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Indybay Feature

Benefit for Haiti Relief: Stand with the People of Haiti!

earthquake.jpg
Date:
Friday, February 05, 2010
Time:
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Event Type:
Fundraiser
Organizer/Author:
ANSWER Coalition
Email:
Phone:
415-821-6545
Address:
ANSWER office: 2489 Mission St. #24
Location Details:
Centro del Pueblo, 474 Valencia St. at 16th St., SF near 16th St. BART; Wheelchair accessible.

Black History Month Forum & Benefit for Haiti Relief
Stand with the people of Haiti!
What the U.S. government isn’t telling you

Featured speaker: Pierre Labossiere, Haiti Action Committee
Plus, cultural performance and dinner to help raise funds

The people of the world are responding to help alleviate the terrible suffering of the Haitian people after the massive earthquake which struck Jan. 12. We urge everyone who can, to attend this important benefit for the Haitian people. Pierre Labossiere of the Haiti Action Committee will give an important update on the ongoing crisis.

Why is Haiti the most impoverished country in the Western hemisphere? The answer lies in the more than two centuries of U.S. exploitation of—and hostility to—the island nation, whose hard-won independence in 1804 from the French was only the beginning of its struggle for liberation.

Natural disasters are inevitable, but resource allocation and planning can play a decisive role in lessening their impact. But Haiti has been drained of vital resources and income for decades, due to extortionate loans by the U.S.-controlled International Monetary Fund and World Bank. These loans enrich the banks while Haitian people die.

Haiti was self-sufficient in rice production until the Clinton administration forced a “free trade” policy on Haiti in the 1990s, and soon U.S. agribusiness began to flood Haiti’s markets, displacing thousands of farmers. The chronic malnutrition and poverty is a direct result of U.S. imperialist policy.

President Obama announced that USAID and the Departments of State and Defense will support the rescue and relief efforts in Haiti. Yet, these are the same government bodies responsible for the economic and military policies that reduced Haiti to ruins even before the earthquake hit. We call on the U.S. government to stop deportations of the Haitians from the U.S., and to immediately cancel Haiti’s debt, in addition to real assistance for the Haitian people.

$10-20 donation. (no one turned way for lack of funds). All funds collected go to Haiti relief.

Sponsored by the ANSWER Coalition. Co-sponsored by FMLN—N. Calif., Bay Area Latin American Solidarity Coalition, Task Force on the Americas, and others.
Added to the calendar on Mon, Jan 18, 2010 2:07PM

Comments (Hide Comments)
by ^
At least once a year, sometimes more often, we have one of these terrible crises, caused by both nature and capitalism. For those who have money to give, you must ask, will the money get there? The latest on the US military occupation of Haiti and lack of aid distribution may be found at:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jan2010/hait-j19.shtml

Then there is the question of locale and charity beginning at home. This fundraiser is in the Mission District, a very poor workingclass district, in a society with massive and growing poverty. 50% of California public school children qualify for free lunches as their family income is very low, and the Mission District is one of those areas where most school children qualify for free lunches. If you walk in most commercial areas of San Francisco, you are deluged with beggars asking for money, and they all deserve our help.

The job of all of us concerned with ending capitalism is to organize the workingclass right here at home, which only we can do, and this is a task that is most urgently needed to put an end to these constant crises for good which is to say, to put an end to capitalism. Charity always begins at home. It might make you feel good for one night to give something and you still will not know if what you give gets to its hoped-for destination, but when you step outside your door, you will see the terrible and growing poverty right here in the backward USA, the belly of the beast.
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