Actions by some unemployed associations, manoeuvres by some senators and deputies and rumours carried in the press may well be signs of a US-sponsored ports the process of democratic transition.
We have even seen the American ambassador striving to reassure the bourgeoisie as to Aristide's intentions. But, at the connections and mentality of some of these ministers makes it hard to follow such a tactic. For one thing they present an additional obstacle to the purging of same time, the US has banged the table when, for example, the former president was arrested. They are setting conditions for financial aid and their pressure is set
HAITI / VATICAN CITY destabilization operation.
the administration. The Minister of Justice has been removed, and one of his another danger; that of isolation. It is aides jailed. On the other hand, the composition of the government is an obstacle government and dialogue with to increase as soon as the government comes out with its ideas on economic policy. They are establishing more and more points of support inside the presi-
And they entourage.
threatened by is
The new regime the neighbouring that, in worrying
Dominican Republic, President Balaguer to open the masses. And this is already one of the port for his plan to deport illegal Haitian main deficiencies of this government.
Furthermore, the government will, at some stage, have to make firm social and development of mobilizations economic decisions, given the likely raising such demands; the time will come when it becomes necessary to decide between the interests oppressed sectors. Jean-Bertrand Aristide of the oligarchy and stated recently: "I would prefer to fail with the people than succeed without it." This opinion is not, however, shared by unrelenting silent pressure on the government through the army, which guards the limits of the acceptable.
The US was discountenanced by Aristide's victory in the first round, and then by the violence of the popular reaction to Lafontant's attempted coup - which they knew something about. The absence of a strong organized popular movement gives them the room to fight to regain lost ground and weaken Aristide's position through various manoeuvres.
has succeeded in gaining significant supimmigrants, despite some vigorous critiCISMS. Dominican Liberation have given their Juan Bosh and his Party of support to the deportations, while demanding Balaguer's resignation for other reasons. This makes it all the more important to develop solidarity with Haiti, which Aristide has described as "a star of hope in the eyes of the Caribbean and Latin America." * all in his government.
Rome versus Wall
Collapse of popular organizations
Lack of internal democracy, corruption and political maneuvering have infected many of the popular organizations which of the effervescence developed during
1986/87. Such problems led to the disin-
IT IS NOT always easy to fit the Vatican into the international tegration of the KID (Confederation of political map; allied with Reagan in the fight against
Democratic Unity), of the CATH (Auton-
Sandinista Nicaragua, it condemned Bush's Gulf war;
omous Confederation of Haitian Workcrs), and the MPP (Papaye Peasants defender of human rights against dictatorships, it is trying to
Movement), which had considerable supimpose a ban on abortion in Poland, against the will of the port in the central plateau and was well majority, daring to compare abortion to the genocide of the known abroad.
Jews. While denouncing poverty and the exploitation of the
The trade union movement is now in complete confusion. On February 7, Aris-
Third World, it ceaselessly persecutes and punishes those tide called for the formation of a "Lavalas such as the liberation theologists who take an effective stand
Organization" which could bring together popular organizations and various currents disposed to give critical support to of
Representatives the government.
of organizations, from the four variety corners of the country, have met on several occasions with this aim in mind, and have also undertaken joint activities. But things have gone slowly. The absence — except perhaps in the Cap Haitien region
- of a popular movement with a sufficient level of organization to organize mobilizations and have an impact on the national political scene, is one of the big problems now. Without the development of such a movement, it will not be possible to make inroads into the economic power of the ruling classes, a necessary condition for improving the living conditions of the most destitute. This situation leaves the field open for demagogues at the side of the poor.* MICHAEL LOWY
VERALL, the pontificate of John Paul II represents an both in terms of doctrine and attempt at a "restoration" the system of power within the Church. This is shown by his particular virulence on matters of sexual morality and in opposition to women's rights such as contraception, divorce or abortion. The line has been imposed by the systematic appointment, both in Europe (Salzburg, Cologne, Namur, Coire) and in Latin America (Recife), of ultra-conservative ta ("Rome has spoken and the matter is closed"), and uses all its power to silence those, such as the Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff, who will not submit to this rule. This has not prevented the Vatican from taking positions on specific social and economic questions that are critical (the word progressive is not appropriate in this context) in relation to the Wester imperialist consensus.
A closer look at the who can speculate on the complexity of the situation and the defaults of government action.
The United States is trying to play several hands at once. Officially, the US supbishops, known for their opposition to any relaxation and unconditional sup poten in the face of opacy of rome% local clergy and congregation.
The Vatican is trying to reimpose the old principle of Roma locuta, causa finiencyclical
It is a useful exercise, if one wants to see one's way clearly through the contra-
* The following article first appeared in the July 5,
* 9h sall or the Swiss revoluionary Marcist for: 27 nightly, La Brèche.
----- pull-quotes on this page -----
Street?
VATICAN CITY dictions and ambiguities, to look more closely at John Paul II's most recent encyclical, Centesimus Annus, which commemorates the hundredth anniversary of the famous Rerum Novarum of Leo XIII.
