"Haiti is our backyard," boasted Madeleine Albright, today the U.S. secretary of state, when President Clinton prepared the 1994 invasion of more than 20,000 U.S. troops in Haiti. At the time, Albright was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

After decades of backing brutal dictatorships in Haiti, as well as a 19-year occupation earlier in the century, Washington is still trying to present itself as the protector of the downtrodden and bearer of democracy to the Caribbean nation. The U.S. rulers, in fact, use their military might with the aim of setting up a reliable client regime that could maintain stability, while the U.S. rulers siphon the wealth of the country's national patrimony.

Washington's sham "humanitarian mission" has worn thinner as the political crisis and economic decay in Haiti deepened. The deterioration of roads, transportation, telephone, electricity, and water system continues; and living conditions for working people has steadily worsened since the U.S. invasion. Capitalism has nothing to offer humanity but more misery, more hopelessness, and more despair.

At the same time imperialism has grown weaker, reflected in the failure of the military occupation force to stifle the struggles of the workers and peasants against International Monetary Fund (IMF) austerity measures and the sell off of state-owned enterprises into the hands of U.S. investors.

The Haitian masses have a rich history of resistance to colonial and U.S. domination. It was the first country in Latin America to win independence after decades of slave revolts. A peasant uprising in the first half of this century against U.S. occupation lead to the establishment of a provisional government that was later crushed.

With 1998 marking the 100th anniversary of the struggles against Yankee imperialism, working people around the world should open New Year's Day demanding U.S. troops out of Haiti. The great mass of humanity should say "Enough!"  
 
 
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