U.N. attacks Jean-Juste’s funeral in Haiti

The Haitian people are beginning to shake loose the chains around their struggle. They are putting up a determined resistance to MINUSTAH—the U.N.’s occupation force in Haiti—as well as the U.S. and the Haitian ruling class and its government.

When mourners gathered June 18 in Port-au-Prince’s cathedral to celebrate the life and leadership of Father Gérard Jean-Juste, a hero in the Haitian people’s struggle in both the United States and Haiti, the mood was clearly anti-occupation.

Most of the crowd came from the poor and working-class neighborhoods of Solino, Martissant, Bel Air and Cite Soleil—areas of the capital where support for the return of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from exile in South Africa is the strongest. According to eyewitnesses, that sentiment was strongly expressed by the crowd.

As mourners were leaving the cathedral to get on buses to go to Jean-Juste’s burial in southern Haiti, a scuffle broke out. MINUSTAH used this as an excuse to move in. The troops arrested a mourner with dreads wearing a T-shirt with a picture of Jean-Juste and shot a mourner who died, identified only by his first name, Junior. This obvious attempt to disrupt the event did not succeed.

The commanders of the U.N. force denied they were responsible, but the incident was filmed by Radio Tele Ginen and witnessed by Kim Ives, a journalist with the New York based Haiti-Liberté, who gave an eyewitness account on the WBAI radio show “Haiti: the Struggle Continues” that same evening.

All along the route taken by the cortège, there were signs and banners wishing Jean-Juste “bon voyage” and calling for the return of Aristide. At Mirogoâne, a rally heard speakers from Fanmi Lavalas, Aristide’s party, and Veye Yo, the relief organization Jean-Juste founded.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton began his new job as U.N. special envoy to Haiti on June 15. According to a report on the Haiti Action Web site, some mourners shouted, “Thank you, Bill Clinton, your U.N. assassins have murdered another member of Lavalas!”

While Clinton certainly supports the tactic of keeping Lavalas from winning elections by keeping it off the ballot, his new job really has a different focus.

He wants to keep Haiti a rock-bottom, low-cost garment producer generating the greatest possible profits. His claim of a special relationship with Haiti came when he was president. His administration forced Haiti to open its markets and delayed President Aristide’s return after a U.S.-backed coup.

A key part of the U.S./U.N. strategy that Clinton and the departing U.S. ambassador are pushing is making Haiti “attractive for international investment”—that is, keeping wages extremely low.

In response to this, students at the University of Haiti in Port-au-Prince are waging a sharp struggle over the minimum wage. It is currently 70 gourdes for an eight-hour day—the equivalent of $1.65 a day. The Haitian parliament passed a law in May raising the minimum wage to 200 gourdes a day (a little more than $5), but President René Préval has refused to publish the law, keeping it from taking effect.

University students in Haiti are privileged in a country where 55 to 60 percent of adults are illiterate, and only 20 percent of the youth even start high school. In 2004, they were one of the groups that supported the coup against Aristide. But now, faced with no prospect of getting a job in the midst of a worldwide economic crisis and in a country where unemployment runs at 70 percent and wages are declining, they are out on the streets protesting.

One of their targets is Andy Apaid, who holds both U.S. and Haitian citizenship and is a prominent business spokesperson. He claimed that raising the daily minimum wage even to 125 gourdes would drive many garment manufacturers out of business. Apaid was also one of the leaders of the 2004 coup against Aristide.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made a brief trip to Haiti back in April. She visited one of Apaid’s plants and praised it as “exactly what needs to happen across Haiti many, many times over.” (State Department Web site)

A run-off election for the Haitian Senate is scheduled for June 21. Haitian voters made it clear during the first round in March, when less than 3 percent of eligible voters went to the polls, that if the party and president they want are not allowed to run, they are not going to vote.

The struggle in Haiti does indeed continue.