Report on the ACP by David Comissiong, The Daily Nation newspaper - Barbados.

It was left to the Clement Payne Movement, with a team composed of Bobby Clarke, Edison Crawford, and David Comissiong; along with Iannique Jean-Louis and Carl Lee Best, to hold aloft the banner of Barbados at this important Caribbean convention.

The Assembly of Caribbean People (ACP) is a Pan-Caribbean gathering of social movements, farmers, trade unionists, working people, students, feminists, youth, artistes, intellectuals, NGO’s and representatives of community organisations.

To their credit, the hard working regional executive committee of the ACP, and our very generous and industrious Haitian hosts, were able to put together an Assembly of some 700 delegates.

If I were forced to identify some specific issue which dominated the assembly, I would single out the matter of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), and the need to mount hemisphere-wide resistance campaign to this latest Yankee 'Trojan horse' of neo-imperialism.

All over the Caribbean, social and political activists are expressing deep concern about the FTAA and its potential to deal a permanently crippling blow to our long-standing efforts to build sovereign states and national economies in our own geo-political space.

We all therefore made a collective resolve to redouble our efforts to educate the masses of the Caribbean people about the true intent and purpose of the FTAA, and to challenge our governments not to sign on to the FTAA.

Aside from this critical issue of the FTAA however, the members of the Clement Payne Movement were most moved and touched by the Haitian people themselves - their current condition, history and culture.

We were well and truly shocked by the level of poverty and human suffering that unfolded before our eyes - the lack of proper sanitation, sewage, housing, health care and other social amenities that so many of our Haitian brothers and sisters are subjected to!

Indeed, we could not help but wonder how our Caribbean political leaders could travel to Haiti, witness this level of human suffering and degradation with their own eyes, and come back home and not speak about it, or seek to make it a priority issue.

As far as we are concerned, it is shameful that in the heart of our 'Caribbean Community', literally millions of our kith and kin could be existing in conditions of such misery, and our governments and civil society organisations make so little effort to come to their assistance.

The Clement Payne Movement has therefore resolved to establish a local organisation to reach out in brotherly care and assistance to the people of Haiti. We will also be lobbying the governments of Barbados and CARICOM to bestir themselves and to embrace the people of Haiti in a more meaningful way.

Our organisation also played a critical role in piloting a resolution at the ACP, calling upon the government of France and other guilty parties to pay "Reparations" to the people of Haiti, for the tremendous damage that they inflicted on Haiti during centuries of slavery, colonisation and neo-colonialism. This is a matter that the Barbadian people will be hearing a lot about in the months ahead.

But as saddened as we were by the poverty, we were 'blown away' by the power and vitality of the culture and history of Haiti.

Indeed, the high point of our entire sojourn in Haiti was our visit to the massive mountain-top fortress of La Citadelle, which was constructed by King Henri Christophe, about 200 years ago, in the early phase of Haiti’s independence.

The 3,000 foot high Citadelle must rank as one of the wonders of the world, and is clearly the most impressive man made structure in the entire Caribbean. As one approaches the fortress on horseback, one is left with a palpable sense of the majesty of Haiti’s past - of the revolutionary heroics of such legendary figures as Macandal, Boukman, Toussaint, Oge, Dessalines, Christophe, Biassou and Petion.

Report on the ACP by Jane Regan, IPS - 26 August 2003

On Aug. 21, the very anniversary of an event burned forever into Haitian consciousness, again a crowd gathered at Bois Caiman (Caiman -- a kind of crocodile -- Woods) to hold another candlelit ceremony. In the dark of night, as Vodou drums beat out sacred rhythms, people pledged to fight the injustices of neo-colonialism and neoliberalism.

This time the Haitians were not alone. Union leaders, women's rights activists and other progressives from across the Caribbean joined them.

The midnight ceremony was part of the Third Assembly of the Caribbean Peoples (ACP), held in this northern coastal city Aug. 20-24. Some 1,000 delegates and observers from over 20 countries came together at the Jean-Marie Vincent Foundation, a school named after a militant priest assassinated during the three-year military coup d'état (1991-1994) against Haiti's first democratically elected government.

"The Caiman Woods meeting called for a radical break with the system and values imposed by the colonial powers," said Haitian agronomist Marcel Mondésir as he read the final declaration to an auditorium full of tired delegates late on the closing night, as the nightly rainfall finally let up outside the steamy hall.

"Just as (the revolutionary leader) Boukman did, today we invite the people of the Caribbean to stand up against capitalist globalisation and fight for new abolitions!"

As the assembly cheered, Mondésir, flanked by other members of the ACP executive committee from Haiti, Trinidad and the Dominican Republic, read off the list of targets for abolition: poverty, exclusion, foreign debt, discrimination against women, the international financial institutions (led by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund or IMF) "which spread death" and cultural domination.

The declaration also condemned the Free Trade Areas of the Americas (FTAA) as an instrument of "recolonisation" and the "imperialist military presence" in the Caribbean and in Colombia.

The assembly -- attended by about 800 Haitians and 200 foreigners -- included three days of meetings. Crammed into the auditorium, into cafeterias turned meeting rooms or seated in circles under shady trees in the yard, delegates -- men and women of all ages -- discussed the FTAA, Caribbean identity and culture, youth, and Caribbean social movements.

The final declaration called not only for abolitions, but also declared ''Yes, another Caribbean is possible!''

''Another world is possible!'' is the slogan of the World Social Forum (WSF), a self-described ''open meeting place'' of social movements, unions, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), political parties, peasant and women's associations and others, which first met in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2001 and which convenes in India next year.

