27374: Lemieux: news: Dispatches from the World Social Forum by the Canada Haiti Action Network delegation (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

Dispatches from the World Social Forum

by the Canada Haiti Action Network delegation

Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2006



Caracas (CHAN) - The 19-member Canada Haiti
Action Network delegation and more than a dozen
colleagues from Haiti have successfully placed
Haiti on the map at the World Social Forum - with
a bang.

Yesterday, we marched through central Caracas
along with tens of thousands of others in a march
and rally that marked the official opening of the
Forum. The theme of the march was "Against
imperialism and war." We carried a large banner
(from Toronto) that read "Canada, U.S., France,
U.N. Hands Off Haiti!" along with a banner from
our Ottawa chapter. We made a very vocal presence
as well, all along the 10-kilometer route. We
chanted, in Spanish, and in order, "Canada,
(U.S., France, Brazil, Chile, Argentina) out of
Haiti!" "Sovereignty for Haiti, Troops out!"

Our contingent was something of a sensation. A
lot of delegates on the march approached us to
cheer us on or to ask questions about the
situation in Haiti and about our work. Many
Venezuelan bystanders along the route cheered us
or gave a raised-thumb salute.

At the rally site, where thousands more
Venezuelans joined in after their work or school
day, we walked around with the banner and got
cheers from groups of Brazilian delegates sitting
in the stands. A lot of them asked us, "Why don't
you have Brazil named on your banner?" In one
particularly moving moment, a group of 10 young
Venezuelans asked if we could take a photo of
them holding up our banner.

Evidently, the case of Haiti is well known among
the Venezuelan people. President Hugo Chavez
frequently denounces the coup on television. The
military aid which the young Haitian republic
provided to the independence struggle in
Venezuela in the 1820s is taught in the school
system. One young Venezuelan told us, "They
helped us to win our independence. We owe it to
them to help out today."

There is a large delegation, about 140 people,
here from unions and NGOs in Quebec. We are
engaging them in discussion and will introduce
them to our colleagues from Haiti over the coming
days.

We have two public forums and one film showing
organized over the course of the next three days.
Colleagues in the Haiti Action Committee in the
U.S. have one forum as well. Without question, by
the end of this World Social Forum, many
thousands of delegates will be aware there is a
strong and vibrant Haiti solidarity movement in
North America.

Thursday, Jan. 26, 2006

Yesterday and today, the first public forums on
Haiti took place at the World Social Forum.

Eighty people attended the first of two forums
being organized by the Canada Haiti Action
Network. The meeting featured presentations by
five of the members of the delegation from Haiti:
Euvonie Georges-Auguste, a women's rights and
political leader currently living in exile in St.
Lucia; Paul Loulou Chery, secretary general of
the Confederation of Haitian Workers; Mario
Joseph, lawyer and defender of political
prisoners, including Father Gérard Jean-Juste;
Gladice DeLouis-Simon, journalist and
co-organizer of the youth organization MOJESHA on
the Haitian island of Gonave, living in exile in
St. Vincent; Lovinsky Pierrre Antoine, leader of
the political rights organization September 30
Foundation and living in exile in Washington,
D.C.

The delegation also includes union leader Ginette
Apollon, New York-based Lavalas founding leader
Jean Yvon Kernizan and a journalist from the Port
au Prince daily Le Matin.

Chairperson of the forum was Jean St-Vil of the
Ottawa Haiti Solidarity Committee. Translation
was provided from Creole into three other
languages - Spanish, English, French. Delegates
attended from scores of countries, including
Venezuela, Columbia, Brazil, Canada, the U.S.,
Britain and Ivory Coast. American sociologist
William Robinson, author of "Promoting Polyarchy"
and other writings, also spoke on the panel.

Presentations by the panelists covered the range
of political and social issues facing the Haitian
people - the foreign occupation, prospects for a
truly free election, the ongoing repression and
situation of the hundreds of political prisoners,
social conditions among the population, and the
situation of Haitian workers, including those
working under slave-like conditions in the
Dominican Republic. One interesting fact reported
was that only 25 percent of the adult population
earns a formal salary or wage.

