Haiti: Final declaration of the 50th congress of the Mouvman Peyizan Papay (MPP)

Final declaration of the 50th congress of the Mouvman Peyizan Papay (MPP), published by the MPP on its website

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Papay, August 10, 2023 | From August 5th to August 10th, 2023, 1,152 national and international delegates and guests from 36 organizations gathered at Sant Lakay in Papaye to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the MPP. Before proceeding, on behalf of the MPP, we warmly greet the international delegation from 7 foreign countries who braved dangers to be present with us. Many of them crossed oceans to reach Papaye. Let’s warmly applaud the international delegation. Unfortunately, some organizations couldn’t attend.

Congratulations to all allied organizations and friends of the MPP from the 10 geographical departments who overcame many challenges to celebrate this 50th anniversary with the MPP. Bravo to all activists.

Applause for all guests, MPP friends, male and female MPP activists, as well as the people of Hinche who came to march today and say no to the oppression imposed on the people and the masses. Bravo to us!

Yes, the MPP is 50 years old. We were born in 1973 under the dictatorship of Duvalier. This means that the MPP grew up in arid terrain, facing adverse winds and a difficult burden. We endured all kinds of dangers. We suffered all sorts of persecutions, but we always resisted. Many of our members were injured, many died. The criminal State plundered and stole from us. They tried to crush us, scare us, make us disappear, but we are stronger because we are like bamboo, we bend but don’t break.

Our ancestors, Makandal, Boukman, Dessalines, Charlemagne Peralte, not to mention our fallen activists, insurgent peasants like Jean Rabèl, and many others who fought for the people’s cause, like Jean Mary Vinsan, left us a legacy of resistance. We need all that strength and determination to rebuild the Red Mountain congress and refound Haiti.

Yes, we resisted under Duvalier’s dictatorship, under military dictatorship, under the Lavalas populist regime. But we fell under a regime called PHTK. This regime is the most criminal, the most thieving, the most useless, the most subservient to foreign powers that the country has ever known. The imperial version of Ariel is a tool to eliminate all those who dare to oppose. Like others, it wasn’t Haitians who put it in place. It’s an imperial tweet that was poured onto the country’s soil.

Today, at the head of the PHTK gang and imperial powers, Ariel sows chaos, drinks the blood of the people to create a cemetery for imperialist and oligarchic projects. This project aims to change the country’s Constitution, to organize elections so that the criminal PHTK regime can continue to oppress the masses, dehumanize the population in order to exploit the country’s natural resources.

While the MPP celebrates its 50th anniversary, many peasants are forced to flee the countryside to seek refuge in the city, and others choose to leave the country to try to survive abroad. The majority of the population that remains in the country hides, as gangs prevent them from moving. Hunger is killing the majority of the population. The forests have disappeared. Water sources have dried up. Droughts have destroyed peasants’ fields. Floods have devastated many regions of the country this year. Climate change threatens life with climatic disasters that devastate the planet.

The peasants are abandoned. Today, peasants in the Artibonite region can no longer stay at home because of the gangs. Peasants from all corners of the country can no longer sell their products in the market. Misery reigns over peasants and the masses. The oligarchy and vassal political power want to eliminate the peasant class.

During these 50 years of the MPP’s existence, the State has done everything in its power to eradicate us. If we suffer, it’s not our fault. But we won’t give in. We are stronger in our fight to change this criminal State.

On the occasion of our 50th anniversary, we have decided to take responsibility and say NO, 77 times 7 times NO.

1. We say no: As a sign of protest, we have planned to mobilize the masses to ensure that people don’t give in to fear and don’t let corrupt politicians destroy the popular mobilization. We refuse to hand the country over to thieving politicians, traitorous politicians, and imperialists who conspire against our homeland’s sacred rights, Haiti.
2. No, we say no: We reject any form of foreign occupation on the territory of the first black country on the planet, which achieved its independence through the strength of its arms, the first country where the people drank their blood to obtain freedom everywhere on Earth, showing that they are capable of liberating themselves if they organize. We must resist until the last drop of blood, because Dessalines and the Peasant Army said: Haiti is the mother of liberty.
3. No, we say no: We reject the project of eliminating the peasant class by forcing them to leave their lands, persecuting them, driving them out of their farmlands. We will resist with all our might. Peasants must remain on their lands. For that, they must organize everywhere, form brigades to fight against land thieves, confront judges, lawyers, police, all State authorities involved in the land thieves’ conspiracy.
4. We say no: We reject the project of the PHTK party and imperial powers to impose an illegitimate constitution on us, a rigged referendum, manipulated elections to install a government serving the interests of the oligarchy, corrupt politicians like Ariel, and the interests of imperial powers. We must stand against this project. With Ariel, elections are not possible.
5. We say no: We reject Ariel’s neoliberal project that starves the people, makes life expensive. The projects of the IMF, the World Bank, and the WTO in Haiti are death projects. It’s a death project for peasant agriculture, a death project for all of Haiti. We say no to agribusiness.
6. We demand the resignation of Ariel and his government. We demand an end to the December 21 conspiracy against our country. We ask that all corrupt politicians, traitors, corrupt individuals behind this conspiracy be expelled from power. Let the PHTK and its allies drink the oil. We ask the people to rebel against this merchant’s power. Here is the mode of action. It’s resistance, rebellion.
7. We say no to military intervention in Niger, as it’s always the peasants who pay the price of all military interventions.

We say YES.

1. We say yes: To the unity of peasant organizations that fight, that resist against the death project. We invite all peasant organizations seeking change to join us in the 4G Peasant Platform. Don’t remain isolated, for divided, we are weak. Youth, women, let’s organize. Yes to the alliance between peasants and workers, revolutionary social organizations, political organizations, and revolutionary political parties. It’s a matter of organization, it’s a matter of life or death.
2. We say yes: To a socialist Haiti based on the PEASANT CIVILIZATION. Yes to peasant agroecology, food sovereignty, reforestation, and reforesting the country. Yes to the fight against multinational corporations that destroy the environment, that cause the planet’s destruction and climate change. Yes to peasant seeds, natural fertilizers, and natural pesticides. Yes to the organization and training of youth, women, and the peasant population. Yes to internationalism and solidarity among peoples. We express our solidarity with the peasants in Niger. We ask them to resist.

In conclusion, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of our movement, the MPP launches this call:

1. Call for total unity among all patriotic organizations, all patriots, to block Ariel’s projects. No elections, no occupation. If the enemy lands, we must offer fierce resistance. Down with Ariel. Down with occupation. Down with imperialism.
2. Call for the solidarity of all peasant, social, and political organizations throughout the planet to support Haiti in its resistance against any new form of occupation.
3. Call for solidarity with Haitian peasants who lost their crops this year due to drought and floods. Let’s unite to revitalize food production in the country.
4. Call to contribute to the two major projects of the 50th anniversary of the MPP:

• Planting 50 million fruit and forest trees that we want to achieve in collaboration with all peasant organizations in the country, within the framework of a peasant and agroforestry agroecological system. This call is primarily addressed to the Haitian diaspora.
• Establishment of a Peasant University starting with a faculty of agroecology that will guarantee food sovereignty so that Haiti can regain control of its food security.

LONG LIVE THE UNITY OF PEASANT ORGANIZATIONS!
LONG LIVE PEASANT AGROECOLOGY TO END HUNGER, TO PROTECT OUR PLANET.
LONG LIVE SOLIDARITY AMONG PEOPLES! LONG LIVE LIFE.
LET’S UNITE OUR FORCES, LET’S UNITE OUR HOPES.

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