HAITI, September 19 — Nearly a month after a devastating earthquake struck Haiti, workers in the southwestern region are still struggling to rebuild their lives under super-exploited and vulnerable conditions. As the ruling class of Haiti has deserted these efforts, comrades from Progressive Labor Party (PLP) continue to fight back and stand in solidarity with their international working-class brothers and sisters. With a communist understanding that basic worker needs like shelter, food, and water should be available to all at no cost, our comrades are working hand-in-hand to salvage an infrastructure that was already in shambles pre-earthquake. This is communist solidarity not charity. Our work alongside our sisters and brothers in Haiti and the U.S. demonstrates that the working class is the only force capable of rebuilding and running society, and restoring our basic dignity. It is only through years of commitment, developing ties with workers, and organizing for a communist revolution that workers of the world will all live under equitable and humane conditions.
Unnatural disasters destroy
Almost every morning and evening, comrades, friends, and relatives of PLP members meet with fellow workers to survey the disaster and collaborate not only on immediate fixes, but also to discuss how the capitalist profit system is responsible for these miserable and offensive conditions.
What the rulers and their lackeys in the bourgeois press call “natural disasters,” like earthquakes, and floods, and storms, are really the products of capitalism’s destruction of the planet and furthermore the uneven distribution of wealth, goods, and basic needs, at the expense of our class.
The wreckage these “unnatural disasters” leave behind is a reflection of how disposable the ruling class treats working-class lives. An earthquake of a similar magnitude (7.2) in an imperialist country or a rich neighborhood would undoubtedly produce less damage and leave fewer dead. Under capitalism, we cannot divorce race and class, and thus in “underdeveloped” areas, it is racism and the profit motive that lead to higher rates of death and destruction. Under communism, an egalitarian system where workers’ needs are primary, from each according to ability, to each according to need, we would guarantee that until we can right the environmental wrongs that capitalism has caused, at minimum all workers will be taken care of.
Working-class solidarity across borders
When their houses were destroyed in the earthquake, workers were forced to seek shelter under small structures made of cardboard, used tin, straw and sometimes even rags. As workers wait for the arrival of government help that is slow to come, if at all, Party members continue to support as best we can under the strained circumstances and take leadership from workers on the ground who know the importance of helping one another.
We have sourced contributions from comrades and those close to our Party in the United States, Canada, and Haiti. We distributed clothing to children, youth, and adults. Two comrades collected boxes of clothes donated by relatives in Port-au-Prince. They also purchased more clothing with funds they collected. These clothes, especially those distributed to children, are in new condition. It’s through these seemingly small, yet significant acts that workers are reassured through theory and practice that PLP and their comrades are there for them.
With the donations collected from inside and outside Haiti, we have been able to buy and distribute roofing materials and nails to cover the shelters. We’ve also distributed aid via coupons for people to use in stores. With each coupon people can get two to four sheets of metal and one to two pounds of nails.
Where we can, we provide support to workers of all ages. A childless neighbor in her eighties, whose arm was broken during the earthquake, was relocated to a small house built with new metal sheeting and we make sure to visit her on a regular basis. We are also providing support to an 8-year-old boy whose two knees were severely damaged. We are making arrangements for him to go to school and will cover his school expenses to relieve the family of the financial burden.
One of our comrades, originally from a nearby area also badly hit by the earthquake, returned to help out with both disaster relief and some political understanding of how capitalism created the conditions that allowed an earthquake to be so devastating.
In his small landlocked area devoid of social services, the state is almost completely absent and the working class, barely in survival mode before August 14, is in need of political leadership and organization. Even the presence of imperialist-backed NGOs (non-governmental organizations) is weak. Mistrust of politicians is rampant. Through experience and conversations with the Party, people know that they will only be taken advantage of, and that these politicians are only looking to line their own pockets.
Under capitalism what is the worth of a dollar?
When our comrade returned to his rural family home not long after the earthquake, he said:
At first I felt a little embarrassed to give some money that we had collected to a few people. I thought it was not the priority. I preferred to believe that they needed materials, sheet metal and wood for the reconstruction of their houses. As I went along, I realized that I had been greatly mistaken because people did indeed need a little money, because the money hardly ever circulates around here.” He explained that “the inhabitants grow much of their own food, but still need cash to buy certain things to prepare their meals and other necessities.
Because of the extreme poverty, the farmers are forced to sell their produce at very low prices…They are extremely vulnerable, they need everything. So our solidarity is welcomed, in whatever form we can provide it.
The reception from our class brothers and sisters was so warm that the comrade declared: "I feel very useful because of us (the Party).” Here are some responses to the Party’s involvement:
“For 30-40 years we have never seen someone do such meaningful things in a selfless way towards us."
My children have seen that I have been sick for a long time; today you allow me to go to the hospital.
You [comrade] allow us to vary what we eat, we hardly have enough to eat every day.
Every little communist action counts
Workers in Haiti, just like workers all over the world, are in need of a system that won’t leave them for dead. Yes, this earthquake worsened the situation of misery created by capitalism, but the international working class has been fighting to break their chains long before this crisis and will continue to fight back until their wrists are free!
Only communist revolution can do that. Thus, we organize ourselves and each other to bring our communist solidarity in the short term, medium term and long term. PLP, alongside the international working class, is making plans for the future, to recruit and grow our influence. We strengthen the Party by building more confidence in the masses, them in us and we in them. We try to build class consciousness and educate our class, young and old, politically. The contradictions of the capitalist system must be brought to light.
Every little communist action counts. Our actions in this context and those we will take in the future aim to demonstrate that communism must smash capitalism and its atrocities of exploitation and extreme poverty, racism and sexism; and war for profit that is on the horizon. Fight for communism. Join PLP.