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Haitian Masses Rise Up Against U.S.-Backed Government Thieves

The Haitian masses continue their march towards revolution. Since February 7—the anniversary of the inauguration of the popular anti-imperialist Jean-Bertrand Aristide—hundreds of thousands of Haitians have flooded the streets in a renewed outpouring of popular protest.

When the working masses rise up against a ruling elite that Washington favors, the big business media looks the other way. So it is with Haiti where day after day, people are taking to the streets to demand the resignation of the Jovenel Moise, head of the corrupt U.S. backed government that has robbed the people of billions of dollars while the majority of Haitians struggle to afford basic necessities. To add insult to injury, Moise’s government has sided with the U.S. in their attempt to force a coup in Venezuela, betraying the solidarity that the Venezuelan government extended to the Haitian people through its PetroCaribe program which afforded Haitians subsidized oil and cheap credit when the imperialist banks would have otherwise fleeced them.

The government has responded with brutal repression. Police as well as government-hired foreign mercenaries have killed more than a dozen people with many more wounded.

But the people’s will for change will not be stopped; they are calling upon their national legacy of revolution to make real their demand for independence and dignity.

 

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Free Pregnant Incarcerated Women

By LaVonna Varnado-Brown

As I started to research this piece, my intention was to shine a light on the grossly egregious health care female inmates in Louisiana receive, specifically in Orleans or Jefferson Parish. From an initial Google search of ‘women giving birth in jail cells,’ I literally got back 6,750,000 results. Women in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, Denver, Texas, Australia, and all over this Earth are mistreated and ignored in prison systems. Human, procedural, and systemic failings have combined to create serious and avoidable risks to both mothers and babies.

In many of these cases, women pleaded and stated the pains and issues they were having to several deputies and nursing staff. In a world where movements like Black Lives Matter are countered by legislation like Blue Lives Matter, it is clear the police don’t care about Black lives or women’s lives.

There are situations like the case of Jefferson Parish resident Tiffini Woodward. She cried out during childbirth and was ignored. At 22 years old she gave birth to her son in a metal toilet, alone. She is seeking unspecified damages in a lawsuit naming both Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office and its private health contractor Correct Health Jefferson.

Any woman who has given birth knows what a spiritual time it is. How emotionally draining it is for weeks and sometimes months after. To imagine being in that situation alone and purposefully isolated and denied help is horrifying to me.

There are currently no state or federal laws limiting the restrictive housing of pregnant prisoners, according to a review by the National Women’s Law Center. Twenty-two states either explicitly allow the use of leg irons or waist chains on pregnant inmates or have no policy on them at all. Forty-three states do not require medical examinations as part of prenatal care, and 48 states do not offer pregnant prisoners screening for HIV.

We call for the release of these women and for them to be provided with all the financial and housing support that they and their children need.

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Berta Caceres

“Let us wake up, humankind! We’re out of time. We must shake our conscience free of the rapacious capitalism, racism and patriarchy that will only assure our own self-destruction.”

March 2 marks the 3-year anniversary of the assassination of internationally renowned environmental leader and hero of the Lenca nation, Berta Cáceres. Cáceres was an Indigenous defender of the land and water who was murdered by the Honduran government and paramilitaries. She led protests against the construction of a dam which threatened the livelihood of her people and spoke out against the right-wing dictatorship installed the United States. Since the 2009 US-backed coup in Honduras, the regime has carried out the murder and repression of Indigenous land defenders, social leaders, and members of the LGBTQ community.

Berta’s example has inspired people all over the world take up the struggle for justice and liberation in Honduras. Her daughter has taken up the struggle; in 2017, she was elected General Secretary of COPINH, the indigenous Lenca organization co-founded and led by Berta Cáceres.