Jean-Bertand Aristide: Social activist and former president, Haiti
Orenstein, Catherine
Over the past year and especially in recent months, there have been a series of nationwide strikes against the Haitian government's plans to privatize public enterprises and to implement the...
...What we are doing may seem insignificant to you, but by doing this we can push the government to do more...
...By that they meant the economic plan of privatization and austerity measures that is being imposed on Haiti today...
...It was an overwhelming turnout, impossible to fathom handling...
...We expected a lot of people to come, but we were not prepared for what happened...
...It is very difficult for poor Haitians to get loans, and loan sharks can charge 20% a month interest...
...I like your question...
...Within each group, only one member can take e free out a loan at a time, and a second person cannot take a loan until the first has ie Haitian begun payment on hers...
...It for is a place where people can come on a h h is a II Lf lE daily basis to discuss virtually anything on an informal basis, but we have also had large meetings and conferences here...
...What sort of economic plan "better values the human being...
...After 18 years of work, 46% of the women borrowing from the Grameen Bank crossed above the poverty line, while in Bangladesh as a whole, only 4% crossed the line during that same period...
...For this reason they have to deal with us...
...It's a matter of balance...
...And they represent the vast majority of heads of households...
...They are not dumb...
...But this VOL XXXI, No 1 JULY/AUG 199735 VOL XXXI, No 1 JULY/AUG 1997 35VOICES ON THE LEFT is not what is happening in Haiti...
...Then we realized that the best way to do this was to stop giving loans to just one person, and instead, give them to groups of people, following the model of the very successful Grameen Bank in Bangladesh...
...They must be responsid share ble to each other...
...Today, much of the world is rooted in materialism...
...But before, you talked about helping people become self-suffi!SS...
...Hundreds of thousands of people all over the country did not go to work...
...We are trying to educate people about how they can invest and make their own small capital grow...
...Our vision is not a matter of buying food from other countries and selling it at a lower price but of supporting our own agricultural industry...
...If you have the financial resources to build roads, feed the hungry, and to otherwise alleviate the burden of poverty, then do it...
...In Haiti, we have no financial resources...
...They will repay us in produce, which they will sell to us at a very good price...
...Haitians began to see that there was a route that worked, a way in which government could work for them, rather than plague them, and that they could live securely-and even spend their lives moving ahead...
...it's symbolic of the democracy that they need to showcase...
...Women's labor accounts for $11 trillion of that...
...Many people outside of Haiti would be confused to hear that...
...By realistic dreaming, I think we can try to put human beings at the center of any social, economic or political program...
...But how could we turn peasants away...
...After the end of our meeting, the foundation signed an agreement that allows them to borrow money at a low rate in order to invest it in the zones in which they live, to grow more beans, rice and potatoes, or whatever...
...And the Haitian people do not see the government working to help them...
...It is not a real danger to them-to the real elite...
...in other words, our national production...
...As people see the light of justice throughout the land, through the legal system, they will be placated...
...The group covered members decide among themselves whether a proposed project is worthy of It a loan, and whether or not a member could repay it...
...For instance, we know that Haitian farmers cultivate food such as rice and corn, and yet we decided to provide subsidized rice and corn to the cooperative members anyway...
...We knew it would not be easy to manage such a large group, but we decided that we could not turn them away...
...Liberation Theology shows us how to dream, but with our feet on the ground...
...ruggle en is an...
...That may not be good for the farmers, but it is good for the consumers...
...We are only trying to make enough to continue our activities...
...What's going on...
...In the free elections held in 1990, the people learned they could share some power...
...The authorities become progressively weaker as they lose legitimacy and credibility...
...We don't talk about Liberation Theology as something to replace politics or economics...
...Ultimately, it is the government that has to do this...
...If you have the possibility of making the justice system work, without dialogue, then do it...
...It's a fig leaf, an example of freedom...
...Are you distracting Haitians from the real issues...
...The international community has spent over a billion dollars on Haitian democracy since the restoration of civilian rule, and the government has been in the international spotlight...
