Haiti
"When people understand the way the winds are blowing, they trim their sails accordingly." With these words, Andrew Young pressured the Duvalier regime to better comply with the Carter...
...The NACLA Reportupdate * update . update . update press was given full rein to decry the May theatre censorship, and there ensued the largest open protest against a government decree in the history of the Duvalier regime...
...Until 1975 the penetration was characterized primarily by study and planning for the real thrust...
...But today the "dinosaurs" still exercise sizable, if waning, power within the Duvalierist machine...
...No matter what forces imperialism relies on at this point, its goal remains the same: the maintenance and reinforcement of exploitation...
...Liberalization," previously halting and uneven, was accelerated in an effort to dislodge the "dinosaurs" from power...
...Full and extended coverage was given to the Haitian Human Rights League's head-on criticisms of repression and torture...
...Carter's announced plan of bolstering Caribbean regimes to "contain" Cuba may rule out any shifts at this time...
...In either case, we must see the essence of imperialism's pressure for more "democracy" in Haiti...
...The sharpening conflict between the U.S...
...But the warning went unheeded...
...On August 28, Sylvio Claude, one of the party leaders, organized an impromptu political meeting of about 2,000 people in Port-auPrince...
...and in May 1979, the government ordered the shutdown of several critical theatrical productions...
...Baby Doc, in a speech in late July before the major internal security force, the Volontaires de la Securit6 Nationale (VSN), declared: We must straighten out all those who think that liberalization means free rein, who understand democratization to mean NovlDec 1979 anarchy, as if anyone can do what they please...
...and the "feudals" was pressing Jean Claude to make a move...
...Whether the U.S...
...will bear with Jean-Claude Duvalier's faltering regime is not yet clear...
...policy in Haiti...
...TECHNOCRATS VS...
...On the other hand the "dinosaurs" were still too influential to risk the major power struggle necessary for accelerated reform...
...Piqued at all these difficulties, the U.S...
...Then, last August 29, the regime launched a blitzkrieg repression which ended in the arrest of the leaders of the fledgling political parties and over 200 others, the ransacking of party offices, the closing down of a radio station, and the complete muzzling of the press...
...In addition, with elections approaching Carter may not want to risk another crisis, following Iran and Nicaragua...
...Ever since independence in 1804, these two sectors have been engaged in a fierce rivalry for political power, with each sector trying to enlarge and consolidate its share of the surplus product ex49update * update * update . update tracted from the peasantry...
...in February 1979, widespread fraud and intimidation marred legislative elections that went to the "dinosaurs," while 9,000 copies of the magazine Le Petit Samedi Soir reporting on the abuses were burned before they could reach the streets...
...See accompanying article...
...To understand why JeanClaude, as the leading representative of the technocrats, is presently in confrontation with imperialism, we must glance at recent history...
...The next day repression began...
...The coup de grace, however, was the emergence of three political parties for the first time in over two decades in July and early August, each party calling itself "Christian Democratic...
...disapproval, blaming "irresponsible" or "unauthorized" elements or completely disavowing any involvement...
...No one else can be put in power to blow the winds more strongly than I do...
...will ease off in the face of a "united" Duvalierism...
...The "feudal" tendency within the regime, also referred to as the old guard or the "dinosaurs," is the force most responsible for the recent wave of repression...
...The U.S...
...First, Washington slammed the door on several major aid packages to Haiti...
...The year 1971, not coincidentally, also marks the beginning of intensified corporate penetration...
...After similar incidents in past years, the regime has beat a hasty retreat in the face of ensuing U.S...
...Despite government footdragging, and occasional incidents of harassment, violence, and censorship, things were progressing slowly, but progressing...
...He imagined that Washington might turn to more "radical" technocratic currents, in the country or even in exile...
...The Haitian government's 1976-1981 five year plan, in accordance with the prior studies and reports by the State Department, World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, and other multi-lateral lending institutions, essentially forecast the establishment of a basic infrastructure which would permit the development of large-scale agricultural production, all to be financed by these same institutions, at an estimated cost of $800 million...
...As a Haitian proverb says, "A dog has four legs, but can only go in one direction...
...They have undermined and set back "liberalization" several times: in December, 1977 a major publisher was publicly pummeled unconscious by members of the Tontons Macoutes, a ubiquitous semi-official terror force still largely under "feudal" control...
...With these words, Andrew Young pressured the Duvalier regime to better comply with the Carter administration's "human rights" policy during a visit to Haiti in August 1977...
...As Carter arrived in the White House in 1977, capitalist penetration in Haiti was shifting into high gear...
...The technocrats grew in numbers and strength...
...But with the electoral course effectively blocked, if the U.S...
...decides to switch horses in Haiti despite the risks, we may witness a "democratic" military coup, like the recent one in El Salvador...
...It has always been resistant to "liberalization...
...Journalists formed a new press association implicitly opposed to the government controlled one...
...DINOSAURS These strong words reflect a sharpening crisis between the U.S...
...SHARPENING CONFLICT Since 1971, when the staunchly feudal Francois Duvalier died and bequeathed the Presidency-forLife to his nineteen year old son, Jean Claude, the theme of the regime has been "liberalization...
...He accused them of being "westernized," "dreaming only of those models built on the banks of the Potomac, the Thames, and the Seine...
...A press clampdown was codified and enacted into law...
...The "comprador" tendency, also called the "technocrats" or the "Jean Claudistes," on the other hand, favors the development of bourgeois democracy and has emerged in the past eight years as the primary vehicle for U.S...
...Despite almost immediate reaction from the State Department, no public retreat has been forthcoming...
...In the two years since, the U.S...
...This conflict is reflected in a growing contradiction within the regime itself between two tendencies which essentially represent the two sectors of Haiti's ruling class...
...Problems have ranged from disorganization, inefficiency and corruption, to physical sabotage of certain "development" projects...
...embassy then began behind-thescenes pressure on Duvalier to hold new legislative elections...
...Never...
...At the least, the Cuban issue might provide a pretext for the resumption of the $18.4 million aid package, which Congress, earlier this year, made contingent on administration decisions...
...The "comprador" sector greatly benefits from the increased circulation of goods that expanding imperialist penetration brings...
...and the Duvalier regime...
...The U.S...
...He has apparently chosen to try reconciling the forces within his regime by making concessions to the "dinosaurs" with the hope that the U.S...
...On the contrary, in his national address on September 22, Jean Claude called his critics "impatient and blind...
...But this time, JeanClaude Duvalier has stood fast beside the August crackdown and behind his defiant statements made just weeks before: "I alone can blow the winds of liberalization...
...Today this conflict has sharpened due to an imperialist penetration aimed at replacing the now dominant semifeudal mode of production with capitalist production...
...But the "feudals" oppose this change, since the introduction of large scale capitalist production, especially in agriculture, means the elimination of the economic foundations of their class...
...Claude "disappeared...
...State Department has worked hard to bring about greater "relaxation" of the Haitian political climate, carefully nurturing a "free" and "independent" press, and unofficial political parties...
...is trying to "modernize" Haiti, but despite reform efforts, the regime remains a stumbling block to these designs...
...last May mounted and/or encouraged major pressures on the regime for more fiscal and political reforms...
...Moreover, the Duvalierist state has been greatly hindering the progress of "development" programs...
...It provides the primary seedbed for an emerging class of managers that will head the imperialistcontrolled industries and plantations...
...A new legislature would supposedly appoint Jean Claude as President with a seven year mandate, thereby ending his inherited life term...
Vol. 13 • November 1979 • No. 6
