WOMEN WORLDWIDE ASKED TO HONOR THE LIVES OF

FEMINIST LEADERS KILLED IN EARTHQUAKE

By Margaret Thompson , FIRE

Mourning and honoring the lives of feminist Haitian leaders who died in the massive earthquake on January 12^th, will be the focus of International Women’s Day on March 8, 2010, which is also the 100^th anniversary of this annual celebration.  Women’s groups around the world are asked to organize a memorial activity as part of their celebration of International Women’s Day in their countries and communities.

The initiative emerged from two meetings on January 26-27 of Haitian women with feminists from the Dominican Republic and elsewhere in the Caribbean and Latin America.  They met first with Sergia Galván of the Dominican Republic, and later with Lise Marie Dejean, Executive Director of SOFA, along with Nadiezdia Jean, also of SOFA who all told the feminists that they need to mourn the loss of so many feminist leaders, in order to revive and recreate momentum of the Haitian women’s movement to continue the important work of their fallen sisters.  The group decided to invite women’s groups around the world to organize a memorial activity on March 8^th, to honor the lives of the Haitian feminist leaders.

The first meeting took place at the Feminist International Camp, which was created by FIRE (Feminist International Radio Endeavour) in collaboration with women’s organizations from Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and was named after three feminist leaders killed in the earthquake, including Myriam Merlet, Magalie Marcelin, and Anne Marie Coriolan.  All three had just begun the work of reforming a judiciary that never took rape seriously and creating an infrastructure to protect girls and women against domestic violence and trafficking, according to the Daily Kos.

Merlet was a feminist activist, and an advisor and former chief-of-staff for the Haitian Minister of Women.  As an outspoken activist, Merlet helped draw international attention to the use of rape as a political weapon, and other issues related to violence against women and girls.  Merlet was a founder of ENFOFAMN, an organization that raises awareness about women through media, collects stories and works to honor their names. Among Merlet’s efforts, she set out to get streets named after Haitian women who came before her, according to her close friend Carolle Charles, a Haitian who is on the faculty at Baruch College in New York and is chair of Dwa Fanm (“women’s rights” in Creole).

Magalie Marcelin, a lawyer, activist and actress, who about two years ago urged women to pack a courtroom in Haiti, where she succeeded in getting a guilty verdict against a man who battered his wife.  Marcelin was a founder of Dwa Fanm, a women’s rights organization that deals with domestic violence, offers services and shelter to women and makes microcredits, or loans, available to women working in markets.

With Merlet, Anne Marie Coriolan, 53, served as a top adviser to the women’s rights ministry.  Assisted by their efforts, the ministry developed key initiatives to raise awareness of violence against women and created programs to help women gain financial independence. Coriolan was also the founder of Solidarite Fanm Ayisyen (Solidarity with Haitian Women, or SOFA), an advocacy and services organization.

To honor these three feminist leaders, among others killed in the quake, activities are being planned worldwide, including a special round table at the United Nations Headquarters in New York during the CSW (Commission on the Status of Women) organized by CAFRA and the Feminist International Camp. Local activities in other countries have already been announced by women’s organizations in Chile, Argentina, Honduras, Puerto Rico, Canada, etc.

According to the UN, International Women’s Day emerged out of women’s activities in labour movements during the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, established formally at the Socialists International Meeting in Copenhagen in 1910, attended by over 100 women from 17 countries.   International Women’s Day expanded and was celebrated in a growing number of countries, and in 1977 the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace.  In passing this resolution, the UN “recognized the role of women in peace efforts and development and urged an end to discrimination and an increase of support for women’s full and equal participation.”

(END)

Sources:  CNN, Daily Kos, Carolle Charles, chair of Dwa Famn (as quoted in CNN and Daily Kos).

