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Operation Sweatshop: Aristide's move to raise Haiti's minimum wage

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La_Serpiente Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-08-04 06:38 AM
Original message
Operation Sweatshop: Aristide's move to raise Haiti's minimum wage
Operation Sweatshop: Aristide's move to raise Haiti's minimum wage was the last straw for American corporations and elitist U.S. factions.

This week, the Bush administration added another violent "regime change" notch to its gunbelt, toppling the democratically elected president of Haiti and replacing him with an unelected gang of convicted killers, death squad leaders, militarists, narcoterrorists, CIA operatives, hereditary elitists and corporate predators -- a bit like Team Bush itself, in other words.

Although the Haiti coup was widely portrayed as an irresistible upsurge of popular discontent, it was of course the result of years of hard work by Bush's dedicated corrupters of democracy, as William Bowles reports in Information Clearinghouse. Bushist bagmen funded the political opposition to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, smuggled guns to exiled Haitian warlords and carried out a relentless strangulation of the county, cutting off long-promised financial and structural aid to one of the poorest nations on earth until food prices were soaring, unemployment spiked to 70 percent and the broken-backed government lost control of society to armed gangs of criminals, fanatics and the merely desperate. Meanwhile, Haiti was forced to pay $2 million per month on debts run up by the murderous U.S.-backed dictatorships that ruled the island for decades after the American military occupation of 1915-1934.

The ostensible reason for Bush's deadly squeeze-play was Haiti's disputed elections in 2000. That vote, only the nation's third free election in 200 years, was indeed marred by reports of irregularities -- although these were not nearly as egregious as the well-documented hijinks which saw a certain runner-up candidate appointed to the White House that same year. There was no question that Aristide and his party received an overwhelming majority of legitimate votes; however, out of the 7,500 offices up for grabs, election observers did find that seven senate results seemed of dodgy provenance.

So what happened? The seven disputed senators resigned. New elections for the seats were called, but the opposition -- two elitist factions financed by Washington's favorite engines of subversion, the Orwellian-monikered "National Endowment for Democracy" and "International Republican Institute" -- refused to take part. The government broke down because the legislature couldn't convene. When Bush came in, he tightened the screws of the international blockade of the island, insisting that $500 million in desperately needed aid could not be released unless the opposition participated in new elections -- while he was simultaneously paying the opposition not to participate.

more...

Operation Sweatshop: Aristide's move to raise Haiti's minimum wage
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markus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-08-04 10:59 AM
Response to Original message
1. The lesson of Haiti, Nicaragua
So, if we choose to sit out the next election, we are free to start an armed insurrection if we don't like the results?

This was what happened in Haiti, and what happened in Nicaragua in the '80s. The Reagan administration told their frieds to sit out and denounce an electcion which was open, fair and free according to all of our democratic, developed-world allies.

Then they started shooting.

It is what is happening in Venezuela.

There is a name for people who violently challenge the outcome of free and fair democratic elections they don't like the results of: terrorists.

The Haitian opposition are terrorists.

The Venezualian oppostion are terrorists.

The Endowement for Democracy is a Terrorist Organization.

The United States, under Bush, is a State Sponsor of Terror.

Trying to communicate this to the average voter, at least em masse, seems to be a losing proposition. However, it is something we all need to keep in mind.

Defeating George Bush is the greatest contribution each of us can make to the war on terror.

NOTE FOR EDUCATIONALLY CHALLENGED FEDERAL EMPLOYEES: The first paragraph of this statement is something called a Rhetorical Question. It in no way advocates violence of any sort at any time at any place. For more information, see: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=rhetorical%20question%20

If you're looking for people who advocate violence to subvert democratically elected government, try the White House, the State Department and the CIA.

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dArKeR Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-08-04 11:51 PM
Response to Original message
2. Incredible - If not investigated by the American Media Whores?
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