Over the past year and especially in recent months, there have been a series of nationwide strikes against the Haitian government's plans to privatize public enterprises and to implement the structural adjustment program that the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are prescribing for Haiti. What's going on? In January, dozens of groups organized a strike against the economic reforms. Hundreds of thou- sands of people all over the country did not go to work. What is going on? These strikes are an expression of the Haitian people's frustration with the current eco- nomic and political situation. The cost of living has gone up. Inflation is high. Unemployment is very high. And the Haitian people do not see the government working to help them. They see that important decisions are being made high up, excluding the grassroots groups and ignoring the will of the majority of people. Because they are excluded from the political and economic process, Haitians are forced to carry their battle into the streets. It is a last resort, but they will not give up because they have no other choice. Most Haitians know that you cannot make decisions for long without involving the grassroots. The authori- ties become progressively weaker as they lose legiti- macy and credibility. Today in Haiti the authorities are weak indeed. Many people outside of Haiti would be confused to hear that. The international community has spent over a bil- lion dollars on Haitian democracy since the restoration of civilian rule, and the government has been in the inter- national spotlight. Yet the democracy that was restored to Haiti is not very democratic after all. The government is not work- ing as it should for the majority of people. If the gov- ernment were doing what it is supposed to be doing for the people, perhaps things in Haiti would be more calm. For example, if you have enough financial resources as a government, you create jobs. Creating jobs may change the behavior of people at the grassroots level. If you have the financial resources to build roads, feed the hungry, and to otherwise alleviate the burden of poverty, then do it. As people see more food and more jobs, those who are now frustrated will be appeased. That will make a difference. If you have the possibility of making the justice system work, without dialogue, then do it. As people see the light of justice throughout the land, through the legal system, they will be placated. But this VOL XXXI, No 1 JULY/AUG 199735 VOL XXXI, No 1 JULY/AUG 1997 35VOICES ON THE LEFT is not what is happening in Haiti. The judicial system is corrupt. There are no financial resources invested in social welfare. The system does not address the needs of the people. People today live on less than they did 30 years ago. And so, we need to change the system. We need to talk about democratizing democracy. In Haiti, we have no financial resources; we have only the human being as a resource. Human beings are our capi- tal. We must learn how to manage this capital, how to best develop it. In other words, we need to learn how to better value the human being. To do so, we must start with dialogue, a dialogue which includes not just the top tiers, but all sectors of society. What sort of economic plan "better values the human being"? The majority of the grassroots supports an economic plan different from the one Haiti is currently following. They know about their dignity. They are not dumb. Their plan values human workers by paying them a livable wage, and it values human beings by providing them what they need to live. The Haitian people discovered a few years ago, after the end of the Duvalier dictatorship in 1986, that their rules could be respected and that their plans could be implemented. In the free elections held in 1990, the people learned they could share some power. For the first time, they felt part of a process in which peo- ple were not dictating to them what to do and how to do it. After that, they refused to settle for less. Haitians began to see that there was a route that worked, a way in which government could work for them, rather than plague them, and that they could live securely-and even spend their lives moving ahead. They felt that they were part of that process. Years later, they realized that certain forces wanted to impose "a plan" in Haiti. They called it "the American Plan." By that they meant the economic plan of privati- zation and austerity measures that is being imposed on Haiti today. And while they did not have the power to reject the plans that were being sug- After t gested, imposed and now imple- mented-plans which were not their elections, t own-they could at least understand people d what was happening. What economic and political goals are th you pursuing, now that you are no they coL longer president? We opened the Aristide Foundation power. A for Democracy on March 8, 1996. The they refuse Foundation is a place where people can gather to talk, organize and plan. It for is a place where people can come on a h h is a II Lf lE daily basis to discuss virtually anything on an informal basis, but we have also had large meetings and confer- ences here. Last year, for example, 60 grassroots groups held a meeting to discuss privatization. Last July, we began a poor people's bank. It is very difficult for poor Haitians to get loans, and loan sharks can charge 20% a month interest. We decided to initiate a poor people's cooperative that would provide loans at 1% interest a month to its members. To join, people were required to deposit a small minimum amount of money and they were required to attend four training sessions informing them about how the cooperative works. We expected a lot of people to come, but we were not prepared for what happened. In less than two weeks, 12,000 people signed up. It was an overwhelming turnout, impossible to fathom handling. But how could we turn peasants away? We knew it would not be easy to manage such a large group, but we decided that we could not turn them away. At the same time we knew we would be learning by trial and error as we went along. So far, we have made loans of 6 million gourdes to women and men, but mostly to women. Soon after starting the bank, we found that many of those who took out loans were not able to repay them due to the dire poverty that they face. In fact, most of them could not repay their loans. We had to find a way to encourage them to find ways to pay the bank back. Then we realized that the best way to do this was to stop giving loans to just one person, and instead, give them to groups of people, following the model of the very successful Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. Are you familiar with the story of the Grameen Bank? After 18 years of work, 46% of the women borrowing from the Grameen Bank crossed above the poverty line, while in Bangladesh as a whole, only 4% crossed the line during that same period. Our ultimate goal is to allow people to raise themselves out of misery. We asked the 12,000 members of the cooperative to organize themselves in groups of five. Within each group, only one member can take e free out a loan at a time, and a second per- son cannot take a loan until the first has ie Haitian begun payment on hers. The group covered members decide among themselves whether a proposed project is worthy of It a loan, and whether or not a member could repay it. They must be responsi- d share ble to each other. ter that The Foundation is currently subsidizing d to settle these activities. But before, you talked about helping people become self-suffi- !SS. cient. How can