During the discussion period, several apologists
for the 2004 coup from non-governmental
organizations criticized the views of the
panelists. A representative from Canadian
government-funded NGO Development and Peace
defended the work of non-governmental
organizations working in Haiti but did not answer
to the charge that such organizations have not
spoken out against the coup and the thousands
that have perished in its wake. Yanette of Kay
Fanm (funded by D & P and Rights and Democracy)
argued forcefully that the 2004 coup against
President Aristide and his government is of no
consequence for the Haitian people. "We are in
solidarity with the Haitian people," she said,
"not with one man. He does not represent that
people."

Another forum on Haiti ran parallel with the CHAN
forum. It was organized by Plateforme Haitienne
de Plaidoyer pour un Developement Alternatif
(PAPDA), one of the generously-funded NGOs in
Haiti. That meeting featured PAPDA leader Camille
Chambers. PAPDA is an organization that has a
partnership with Alternatives and several other
Canadian-funded "progressive" Haitian NGOs.

Chambers was a guest speaker at the rally of tens
of thousands that opened the World Social Forum
on Jan. 24. He told that rally, "The countries
present in Haiti are merely performing a service
for the United States." Agencia Brasil reported
that "Chalmers called the mission "shameful" and
called on the "solidarity of the Latin American
nations to denounce it."

The PAPDA forum, which was presented as a
discussion about the "imperialist intervention in
Haiti" was attended by approximately 20 people
including two CHAN activists. Chalmers made a
lengthy presentation during which he criticized
Aristide as well as providing a general but vague
criticism of neoliberalism.

Chalmers made no mention of the human rights
situation, the political prisoners or the actual
nature of the military occupation. CHAN activists
pointed out Chalmers' omissions and challenged
him to speak out against the repression and
situation that finds an estimated 1,000 political
prisoners. Chalmers could not bring himself to
denounce the repression or affirm the high number
of Lavalas political prisoners.

Chalmers was further pressed about the existing
funding relationship between his and partner
organizations with Canadian government-funded
NGOs. He claimed that PAPDA does not receive any
funding from any foreign governments.

CHAN activists reiterated the connection between
CIDA funds that go to Canadian NGOs that are
specifically earmarked for organizations like
his. He would not concede the point, even though,
as it was pointed out, he was flown to Canada by
one of these organizations to legitimize Canada's
role in the occupation which he claims to be
opposed to.

During his presentation, Chalmers mentioned the
role played by such organizations as the National
Endowment for Democracy in playing a subversive
anti-democratic role in Haiti. On this point,
CHAN activists pointed out that a NED program
officer said that the "problem" with Aristide and
Lavalas was similar to the "problem" with Hugo
Chavez in Venezuela - that Aristide had to go
because he enjoyed so much popular support and
that the opposition was small and fractured.

Since he had earlier claimed that the U.S.-led
intervention in 2004 came at a time when there
was a "popular movement" to remove Aristide
(which he, presumably, was a part of), Chalmers
appeared disturbed to hear the NED's
on-the-record clarification of their pre-coup
activities in Haiti.

All told, the CHAN activists made a useful
intervention in the PAPDA panel, and they were
not alone in denouncing the true nature of the
occupation. A Uruguayan speaker denounced the
role that her government and military are playing
in Haiti, and several other speakers challenged
Chalmers' contradictory position.

This morning, Thursday, Jan. 26, a forum
featuring a number of Haitians from Haiti and the
Diaspora was organized by the Haiti Action
Committee of San Francisco, the September 30
Foundation, the Haitian Initiative for Democracy,
and the Institute for Justice and Democracy in
Haiti. About 125 people attended. Among them was
a delegation of 15 or so from Global Women's
Strike, comprising delegates from many countries.


Margaret Prescod, a leader of Global Women's
Strike, gave an inspiring guest talk to the
meeting, as did Jean St-Vil and several Haitian
women leaders, including an activist from Cité
Soleil. Jean Yvon Kernizan moderated, and
Pierre-Antoine Lovinsky spoke as well.

The next CHAN forum takes place on Jan. 28 at 12
noon. Tomorrow, a rally will take place at the
Brazilian embassy in Caracas, demanding the
withdrawal of Brazilian troops from Haiti. The
rally is being organized by a section of the
Brazilian delegation, from whom CHAN received an
invitation to participate. Time and logistics
permitting, the Haiti solidarity contingent will
proceed to the Canadian embassy to demand that
Canadian police and military withdraw from Haiti
and that no further troops be deployed by the new
Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

These dispatches were sent by Anthony Fenton,
fentona@shaw.ca. Bay View Editor CC Campbell-Rock
is also attending the World Social Forum. Her
reports will be available soon.


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