THE FOURTH International hails the courageous people of Haiti, who, through their mobilizations over the last months of 1985 and the first months of 1986, brought down the hated dictatorship of Jean-Claude Duvalier and its gang of murderers, the Tontons Macoutes.
The toppling of this US-backed dictatorship — the second oldest in the Americas — opens for the first time in many decades the opportunity to organize open political and trade-union activity by the oppressed and exploited working people of Haiti.
The new military-civilian junta in Haiti, largely handpicked by Duvalier from among his cronies just hours before his flight, is now trying to deprive the Haitian people of this hard-won opening for democratic political organization and activity. We stand beside the Haitian workers and peasants in their demands that the torturers and murderers of the Duvalier tyranny be brought to justice and punished; that all the prisoners be released; that all political exiles be allowed to return to Haiti immediately; and that an end be put to all police and army attacks on popular demonstrations and meetings.
The massive US military presence in the Caribbean looms as a danger to the gains that the Haitian people have conquered and are now fighting to consolidate and extend.
We demand:
No US Military intervention in Haiti!
No imperialist pressure on Haiti!
Imperialist forces out of Haiti!
March 1, 1986