It was greeted by a near unanimous chorus of praise from both left and right - one of the happy exceptions being Daniel Singer's article, "Papal polonaise" in The Nation of May 29, 1991, elements of whose analysis are used
The encyclical and its reception have strengthened the notion of the Pope as a moral authority above existing blocs and systems. Indeed, celebrating the end of the "socialist" regimes and of "Marxist atheism", John Paul II writes: "One cannot accept the idea that the defeat of "real socialism", as it is called, should simply give way to the capitalist model of economic organization."
To better understand this statement, let us recall the analysis of the sociology of religions developed by Max Weber. In his view, there exists a profound tension between the ethic of Catholicism and the reified, impersonal functioning of capitalism which leaves little room for the moralistic intervention of the Church. The critique of liberal capitalism is an old tradition in Catholic thinking, from Thomas More to today.
Realistic view of New World
Faithful to pre-capitalist culture and values, the Vatican can afford a more realistic vision of the world in 1991 than that of the neo-liberal ideologues of George Bush's New World Order. Contrary to the high priests of the new religion of the market, Rome has understood that Eastern Europe and the Third World find themselves on the dark side of the
A selective and one-sided reading of impression that the Pope is opposed to capitalism, insofar as he considers "the struggle against an economic understood as a method of assuring the absolute primacy of capital, of the ownership of the means of production and of the land over the liberty and dignity of work and man" legitimate.
The document not only condemns the arms race and the destruction of the natural environment, but also the inhuman exploitation of the Third World and its placing under a "quasi-servile yoke"; the decolonization that leaves "decisive sectors of the economy in the hands of the big foreign firms"; "national security" regimes, which destroy liberty and personal values; and the external debt that is 28 or entire populations responsible for "the hunger and despair International Viewpoint #211 • July 22, 1991
The Pope's irreverence goes so far as to lead him to denounce the "idolatry of
, which ignores collective the market" and qualitative needs and all the important human requirements that escape its
Finally, he refuses to "reduce human labour and humanity itself to the level of a commodity" and points out the existence of many countries where "the practices of crude capitalism are still in force, in a situation whose cruelty is in no way less than in the darkest moments of the first phase of industrialization."
One could pick out many remarks of this kind. They will certainly, and with good reason, be used as welcome ammunition by Christians and trade unionists in Latin America and Eastern Europe in their fight against IMF policies, North American economic advisers and neoliberal austerity programmes bringing unemployment and poverty.
However, there is also the question of what alternative the Pope proposes to this alienated civilization, "oriented towards having, not being." One thing for sure is that the alternative is not to be
He denounces not only the totalitarian regimes and "really-existing socialism", but the very idea of a socialist society based on the "rejection of private property." Unlike the liberation theologists, he also rejects the class struggle (since it excludes "reasonable compromise") and "an impossible compromise between Marxism and Christianity."
Third way based on conviviality
It would seem at first glance therefore that the Pope sees capitalism and socialism, liberalism and Marxism, as two sides of the same coin, and proposes a third way, that is, an economy and society based on "conviviality" and the search for the "common good".
However, an attentive reading of the document shows that it is not in fact a matter of a third way.
John Paul II, like his predecessor Leo XIII, the apostle of conciliation between capital and labour, proposes nothing an impossible "capitalism with a human face". That is to say a capitalism without "cruelty", without excesses, "fitted into a firm judicial context" tempered by the intervention of the benevolent charity of the Church. Capitalism by any other name
There is thus a flagrant contradiction between the severity of the condemnation and feebleness of the proposed remedies.
This, of course, corresponds to the traditional logic of the Church's social doc-
To all our readers THIS is the last number of
International
Viewpoint before the summer break The next issue of the magazine, no. 212, will be dated
September 16,
1991. Who knows what new world historic events will have taken place by then... trine, which, while distinguishing itself from bourgeois liberalism by criticizing the most outrageous inhumanities of the system, can conceive of no alternative other than a capitalism rendered more "charitable" by Christian morality.
The real social content of the encyclical Centesimus Annus should be understood in this light.
In the last analysis it legitimates the market, the role of profit and private ownership of the means of production while shamefacedly proposing to call all this by a different name: "it would be more appropriate to talk about the 'enterprise economy' or the 'market economy' or simply the 'free economy'". As if a change of name — or the replacement of a liberal government by a Christian democratic one - changes the nature of the and its logic of oppression, exploitation, alienation and exclusion.
It is thus no surprise that the "option for the poor", the watchword of Christians in Latin America and elsewhere who take the side of the poor in their struggle for their freedom, is for John Paul II nothing more than "a special form of emphasis in the practice of Christian arms in those Christians, such as Frei Betto and Leonardo Boff, who have chosen the camp of the exploited and the oppressed against capitalism and imperi-
They should not, on the other hand, entertain any illusions whatsoever about the social doctrine of the Church and the Roman encyclicals, whether from Leo XIII or John Paul II. *