October 11, 2019

A week of solidarity actions for the people’s struggle in Haiti reached hundreds of people from Oakland to San Jose beginning Sept. 30. The public meetings and demonstrations were organized by the Haiti Action Committee to protest police terror and massacre of the Haitian people who are resisting with their lives the current U.S.-financed and -armed corrupt government of President Jovenel Moïse.

The week began with a well-attended public meeting, “The Lasalin Massacre and the Human Rights Crisis in Haiti” at the Eastside Arts Alliance in Oakland. Videos documenting police shooting unarmed Haitian demonstrators in Lasalin were shown. Pierre Labossiere, a leader of the Haiti Action Committee, gave a political update about the situation in Haiti. Seth Donnelly, of HAC, and Judith Mirkinson, of the San Francisco Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, announced the release of a joint report condemning human rights violations in Haiti.

September 30 was chosen for the meeting date to mark the anniversary of the first coup against democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1991, orchestrated by the U.S.

People rallied again the next day in front of the Phillip Burton Federal Building in San Francisco to demand an end to U.S. support and financing of the current Haitian government. Labossiere spoke on the inhumanity of the U.S.-backed Haitian regime, saying: “The people of Haiti — what they want is to have access to a decent job, to have access to education, to have access to health care, to have access to clean water — everything that human beings are entitled to.“ He pointed out that, throughout the country’s history, the people of Haiti have suffered countless bloody military coups and massacres by fighting for these basic rights.

Many organizations, including the Task Force on the Americas, Arab Resource and Organizing Center, and Workers World Party, delivered solidarity messages to the struggle of the Haitian people at the rally.

On Oct. 3, students led a rally and march in the South Bay. Chanting “Stop the occupation of the Haitian nation,” people gathered in San Jose in front of the Robert Peckham U.S. Federal Building to demand “U.S. out now!”

The event featured many local activists and leaders, including Akubundu Amazu, of the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party, who has been on two delegations to Haiti. Amazu expressed his organization’s admiration for  the Haitian people, for their “resilience” and their continued resistance to U.S. colonialism.

Following the rally, a small group of students and other Haiti activists marched and blocked the entrance of the federal building to demand an end to the U.S.-backed massacres. Labossiere and the Haiti Action Committee affirmed its continuing fight for justice for the people of Haiti.

For more information about the struggle in Haiti and to get involved in the Haiti Action Committee, check out facebook.com/HaitiActionCommittee/.