Grassroots Haitian movements for social justice have set themselves a formidable task: Not only addressing the ongoing humanitarian crisis, but also challenging the reconstruction effort to include their leadership and avoid reproducing the conditions that helped make the January 12 earthquake so disastrous. As a popular Haitian saying goes, "We are bamboo. We bend, but we don't break." This expression of resolve in the face of adversity is in wide circulation in Haiti these days.

This article originally appeared in the July/August 2010 edition of NACLA Report on the Americas.