‘We Bend, but We Don’t Break’: Fighting for a Just Reconstruction in Haiti

A popular haitian saying goes, “we are bamboo. We bend, but we don’t break.” This expression of resolve in the face of adversity has been in wide circulation since the January 12 earthquake, taking on even greater meaning. The number of Haitians killed by one of the most destructive disasters in world history is unknown; estimates range from 250,000 to 350,000. Just under 2 million people were rendered homeless, displaced, or dispossessed, according to the United Nations. For those already exiled to the absolute margin of survival, the socioeconomic impacts of the disaster are incalculable. In earthquake-hit areas, the vulnerable almost invariably lost some combination of family members, homes, personal belongings, merchandise, or whatever else might have given them a little protection from hunger, suffering, and death. Even before the earthquake, Haiti’s destitution was a marvel on the planet. The poet Jean-Claude Martineau often says in his public presentations, “Haiti is the only country to have a last name. It’s ‘the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.’ ” But as tenacious as oppression and deprivation have been throughout Haitian history, the country’s highly organized grassroots movement has never given up the battle its enslaved ancestors began. The movement is composed of women, peasants, street Beverly Bell has worked with movements for democracy, women’s rights, and economic justice in Haiti and elsewhere for 30 years. She runs Other Worlds, a group promoting alternative socioeconomic models, and is Associate Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. The grassroots Haitian women’s organization Brave Ayibobo meets in Port-au-Prince in February to discuss its members’ needs. The group is one of hundreds of others advocating a just reconstruction for the country. Roberto Bear Guerra JULY/AUGUST 2010 report: haiti vendors, human rights advocates, clergy and laity, workers, and others. The mobilizations, protests, and advocacy have brought down dictators, staved off some of the worst of economic policies aimed at others’ profit, and kept the population from ever fitting quietly into anyone else’s plans for them. By far the single largest force of rescuers and first responders during the quake’s aftermath was ordinary citizens who responded spontaneously and without reward. Neighbors worked together to dig out survivors from collapsed buildings, usually with only their hands or whatever implements they could improvise. They unearthed corpses, set up brigades to clear rubble, and organized security teams in neighborhoods and camps. “We’ve shared our pain and our suffering,” said Mesita Attis of the market women’s support group Martyred Women of Brave Ayibobo. “If you heard your baby in the ruins crying ‘Mommy, Mommy, Mommy,’ 14 people would run help you. If you don’t have a piece of bread, someone will give you theirs.” The aid and accompaniment responses are based in the long tradition of solidarity that has kept this resourcepoor people alive for centuries. Not long after the quake, Yolette Etienne, director of Oxfam Great Britain–Haiti, commented: “The tremendous chain of solidarity of the people we saw from the day of the earthquake on: That is our capacity. That is our victory. That is our heart. From the first hour Haitians engaged in every type of solidarity imaginable—one supporting the other, one helping the other, one saving the other. If any of us is alive today, we can say that it’s thanks to this solidarity.” Beyond the immediate aftermath, family members, neighbors, and strangers have assumed the bulk of caregiving for hungry, wounded, homeless, and abandoned survivors. In areas directly damaged, as well as those to which survivors have fled, people have pooled their time, belongings, and funds. They have shared food, sheets, and tarps; looked after the injured and ill; provided child care; given money for medicine; kept a protective eye out for women and children who are at a high risk of being assaulted; and taken in orphaned and abandoned children. Judith Simeon, an organizer with peasant and women’s groups, echoed what many of the others said: “Everyone was helping everyone. What people had, they shared with others. It was truly those who had nothing who did the most. It was our citizen obligation to take care of those who needed it.” But given the magnitude of the disaster, these efforts by ordinary Haitians have not been enough to help everyone. Neither has international aid, which, according to hundreds of interviews and months of observation, has yet to significantly address any of the needs of vast swaths of earthquake-hit populations. Although a remarkable $9.9 billion in aid has been given or pledged by individuals and organizations throughout the world, there is a huge gap between the dollars and international posturing around aid, on the one hand, and the population in need, on the other. As of early June, hundreds of people in refugee camps reported that they had received little—some rice, perhaps a tent—to nothing at all. In this context, some peasant, student, neighborhood, and other groups have turned the solidarity into more formal, organized programs. They are providing shelter, medical care, community mental health care, food, water, children’s activities, leisure activities, security, and support for much needed agricultural production. To cite just one among many diverse responses, the peasant organization Tèt Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen in the rural region of Piatte employs a three-part strategy: taking people into their homes; bringing food to other homes that are housing internally displaced people; and bringing the fruits