*   *   *   HAITI INFO   *   *   *

            News direct from the people and organizations 
             of Haiti's democratic and popular movement

                    23 March 1996, Vol. 4, #10

       ***   HAITI INFO now has photos in every issue   ***

Contents:

Stories:          PREVAL: DIPLOMACY OF SUBMISSION
                  PREVAL SHAMELESSLY PUSHING PRIVATIZATION
                  EDUCATION WORLD STANDS UP
                  PLATFORM LAYS OUT TASKS FOR PREVAL
Close-up:         WOMEN MOBILIZE ON MARCH 8


Stories:

                 PREVAL: DIPLOMACY OF SUBMISSION

PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 23 - President Rene Preval's recent trips 
say a lot about the orientation of his government's foreign 
policy. In the space of two weeks, he saw the country's three main 
partners and set the scene for five years of capitulatory 
economic, social and political policies.

Burying the "El Corte" Hatchet

The president started off with a sharp break from the past. For 
the first time in 60 years, a Haitian president went to the 
Dominican Republic. There, Preval was honored and feted by 
President Joaquin Balaguer, former acolyte of U.S.-installed 
dictator General Rafael Trujillo, directly involved in "El Corte" 
("The Cut" because knives were used in order to not waste bullets) 
the massacre of some 35,000 Haitians in 1937, author of the 
vehemently racist book on the Haitian racial "invasion," La Isla 
Al Reves, and "elected" through massive fraud two years ago. 

Preval, so anxious to start his term off right in the eyes of his 
tutors, is obviously ready to do whatever he is told. He could 
have at least waited two months for Balaguer's term to end and 
initiate the new "partnership" with someone less repugnant. 

But the trip was not about principles. It was about business. 
Preval was accompanied by over 60 Haitian private sector people. 
The Mevs, Brandt, Acra, Bigio... all the big families were 
represented. And not too much mention was made of the brutal and 
illegal treatment of Haitian workers in the D.R. or of the tens of 
thousands of stateless people of Haitian origin living there, 
denied papers by the Dominicans. Instead, the two presidents 
signed an accord pledging to promote relations  and establishing a 
"Bilateral Mixed Commission" of public and private sector 
representatives.

The winner of the new "partnership" will obviously be the D.R., 
which has a stronger economy and wants more control over its 
borders. The other winner is the one who requested the trip, 
Washington, which wants and needs the two nations to be friendly, 
stable, and in business as Dominican and U.S. elections approach, 
and in preparation for the 2005 Americas Free Trade Zone. 

Genuflecting in Washington

Preval visited all the monuments - human, institutional and even 
laid a wreath at "The Unknown Soldier" - during his whirlwind trip 
around the U.S. capital. At meetings with President Bill Clinton, 
Republicans, Democrats, Secretaries of Defense and Agriculture, 
the World Bank and IMF, Preval proved that not only will his 
government follow in the path of obsequiousness and capitulation 
cut by the Jean-Bertrand Aristide team, but that it will go even 
further. 

In addition to pledging to abide by the dictates of neoliberalism, 
Preval also promised his government would honor the Republicans' 
request to investigate the "20 political assassinations" the FBI 
says occurred during Aristide's term, and, U.S. diplomats said, 
"pragmatically" did not press for the 160,000 pages of FRAPH and 
army documents the U.S. army stole from Haiti.

The "warm" meetings not only allowed Preval to get instructions 
from the horse's mouth, but let him establish his own relationship 
with Clinton and his own identity in Washington, where Aristide 
was an enigmatic and oft-denigrated figure.

Check-In With Canada, and Home

Preval is in Canada today. A sine qua non stop, since Canada has 
picked up the occupation baton. Clinton's problems with Congress 
and upcoming the election meant he had to get all American 
soldiers out, but U.S. imperial interests will be looked after by 
its junior partner which is heading the 1,200-soldier and 300-
police mission, as well as sending in an extra 700 soldiers at its 
own expense to make up for the restrictions imposed by China last 
month.

