority is to provide
> food, drinkable water and emergency medical care to the approximately 3
> million Haitians affected by the disaster to try to limit the deaths, injuries
> and illnesses to the people.
>>
>>All reports from Port-au-Prince, located 14
> miles from the epicenter of the devastating 7.3 earthquake and whose
> un-reinforced buildings nearly all collapsed, are that casualties are already
> in the tens of thousands. Even the main hospital and the national palace have
> collapsed, as has the hotel housing the U.N. occupation force. One Haitian
> minister said he expected 100,000 deaths.
>>
>>Anyone feeling solidarity with
> fellow humans is moved by this tragedy. One is especially moved if aware of
> the world¹s debt to the Haitian people for their historic contribution: they
> carried out a successful slave rebellion and liberated their island from
> French colonialism.
>>
>>We know that many of our readers want to offer their
> own personal aid to show solidarity with Haiti. There will be a myriad of
> private charities asking donations for aid to Haiti. Many of the most powerful
> charities, like the Red Cross, are closely tied to the imperialist
> establishment that has no desire to promote Haitian sovereignty.
>>
>>We would
> suggest that those who wish to support the sovereignty of Haiti as well as get
> aid directly to the Haitian people donate to Fanmi Lavalas. This was
> recommended at a Jan. 13 Boston meeting hosted by the mostly Haitian-origin
> Steelworkers Local 8751 (School Bus Drivers), local Haitian organizations and
> others.
>>
>>Fanmi Lavalas is the party associated with former Haitian
> President Bertrand Aristide, the most popular of recent Haitian leaders who
> was twice removed by military coups supported by the U.S. In the last
> instance, in February 2004, Aristide was expelled from the country by U.S.
> troops and agents in collaboration with French and Canadian
> imperialism.
>>
>>Governments will provide the bulk of aid to Haiti. Some of
> these governments ‹ mainly the old colonial powers and U.S. imperialism ‹ will
> attempt to use the disaster as a way to increase their own dominance over the
> Haitians, even as others freely aid in solidarity.
>>
>>It was predictable
> that the U.S. government, while delaying any actual delivery of aid, put its
> military foot forward. Gen. Douglas Fraser, commander of the U.S. Southern
> Command, said that the U.S. would send the Aircraft Carrier Carl Vinson along
> with the U.S. Bataan, an amphibian ship with an expeditionary unit of 2,000
> Marines to police the Haitians in Port-au-Prince, claiming that security was
> ³a serious concern.² (New York Times blog, Jan. 13)
>>
>>In addition, while
> much of the U.S. media reports alleged looting, few mention that many Haitians
> barely survive from day to day and breaking into a shop may be the only way
> they are able to obtain food. No one can forget how the U.S. federal and local
> governments handled the disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
> There police, National Guard, army and mercenary guards from Blackwater
> focused on control and repression, not on aid and rescue.
>>
>>In contrast
> Socialist Cuba, with the experience of sending medical brigades to meet
> emergencies in Pakistan, Bolivia, China, Guatemala and Indonesia, sent a team
> of 403 people to Haiti, 344 of them health care workers. On the first day they
> treated 800 Haitians and performed 19 surgical interventions. (TeleSur, Jan.
> 14) Cuba already had hundreds of medical doctors providing care in the Haitian
> countryside and provincial towns.
>>
>>Chile, Nicaragua, Spain, Guatemala,
> France, Mexico and Russia all rushed aid, mostly food and water, to Haiti on
> Jan. 13, while the U.S. was still discussing how the Marines would land. China
> sent a 60-member search-and-rescue team with sniffer dogs.
>>
>>Venezuela
> immediately sent 19 doctors and 10 firefighters who specialize in search and
> rescue along with 20 other experts and material aid. The Bolivarian government
> of Venezuela has always recognized South America¹s debt to Haiti, which in the
> 1820s gave the aid to Simón Bolívar he needed to help free some of the South
> American countries from rule by Spain.
>>
>>French imperialism especially ‹
> and the U.S. too ‹ owes a great portion of its early wealth and subsequent
> development to its looting of the natural resources and super-exploiting the
> labor of Haiti, though they both refuse to acknowledge the reparations they
> owe to the Haitian people for that and for their continued role in preventing
> Haiti¹s development.
>>
>>The progressive movement in the U.S., while joining
> in providing aid and solidarity to the Haitian people, should also demand that
> the U.S. government stop deporting Haitians, allow the return of Aristide and
> provide reparations so the new Haitian government can establish a functioning
> system and stop military intervention and subversion of Haiti.
>>
>>The Bail
> Out the People Movement has the right idea with its demand to use the $18
> billion Wall Street now wants to pay its undeserving executive bankers in
> bonuses as a down payment on reparations to Haiti. It¹s hard to imagine a
> similar transfer of wealth that could be more effective in establishing
> justice.
>>
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------
> -------------------
>>Articles copyright 1995-2010 Workers World. Verbatim
> copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium
> without royalty provided this notice is preserved. >
>>Workers World, 55 W. 17
> St., NY, NY 10011
>>Email: ww at workers.org
>>Subscribe
> wwnews-subscribe at workersworld.net
>>Support independent news DONATE >
>>Page
> printed from: 
> >http://www.facebook.com/l/de079;www.workers.org/2010/us/haiti_solidarity_0128
> /
>>--------------------
>>
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> California Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94304.
>>
>


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