of their fields, like bananas and peas, to camps in Port-au-Prince. The outpouring of community-based assistance and support is a useful reminder of the collective resilience and resourcefulness that are key to Haitian culture. “In Haitian families, the way they socialize children, they give a lot of importance to the capacity of endurance,” said psychologist Lenz Jean-François. “They teach children to always be ready for a tough situation, and to struggle to hold their dignity.” The grassroots approaches offer a different vision and practice of what humanitarian can mean when it is embedded in aid given with respect, dignity, and a commitment to equity. And the approaches serve as a guide to what a society that privileges mutual aid over profit, and democratic participation over domination, could look like in Haiti. T he haitian popular movement has set for itself the formidable task of addressing not only the ongoing humanitarian crisis among refugees, but also the reconstruction effort as a whole. Yannick Etienne of Workers’ Struggle said, “We have the opportunity as a movement to continue our organizational work, to push for social justice, and to unify the people to take change into their hands. We still have the remnants of an organized people; they didn’t all die under the debris.” 29 NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS report: haiti Social movements have moved forward in creating coalitions, shaping their own alternative plans for the country’s future, and mapping out their advocacy strategies. Dozens of interviews with social movement leaders and numerous declarations reveal a clearly emerging consensus. First, it includes full participation of those who are usually denied both input into public policy formation and benefit of the fruits of those policies: peasant farmers, sweatshop workers, informal-sector workers, destitute women, and others. Second, it establishes greater justice and equity as the ends of what grassroots organizations call “constructing the country,” as opposed to re-constructing it, since few are served by re-creating the gross levels of mass poverty and social exclusion that existed before the earthquake. As early as February 13 and at least on three later occasions, more than 50 NGOs and grassroots organizations devoted to a variety of issues (alternative development, women’s rights) and representing various sectors (rural people, youth) met in Port-au-Prince to advance these ends. Their declaration read in part: [We have] decided to launch a national and international campaign to bring forth another vision of how to redevelop this country, a vision based on people-to-people solidarity to develop the opportunity now facing this country to raise up another Haiti. We [want] to build a social force which can establish a reconstruction plan where the fundamental problems of the people take first priority. These include: housing, environment, food, education, literacy, work, and health for all; a plan to wipe out exploitation, poverty, and social and economic inequality; and a plan to construct a society which is based on social justice.1 The social movement’s priorities are as follows: 1. Creating participatory democracy. This has been at the heart of demands from the moment Haiti emerged from the brutal 30-year Duvalier dictatorship in 1986; it may be more relevant today than ever. Government must serve the people, be accountable to them, and include their participation. Through many public declarations, press conferences, and, since early April, daily demonstrations, citizens are asserting that it is their right to be formally brought into decision making. Says Julie Desrosiers, a street merchant, “We need a true democracy in the country. More than just elections. We need a say in how the millions of aid [dollars] are spent, so that we the people actually benefit instead of just the big shots.” 2. Rebuilding under a new economic paradigm, one that breaks free of unfair trade rules under which food and many other basics are imported, and a coveted job is in a sweatshop earning $3 per day. Social movements are adamant that Haiti adhere to principles of economic justice, including trade rules that privilege Haitian producers and Haitian goods, food sovereignty, employment opportunities, workers’ rights, and cancellation of its foreign debts. 3. Protecting the environment. This is connected to constructing a new economic model, putting people and the earth before capital, and protecting life from commodification. Central to social movements’ advocacy is tough environmental regulations for industry, which are today virtually nonexistent. Also central are solar electricity, solar ovens, reforestation, integrated water-management systems, and an agricultural system that privileges the small-scale production of diverse, organic food. 4. Putting social needs at the center. As articulated in a meeting of women from the Commission of Women Victims to Victims from their new home in refugee camps, those needs are, in a rough ranking of priority: housing, food, health care, education, and work. 5. Prioritizing agriculture. Peasant and other organizations insist that the government must invest in and offer active support to small-scale agriculture, and that foreign food aid must be reined in to give Haitian farmers a chance to compete. They are also adamant that trade policies must protect small-farmer production to create food sovereignty, the right of a nation to produce locally for local consumption. Only 4% of the funds outlined in the Haitian government’s Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) are earmarked for agriculture. “The government is giving away the whole country,” said Doudou Pierre of both the Peasant Movement of Papay and