Preval will be back here on Monday, when he has promised to 
immediately begin to "privatize." Unfortunately, but not 
unexpectedly, his trips leave little doubt about what policies 
will be implemented here in the coming months and years, and about 
his government's willingness to bend to the dictates and desires 
of its tutors.


             PREVAL SHAMELESSLY PUSHING PRIVATIZATION

PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 22 - To nobody's great surprise and, not 
coincidentally, only days before his Washington pilgrimage, 
President Rene Preval not only announced that privatization of 
state enterprises and services will begin virtually immediately, 
but he also shamelessly, demagogically and misleadingly promoted 
the project to peasants. Preval is on board, a true convert, a 
sworn believer in the neoliberal policies his predecessor pledged 
to uphold before the U.S. army returned him to office in 1994.

Protests of Preval's categorical move are already mounting in 
Haiti, but in Washington he was rewarded with heaps of praise for 
his "pragmatism," promises of more "aid" and loans (the most 
recent promise: US$1.6 billion) and the announcement that the 
International Monetary Fund (IMF) will next month resume 
negotiations to institutionalize the structural adjustment 
program.

Ties Privatization to "Production"

Preval's decision burst on the scene last weekend, during one of 
his many recent trips around the country where he has met with 
peasants to discuss agricultural production. At a number of stops, 
Preval told crowds that the government would be privatizing parts 
of the flour and cement plants, Electricite d'Haiti (EDH) and 
TELECO to get the money to revitalize production (and thus, they 
were to understand, for peasants). But he did not simply announce 
his decision. Instead, he whipped crowds up, saying the country 
was broke and then saying that it had several "boutik" ("little 
stores") that were draining its coffers. Then he would ask, 
leadingly, something like: "What should we do?"

"Privatize them!" a man in the crowd yelled in at least one such 
gathering. Others chimed in: "Privatize! Privatize!"

Preval also promised privatizing would improve services, directly 
contradicting results of privatizations in similar countries which 
led to higher fees and worse service.

Preval A Sworn Believer

A few days later in the U.S., Preval defended his move to Haitian 
journalists, saying "the effects are already here" (the U.S. this 
week unblocked the US$4.6 million frozen since October), 
repeatedly saying his government is "broke" and needs "fresh 
money," and also saying he is privatizing "because we believe it's 
good for our country," not because anyone was forcing him. (In 
Haiti, the U.S. embassy said it is not the U.S. but the 
"international financial institutions" demanding privatization. 
Schrager failed to mention that the U.S. virtually controls them 
through its majority shares holdings.)

Preval's pledge of allegiance to neoliberalism during his meetings 
with President Bill Clinton, the multilaterals and scores of 
business people looking for, in the words of one man, "a piece of 
the action" here illustrate once again Lavalas' a complete 
capitulation to the desires and demands of Washington. Yesterday, 
in a final confirmation of faith, he pronounced the magic phrase: 
"We are convinced the private sector is a better manager than the 
state." This, coming from the former Prime Minister who used to 
brag about how, in 1991, his administration had turned the state 
enterprises, the very ones now on the auction block, into profit-
makers. [See Haiti Info, v.3 #10]

TELECO Already On The Way

Despite Preval's "pragmatism" and new fidelity to the gods of 
neoliberalism, the struggle against privatization continues here. 
Members of the TELECO workers' union this week denounced the fact 
that TELECO is already on the way towards privatization. 

Much long distance service is now handled by MCI or AT&T, union 
leader Jean Mabou told Haiti Info. Long-distance calls, especially 
since over one million Haitians live overseas, are a major source 
of income. (Inter Press Service yesterday reported the World Bank 
said TELECO made a US$42 million profit in 1994, despite poor 
management.) 

In June, 1995, when the O.A.S. held its General Assembly here, MCI 
and AT&T were invited to install lines, temporarily. They were cut 
afterwards. But a few months later, Mabou said, Leslie Delatour, 
head of the country's central bank and a leading proponent of 
privatization and neoliberalism since he served as Finance 
Minister for the Gen. Henri Namphy regime, "passed the order" to 
reconnect the circuits. Since then, TELECO has lost 40% of its 
long distance income, according to the Long Distance Service 
office contacted this week.

