Stand With Haiti’s Grassroots Movement RALLY and MARCH

Wednesday, November 17, 2010 Montgomery & Market, San Francisco

5 p.m. Rally

5:30 p.m. March

- On November 18th, 1803 the Battle of Vertières delivered the final blow to the French attempt to stop the Haitian Revolution and re-institute slavery. Less than two months before Dessalines' proclamation of the independent Republic of Haiti on 1 January 1804, this battle marks the last and decisive battle in Haiti's war for independence against France.

Ten months after the earthquake, Haiti’s 1.5 million refugees remain in squalid camps with inadequate food, water, shelter, and work. Ruthless measures to force the displaced off privately-owned land - withholding humanitarian aid, threats, and bulldozers – are backed by Haitian Police. The UN Mission, while claiming to have largely addressed “the immediate humanitarian needs of Haiti’s people,” has in fact failed miserably.

Bill Clinton heads an unelected Interim Commission charged with planning Haiti’s future. Haitian President Preval has mere “veto power” over its schemes to grab profits for foreign business and Haiti’s elite under the guise of recovery, touting garment sweatshops, renewed tourism, and export agriculture as the solution to Haiti’s problems.

Haiti’s Popular Organizations, among them thousands of organized grassroots women, reject this neoliberal plan, resolved to reassert the democratic programs of President Aristide and Fanmi Lavalas – education, jobs, housing, health care, sustainable agriculture. This powerful movement, a target of two coups and violent repression over the past 25 years, represents Haiti’s most sustained resistance since 1804.

The November elections have again barred Fanmi Lavalas, the most popular party, from participation, making any real choice for Haitians impossible.  Sham elections offer foreign investors a phony mandate and veneer of stability to pursue profits.

We Demand: Solidarity, not charity * No sham elections * Return President Aristide * End the violence and human rights abuses * End the UN occupation

Sponsored by Haiti Action Committee.  For more information, call 510.483.7481.