...This is a symbolic thing, yet it is not enough to bring about equality...
...We have no intention or possibility of replacing the government...
...To do so, we must start with dialogue, a dialogue which includes not just the top tiers, but all sectors of society...
...These strikes are an expression of the Haitian people's frustration with the current economic and political situation...
...economic policy...
...As people see more food and more jobs, those who are now frustrated will be appeased...
...At the same time we knew we would be learning by trial and error as we went along...
...The foundation is not the government...
...Are they threatened by the Foundation, the way they were by your presidency...
...In fact, most of them could not repay their loans...
...People today live on less than they did 30 years ago...
...In our society, as in many countries, sexual equality is not a reality...
...Because they are excluded from the political and economic process, Haitians are forced to carry their battle into the streets...
...Women are much more responsible in paying off their loans...
...If we reach a imerce market of, say, 200,000 people, it's nothing to them...
...Some of those in the Parliament, who were elected because of the work of women, are now opposing these activities...
...But on the other hand, the foundation does not need to make a profit...
...We see this as one way of making more men understand the necessity of working together on these issues...
...Last year, for example, 60 grassroots groups held a meeting to discuss privatization...
...The struggle of women is an immediate issue...
...This is not a place where people beg for a few cents each day...
...u 3auc...
...Is the Aristide Foundation doing the job that Preval's government ought to be doing by setting up a parallel organization, rather than one which works with the government...
...we have only the human being as a resource...
...That is a good question, but maybe that is not the essential In Haiti, question...
...In Haiti, women are even more important economically than in other places on the globe...
...If we do that, and fight to implement it, I think the future will be different...
...They need us as much as we need them...
...rather, we seek a complementary vision that comes from the theology of liberation that helps us keep ourselves ethically grounded, and this practice becomes part of our community experience, providing us with guidelines...
...It is a last resort, but they will not give up because they have no other choice...
...Why the emphasis on women, in a country that has so many more immediate issues to grapple with...
...You said earlier that you place a special importance on women, and that you even inaugurated the foundation on International Women's Day March 8, last year Can you tell us more about this...
...They represent almost all of the money generated by small commerce...
...You have recently criticized the policies of current President Rene Preval...
...This is symbolic as well...
...We need to talk about democratizing democracy...
...We decided to initiate a poor people's cooperative that would provide loans at 1% interest a month to its members...
...They called it "the American Plan...
...Most Haitians know that you cannot make decisions for long without involving the grassroots...
...We opened the Aristide Foundation power...
...They felt that they were part of that process...
...IL n n ,1 re Have the traditional powers that control the economy indicated that they oppose your project...
...We must learn how to manage this capital, how to best develop it...
...it is flat, without spiritual energy...
...money get Governments make these types of small co decisions all the time...
...The cost of living has gone up...
...What is going on...
...Creating jobs may change the behavior of people at the grassroots level...
...This is also true of other poor people's banks, like the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh...
...Are we encouraging people to sit, when they should be standing up against this...
...That will make a difference...
...but can of wom they become totally self-sustain- immedia ing...
...In less than two weeks, 12,000 people signed up...
...Over the past year and especially in recent months, there have been a series of nationwide strikes against the Haitian government's plans to privatize public enterprises and to implement the structural adjustment program that the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are prescribing for Haiti...
...Last July, we began a poor people's bank...
...Today in Haiti the authorities are weak indeed...
...There are no financial resources invested in social welfare...
...What economic and political goals are th you pursuing, now that you are no they coL longer president...
...We are working to find ways to be profitable, but we have to balance this against people's needs...
...We do not have to sell our dignity...
...In January, dozens of groups organized a strike against the economic reforms...
...The government is not working as it should for the majority of people...
...ter that The Foundation is currently subsidizing d to settle these activities...
...When I was president, we created the first ministry of women in Haiti's history...
...Their plan values human workers by paying them a livable wage, and it values human beings by providing them what they need to live...
...The majority of the grassroots supports an economic plan different from the one Haiti is currently following...
...Our ultimate goal is to allow people to raise themselves out of misery...