Nueva Esperanza

Tesorito, or Tesoro Nueva Esperanza, is a small Community of Population in Resistance (CPR), outside the town of Patulul, in the Guatemalan department of Suchitepequez.  Many of these small CPRs emerged across the Highlands of Guatemala in response to the internal armed conflict of the 1980’s and 90’s.  CPRs are communities of internally displaced peoples who fled to the most remote, mountainous, regions of Guatemala in an effort to escape the violence and persecution they were subjected to during those years.

DJPC and CAMINOS, in coordination with St. Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church in Arizona, have been involved in health care and health promotion in this small community for nearly twenty years.  The Promesa project helps support the existing health clinic and local health workers in Tesorito by donating medicines, professional health services,  contributing to the salaries of local health promoters, and delegation trips to Tesorito.   The small clinic in Tesorito fills the large gap between the health needs of this community, and the services offered by the national Health Ministry.  The Health Ministry is either unable, or unwilling, to provide adequate health care for the remote CPRs.  The offered services are ineffective, too sporadic, too expensive, too far away, or all of the above.   Through the assistance of DJPC and St. Michael’s, the clinics at Tesorito can offer affordable medical treatment for a wide array of medical ailments.

Assisting with a health consultation.

In July 2009, two CAMINOS members traveled to Tesorito on the yearly Promesa Delegation with members from St. Michael.  Susan Cotton and Katy Troyer attended local meetings with Tesorito’s authorities, visited the dental andhealth clinic, assessed the need for further health care development, and assisted with over eighty health consultations over a day and a half.

Katy and Susan

The most significant concerns Susan and Katy observed during their delegation are eye care, medical-emergency transportation-funds, and the current use of the dental clinic.  There is a great need for eye consultations.  However the ophthalmology clinic is far, and expensive to use.  The second concern is the difficulty in seeking outside medical help for the people of Tesorito.  In addition to the high cost, there are significant linguistic and cultural barriers.  The third concern is the dental clinic.  The dental clinic was abandoned by the five trained dental assistants, and the clinic now stands abandoned. Tesorito, as with much of rural Guatemala, has a huge need for dental hygiene education and care.  In August, a dentist from Tucson saw seventy-seven patients and performed ten cleanings, forty-nine fillings, and ninety-one extractions (tooth-pullings) over the course of three days.

Despite these concerns, Susan and Katy witnessed a hopeful situation in Tesorito.  The long-standing trust between Tesorito, and St. Michael’s and CAMINOS continues to strengthen. The community has undergone significant infrastructural development, such as a new paved road, and a new school building.  The community is truly grateful for

Casa De Salud/ The Health Center

the health clinic, and the dedication of the local health promoters.   It appears the Promesa project is continuing to succeed, largely thanks to the support of St. Michael’s, DJPC/CAMINOS, and of course, the many local advocates, health promoters, authorities, and members of Tesoro Nueva Esperanza.

To view a Power Point presentation created by Susan and Katy about their trip to Tesorito, please follow this link:  Promesa Delegation Presentaion

By now, most are aware of the terrible toll the recent earthquake has had in Haiti. Not only has it caused tens of thousands of deaths, it has also destroyed hospitals, schools, and government buildings, obliterating the country’s few health care and rescue services. The tremendous poverty and vulnerability made starkly clear by this disaster is but a legacy of Haiti’s long history of domination by powerful outside interests.

In 1804, Haiti became the first French colony to win independence and the first independent black republic. With stunning courage and at a cost of half their population, slave armies had alternately fought the forces of France, Britain and Spain to win their freedom. In honor of the island’s original inhabitants, they called their new country by its Taino-Arawak name, “Haiti” or “land of mountains.”

After this hard-won victory, however, France and Great Britain, later joined by the U.S., imposed a punishing economic boycott against the new nation. When Haiti finally achieved recognition by the French government in the 1860s, it was only by agreeing to pay 125 million francs to indemnify their former slave owners for the loss of their property. In addition, the French took control of Haitian finances to assure that timely interest-laden payments would be made. By the early twentieth century, Haiti’s burdensome debt obligation had turned what was once the richest colony in the world, into the poorest country in the western hemisphere.

