HAITI, February 14—The Haitian working class is once again facing a political and economic crisis, mired in widespread violence unleashed by an emboldened president. There were mass demonstrations over the last year demanding that President Jovenel Moïse step down on February 7, the end of his constitutional mandate, culminating in a nationwide general strike that shut everything down. But this was not enough to force Moïse out.
The U.S. and other imperialists support this criminal because he is useful to them. Haiti was crucial in the U.S. ouster of Venezuela from the Organization of American States (OAS) and Moïse continued the opening of Haiti to foreign business interests. The arrogant Moïse celebrated his success by travelling to the Jacmel carnival festivities on February  8.
The anti-government demonstrations are being led by the opposition parties who have positioned themselves as reformers of Haitian society. While many of the people involved in the anti-government movement believe they can improve conditions, the main opposition groups, led by judges and government reformers, are looking to be the new Haitian ruling class. Supporting a new lesser-evil capitalist ruling class will not liberate the working class.
This has been tried over and over. Haiti has had numerous governments in the 28 years since the end of the Duvalier dictatorships, with only two presidents serving their complete terms (Reuters, 10/11/19). But the same capitalist exploitation and corruption remains.
We are working to build Progressive Labor Party and the struggle for communist revolution as we fight back against the attacks of the Moïse government.
These days there is even more widespread instability as Moïse has armed street gangs and militias to create an atmosphere of mass terror. There are assassinations of known opposition organizers and a kidnapping spree of opposition organizers as well as ordinary workers. Many have been fired for speaking out against the government. The life of workers here continues to be pure misery. There is raging inflation and an unstable currency exchange rate. With massive un- and underemployment, Haitian workers depend on remittances from their families abroad. In 2019, $3.55 billion was transferred, up from $1.5 billion in 2011 (tradingeconomics.com).
Those 2019 remittances accounted for 36 percent of Haiti’s GDP. But today, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, many of these remittances are falling off. March 2020 alone saw an 18 percent decline in remittances when the U.S. lost more than 700,000 jobs (Haitian Times, 4/20/2020).
Deepening ties to workers
The Party in Haiti is using the current capitalist crisis to deepen our ties with our base among workers and students. Because of the widespread atmosphere of terror created by the pro-capitalist forces, we are tasked with coming up with creative ways to continue to meet with our friends, sharpen our discussions and respond to their questions about our line. We are also becoming more creative in putting our line out in a mass way under the current conditions. Furthermore, we are strengthening our own resolve as communist revolutionaries.
Some of our newer comrades and friends are not yet steeled in fighting the bosses on many fronts. We are trying to address their own unease and conflicts, pointing out that our strength and courage comes from relying on our collective wisdom and experience of our Party. We are learning from those revolutionaries who have preceded us, and from our class. We understand the dangers that we and the working class face from our capitalist enemies, but we are not standing down. We will face our class enemy and grow our Party in the process.