|
 On
the morning of Wed., Jul. 28, 1915, U.S. Marines landed
near Port-au-Prince, beginning a brutal 19-year military
occupation of Latin America’s first independent nation
that left deep scars on the Haitian population and
psyche.
In the weeks and
months leading up to the 100th
anniversary of that fateful day, activists in Haiti and
its diaspora held demonstrations and conferences. In New
York, Haitian groups and individuals formed the
“Patriotic Initiative to Mark the Centennial of the
American Occupation of Haiti on Jul. 28, 1915.”
In the final week before the anniversary, the
group organized an all-day conference on Sat., Jul. 25
at a school in the heart of Brooklyn’s “Little Haiti,”
featuring speakers like Professors Franklin Midy and
Jean-Claude Icart of the University of Quebec in
Montreal (UQAM), Frantz Leconte from City University of
New York (CUNY), an Alex Dupuy from Wesleyan.
Haïti Liberté’s
director Berthony Dupont also spoke.
At the same school the next night, there a
rousing cultural program with heart-felt presentations
by poets Michèle V. Marcelin, Tony Leroy, and Paul
Tulcé, as well as singers Wooly Saint-Louis Jean, Azaka,
and Rosna Marcelin. Also performing were the Granchimen
Cultural Group, saxophonist Buyu Ambroise with Alex
(Tit) Pascal, joined later by Eric Faustin, the former
lead singer of the “engaged music” group Atis Endepandan
(Independent Artists).
On Tue., Jul. 28, a final conference was held at
CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice in
Manhattan, with presentations by former radio host
Daniel Huttinot, activist/scholar Father Luis Barrios,
and Haitian-Dominican rights activist Altagracia Jean
Joseph, among others.
Filmmakers Alain Martin and Hans Augustave also
presented a trailer for “The Forgotten Occupation,” a
soon-to-be-completed documentary, over five years in the
making, about the first U.S. invasion of Haiti.
We present the statement issued by the Patriotic
Initiative on Jul. 28 and the English portion of Michèle
V. Marcelin’s poetic composition, drawn from several
Haitian poets including herself, about the occupation,
presented at both the Jul. 26 and the Jul. 28 events.
Patriotic
Initiative to Mark the Centennial of the American
Occupation of Haiti on July 28, 1915
A group of Haitian patriots in New
York thought it important for Haitians abroad as well as
those in Haiti to mark the 100th Year Anniversary of the
American Occupation of Haiti (1915-2015). They formed
the “HAITIAN PATRIOTIC INITIATIVE” to raise awareness
and to galvanize the community into remembering this
“sad event” in their history.
On Dec. 17, 1914, as a prelude to the coming and
full military force of the occupation of the country on
Jul. 28, 1915, U.S. marines aboard the
USS Machias
landed in Port-au-Prince with the sole purpose of
seizing the country's gold reserve, an estimated
$500,000 worth, from the Haitian National Bank. They
hauled it away to the First National City Bank in New
York City.
On Jul. 28, 1915, U.S. Marines landed again, this time
in Bizoton in the outskirts of the capital, to fully
invade and occupy the country. The occupation would last
19 years (1915-1934). In that span of time, the U.S.
Marines brutalized, tortured, and killed many
nationalist forces who put up a fierce resistance
against them, nationalists such as Haitian soldier
Pierre Sully, as well as the peasants that composed the
Caco's military combative forces under the leadership of
Charlemagne Péralte and Benoit Batraville. We salute the
courage and the resistance that other patriots like
Rosalvo Bobo and members of the group “Union
Patriotique”, headed by Georges Sylvain, Élie Guérin,
Perceval Thoby, Pauléus Sannon, and Joseph Jolibois
Fils, who demonstrated against the invaders. We can
never forget the defiant stand of the students at the
Agriculture School in Damien who organized the first
general strike in 1929 against the occupiers, nor can we
forget in the least the practical action of
revolutionary intellectual Jacques Roumain, who in 1934
set up the first Haitian Communist Party!
The contributions of Haitian women resisters were, given
the times, readily forgotten, but we remember them here!
In 1926, a delegation of American women, members of the
“Women's International League for Peace and Freedom,” an
organization linked to the American Communists, came to
Haiti to conduct an investigation on the occupation.
They were met by Georges Sylvain's wife, Eugénie
Mallebranche and by Pierre Hudicourt's wife, who were
themselves members of the “Women's International
League.” Georges Sylvain’s three daughters – Suzanne,
Madeleine and Yvonne – were involved in the fight
against the occupiers together with Alice Garoute,
Cléante Valcin, Fernande Bellegarde, Esther Dartigue,
Georgette Justin, Léonie Madiou, Maude Turian, and Marie
Hakime. In 1934, they created the “Ligue Féminine
d'Action Sociale” (The Women’s League for Social
Action). In effect, both men and women patriots stood
firmly side by side in the struggle against the American
military occupation of 1915-1934.
Other organizations from the U.S. such as the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP) and the magazine
The Nation
also supported the struggle of the Haitian people at
that time.
During the occupation, American imperialism had
set up economic structures within their established
political and military infrastructure, in order to
guarantee that their interests would be served, even in
their "absence". Whether it be the reactionary ruling
class, or the post-occupation governments that were to
hold office after the purported end of the occupation in
1934, they all accepted dictates of the American
government, with very little to no resistance of any
sort. They handled the legacy of the occupation,
guarantors they were of US interests, and they looked
upon the Haitian state as their private and personal “fiefdom”
(their ATM machine, so to speak), to do with it as they pleased. The
Haitian population were continually victimized and
greatly suffered because of this situation. We honor all
of those patriots and revolutionaries that resisted this
brutal occupation.