these subsidized activi- ties ever become self-sustaining? NACTIA REPORT ON THE AMERICASVOICES ON THE LEFT From our experience we can prove that these ventures can The stl become more efficient and more and more self-sustaining; but can of wom they become totally self-sustain- immedia ing? That is a good question, but maybe that is not the essential In Haiti, question. We can decide to lose money in some areas when we sell represent al to certain sectors and make profits in another. It's a matter of balance. money get Governments make these types of small co decisions all the time. The Foundation is not a charity organi- and 90% C zation; it is a non-profit organiza- tion that can decide where it wants in fac to invest. This is not a place where people beg for a few cents each day. We do not have to sell our dignity. But on the other hand, the foundation does not need to make a profit. We are only trying to make enough to continue our activities. We are working to find ways to be profitable, but we have to balance this against people's needs. For instance, we know that Haitian farmers cultivate food such as rice and corn, and yet we decided to provide subsidized rice and corn to the cooperative members anyway. That may not be good for the farmers, but it is good for the con- sumers. Nonetheless, we know that the ultimate solution to this conflict will come from supporting national pro- duction. How can the Foundation promote national production? Two weeks ago, for example, we had two days of train- ing for local-level church leaders from different depart- ments of the country. This was one of many meetings we have had. We are trying to educate people about how they can invest and make their own small capital grow. After the end of our meeting, the foundation signed an agree- ment that allows them to borrow money at a low rate in order to invest it in the zones in which they live, to grow more beans, rice and potatoes, or whatever. They will repay us in produce, which they will sell to us at a very good price. This will encourage their own local produc- tion, and it will also allow us to provide these products to our coop members at a good price. This is an exam- ple of how we can stimulate local production with an eye toward encouraging national production. This is symbolic as well. Our vision is not a matter of buying food from other countries and selling it at a lower price but of supporting our own agricultural industry; in other words, our national production. What we are doing may seem insignificant to you, but by doing this we can push the government to do more. ruggle en is an + .... IL n n ,1 re Have the traditional powers that con- trol the economy indicated that they oppose your project? Are they threat- ened by the Foundation, the way they were by your presidency? ;u 3auc. No, because of the fact that we do women not make a profit, and because our work embraces a small percentage nost all the of the entire market. It is not a real danger to them-to the real elite. At erated by least so far so good. If we reach a imerce market of, say, 200,000 people, it's nothing to them. In fact, it is even f workers good for them, because what we represent politically means a lot for ories. economic policy. It's a fig leaf, an example of freedom; it's symbolic of the democracy that they need to showcase. For this reason they have to deal with us. They need us as much as we need them. You have recently criticized the policies of current President Rene Preval. Is the Aristide Foundation doing the job that Preval's government ought to be doing by setting up a parallel organization, rather than one which works with the government? Are you distracting Haitians from the real issues? How is creating the Aristide Foundation not the same thing as doing the govern- ment's job? I like your question. Are we encouraging people to sit, when they should be standing up against this? We are aware that there is a contradiction between what we are doing and what the people ought to be doing. The foun- dation is not the government. We have no intention or possibility of replacing the government. But we are doing the little we can, wishing and pushing the govern- ment to do more. Ultimately, it is the government that has to do this. The government is the only institution that can assume this great responsibility. What we do at the foundation is not meant to dis- suade people from demanding that the government work in their interest. But we are attempting to provide a base from which people can work and organize, as was the case with the taxi and truck drivers' strikes in February. The point is to respect the human being, because people are our number one resource. You said earlier that you place a special importance on women, and that you even inaugurated the foundation on International Women's Day March 8, last year Can you tell us more about this? In our society, as in many countries, sexual equality is not a reality. By working with women, we are empower- ing the struggle of women. We see this as one way of making more men understand the necessity of working together on these issues. This has always been a top priority of mine. When I was president, we created the first ministry of women in Haiti's history. We located it in a powerful place-the central square, in the former headquarters of the army, directly across from the palace. This is a symbolic thing, yet it is not enough to bring about equality. So we have to work to make this necessity clearer and stronger to men. Some of those in the Parliament, who were elected because of the work of women, are now opposing these activities. Why the emphasis on women, in a country that has so many more immediate issues to grapple with? The struggle of women is an immediate issue. At the international level, informal labor represents $16 trillion for the global economy annually, according to the UNDP. Women's labor accounts for $11 trillion of that. In Haiti, women are even more important eco- nomically than in other places on the globe. They rep- resent almost all of the money generated by small commerce. They represent 90% of workers in facto- ries. And they represent the vast majority of heads of households. At the cooperative bank, most of the loans we make are to women. This is also true of other poor people's banks, like the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. Women are much more responsible in paying off their loans. The way they manage their loans money here at the bank reflects the way they manage their households. You are no longer a priest, but can you comment on how your faith has shaped your political views? Today, much of the world is rooted in materialism; it is flat, without spiritual energy. Liberation Theology shows us how to dream, but with our feet on the ground. Liberation Theology, for many Christians, provided a way to rise, spiritually and lit- erally above misery. We don't talk about Liberation Theology as something to replace politics or eco- nomics; rather, we seek a complementary vision that comes from the theology of liberation that helps us keep ourselves ethically grounded, and this practice becomes part of our community experience, providing us with guidelines. By realistic dreaming, I think we can try to put human beings at the center of any social, economic or political program. Investing in people can create a new climate, and help people see and cultivate love within their own human contexts-not just money, but human values, like human rights, living wages and justice. If we do that, and fight to implement it, I think the future will be different.
