Reflections from regional level at Papay Congress

From National Peasant Movement, 1 May 1995

The following are reflections brought from the regional level at the National Peasant Movement of the Papay Congress meetings on March 17-20, 1995

Some problems the coup d'etat brought upon the nation, the people, and our organizations:

a. On the country:
The coup forced many people to leave the country, either for the Dominican Republic or by boat to the United States. It turned the country into a garbage can. The thieves stole all the country's resources. The coup completely destroyed the country's economy. It put the country under the bit, under occupation. It threw the country into an inflationary spiral. It facilitated deforestation on a large scale. It has caused the government to want to sell all the state enterprises (privatization). It brought the IMF in to control the country even more than before. It made the goude lose all of its value. Nongovernmental organizations are invading the country without any control. They are causing much damage. The coup caused the country to lose its dignity.
b. On the population:
The coup allowed the evil forces to put the bit in the people's mouth. They killed people. They beat people. They disappeared people. They forced us to flee, to leave the country, they stole our possessions, took money from us, put us in prison. The coup divided many people. It demobilized the people, humiliated us, unleashed ferocious repression upon us, and caused the rape of many women.
c. On our organization:
They destroyed our headquarters, they stole the goods of the organization. They tried to destroy the organization along with all other forces who were struggling for a better life. They set organizations back in the struggle they were carrying out to change the State. The coup weakened the people's organizations.
d. On the organization's members:
The coup violated all of our rights. It brought rape, torture, the destruction of homes, the theft of all our possessions, and forced us to flee. The coup d'etat made us suffer from hunger in the brush, it impoverished by making us sell everything we had in order to buy our liberty from prison, at the hands of FRAPH, the macoutes, attaches, soldiers, section chiefs, judges, surveyors, notary publics, and state bureaucrats. Many members of our organization died. A few members of the organization abandoned their own ideology.
What must be done to ensure there are no more coups:
We must organize ourselves to put an end to this system of a coup d'etat military. This 1915 army, which is an army of occupation, must be destroyed. All the criminals must be disarmed and judged. The state bureaucracy must be purged of macoutes. A new army and a new police corps must be formed which will be engaged in support of the people's struggle. Serious people must be sent into the Parliament. The macoutes must be blocked at the ballot box.
The most important demands made of the government:
Give justice, combat the rising cost of living, create jobs, clean up the state administration and especially the justice apparatus. Disarm the macoutes, FRAPH and the military which have been dismissed. Give the people security. Give the people food.
The government should not be under US control; it should not work for the Americans.
We call for a change in the government. It should operate with transparency in its conduct toward the people. It should respect the demands of the people. It should keep its promises.
We demand that the government give the people information regarding everything it is doing in the country, especially concerning the IMF, the World Bank, and the issue of the selling of state enterprises.
The president should serve for the years in which he was in exile. The President should function freely without any controls from the US. The Constitution should be modified: give the President more power; decrease the power of the Parliament.
We call for the dismissal of all members of the interim police force who have a bad record. We demand a police academy in each department. The new police which should be in place as soon as possible should not specialize in stealing from and killing people. There should be a police post in each communal section.
The presence of the US military in the country
We are against a US occupation in all of its forms. We were already against this in theory, but their presence has given us even more reasons for such a position:
They have come to protect the macoutes, FRAPH, the attaches and thieves. For example, when we catch a thief and turn him over, they release him and then even give him money. They are the father of the macoutes. They don't carry out disarmament. They serve no purpose for us. Disorder and insecurity continue. They are not acting in Haiti's interest. They put pressure on popular organizations. They enter into the internal affairs of the country such as the training of the police force where, for example, they take actions and undo others. They prevent the President from doing his work. It is even they who destroyed the Creole pigs. Their presence is a waste of money.
The government should take steps to prevent the Americans from encouraging thieves by setting them free without trying them and by giving them money under the pretext that they are just hungry.
On the elections issue
The MPNKP recognizes that elections are the weapon the dominant classes have always used to turn the people into zombies. They always want to make the people believe that elections are going to change things. They always say that elections equal democracy.
Democracy for us is integrally linked with popular participation. The voice of the people is the voice of God. We want a democracy which is based upon the people's participation in the political, economic and social affairs of the country. We do not want an imported democracy, a democracy carried out in the halls of power where a small handful of people that are extracting the blood of the people use the people to take care of their own affairs.
We understand that the change we are working for will come from the mobilization of the people to defend their fundamental interests. We recognize that elections are a means of struggle used by the enemies of the people. However, the people can always use this means to attempt to take a step forward in the struggle it is carrying out to build a society where every one is treated as a human being; a society in which there is no one under the table; a society where everyone finds their place around the table.
The upcoming elections are of capital importance because the forces which carried out the coup d'etat will be seeking to use them in order to make the coup d'etat take root. They will be carrying out all kinds of trickery, all kinds of intimidation, all kinds of repression in order to chase the people from the political scene. They want an election without the participation of the people. They want an election which can push the Lavalas movement from the political scene.
We call upon the whole Lavalas family to come together in unity in order to block the macoutes.
We call upon the government to take all necessary measures to put an end to the climate of insecurity the macoutes are creating in this electoral period. For this to happen, all the criminals must be disarmed.
We call upon the people to not let any international organization supposedly involved in development projects either buy them or pull them along behind macoute or pro-coup candidates.
We call upon peasant organizations and popular organizations to not let any organization or any candidate who is selling the country or any candidate whatsoever to divide them. We must form complete unity in order to make a solid block so that the Lavalas may come down as it should.
We call upon the Provisional Electoral Council to staff the BED, BEK and BEV with serious and honest people who are not coup supporters or macoutes.
We send a mesage to the Political Organization of Lavalas (OPL) that we will not accept any candidates which are imposed from above. The candidates must emerge from the bases and then rise.
We popular organizations should watch out for any putschist candidates who have the people's blood on their hands, those who supported the coup d'etat, or participated in the de facto government that was killing the people.