"I can't even say Delatour's name. None of us union members can," 
Mabou said. "We didn't fight for three years to get rid of the 
coup d'etat to have him in our faces!" 

TELECO Director General Patrick Mario Lefevre has engaged in 
another privatization-related conflict with Delatour. In an open 
letter dated March 6, Lefevre complained that TELECO is on the 
point of closing down because many different materials it has 
ordered have not been delivered. TELECO is under the bank's 
tutelage and Lefevre basically accused Delatour of stalling 
purchases. He said the resulting decline in service and failure to 
fulfill promises made all over the country by politicians is 
reinforcing "the presumptions of non-viability" of TELECO and 
strengthening those who favor "its liquidation."   

Protests Beginning

Preval's announcement has added an urgency to the anti-
privatization, anti-neoliberal movement here, [see also p. 4], and 
has already begun to draw criticism. Parliamentarians have been 
speaking on the radio, saying they disagree and should be 
consulted before such a move. However, such complaining is cynical 
and lame, coming as it does, mostly from members of the Lavalas 
platform which just approved the very program Preval is putting 
into action.

Earlier this week, two popular organizations in the North held a 
press conference denouncing Preval's demagogic promise to "improve 
national production" while following neoliberal guidelines, and 
last weekend, a conference sponsored by a current in the 
international labor movement which is very far from being radical 
(Confederation Internationale des Syndicats Libres) and attended 
by members of some local unions, approved a resolution that 
"rejects categorically all policies of structural adjustment."

More significant are two recent protests. The Platform of Haitian 
Human Rights Organizations today issued a strong condemnation of 
the government which, "without even articulating and presenting 
before the nation a real development project" or engaging in 
"dialogue" which it promised, "launched an all-out campaign in 
favor of neoliberal policies and structural adjustment." Those 
policies have repeatedly failed, the Platform pointed out, and 
their consequences "threaten the process of democratization" and 
can lead to further deterioration of living conditions, "a grave 
violation of the social and economic rights of people."

The Platform also directly attacked Preval for his "bizarre and 
erroneous explanations to the peasants," and said his leading them 
to ask for privatization was "an act of irresponsibility and 
provocation."

"That the government has decided to bow down to the dictates of 
the international financial institutions and the U.S. government 
is today a done deal, but the nation is not stupid. The neoliberal 
measures cannot do anything to resolve the grave problems of 
poverty and underdevelopment which effect our country. To want to 
relaunch agricultural production through privatization is to ask 
people to 'eat their feet in order to find the strength to run,'" 
the Platform said.

Solidarite Ant Jen and Konbit Veye Yo this week also issued a 
statement denouncing "the anti-popular maneuvers and manipulation" 
that the "Lavalas power" is carrying out to push forward its 
project, which, the groups said, clearly offers the country 
nothing more than privatization and liberalization .

"It is a government of country-sellers," SAJ/Veye Yo said. "[It] 
has decided to tie its horse to the little group of pillagers that 
financed the criminal coup of Sept. 30 while it sullies the memory 
of all valient Haitians that fell in the struggle to push for 
profound, structural change."

Haitian People in Good Company

The Haitian protestors are not alone. In fact, Preval's love 
affair with neoliberalism comes at a time when people throughout 
the Americas are increasing their protests against it. Over 
100,000 Canadian workers and their supporters took to the streets 
Feb. 24. On March 13 and 14, tens of thousands of Venezuelans 
protested and a week earlier, 850,000 public sector employees 
stayed away from work. On March 20, 150,000 Mexicans protested 
adjustment and privatization in a massive march. In Paraguay, 
50,000 peasants threatened to march on the capital earlier this 
month, and Bolivian workers are threatening another general 
strike.


