An old activist friend of mine sent this yesterday. Her name is Sunsara Taylor, and the way she broke things down reminded me of why I became an activist in the first place…

I posting this here because of her perspective: she drops of few insights you won’t get on the daily news or any other popular mis-information source…you already know what you need to do to assist (if not, see here), but for now, check this out. You’ll be glad that you did:

in this urgent hour…

The world’s eyes are riveted on scenes of horror in Haiti. The world’s hearts are straining. People everywhere are trying to support the Haitian people in any way they can. Meanwhile, the clock ticks very urgently, as people literally die beneath the rubble and perish on the streets as well as for lack of medical care, water, food, and shelter….

The means exist to rescue and aid the Haitian people! These must be made immediately available by the governments of the world and, first and foremost, by the United States. While some governments have sent doctors and other forms of aid, as of Thursday morning the United States has focused on sending paratroopers and militarily securing the area. While Obama has now promised 100 million dollars, the U.S. government is above all concerned with ensuring the continuation of the repressive government order and controlling and/or suppressing the initiative and efforts of masses to deal with this horrible situation. (100 million dollars is less than one-tenth of one percent of U.S. yearly military expenses in Iraq and Afghanistan.)

The U.S. government must immediately focus its resources on getting aid directly to the Haitian people, putting supplies on the ground and marshaling the many doctors, engineers, construction workers, etc. who work for the government, as well as the many many people who would volunteer to help any way that they could. THIS IS A HUMANITARIAN EMERGENCY, AND MUST BE DEALT WITH AS SUCH.

The Haitian people themselves must be assisted, and NOT SUPPRESSED. The media – just as it did in Katrina – is already portraying the Haitian people as animals and criminals. In fact, the masses in Haiti – as they did in New Orleans during Katrina – are in the main mobilizing to collectively deal with their situation. These efforts must be supported in all aid programs, and there must be no suppression by the U.S. troops of those who are trying with all their might to save themselves and their people. Volunteers coming from other countries must be assisted by the governments now sending aid to Haiti , and not be suppressed.

History shows that there will be, and must be, a struggle against this system to demand that the needs of the masses actually be met and that there NOT be suppression of the masses. As a part of this:

There must be no harassment, prosecution or deportation of Haitian immigrants within the U.S. attempting to locate or aid their loved ones and friends. Instead, government assistance must be made available to those trying to communicate to the island with a guarantee of at least temporary amnesty for any attempting to go through U.S. government agencies to do so…

The disaster in Haiti is neither the result of the so-called “will of God” nor the fault of the Haitian people. It is the result of centuries of imperialist domination, occupation and isolation. The news reports talk about Haiti’s poverty, but they don’t tell you why Haiti is so poor to begin with. Very few people know that Haiti was the scene of the only successful slave revolution in history – when the heroic descendants of African slaves drove out the strongest army in the world at that time, the French. Very few people know that the world’s powers – especially the U.S. , which at that time feared the influence of Haiti on the slaves in this country, and France – embarked on a policy of isolating and impoverishing Haiti.

Very few people know that for nearly 20 years in the early 1900′s the U.S. marines occupied Haiti, suppressing a liberation struggle and implanting puppets. Very few people know that the U.S. backed the infamously cruel tyrant “Papa Doc” Duvalier, and then his son “Baby Doc,” in the middle of the century. And all too few know that it then conspired to overthrow the popular president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in the 1990′s and then again just a few years ago in 2004. All these criminal actions – this long criminal history of oppression – flowed from the economic and political needs of the U.S. ruling classes during the time when the United States was run, first, by a coalition of capitalist and slave-holding classes, and then more recently (and up to today) by the ruling capitalist-imperialist class. Throughout the last two centuries the U.S. has backed up reactionary ruling classes within Haiti as part of this.

In other words, the fact that the Haitian people live in terrible conditions and now must face this disaster with little resources other than their own hands and minds, and the fact that they’re up against an extremely repressive set of social relations, is the result of a worldwide system…”

You can catch the rest of the report here: it goes further in-depth socio-politically, and while I don’t agree with EVERYTHING Sunsara has to say (she comes from an anarchist, revolutionary communist paradigm), I do appreciate the perspective she comes from – her people at the “Revolution” Newspaper are very well-researched, and they keep us up to date on issues without supporting the politics of mainstream news media (which actually facilitates the real problem. See the book Inventing Reality, by Yale Graduate Michael Parenti, Ph. D.)

Sunsara Taylor writes for Revolution Newspaper and sits on the Advisory Board of The World Can’t Wait…

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/01/13/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry6092429.shtml

“9,000 to 10,000 troops in Haiti by Monday”:

http://www.seattlepi.com/national/1152ap_us_us_haiti_earthquake.html

“Haiti Under Siege – 200 Years of U.S Imperialism” by Hellen Scott: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Haiti/Haiti_Under_Seige.html

“The History that ‘Binds’ the U.S. and Haiti:

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jan2010/pers-j15.shtml

Peace,
+B