We must hear and echo the actual voices of Haitians from various sectors of the working class, including the women’s movement, unions, students, and farmers’ organizations.
Haiti continues to live and breathe as a nation despite the destruction of the Haitian state by local oligarchs and imperialists from the US, Canada, and France.
The denial of Haitians’ right to exist as a nation is often reflected in the mainstream and even in some alternative media outlets by a tendency to ignore what Haitians have to say when they are part of organized political entities or social movements. This is in line with the racist belief that Haitians cannot govern themselves and need white saviors to fix their nation for them, to pick their leaders for them…to speak for them at the UN Security Council.
However, Haitian voices keep rising on the Island of Haiti and worldwide to confirm they exist and, indeed, always matter.
One cannot be considered a friend, an ally, an “expert” or simply an objective reporter of the Haitian people’s struggle if one is unable to hear and echo the actual voices of Haitians in the women’s movement, in the working class, in unions, in students, and in farmers organizations.
Over the past decades, members and allies of Solidarité Québec Haiti have engaged in constant and ongoing discussions with people on the ground in Haiti. We have documented and/or shared what they have voiced in their own words on social media, emails, podcasts, video conferences, and WhatsApp conversations.
In March 2021, by the invitation of our U.S.-based comrades leading the Komite Mobilizasyon Kont Diktati an Ayiti (KOMOKODA), we joined the global movement of solidarity with Haiti “Leve Kanpe Pou Ayiti”.
Members of SQH take part actively in the Montreal-based popular assembly initiative to defend Haiti’s sovereignty. Consistent with their shared strategy to echo Haitian voices of resistance against imperialism that are based on the island and worldwide, the Montreal popular assemblies and SQH regularly welcome visiting guests, including, thus far: Sabine Lamour (Haiti feminist activist), Marc-Arthur Fils-Aimé (Rasin Kan pèp la) and Fritz Jean (Montana Accord).
SQH members cautiously but have also been critical of it. We expect and encourage the signatories of the Montana accord to do more to connect with the struggling masses who are denied their basic rights in present-day imperialist-controlled Haiti. We also anticipated and recognized that imperialist forces were going to work hard to undermine and possibly derail the Montana Accord in order to continue monopolizing the entire political field in Haiti.
SQH also notes that so-called “gang violence in Haiti” is fuelled by weapons that come primarily from the United States, through ports that are controlled by the infamous US-protected enriched white warlord families in Haiti.
Without reservation, SQH supports the Haitian people’s absolute right and resolve to defend themselves by all means necessary.
SQH does not ride on the same bandwagon as those who keep striving desperately to paint revolutionary uniforms unto lone avengers or rogue vigilantes whom the Haitian people have long identified as PHTK (white warlords and imperialist) allied criminals.
With the exception of the criminals and corrupt politicians with links to the PHTK and their imperialist handlers, SQH is interested in hearing activists and political leaders from all social movements in Haiti. We believe it is up to the people of Haiti to choose their own leaders.
However, the disinformation campaign about Haiti is tailored for right-wing as well as left-wing narratives. Those who truly support Haiti’s liberation must look for facts to guide their positioning and avoid creating heroes and villains according to which foreign-manufactured narrative they deem most appealing.
N.B. In 2021, photo-journalist Dieu Nalio Chery was forced to leave Haiti under the pressure of threats from G9 gangs associated with PHTK.
Today, it is both urgent and necessary that at the geopolitical level, individuals, organizations, and nations heed the call to show due respect to the Haitian people.
Foreign interference has been and remains the main, persistent source of violent crimes linked to political disturbance in Haitian society. The Haitian People have always spoken and they do speak for themselves, loud and clear. If you identify yourself as an ally of the Haitian people, you must, minimally, listen and hear their genuine voices.
#BlackNationhoodMatters #AyitiGranmoun #LesNationsNoiresComptent
Solidarité Québec-Haïti
Facebook & Twitter : Solidarité Québec-Haïti
Email: solidaritekebekayiti@gmail.com
2 thoughts on “Black Nationhood Matters: Call to truly echo Haitian People’s Voices”