                  EDUCATION WORLD STANDS UP

PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 21 - Students, teachers, professors and 
parliamentarians have launched an assault on Minister of Education 
Jacques Edouard Alexis, a proponent of private education, and 
therefore seen as "an enemy" of public education.

Alexis is a founder, shareholder and was, until his nomination, 
Rector of the private Quiskeya University. An agronomist, he was 
also Dean of the Faculty of Agronomy at the Universite d'Etat 
d'Haiti (UEH) during the Gen. Henri Namphy regime. Students and 
professors there mobilized against him because when the army 
invaded the faculty and brutalized students, he never took a 
position in their favor. Afterwards, he was on a Namphy commission 
which was to prepare a law on the university. More recently, he 
was very active in organizing a symposium on higher education 
aimed at placing private universities and UEH on the same footing, 
in violation of the Constitution (Art. 211) Mobilization cancelled 
the event. [See Haiti Info v.3 #23]

At a joint press conference on March 15, two teachers' 
associations and four student organizations outlined their firm 
opposition.

"Education has never been a priority for the Haitian state," said 
Josue Merilien of the Union Nationale des Normaliens d'Haiti 
(UNNOH). He said the Minister of Education should be someone 
determined to create a public education system, and denounced 
private schools whose "objective is not to train people, but to 
make money." 

"Without education, without school for all, we cannot talk about 
development nor justice," Merilen said, ending: "UNNOH has no 
problem with Alexis as a person. We have a problem with what he 
stands for. He is the direct representative of private teaching."

A speaker from Komite Lit Etidyan (KLE) said the choice of Alexis 
is "part of the global plan to privatize the university, as part 
of the neoliberal plan" and that he "represents a danger for 
public education." 

Parliamentarians have also decided to intervene, even though many 
who criticized Alexis' appointment during the hearings ended up 
voting either "Yes" or abstaining. 

Senators Wesner Emmanuel and Samuel Madistin have both questioned 
the controversial appointment, and some deputies are working to 
call him before the Chamber to try to give a "vote of censure," 
which would mean he would be revoked. Deputy Jacques Gar
on (PROP) 
of St. Louis du Nord, who voted "No" on March 5, said that, while 
at the Agronomy Faculty, Alexis showed "he does not believe in 
participative democracy."


               PLATFORM LAYS OUT TASKS FOR PREVAL

PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 14 - The Platform of Haitian Human Rights 
Organizations has told President Rene Preval there are massive 
tasks ahead, and failure to undertake them will place in jeopardy 
"the consolidation of the democratic process." 

Following a February meeting with Preval, the Platform, which 
groups together nine human rights instances, drew up a four-page 
list of recommendations which called the recent elections "a step" 
toward democracy and the dismantling of the army "a contribution," 
but focused on the problems the previous administration failed to 
address.

The Jean-Bertrand Aristide government took "no concrete and 
consequent action" to deliver justice to the Haitian people, the 
Platform pointed out, and impunity has taken on an "institutional 
dimension." Also, the Truth and Justice Commission and a group of 
foreign lawyers have not yet announced any results of their 
investigations.

"Not only do the Haitian people still not have the material means 
to act within the justice system; but worse, the system is now 
under the tutelage of the U.S.... exercized through a private 
firm, Checchi & Co. Consulting Inc., which is in charge of 
judicial reform," the Platform added, calling for clarification on 
its "mission."

Regarding the new National Police, the Platform seized on the 
fundamental: "It is scandalous that an organism of the U.S. 
government, ICITAP, controls the entire process of the creation 
and training of the force." It also called for a body to review 
police behavior and a thorough review of all members, and also for 
disarmament and the return of the stolen FRAPH documents.

The Platform also called for full popular participation in the 
political process, which "the neoliberal model" prevented during 
Aristide's recent tenure, and for an investigation into 
accusations of corruption.

"The 'Little Projects of the President' especially were a way to 
silence demands... The level of people's confidence regarding 
Lavalas political power is today precarious," the Platform avowed, 
and concluded calling for organizations to participate in the 
struggle for a more democratic society.


