Mobilize to stop the war!
BEFORE this issue of International Viewpoint reaches our readers, a terrible war may be unleashed in the
Middle East. The combination of imperialist threats to launch a war against Arab nationalism and the threats of the Soviet bureaucracy to crush the national movements in the Baltic is reminiscent of 1956, when the Anglo-French invasion of Egypt offered the Kremlin the cover to smash the Hungarian revolution. It is another reminder of the connivance between the Stalinist bureaucracy and the imperialists.
What is different today from 1956, and offers grounds for optimism, is the strength of antiwar feeling in the main imperialist power, the United States, and the already very widespread rebellion against the rule of the bureaucracy in the USSR. It is peculiar to hear commentators say that Bush has the popular backing he needs to launch a war because the polls show that 60% of the population support him. In every other major war in which the US has become involved, the initial support has been overwhelming. Opponents have been a tiny persecuted minori-
Today, even before the first American soldier has been killed in action, the official media have to admit that almost half the US people are opposed to war, and, correspondingly, that doubts about the operation run deep in the political establishment itself. The antiwar movement in the imperialist countries, and especially in the United States, has become, potentially at
After the
«avalasse"
MORE than one Haitian bishop had to eat his mitre on December 16,1990 when their number 1 enemy, Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was elected president of the republic with nearly 70% of the votes. Marc Bazin, the candidate of imperialism, who also had the support of the majority of the bishops, got a mere 15%. ARTHUR MAHON
N JANUARY 1, 1991, the archbishop in Port-au-Prince declared war on the new president, who will assume office on January 7. He evoked in the cathedral for all the world to hear the spectre of a new dictatorship, asking "if the new leftwing orientation might not lead Haiti to put on the old Bolshevik clothes cast off by the East European
These musings chimed those of the former boss of the Tonton Macoutes [terror gangs of the former dictators, the Duvaliers], Roger Lafontant, who stated: "we will never leave the country in the hands of communists."
A priest defined the significance of such remarks as "verbal hand gre-
GULF CRISIS / HAITI This was a change of line by the USA.
In 1987 they worked behind the scenes with the army and the Duvalierists who prevented by violence the holding of elections on November 29 of that year.
The reality is that the USA have realized that their previous strategy had failed
They had believed that General Namphy, and then his successor, Prosper Avril, would follow US orders and would one day be ready to give up power to civilians when the US commanded it (see IV
181, March 26, 1990).
However the post-Duvalier generals rapidly escaped American control, and the situation reverted to that of the worst periods of Duvalierism, leading Haiti into a permanent crisis. The Americans thus felt obliged to get rid of these men who were becoming a danger to their interests.
When Fr. Aristide first put himself forward as a candidate on October 18, 1990, the CIA thought of getting rid of him at once. But the Embassy rapidly understood that Aristide enjoyed immense popular support and that any attempt to oppose him by force would set the coun-
The US have now decided to try to turn the situation created by Aristide's election to their advantage. They know that they have many instruments to hand, starting with the army, while Aristide, as
Voters beat electoral fraud
THE US embassy wanted to pre vent the victory of Fr. Aristide in the first round. On December 16, 1990, the day of the vote, everything was Indeed done to hinder voting in the popular quarters, both in the capital Port-au-Prince and the provinces. In some voting stations in the capltal nobody was able to vote before 4
In the afternoon. The electoral mate. least, a sort of new world power. The political relationship of forces the foreign observer had to construct has shifted in an important way in favor of the mass antiwar movement. The responsibilities of the principled anti-imperialist, socialist and democratic forces that alone are capable of giving impetus to mass mobilizations against the war have increased in the same meas-
Sure.