Gang violence and chaos has taken an upturn since the 2021 assassination of Jovenel Moïse, who along with Haitian rulers, backed and united the G9 federation of existing gangs in order to suppress working class anger and demonstrations against his rule. (Al Jazeera, 3/13/24) Gang violence generally affects areas where industries are located and places where informal activities are the main sources of income for the masses in Haiti, for example the lower part of the city, the Croix des Bossales market, Carrefour airport and the Route de l’aéroport, Cité Soleil, Bas Delmas, Croix-des-Bouquets, to name just a few places. It is in these places that the working class went every day to chache lavi (literally, look for life). Workers here eke out a living and survive on a daily basis. Therefore, each time a street is paralyzed, life is no longer possible for the majority. Factories in the Sonapi free-trade zone have been shuttered. Odd jobs on the streets (gas stations, vehicle repairs, small businesses, repairs and sales of electronics and household appliances, etc.) that were the source of income for millions of Haitians have disappeared. Many institutions that provided services and jobs, such as hospitals, were burned down. The current unemployment rate is difficult to calculate but most families now depend solely on money transfers from the diaspora.
In 2023 alone, $3.8 billion in remittances were made (Haitian Times, 1/7), and 2024 is undoubtedly… even higher. Workers in Haiti are on the brink of starvation. The annual inflation rate is 46 percent (trade.gov). In the capital, the presence of gangs makes it nearly impossible to go to the market; in the country overall, there are hardly any goods on the shelves, including needed medicines. The ports are blocked and the roads inaccessible to transportation. Workers have long depended on cheaper imported goods (98 percent), especially food (50 percent) from the Dominican Republic, which discourage local agricultural production (Dominican Today, 9/13/22).
Mass political action is difficult at this time, with day-to-day survival being the primary focus of so many. However, the Progressive Labor Party here, trying to be faithful to communist practice, continues with building ideological awareness. Our comrades and friends study communist ideas and history to prepare ourselves to debate the events in political discussion forums. We organize politically significant activities—revolutionary self-help—to build and maintain the trust of the masses. On January 1, for example, the PLP worked with our base to prepare and distribute the traditional pumpkin soup in four neighborhoods in a provincial town, as we have been doing for more than eight years. Many working-class families can no longer prepare soup as before: pumpkin (joumou) is rare and expensive, as are other ingredients and meat.