Close-up:
                 WOMEN MOBILIZE ON MARCH 8

International Women's Day, March 8, was commemorated with more 
demonstrations and gatherings than ever before. Although the media 
repeatedly announced the day has its origins in a United Nations 
holiday, it actually was chosen by the 1910 Congress of 
International Socialist Women to commemorate women in their dual 
struggles for equality and social progress.

A Glance Around the Country

Most of the commemorations around the country harkened back to 
those origins, and with no great surprise. Throughout history, the 
women's struggle for emancipation from exploitation by men has 
been intimately tied with the struggle against the exploitative 
economic structure (against employers, the state, etc.), and 
statistics show that exploitation and suffering here have never 
been higher. According to the government itself, inflation last 
year was 27 percent, 61% of the population earns less than US$100 
per month, unemployment is over 60% and 52% of the working 
population is in the "informal sector."

Although Haitian and foreign politicians and pundits made all 
sorts of promises beginning with the return of constitutional 
order on Oct. 15, 1994, the past 16 months of continued economic 
deterioration that has accompanied the implementation of a 
"structural adjustment program" (SAP) and various "aid" programs 
have not done anything to improve the living conditions of the 
Haitian people, and no wonder. Studies of exploited countries 
throughout the world reveal that neoliberalism in general and SAPs 
in particular wreak disastrous effects on the population, and that 
women (and children) invariably suffer the most.

On March 8, it was clear that some organizations are beginning to 
understand that the women's situation is not isolated from the 
rest of society. That realization is the fruit of much 
consciousness-raising, but there is much more to be done to make 
clear the linkage between the women's struggle for emancipation as 
women, and the larger struggle for emancipation of society.

1,000 March in Leon 

About one thousand women as well as some 50 men supporters marched 
in Leon, a small town 16 kms. from Jeremie in Grande Anse, to 
protest neoliberalism, to demand justice for all women victims, 
including of rape, of the coup d'etat, and to demand social 
justice and that the state provide services.

The demonstrators, mostly from peasant associations, came from 
surrounding hamlets and villages, some walking 10 kms. on mountain 
paths to reach the town. Marchers invaded the streets singing, 
chanting and carrying signs with slogans like "Down with 
privatization without looking back!," "Down with exploitation of 
women!" and "Down with a society where big fish eat little fish!"

"We won't get kicked any more!" and "All criminals and 'without-
mothers' must be judged!" they chanted and sang.

"Women, women! Let's organize together to demand our rights in  
the face of men's power!" went another song. "If men can be 
president, women can be president too!"

Speakers denounced biased judges, corruption, and the fact that 
land is registered in the name of the husband, even if the wife 
has participated in buying it. 

Evelyne Constant, one of the organizers and a worker from PRED 
(Projet Regional de l'Education et du Developpement), said for 
her, March 8 is not a holiday, but "when women should sit together 
to reflect on the future and their participation in the struggle 
for change in the country to make another society."

"Women are a big force in this country: they work in the house and 
outside the house and they are a big force for change," she said. 
"But, until today, there are many women, literate and illiterate, 
that still do not recognize their value."

Constant said the march and rally focused on neoliberalism and 
privatization because "we all know what consequences it can have 
for all people: worse misery." 

"We want to make our voices heard," she told a correspondent. "We 
want journalists here to take our voices from Leon to Jeremie, to 
Port-au-Prince, to all the country to hear us calling out, saying 
that we cannot take the high cost of living and misery anymore!" 

Tet Kole in Mahotieres

Between 500 to 700 men and women from the local groups of national 
Tet Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen peasant movement gathered in a 
marketplace near Mahotieres to reflect on March 8, the eleventh 
anniversary of the first time women in the region marked the day. 
As in Grande Anse, the main demands related to the economic 
situation.

