Capitalism cannot save Haiti

Two weeks on from the magnitude 7.0 quake which killed up to 200,000 people, over a million Haitians are still without access to housing, water or basic healthcare facilities. Kady from Leeds, UK reports

Two weeks on from the magnitude 7.0 quake which killed up to 200,000 people, over a million Haitians are still without access to housing, water or basic healthcare facilities.

In the devastating aftermath, aid was offered from agencies and countries around the world. However, efforts to distribute supplies have been hampered by the United States’ agenda of establishing ‘security’ on the ground. Immediately after the quake, 10,000 US marines poured into Haiti with guns and armoured vehicles.

While thousands lay trapped under the destroyed Cite Soleil slums, the United States was turning away vital foreign aid from the capital’s airport in order to allow more soldiers and their equipment to land. The military re-occupation of Haiti was justified by stirring up a media frenzy in the west about ‘looters’ and ‘the breakdown of law and order’. It was claimed that aid workers could not deliver supplies because of the lack of security.

Colonisation
The racist undertones of this message are all too familiar. After Hurricane Katrina, and the Asian Tsunami, the western media ran high-profile stories about survivors looting and attacking aid workers. These stories reflected the colonial attitude of many commentators who saw outbreaks of violence and looting as a symptom of black people’s inability to exist in a civilised way once the infrastructure of society was demolished.

Haitians desperate for news of help are forced to rely on interviews with US and UN military personnel rather than media agencies broadcasting messages from the existing Haitian government.

The occupation of Haiti might not appear so sinister if it wasn’t for the violent history of the two countries’ relationship.

A slave rebellion in Haiti in 1804 led to the creation of the first black-led republic in the world. Haitians have been paying the price for their independence ever since. France rinsed billions of dollars of ‘reparations’ out of Haiti for generations, and after the French came the Americans who occupied the country several times, most recently in 2004 under the pretext of safeguarding democracy.

Through the World Trade Organisation (WTO) the US forced Haiti to slash its state subsidy on rice which is the principal source of food for Haitians. This meant that the heavily-subsidised US farmers were able to dump their rice onto Haiti, turning Haiti from an exporter of rice into one that now has to import the majority of its rice from the US.

This forced hundreds of thousands of farmers off their land to live in the slums surrounding Port-au-Prince – the same slums which collapsed instantly in the earthquake. The poorest and most desperate citizens of Haiti were the first to suffer the catastrophic consequences of the earthquake.

In this way, a country where most of the population live on less than $1 a day financially supports the most powerful country on earth to the tune of £30m a year.

Political and economic instability has blighted Haiti for two centuries. The principal cause of this is the parasitic leeching off Haiti by the super rich countries of the west. While Haiti receives £36m a year in aid, the interest on its national debt is £56m a year.

The Haitian people cannot hope to defend themselves against the predatory US bosses who see them as a cheap, exploitable source of labour. Just as the state schooling system was completely privatised in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the miserable human suffering of millions of Haitians is seen as an un-missable profit opportunity for the world’s capitalists.

Food not bombs
The infrastructure – roads, schools, hospitals etc - have been destroyed, providing an opportunity for foreign capitalists to rebuild and provide schooling and healthcare to those who can afford it.

So we see that the US army is securing Haiti for a shock redevelopment by US bosses, while trying to present the whole operation as a Public Relations victory – soldiers who were blowing up wedding parties in Afghanistan now playing the humanitarian role.

But soldiers don’t need automatic weapons and gunships to distribute aid or rebuild roads. The traumatised population of Haiti is not rising up against the US soldiers – they are scavenging in demolished shops for the food, bedding and supplies which the US army didn’t bring with it.

If Obama and Brown could find trillions overnight for their precious bankers, then they can find the money to bring Haiti out of its abject poverty and lift the yoke of international debt.

Sadly this is not on Obama’s agenda. The history of US intervention into Latin America is littered with military coups, invasions, and the subjugation of entire countries to the economic policy of Wall Street.

We need to stand with the Haitians in this newest tragedy to afflict their island, and give the workers and poor farmers there the voice that demands an international programme of aid, not militarisation. Haiti needs food, not bombs.