February 22, 2007

Half-Hour for Haiti: Read Interview With President Aristide

Update:  Both BAI and IJDH are in Miami for the trial of former member of the Haitian High Command, Colonel Carl Dorelien (click here for more on that case). So this alert will be a quick one. Correction: last week I understated the final tally for the February 7 International Day of Solidarity With the Haitian People: it was 63 events- see City-by-City Report. MINUSTAH, the UN Mission in Haiti, was renewed on February 15, for eight months. 

Coming Attractions: Folksinger, grassroots activist and folk singer “So Ann” (Annette Auguste) will sing and talk about resistance and solidarity in Oakland on March 10 , and Los Angeles on Los Angeles on March 8, 2007 .
This Week’s Action: The third anniversary of the February 29, 2004 coup d’etat in Haiti is next week. A good way to commemorate the event is to read the excellent interview with President Jean-Bertrand Aristide published in today’s issue of the London Review of Books. If your LRB subscription has lapsed, you can read the interview on The LRB website, or we will email it to you upon request. The piece explains recent events in Haiti within the larger context of the historic struggle of Haiti's poor for dignity and autonomy. It addresses the coup d'etat itself and many other issues, including violence by people identified as Lavalas supporters, the economic compromises made by Haiti's Lavalas governments (1994-2004), and the future of both the Lavalas party and Mr. Aristide.
The interview was conducted by Peter Hallward, who teaches philosophy at Middlesex University in England. Mr. Hallward wrote  Option Zero in Haiti , one of the best analyses of the February 2004 coup, and his book: Damning the Flood: Haiti, Aristide and the Politics of Containment is expected out this summer.