A Time for Solidarity
Monday, July 16 at 4:30 pm rally – Market & Montgomery Streets, San Francisco
The powerful protests going on in Haiti expose the violence of intractable poverty, misery, hunger, racism, repression and exclusion. After 14 years of UN/US imposed policies and military occupation supported by a corrupt, US-backed dictator, the Haitian people have had enough.
For years, thousands upon thousands of Haitians have protested peacefully month after month against foreign occupation, stolen elections, government corruption, poverty, land grabs, and rising prices. The international media has ignored their struggle and helped stifle their voices. Foreign investors and Haitian elite have continued to amass enormous wealth while popular resistance has been met with bullets, teargas, imprisonment and even death at the hands of Haitian police and paramilitary forces.
The current crisis kicked off when the Haitian government raised the price of gasoline, diesel and kerosene — which were already high and out of reach for most. It has been building as numerous arson fires over the past months have targeted Haitian market women, wiping out dozens of public markets which sustain women’s economic activity, upon which the livelihood of so many Haitian families depends.
Faced with deepening misery and unbearable living conditions, the Haitian people have no choice but to resist. Fanmi Lavalas, the party of Haiti’s poor majority, has supported the courage and determination of the Haitian people in the face of dictatorship and oppression:
“The cauldron of corruption and lies has been boiling non-stop 24 hours a day. The time has come to overturn it for Haitians to begin to see the light of peace. Haiti is for all Haitians.” – Fanmi Lavalas, July 8, 2018
This is a time for solidarity. A time to stand with Haiti.