U.S. hegemony replaced that of the French in 1910, when National City Bank of New York took over Haiti’s finances. When Haitian lawmakers balked at the arrangement, U.S. marines landed at Port-au-Prince, seized the half million dollars in the Haitian treasury and transported the funds to National City Bank of New York.

The marines continued in control until the 1930s when a professionally trained Haitian army took their place. In the decades that followed, a succession of dictators turned the army into a personal police force with the most notorious, “Papa Doc” Duvalier and his son “Baby Doc,” terrorizing their own population through paramilitary gangs known as tonton macoutes. Until finally ousted in 1986, Duvalier allies grew rich by embezzling government funds and seizing land from poor peasants. Public services fell into disrepair, illiteracy reached 90 percent, and poverty and malnutrition grew rampant. Because the regime remained staunchly opposed to Cuba’s Fidel Castro, however, it was rewarded with a steady flow of aid from the U.S.

In 1990, Haitian history changed. In the country’s first free and fair elections, voters chose parish priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who had worked many years in the slums of Port-au-Prince, to be their president. Upon taking office, Aristide promised to raise minimum wage, improve health care and education, and relieve misery in this country where one percent of the population owns half the wealth.

He faced stiff and often violent opposition among Haiti’s economic elites, however, who only ten months later backed the overthrow of their first legitimately elected leader. While Aristide was returned to office with help from the Clinton Administration, he was again ousted in 2004. The move was followed by a full revival of the debt-led model of trade and continued impoverishment of the majority.

Today, as the country struggles to recover from disaster, we must ask where recovery will take this country. Who will lead and what will the priorities be? Will elites continue to be favored over the 80 percent living in abject poverty? Or can humanitarians support a strategy where health care, education and a decent standard of living for all can be envisioned? In the midst of this great tragedy, it is up to those who care about Haiti to support a recovery process that can lead to a genuinely democratic system. In the absence of that support, only the most powerful interests will prevail – again.

Lynn Holland, Ph.D., is an adjunct professor of international studies at the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies and a Foreign Policy In Focus contributor, as well as a member of DJPC’s Salon Committee.

DJPC urges everyone to do whatever you can to give moral support and economic solidarity to the people of Haiti.  It is a country that has been beset by routine natural and political disasters for centuries, particularly within the recent century which included a US invasion in 1915, a brutal dictatorship under the Duvalier family, and dozens of devastating hurricanes.

If you would like to make donations to emergency relief, or would like update information about the earthquake in Haiti, one of the many organizations which DJPC recommends and supports as partners is The Lambi Fund of Haiti:

Lambi Fund of Haiti

PO Box 18955

Washington, DC 20036

Phone Washington: 202-833-3713

Phone Denver: 303-204-3964

E-mail:   info@lambifund.org

Karen Ashmore, Executive Director

Website information and for on-line donations:  http://www.lambifund.org/

Earthquake Flyer colorado

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Harriet Mullaney is a member of the Denver Justice & Peace Committee’s Advocacy Committee.  She is a three-time election observer in El Salvador and has traveled throughout Central America and Mexico studying human rights and economic justice issues.

In light of upcoming legislation for comprehensive Immigration Reform, here is DJPC’s official position on Immigration, written by our Advocacy & Nonviolent  Activism committee, and approved by DJPC’s Board of Directors:

DJPC’s Position on Immigration:

DJPC’s work for human rights, economic justice and lasting peace for Latin America affords a unique position from which to contribute to the current public policy debate on immigration.

DJPC concurs that a humane and just U.S. immigration policy must be adopted in the U.S., one that meets the needs of immigrants, communities and our economy.   It should respect international law and human rights–particularly the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state, provide a legal avenue for citizenship, afford the opportunity to obtain work without legal recrimination, support the lawfully authorized entry of those under duress or fleeing natural disaster, and enable family re-unification. These policy goals should be accomplished without militarization of the border, discrimination against or exploitation of immigrants whose lives have already been adversely affected by U.S. policies in their home countries.