"Today is the world day for all exploited and dominated women, and 
for all exploited and dominated men!" a woman speaker said. 
Speakers denounced all forms of exploitation and domination of 
women, focusing on "the big illness which has fallen on the 
country: the neoliberal plan" and also showed their skepticism at 
foreign non-governmental organizations which tell peasants 
privatization of state enterprises is good while lending them 
money in credit programs. Said a speaker, "Since when did the hawk 
do so much for us, that we should call our children 'Little 
Hawk?'" repeating a proverb which warns people not to be fooled by 
little trick gifts.

"They use us, the poor women, trying to eke out a living, to sell 
their imported turkey wings, chicken guts, secondhand fish and 
fruit. All of those products are destroying our country's 
production!" she told the crowd through a megaphone. "Let's stop 
selling foreign products!"

Those assembled in the marketplace also sang and chanted, and 
watched popular theater productions about exploitation of women in 
society and within the family.

"It's time for us to open the eyes of all women!" a speaker called 
out.

The national office of the women's section of Tet Kole issued a 
press release focusing on health, education and the economy. 

"We, the women of Tet Kole, we tell all poor women, no matter how 
much you are suffering, take the commitment to refuse to let the 
neoliberal plan carry us away," Tet Kole said.

A number of press releases from regional Tet Kole groups also 
denounced neoliberalism and demanded the state change all male-
chauvinist legislation and force fathers to support children they 
have abandoned. 

Artibonite Women Protest IMF

On Sunday, March 10, some 500 women and several hundred men 
gathered in Boudet Ti Place, near Marchand Dessalines, to a 
meeting called by the women of Konbit qganizasyon Peyizan (KOP) to 
discuss "Women in Haiti."

After an evening of songs and dancing, the women and men listened 
to speakers talk about the women's issue. The first speakers - two 
members of KOP - addressed the different categories of city women 
in Haiti: bourgeois (factory owners), big merchants, little 
merchants, workers, wealthy (doctors, ministers) and poor petite 
bourgeois, servants, "fanm k ap pote" ("women that carry," 
servants' children who grow up working and never go to school) and 
prostitutes.

Describing each category, the women pointed out that "the pain of 
some women is not the same for all." Big merchant women "sit 
somewhere cool, with air-conditioning to make money. They don't 
have any problems, they live comfortably." Market women, on the 
other hand, borrow money at usurious rates, buy from the merchants 
and sell in the streets. 

"They sit in the mud, the sun beats down on them, drivers abuse 
them," the KOP member explained, and ended saying that peasant 
women have the same "pain" as the exploited urban women.

Then, a member of the Kolektif pou Mobilizasyon Kont Neyoliberalis 
ak FMI described the different kinds of problems women face - 
social, political, ideological, sexual - and talked about the 
history of the women's struggle internationally as well as in 
Haiti, touching on a women's uprising in Brazil and a hunger 
strike in Bolivia, and describing roles women have played 
throughout the Haitian people's struggle: in the Revolution, 
during the first U.S. occupation, and for political rights for 
women.

After a third address, about the effects of neoliberalism on 
women, those assembled held a march with songs and slogans 
concerning not only women's rights and protesting exploitation and 
also, because the Artibonite Valley is the country's principal 
rice-growing area, against the importation of U.S. rice, which 
undercuts their crop.

Activities in the Capital

Although there were no large demonstrations in the capital, the 
linkage between the women's struggle and the struggle against 
exploitative economic systems was present. Market women from 
Marche Hyppolite held an all-day sit-in before parliament to 
protest the fact that authorities, in their effort to clean up the 
capital and improve traffic circulation, evicted them from their 
stands without giving them anywhere to sell.

An organization that works with market women, as well as with 
factory workers, Aksyon Katolik Ouvriye (ACO), together with its 
parent association, Mouvman Mondyal Travaye Kretyen (MMTC), issued 
a press release which noted that women make up 70% of the 1.3 
billion of the planet's people living in poverty, and said that 
Haitian women "have to work in the informal economy to save their 
lives and the lives of their children" because "anba anba ("under 
the table") the state is encouraging neoliberal policies and has 
no answers for the high cost of living and unemployment." ACO and 
MMTC called for women and men to battle together for "complete, 
total change."

