HAITI, August 23—On August 14 at 8:30 in the morning, the sun is struggling to rise as worker’s problems pile up: Coronavirus, five million starving, no functional institutions, no government.
At 8:31 am, the earth began to shake like it did a little more than a decade ago. The departments of the South, Nippes and Grand-Anse are the most affected. The numbers are mounting of dead, wounded and especially displaced.
Barely three hours after the earthquake, the comrades of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) were distributing snacks and clean water to more than 300 children and young people. It's not a lot, but it's the first help to be given. As we organize our class to help each other we are also bringing the communist ideas of PLP to fellow workers. The culprits are capitalism and the bosses for the failures of the system. We are asking people to build a communist movement that will overthrow capitalism and put the working class in power.
As of yesterday, Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency has reported that 2,207 people have been killed in the earthquake, 12,268 are injured, and 53,000 are destroyed (Associated Press, 8/22). These official numbers are a very low count because many areas, especially rural communities, have not yet been visited or even contacted by either the government or the non-governmental aid organizations. Those areas, like the one where PLP is organizing, are on their own, making do with very little as deaths and injuries mount and the people have no place to shelter in the relentless rain.
How different are humanitarian crises and catastrophes for capitalist bosses and bourgeois politicians—they see them as opportunities to consolidate their power. They don't give a damn about workers’ lives. Profit and capitalist domination is their only goal.
It has been more than 11 years since the devastation of the 2010 earthquake, yet hospitals still have no structure, materials or staff to take care of the needs of the population. A decade later and there is still no plan to take care of the disaster victims. Poverty is growing at a steady rate for the masses of workers and students. And we know from experience that the fake leaders will take advantage of the situation to line their pockets, hiding behind the just-declared,month-long state of emergency.
For now, the death and injury and damage toll is growing, along with fear and uncertainty. The gangs, unleashed over the last couple of years by the bourgeoisie to create an atmosphere of terror among workers, are blocking the roads that are still passable, demanding ransoms to allow aid and aid workers to travel. Covid-19 is running rampant; vaccines are rare and the insufficient test material means that only those with severe cases are even tested. Earthquake, hurricane, disease and gangs—all brought and exacerbated by the racist capitalist system.
In every situation, communists fight to prove their humanity and love for the working class. We know that capitalism must and will be defeated, and that a communist world, where workers struggle together in their common class interests, will prevail. We will grow in numbers and fight to our last breath to put an end to the horrors that racism and imperialism have brought to the workers of the world.The PLP is our international communist party, join us!

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 PLP solidarity efforts related to the earthquake in Haiti:

• Provided clean water and snacks to 300 children and youth within three  hours of the earthquake.
• Provided clean water to families, ongoing.
• Wrote to CHALLENGE within hours of the disaster.
• Helped in the rescue of people buried in rubble and injured during the quake.
• Participated in the collective kitchen, as those with resources fed those without.
• Raised money and organized building temporary shelters with donated materials, to protect people who had lost their houses and
• Comrades from the capital bought supplies with those funds and brought them to a provincial town, including food to feed breakfast to 120 children for one week.
• Used community radio to criticize capitalism for the deplorable conditions that made the earthquake even more disastrous than it would have been in a more developed capitalist country; and to promote the idea that a system that can’t even respond to the most basic needs of workers and students doesn’t deserve to exist. It has to be completely overthrown and replaced with communism.
• Discussed with our base that the only way this is going to change is by growing the PLP now and building our revolutionary forces to give leadership to the working class struggles to come.
• Reached out widely to our base around the world about relief efforts undertaken by PLP.
• Solicited letters of solidarity for workers and students in Haiti from mass organizations, job sites, schools and campuses where PLP has political work.