Vía Campesina. “We are for family agriculture that respects the environment, but for that we must have government support and we must have land.” 6. Ensuring women’s and children’s rights. In the fragile and dangerous post-catastrophe environment, social and economic rights for women and children must be front and center. According to surveys conducted by the Commission of Women Victim to Victim, rape and 30 The voices and energy of people in the United States are especially needed to challenge the neocolonial elements of the U.S. reconstruction plans that are blocking Haitian leadership. JULY/AUGUST 2010 report: haiti violence are escalating, so increased security is critical. Malya Villard, an organizer with the commission, said, “The government didn’t respect our rights even before the Presidential Palace was destroyed, even before the Palace of Justice was destroyed. We need those rights in the reconstruction.” A corollary of these priorities is generating what Camille Chalmers, director of the Haitian Platform to Advocate Alternative Development (PAPDA), called “people-topeople solidarity, not of that solidarity that nation-states use in order to dominate the people.” Horizontal alliances will continue to be important over the coming years to help Haitians ensure full rights for all; gain different trade policy that does not undermine but develops labor rights, environmental standards, and food sovereignty; ensure that government policy privilege human need for all over profit for some; and create space for women’s full rights and power. And the voices and energy of people in the United States are especially needed to challenge the neocolonial elements of the U.S. reconstruction plans that are blocking Haitian leadership. Despite their advocacy, the haitian people, together with their government, have been bypassed in the planning and oversight of how aid money is spent and in reconstruction policies. The international donors’ forums in Montreal (January 25), Santo Domingo (March 17), and New York (March 31), where the large-scale plans were developed, were led by foreign ministers and international financial institutions. UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has touted the process as “a sweeping exercise in nation-building on a scale and scope not seen in generations.”2 But Haitian voices have been lost amid the declarations of the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations, the U.S. government, and others. The Haitian government receives one cent of every dollar that has come in since the earthquake and is not consulted on the rest, according to the Associated Press. “The NGOs don’t tell us . . . where the money’s coming from or how they are spending it,” Prime Minister JeanMax Bellerive was quoted as saying.3 On April 15, the Haitian Parliament formally ceded its powers over finances and reconstruction to a foreignled Interim Commission for the Reconstruction of Haiti (CIRH) for the next 18 months. The CIRH’s mandate is to direct the post-earthquake reconstruction of Haiti through the $9.9 billion in pledges of international aid, including approving policies, projects, and budgeting. The World Bank will manage the money. Most members on the CIRH are foreign. The criterion for becoming a foreign voting member is that the institution or country has contributed at least $100 million during two consecutive years or has canceled at least $200 million in debt. Others who have given less may share a seat. The Organization of American States and NGOs working in Haiti do not have a vote. The CIRH is headed by UN Special Envoy Bill Clinton and Bellerive. The only accountability or oversight measure is Haitian President René Préval’s veto power. Few expect him to use his veto, both because his record is not one of challenging the international aid apparatus and because of possible repercussions, in terms of the dollar flow, by the CIRH. According to Antonal Mortiné, the executive secretary of the Haitian Platform of Human Rights Organizations, the CIRH has made Haiti a rèstavak, or child slave. “This is not the path to democracy,” he said. While the international community excludes the Haitian state from reconstruction and the Parliament even votes to exclude itself, so the Haitian state excludes its people. The government has failed to invoke even token discussions with civil society, except informally with some businesspeople and a few NGOs that do not represent a base. One indicator is the citizenry’s inability to provide input into their government’s strategic plan of long-term development based on the PDNA. The government of Haiti granted just one week, March 14–20, for “consultation with civil society and the private sector” on the PDNA. But four of those days were after the government approved the draft plan, on March 15. T he agenda for a just haitian future is monumental in the best of times. Today it is being shaped by people who still may be accommodating themselves to the fact that their child or mother, not seen since January 12, is dead. It is being shaped by people who are living in tents in squalid, dangerous camps. It is being shaped by people who are profoundly traumatized and have no access to mental health care. It may be that their suffering sharpens the determination to have their needs met in a context of social and economic justice and democracy. That is the perspective, at least, of Ricot Jean-Pierre, director of advocacy for the Platform to Advocate Alternative Development in Haiti (PAPDA). “Sadness can’t discourage us so that we stop fighting,” he said. “We’ve lost people as in all battles, but we have to continue fighting to honor them and make their dreams a reality. The dream is translated into a slogan: Another Haiti Is Possible.”