...The way they manage their loans money here at the bank reflects the way they manage their households...
...They represent 90% of workers in factories...
...Are you familiar with the story of the Grameen Bank...
...At the cooperative bank, most of the loans we make are to women...
...Inflation is high...
...What we do at the foundation is not meant to dissuade people from demanding that the government work in their interest...
...In fact, it is even f workers good for them, because what we represent politically means a lot for ories...
...You are no longer a priest, but can you comment on how your faith has shaped your political views...
...So far, we have made loans of 6 million gourdes to women and men, but mostly to women...
...For example, if you have enough financial resources as a government, you create jobs...
...But we are attempting to provide a base from which people can work and organize, as was the case with the taxi and truck drivers' strikes in February...
...Yet the democracy that was restored to Haiti is not very democratic after all...
...A for Democracy on March 8, 1996...
...They see that important decisions are being made high up, excluding the grassroots groups and ignoring the will of the majority of people...
...The judicial system is corrupt...
...At erated by least so far so good...
...Two weeks ago, for example, we had two days of training for local-level church leaders from different departments of the country...
...How can the Foundation promote national production...
...We are aware that there is a contradiction between what we are doing and what the people ought to be doing...
...Unemployment is very high...
...How is creating the Aristide Foundation not the same thing as doing the government's job...
...The point is to respect the human being, because people are our number one resource...
...We asked the 12,000 members of the cooperative to organize themselves in groups of five...
...The Haitian people discovered a few years ago, after the end of the Duvalier dictatorship in 1986, that their rules could be respected and that their plans could be implemented...
...Human beings are our capital...
...To join, people were required to deposit a small minimum amount of money and they were required to attend four training sessions informing them about how the cooperative works...
...This will encourage their own local production, and it will also allow us to provide these products to our coop members at a good price...
...This was one of many meetings we have had...
...This has always been a top priority of mine...
...At the international level, informal labor represents $16 trillion for the global economy annually, according to the UNDP...
...The Foundation is not a charity organi- and 90% C zation...
...NACTIA REPORT ON THE AMERICASVOICES ON THE LEFT From our experience we can prove that these ventures can The stl become more efficient and more and more self-sustaining...
...Nonetheless, we know that the ultimate solution to this conflict will come from supporting national production...
...No, because of the fact that we do women not make a profit, and because our work embraces a small percentage nost all the of the entire market...
...How can these subsidized activities ever become self-sustaining...
...We located it in a powerful place-the central square, in the former headquarters of the army, directly across from the palace...
...And so, we need to change the system...
...In other words, we need to learn how to better value the human being...
...Soon after starting the bank, we found that many of those who took out loans were not able to repay them due to the dire poverty that they face...
...The government is the only institution that can assume this great responsibility...
...But we are doing the little we can, wishing and pushing the government to do more...
...We can decide to lose money in some areas when we sell represent al to certain sectors and make profits in another...
...And while they did not have the power to reject the plans that were being sug- After t gested, imposed and now implemented-plans which were not their elections, t own-they could at least understand people d what was happening...
...it is a non-profit organization that can decide where it wants in fac to invest...
...Liberation Theology, for many Christians, provided a way to rise, spiritually and literally above misery...
...We had to find a way to encourage them to find ways to pay the bank back...
...They know about their dignity...
...The system does not address the needs of the people...
...If the government were doing what it is supposed to be doing for the people, perhaps things in Haiti would be more calm...
...By working with women, we are empowering the struggle of women...
...This is an example of how we can stimulate local production with an eye toward encouraging national production...
...Investing in people can create a new climate, and help people see and cultivate love within their own human contexts-not just money, but human values, like human rights, living wages and justice...
...Years later, they realized that certain forces wanted to impose "a plan" in Haiti...
...cient...
...The they refuse Foundation is a place where people can gather to talk, organize and plan...
...So we have to work to make this necessity clearer and stronger to men...
...After that, they refused to settle for less...
...For the first time, they felt part of a process in which people were not dictating to them what to do and how to do it...
Vol. 31 • July 1997 • No. 1
