EARTHQUAKES AND CAPITALISM – HAITI’S TWIN CRISES
A public forum presented by Socialist Alternative on the root causes behind the devastation in Haiti and what we in the United States can do to help.
Hiawatha Public Library
Sunday, February 7th
1:30-2:30
Disaster has stricken Haiti once again. The 7.0 magnitude quake – the biggest recorded in this part of the Caribbean – left the capital’s 3 million people who live on hillside slums made of wood, tin and cheap concrete, particularly vulnerable.
Many Haitians are now in rudimentary outdoor ‘informal camps’, described as “insanitary” and “dangerous”. A lack of clean drinking water, food and sanitation means that infectious and deadly diseases can spread. Medical staff are overwhelmed. The injured, often with broken bones, are facing limb amputations or death due to a lack of
basic medicines and treatment.
It is very different for the rich; their large homes in the “cool, green suburb” of Petionville were “mostly spared” and they have food ”supplies to last” (Washington Post, 18/01/10). International rescue workers report being directed first to find foreign nationals in collapsed large luxury hotels. The Washington Post predicts that the rich in Petionville will “receive a large portion of the US and international aid and reconstruction money”.
There has been a mass outpouring of support from ordinary people worldwide who have generously donated to support relief and recovery. But despite pouring trillions of dollars into rescuing the capitalist world’s banks and financial institutions, western governments have only donated a few millions. And why is it that this earthquake can claim 200,000 lives but a similar sized earthquake claimed only 63 people when it struck northern California in 1989? The answer is obvious. California is in a rich country but Haiti is the poorest country in the western world with three quarters of its population
scraping by on only $2 a day.
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Why did this crisis cause so much devastation in Haiti when neighboring countries, such as the Dominican Republic and Cuba, are able to weather natural disasters without as much death and destruction? What is the solution to the cycle of poverty in Haiti?
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Join Cedar Rapids Socialist Alternative on Sunday, February 7th at the Hiawatha Public Library, from 1:30 to 2:30 for a discussion on how how the crisis in Haiti is being exploited by the corporations and multinationals to rebuild the island nation as a sweatshop – as well as the opportunity that the Haitian masses now have to rebuild their country’s landscape in a way that can build a better future for them and what we, in America, can do to support them. We will be collecting donations for Batay Ouvriye (Workers’ Struggle), a grassroots union movement in Haiti that campaigns for a Haiti where the resources of the government and the vast aid being directed toward Haiti are controlled democratically for the workers and peasants themselves for their own benefit, not that of the rich and the corporations.
FEATURED SPEAKERS:
- Marlon Pierre-Antoine, second generation Haitian immigrant and activist with Socialist Alternative
- Paul Street, author, “Barack Obama and the Future of the American Left”, political activist and commentator
SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE CALLS FOR:
- Immediate massive funding for earthquake disaster relief and reconstruction
- Democratic control over all aid and emergency – rescue, relief and rehabilitation of the affected people – and massive reconstruction programmes, through elected committees of workers, land labourers and poor people in every area
- Build good quality housing, hospitals, schools, roads and infrastructure, and other vital public resources and services
- The cancellation of all foreign debts
For more info, contact Marlon Pierre-Antoine at marlongpa@gmail.com
"Stand with Haiti"
Green Party of the U.S.
Iowa Green Party
Wendy Barth's Website
Independent Media Center
Women for Peace-Iowa