Needless to say, Haiti was not the only country
that had to face U.S. aggression. Far from it! The 20th
century ushered in a new era for American imperialism
which they themselves called “gunboat diplomacy.” The
U.S. invaded several countries in the Caribbean, Central
America, and Latin America. It invaded Cuba 6 times, the
Dominican Republic 4 times, El Salvador twice, Guatemala
3 times, Honduras 7 times, Mexico 3 times, Nicaragua 6
times, Panama 8 times, Puerto Rico twice, and the small
island of Grenada once, leaving in its trail plains of
dead bodies from the indiscriminate killing of men,
women and children. The American aggression reflects the
violent nature of imperialism during that period and
today with the UN Mission to Stabilize Haiti (MINUSTAH)
occupation. The violent nature of U.S. imperialism is
manifest considering that it has more than 865 military
bases installed around the world in more than 63
countries. The U.S. elites have made the whole world’s
interests their national interests, justifying the
rights and arrogance of the U.S. Defense Department to
intervene wherever and whenever they deem desirable. The
United States is the most violent country on this
planet!
The 1915 occupation had some very grave
consequences on the country. The objective of the
occupation was to place Haiti in the U.S. political and
economic orbit. U.S. imperialism stopped the economic
development of the country when it destroyed our
sugarcane, syrup, and alcoholic beverage processing
plants in favor of American multinational companies. The
occupier reinforced racism and color prejudice in the
country. They built an economic structure that
benefitted the bourgeois and the landowners and pushed
the masses down deeper. They concentrated most
institutions and power in Port-au-Prince to the
detriment of the provinces. They instituted the “corvée,”
which is a form of forced labor (slavery) on the
peasants. They also created a situation of social and
economic deprivation and exclusion in the country,
provoking great waves of emigration of Haitian workers
who fled to other countries. The imperialist project was
to bring the Haitian people to their knees. It is in
this sense, they used all past and present governments
with the complicity of the reactionary ruling classes
since 1915 until now with the MINUSTAH as an occupation
force in Haiti.
When in 1934 they left Haiti, they left behind
the National Guard of Haiti, a force that continued
violence against the Haitian population and patriots in
the country; the National Guard was no less than an
internal domination force. Even in the absence of the
American boots, the domination remained after 1934. When
the U.S. boots left the country, the Haitian National
Guard, which was becoming the Haitian Armed Forces,
played a central role in imposing the American
domination of Haiti. The United States invaded Haiti
again on Sep. 19, 1994 to re-occupy Haiti with 25,000
soldiers to bring back Jean Bertrand Aristide as
president of Haiti. However, today, the boots are here
again for the past 11 years (2004-2015) with the
MINUSTAH troops. This time, their project is to
reinforce the domination and extreme exploitation of the
workers based on cheap labor in a form of slavery – or
disguised unemployment – in agro-business, Free Trade
Zones/sub-contracting factories, and luxurious hotels
for tourists, and also exploiting our natural resources,
such as gold and other minerals in Haiti.
American imperialism found the Haitian ruling
classes, the bourgeoisie, landowners, and subservient
politicians ready to collaborate. And they are
collaborating today with the occupiers. They continue to
help and allow foreign intervention to destroy our
economy, instigate coups d’états, massacre the masses,
spread cholera in the country, and maintain the misery
and extreme poverty of the Haitian people with a
disguised occupation to keep Haiti as a dependent
country in the imperialist orbit. They all represent the
descendants of Conzé, the Haitian traitor who betrayed
Charlemagne Péralte, our anti-imperialist Caco leader.
Therefore, the occupier had divided the classes into two
well-defined camps in the country, the reactionary
ruling classes and their allies under the jurisdiction
of the Americans on one side, and on the other side the
workers’ camp.
Recent events show clearly how the country is
totally under American stewardship. While the masses are
on the streets protesting to demand that Martelly step
down, the American ambassador, Pamela White, came to the
Haitian Parliament, in slippers,
to dictate orders to the parliamentarians on how to vote
on the electoral law. She declared that the American
government supported Martelly so as to intimidate or
slow down the people’s movement. The subservient
parliamentarians did not call out Pamela White to
respect the sovereignty of the Haitian Parliament as the
representative power of the Haitian people and kick her
out as she did not belong there.
Jul. 28, 2015, the 100th Anniversary of the 1915
U.S. occupation, finds our country, 211 years after its
independence, again under occupation. In 2015, we demand
the liberation of Haiti from occupation, from
domination, and from all forms of intervention and
intrusions in the affairs of the country and the Haitian
people.
We’ve learned! Of the MOTHER LAND, WE ARE THE
ONLY OWNERS! Let’s make this a reality! WARRIORS,
FORWARD! In this vein and in this context, we firmly
support the resistance of the workers and toiling
masses, genuine patriots and progressives, the combative
women and men, against all current traitors (Conzés) who
have economic, political, and social power in Haiti
today. Only a powerful anti-opportunist resistance of
the Haitian workers against all reactionary forces,
including the MINUSTAH occupation under American
leadership, will be able to overthrow them in Haiti,
which is the only guarantee of a life of dignity for the
Haitian people.
Our collective consciousness will help us find
the solution. We hope all vigilant and genuine
compatriots who agree with the Patriotic Initiative will
come forward to support and contribute according to
their means and abilities.
Down with
occupation in all its forms!
Down with the
MINUSTAH!
Down with
imperialist domination!
Victory is for people who resist! |