Chávez Pushes the Limits 1. La Hojilla, Venezolana de Televisión, January 13, 2010. 2. “Los apagones pican y se extienden por el país,” Últimas Noticias, October 25, 2009. 3. “En 2008 se protestó más contra gobierno de Chávez,” El Nacional, December 9, 2009. 4. Idrian N. Resnick, The Long Transition: Building Socialism in Tanzania (Monthly Review Press, 1981), 180–84, 274ff. 5. “Chávez Threatens More Bank Takeovers,” Darcy Crowe and José de Córdoba, The Wall Street Journal, December 3, 2009. 6. Eduardo Semtei, “La culpa tiene Arne,” El Nacional, December 14, 2009. 7. Steve Ellner, “The Perennial Debate Over Socialist Goals Played Out in Venezuela,” Science & Society 74, no. 1 (January 2010): 70–76. 8. “Gobierno presentó nueva imagen del Banco de Venezuela,” Últimas Noticias, September 22, 2009, ultimasnoticias.com.ve. 9. “Ecoanalítica calcula en 57% la sobreevaluación del bolívar,” El Universal, July 7, 2009. 10. “INDEPABIS ha cerrado más de 1.900 comercios por especulación,” Vea, February 2, 2010. 11. Alo Presidente, Venezolana de Televisión, January 17, 2010. 12. “Afirman que Gobierno intervino 165 empresas en cuatro años,” El Universal, July 19, 2009espectaculos.eluniversal.com. 13. Julia Buxton, “Venezuela: the Political Evolution of Bolivarianism,” in Geraldine Lievesley and Steve Ludlam, eds., Reclaiming Latin America: Experiments in Radical Social Democracy (Zed Books, 2008), 72–73. 14. “Jerónimo Carrera: Chávez es un animal raro,” El Nacional, January 6, 2010, el-nacional.com. 15. “Alan Woods: Hay que hacer una revolución dentro de la revolución,” Últimas Noticias, November 16, 2009. 16. Antonio Aponte, ”Los planes de la conciliación,” Vea, February 13, 2010. Disaster Capitalism to the Rescue 1. Thanks to Pablo Morales and Mark Schuller for their editorial suggestions and their help in making my argument clearer. 2. Cited in Jonathan M. Katz, “With Cheap Food Imports, Haiti Can’t Feed Itself,” the Associated Press, March 20, 2010. 3. See Gouvernement de la République d’Haïti, Action Plan for the Reconstruction and National Development of Haiti (March 2010). 4. See “Haiti Reconstruction Plan Highlights,” The Miami Herald, March 23, 2010, and Gouvernement d’Haïti, Action Plan. 5. Cited in Martin Kaste, “After Quake in Haiti, Who’s the Boss?” Morning Edition, National Public Radio, March 31, 2010. 6. “Parlement: Feu vert à 18 mois d’état d’urgence et à la CIRH,” Radio Kiskeya (Port-au-Prince), April 15, 2010. 7. See “Annexe-Haiti: PDNA du Tremblement de terre: Evaluation des dommages, des pertes et des besoins généraux et sectoriels,” March 2010, especially “Chapter III: Impact macro-économique et social (Macro-Economic and Social Impact).” 8. See Paul Collier, Haiti: From Natural Catastrophe to Economic Security. A Report for the Secretary-General of the United Nations (Department of Economics, Oxford University, 2009). 9. For a fuller analysis, see Alex Dupuy, “Globalization, the World Bank, and the Haitian Economy,” in Franklin W. Knight and Teresita Martinez-Vergne, eds., Contemporary Caribbean Cultures and Societies in a Global Context (University of North Carolina Press, 2005), 43–70. 10. See Leah Chavla, “Haiti Research File: Bill Clinton’s Heavy Hand on Haiti’s Vulnerable Agricultural Economy: The American Rice Scandal,” Council on Hemispheric Affairs, April 13, 2010; Katz, “With Cheap Food Imports, Haiti Can’t Feed Itself.” 11. Cited in Dupuy, “Globalization, the World Bank, and the Haitian Economy,” 53. 