Although women workers did not hold any large commemorations, ACO 
organized a mass with some ti legliz groups, and Mouman Travaye, a 
weekly radio program for workers, had a number of women guests, 
including one from Rasanbleman an Chome (Assembly of Unemployed 
People) who said "the way we see it, we are not fighting against 
men. We are fighting alongside men to make things advance, so that 
when women are competent to work, they are not obligated to give 
'something else' in order to get a job."

"We think the battle is advancing. At the beginning, we thought it 
was only against men, but now we see that it is not just that, and 
even though we have gotten some achievements, we have a long way 
to go."

A non-governmental organization, Kay Fanm, which works with 
women's organizations in the capital as well as the provinces, 
inaugurated its new office by holding a panel discussion where six 
men discussed men's role in the women's struggle. 

About forty women and a handful of men listened to the panelists - 
a Senator, a professor and students - try to answer a major 
complaint: the fact that men in the democratic and popular 
movement claim to be "feminists" or in favor of women's 
emancipation, but in their actions - both in organizations and at 
home - remain male-chauvinist and sometimes even abusive. 

"We are sick of all this discourse in meetings," one woman in the 
audience said. "We want men's action to match their words!"

At a talk sponsored by INFO-SERVICES, a U.N.-funded institution, 
two journalists discussed women in the media. Collette Lespinasse, 
of Fanm Aktiv on Radio Kiskeya, spoke about the importance of 
having a women's radio program (there are now three different ones 
in the capital) and said that, 11 years after the Duvalier regime 
fell, "we feel the women's issue is beginning to be talked about a 
little bit more."

"The media alone cannot change the condition of women, but they 
have a big role they can play," she said.

Gina Porcena, a journalist, gave an overview of the numbers of 
women in the media, which has gone up in recent years, and spoke 
of the necessity to continue struggling against sexist news and 
advertising, and for more presence as well as more progressive 
coverage of issues related to women. 

Finally, the Ministry of the Feminine Condition sponsored a series 
of radio and television discussions entitled "Women, Poverty and 
the Economy" but the majority of those intervening were moderate 
if not reactionary "economists," some directly associated with the 
government's neoliberal programs. 

The new minister, architect Ginette Cherubin, took office on March 
8, declaring she was not a "radical feminist." One of her first 
acts was to submit a summary of the results of two workshops on 
"Women, Economy and Work in a Context of Poverty," from the Jan. 
22 & 23 meeting [See Haiti Info, v.4 #6] to Prime Minister Rosny 
Smarth. The document cited the lowering of "national production" 
as "the primary cause" of poverty and pointed the finger at "the 
lack of means" and "the invasion of the Haitian market by cheaper, 
foreign products." 

The document expressly asked the government to "negotiate with the 
international institutions in the interest of the most unfavored, 
which includes women;" "protect national production;" "encourage 
the creation of jobs...," and give women access to "land, credit, 
means of production, training, etc."

Crucial: Organizations & Organizing

While the ministry document contains relevant, if somewhat vague 
and tentative, demands, it did not address the fundamental 
economic questions and, in any case, was presented to a Prime 
Minister whose economic project is clear. If the government 
proceeds as declared, rather than improve women's conditions, it 
will make them worse. 

Instead, it is the organizing, educating, marching and mobilizing, 
by women's as well as all organizations in the democratic and 
popular movement, to end the double exploitation of women  that 
will bring about real change. March 8's events - where many 
organizations linked the two exploitations - show the women's 
movement is moving forward. But there is still a long way to go. 
As Tet Kole called out:

"We are launching a call to all women who are organized to carry 
out this struggle together with us so that women's demands are 
satisfied and so the women's struggle advances together with the 
struggle for complete liberation! The women's battle is the 
people's battle!"


ABOUT HAITI INFO:

* Haiti Info is published every two weeks in Haiti by the 
Haitian Information Bureau, an alternative news agency, and 
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