Books on Haiti and the Caribbean

Hubert Cole. Christophe: King of Haiti. New York: The Viking Press, 1967.

C.L.R. James. The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution (1938)

Edourad Gissant. Caribbean Doscourse (2004)  /  Barbara Harlow. Resistance Literature (1987)

Josaphat B. Kubayanda. The Poet's Africa: Africanness in the Poetry of Nicolas Guillen and Aime Cesaire (1990)

Myriam J. A. Chancy. Framing Silence: Revolutionary Novels by Haitian Women (1997)

Paul Laraque and Jack Hirschman.  Open Gate An Anthology of Haitian Creole Poetry (2001)

David P. Geggus, ed. The Impact of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World.  University of South Carolina Press, 2001.

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Haiti, America, and the Rest of the World

By Joe Williams III

I have read many viewpoints of the revolt in Haiti.  I notice that a world debate has emerged concerning that nation. Haiti has a population of 8 million people, about the population of Los Angeles.  Its agriculture accounts for 42 pre cent of its gross domestic product.  Over 67 per cent of Haiti’s population lives in poverty.  It is known as one of the poorest nations in the world.  It has a foreign debt of over 1 billion dollars. It has 4 vehicles forever 1000 people.  Its industrial labor force is only 6%.

The island of Haiti has no organized labor movement, no military force, and no industrial working class. It main source of income is tourism and agriculture.  The U.S. Government invaded and occupied Haiti in 1915 to 1934.  Since then, the U.S. Government has had control of the political and economic situation in Haiti.  The U.S. dictates not only what form of government Haiti has, but its leaders, and its means of production.  The United States foreign policy concerning Haiti is directly responsible for the current chaos in Haiti.  The current violence is a result of the U.S. Government pulling the plug on Haiti’s economy and foreign aid.

The U.S. Government is preparing to place a military outpost in Haiti.  It will control the productive forces of Haiti, and surrounding nations.  It is the same blueprint that is being used in Iraq, and other Middle East nations.

It is very unfortunate that the American working class is, by in large, supporting the U.S. invasions and occupations around the world.  The analysis is very simple.  The major U.S. corporations have become International operations.  The U.S. Government sets the policies, the Military invades the countries, and the corporations develop the economic conditions.  Then capitalism becomes the order of the day.

I have read where a lot of American activists are hoping that the rebellion in Haiti emerges into a class war.  It will never happen.  The conditions are not in Haiti.  However, if the American working class was aware of its historical role to overthrow International Capitalism, then the economic and political reality of areas like Iraq and Haiti would be emancipated.  The reality is the struggle of the American working class, the Iraqi working class, and the Haitian workers, are the same struggle, primarily because we are exploited by the same enemy.  It is a sad moment in history for us American workers to expect the Haitian people to defeat their/our International aggressors. 

If we were really aware of our duty and responsibility as exploited workers, we would have millions of workers protesting these U.S. invasions.  But, if we in fact knew our power and responsibility as an International working class, the California supermarket strike would have ended in less than a week. 

However, we as workers, have no political voice, other than the lying Republicans and Democrats.  We have no real International labor unions that are independent of the Government and the Military. 

So, when we see an uprising like Haiti, we get excited, because, at least they are active.  But the American working class, in solidarity, with the rest of the world’s working masses, has the only solution to this planet's problems.  We must unite all races, and all societies of workers, to break this economic chain from our backs.  What we produce collectively from the earth, we must share collectively with each other; then and only then will greed and exploitation become a thing of the past.