12. Katz, “With Cheap Food Imports, Haiti Can’t Feed Itself”; Claire McGuigan, Agricultural Liberalisation in Haiti (London: Christian Aid, 2006). 13. Dilip Ratha, Sanket Mohapatra, and Ani Silwal, “Migration and Development Brief 11,” Migration and Remittances Team, Development Prospects Group, World Bank, November 3, 2009; International Monetary Fund, “Haiti: Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper Progress Report,” IMF Country Report no. 09/290 (February 2009); and “Haiti: Sixth Review Under the Extended Credit Facility,” IMF Country Report no. 10/35, (January 22, 2010). 14. IMF, ”Haiti Poverty Reduction Strategy”; Inter-American Development Bank, IDB: Country Strategy With Haiti, 2007–2011 (2007). 15. Quoted in Pascal Fletcher, “Improved U.S. Terms for Haiti Textile Imports Sought,” Reuters, March 22, 2010. 16. Doug Palmer, “U.S. House Approves Trade Bill to Help Haiti,” Reuters, May 5, 2010; “Haiti trade bill heads to Obama for signature,” Reuters, May 7, 2010. 17. Cited in Kim Ives, “International Donors’ Conference at the UN: For $10 Billion of Promises, Haiti Surrenders Its Sovereignty,” Haiti Liberté 3, no. 37 (March 31–April 6, 2010). 18. David L. Wilson, “ ‘Rebuilding Haiti’—the Sweatshop Hoax,” MRZine.org, April 3, 2010. 19. Jonathan M. Katz, “Haiti Lawmakers OK Minimum Hike After Clashes,” the Associated Press, August 7, 2009. ‘We Bend, but We Don’t Break’ 1. “The Position of Various Public Organizations and Institutions After the Catastrophe of January 12,” Port-au-Prince, February 13, 2010. 2. Quoted in “Planning the Haitian Renaissance,” Newsweek, April 1, 2010. 3. Jonathan Katz, “Billions for Haiti, a Criticism for Every Dollar,” Associated Press, March 5, 2010. Sources taken from USAID and the United Nations; see also informationclearinghouse.info/haitiaid/jpg. Haiti and the Historical Construction of Disasters 1. Anthony Oliver-Smith, The Martyred City: Death and Rebirth in the Andes (University of New Mexico Press, 1986). 2. Anthony Oliver-Smith, “Peru’s Five Hundred Year Earthquake: Vulnerability to Hazard in Historical Context,” in Ann Varley, ed., Disasters, Development and Environment (London: John Wiley and Sons, 1995), 31–48. 3. Andrew Maskrey, Terremotos en el tropico humedo (Bogotá, Colombia: La Red/ITDG, 1996). 4. Alex Dupuy, Haiti in the World Economy: Race, Class and Underdevelopment Since 1700 (Westview Press, 1989) 5. Ibid. 6. Seumas Milne, Haiti’s Suffering Is a Result of Calculated Impoverishment, U.K. Guardian, January 20, 2010. 7. Mark Schuller, An Anthropology of Disaster Capitalism, unpublished ms. (nd). 8. Bernard Diederich, “Swine Fever Ironies: The Slaughter of the Haitian Black Pig,” Caribbean Review 14, no. 1 (winter 1985): 16–17. 9. Leah Chavla, “Has the US Rice Export Policy Condemned Haiti to Poverty?” Hunger Notes, April 23, 2010. 10. Naomi Klein, “How Socialism Protected Chileans From Earthquake Fall-Out,” The Nation, March 4, 2010. 11. “Corruption Perceptions Index 2009,” Transparency International, available at transparency.org. 12. “Human Development Report 2009—HDI Rankings,” United Nations Development Program, hdr.undp.org/en/statistics. 13. Raúl Sohr, “Historia de dos terremotos,” La Nación (Santiago, Chile), March 5, 2010. 14. Mercedes González de la Rocha, “Economic Crisis, Domestic Reorganization and Women’s Work in Guadalajara, Mexico,” Bulletin of Latin American Research 7, no. 2 (1988): 207–23; Agustín Escobar Latapi and Mercedes Gonzalez de la Rocha, “Crisis, Restructuring and Urban Poverty in Mexico,” Environment and Urbanization 7, no. 1 (1995): 57–76.