DJPC believes, however, that this conundrum cannot reach successful resolution without first dealing with the root causes of the immigration surge and analyzing those areas in which U.S. policies act as catalysts for it. To this end, DJPC advocates foreign and trade policies that:

• Improve human rights and support civil society members at risk.

• Strengthen political and civil institutions and root out corruption and impunity.

• Create opportunities for people to remain in their home countries where they can be productive citizens and preserve family units and support systems.

• Minimize the gap between the rich and the poor, and achieve just livable wages for workers at home and abroad.

• Make education and health care more universally available.

• Defend against the trafficking of human beings, especially women and children, for the purpose of exploiting them economically or sexually.

• Reduce reliance and dependency on the U.S.

• Conduct negotiations in a transparent, inclusive and accountable manner.

• Prioritize funding for human development over military aid.

• Promote the needs of individual workers and small local businesses over those of transnational corporations.

• End exploitation of human and natural resources by the U.S. and other global powers.

• Provide strong and meaningful labor and environmental standards, and demand compliance.

• Reverse and reduce the concessioning and privatization of essential public services.

Additionally, DJPC extends this scrutiny to policies of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization, and other financial bodies supported by the U.S.

DJPC works to establish equitable public policy through:

• Education: of our members, our communities, our Congressional delegation on the ways in which U.S. foreign and trade policies impact economically-motivated immigration.

• Solidarity: partnering with local and national groups and international movements to advocate for these policies. Reaching out to immigrant communities and bearing witness to the struggle of our immigrant neighbors.

• Nonviolent Activism: calling, writing, visiting and keeping the pressure on members of our Congressional delegation to enact just foreign and trade policies. Participating in rallies, press conferences, public meetings, and nonviolent protests.

Jane Covode, Kathryn Rodriguez, Tommy Timm, Sarah Sloane and Denise Peine joined thousands gathered at the Columbus, GA Convention Center Saturday morning to hear introductory speakers, musicians and staffers of SOA Watch, the organization dedicated to closing the school. Three of us were there for the first time and we were all impressed with the numbers and enthusiasm of the participants, which ranged from college students to long time activists to members of various religious traditions. We joined in proclaiming our goal– to close the SOA/WHINSEC and to resist the oppressive policies that it represents; to stand in solidarity with our Latin American sisters and brothers and all those around the world whose lives are impacted by these policies; and to act in a tradition of nonviolence.

Anti-war protester at SOA photo by Sarah Sloane

Saturday afternoon we went to the gates of Ft. Benning where we heard various speakers reminding us of the immediacy and importance of our mission to close SOA.  Bertha Oliva from Honduras spoke about the repression, injustice, disappearances and deaths that have taken place in her country since the June SOA graduate-led military coup. In Colombia, U.S. military intervention intensifies as an agreement allowing U.S. access to seven new Colombian military bases was just signed by both countries, endangering the security and autonomy of neighboring countries.

Sunday morning was chilly and damp, reflecting the solemnity of the funeral procession. During this event, several people on stage chanted thousands of names of the victims of SOA/WHINSEC violence. The crowd responded with “presente”–meaning he/she (the victim) is here with us- and lifted crosses with names of the victims. The marchers slowly passed the razor wire fence surrounding the Fort’s gate, where people left crosses and other memorabilia.  Four demonstrators were arrested for “crossing the line” into the Fort.

Six giant “puppetistas” joined the march. This informal group of creative people crafted huge, realistic figures replicating the 6 Jesuit priests martyred in San Salvador. A mock “assassination” was held and then people with signs–love, hope, solidarity, equality, power, justice– arose to carry on the work of the Jesuits and other SOA victims.

SOA signs of hope photo by Sarah Sloane

The weekend was a powerful event for those involved with the continuing “lucha” for peace, human rights, and economic justice in Latin America. To learn more about SOA Watch, a grassroots organization that works year round to achieve these goals, see http://www.soaw.org.

To read the entire Urgent Action and send an Appeal to Amnesty International, please click here.