Founded by unions in Trinidad in 1994, the ACP has a similar structure and objectives. The goals of the third assembly -- held in Haiti to honour the 200th anniversary of the slave revolution victory -- were to build a pan-Caribbean platform of social movements opposed to ''capitalist globalisation'', construct a ''sovereign Caribbean'' guided by the region's ''tradition of resistance and rebellion and multiple roots'', and contribute to building a federation of WSF regional platforms.

''I'm very satisfied with the meeting,'' said Robert Sae, spokesman for Martinique's National Council of Popular Committees (CNCP), as delegates milled around the auditorium waiting for the final declaration to be read Aug. 23.

Even though there were considerable logistical and scheduling problems -- unsurprising in a country with only a few hours electricity a day, at best, and with highways more likely to be covered with potholes than asphalt -- the assembly was pulled off and it offers a sign of hope, he said in an interview.

''This is part of the construction of an international movement for an alternative ... (It) gives us great hope that we can take another step forward in the struggle for liberation, for democracy, for sustainable development.''

Sae's CNCP has been involved in many such struggles in Martinique and is part of the independence movement there. Among the six resolutions adopted by the assembly was one condemning French, Dutch and U.S. colonialism in the Caribbean.

Local forums were held across Haiti in the weeks leading up to the meeting. They ended with calls condemning violence against women, the Haitian government's application of IMF economic prescriptions and denouncing the political impasse that has contributed to the downward slide of Haiti's economy and living conditions.

The assembly's final resolution reflected these concerns, blaming the Jean-Bertrand Aristide government for the ''permanent violence'' of the police and paramilitary groups against the people and the media, and also for his government's ''servile'' implementation of neoliberal economic recipes.

Outside the school grounds each day, street merchants crowded at the gate, hoping to sell a can of soda or a plastic bag of water so they might feed their children that night. They all live with Haiti's daily violence and have seen their living conditions deteriorate as the local currency has plummeted, losing almost one-half its value over the past year.

But most of them are not members of organisations and did not even know what the meeting was about; they just knew it included 1,000 potential customers.

One man, who did not want to give his name, expressed little interest, saying, ''There are always organisations saying they speak for the popular masses. What popular masses?''

Delegates who found the meeting stimulating and a sign of hope also expressed concern over the next steps.

Maude Jeudy, a street merchant and the coordinator of a women's group in the country's southeast, said the assembly proved to her that the problems faced by Haitians were also being confronted in other nations, but she wondered: ''What structure is being put in place to follow up all the ideas we discussed? Concretely, what will come out of this?''

Among those attending was 1980 Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel, from Argentina. In his remarks at the forum's opening Aug. 20, he expressed hope despite the dire living conditions in Latin America.

''The APC is a concrete example of how people working together can change history,'' he told the packed auditorium. ''The most important thing is for us to construct alternatives.''

But more than mass meetings are needed, said Victor Geronimo, from the Collective of Popular Organizations (COP) in the Dominican Republic and the general facilitator of the Convergence of Movements of the Peoples of the Americas (COMPA), which helped fund and organise the assembly.

''Every time we hold meetings like this we build solidarity, we build bridges, and we can then set ourselves concrete goals, design concrete actions,'' added Geronimo, who called himself optimistic despite recent events.

Last month, Dominican police arrested Geronimo following anti-neoliberal demonstrations in his country that left four people dead. After national and international protests, he was released.

''The only thing stopping us is ourselves,'' he mused. ''The assembly opened the way to many possibilities. It all depends on our capacities.''

Report on the conclusion of the ACP by Gotson Pierre, AlterPresse.

Several hundred delegates and observers stayed on until the end, despite fatigue and heavy rain, to hear this document read out to the assembly by Marcel Mondésir, organiser of the last panel of the Third ACP. At his side were Haiti's Camille Chalmers, Yvan Rodriguez from the Dominican Republic, Jean-Pierre Étylé from Martinique, and the Trinidadian, David Abdulah, all of them members of the Regional Executive Committee (CER).

"We are indignant about the current situation of Haiti's state of dependence, impoverished and plundered for over more than 500 years, and today still groaning under the weight of the adjustment policies imposed by the International Financial Institutions and applied in a servile way by the Haitian authorities", declared the speaker with a voice reinvigorated at the end of a lengthy meeting.

"We demand an immediate halt to the plundering of Haitian resources, in particular by the payment of debt servicing and interminable arrears", he added in the name of the 900 representatives of the Caribbean people, who assembled in the presence of 300 observers, including the Argentinian Nobel Peace Prize winner, Adolfo Perez Esquivel.

The Third ACP was held to coincide with the 212th anniversary of the first general rising of the slaves in Haiti, on August 21, 1791. This historical fact was "hailed" as "a stage in the quest to construct truly human societies which place the individual and collective needs of the People at the centre of all concerns". The ACP called for Bois Caiman to be recognised as a "sacred part of the historical inheritance of humanity".

On the remains of Boukman (the leader of the Bois Caiman revolt), the Third ACP invoked "a new struggle for abolition": the abolition of exploitation, exclusion, marginalisation, all forms of discrimination against women, Third World debt, the International Financial Institutions "which spread death", ecological destruction in the countries of the South, all forms of cultural domination, military bases, and "any nuclear or biological warfare tests that endanger the Caribbean region".

A whole series of other resolutions were also adopted, notably a document calling for "active and concrete solidarity with the Haitian people". This resolution "condemns the continual violence exerted against the population by the Government and paramilitary groups, and denounces the sterile polarisation between the political forces which monopolise the political scene".

The resolution also condemns a recent agreement between the Haitian government and the IMF, which reinforces the policies of structural adjustment "It is unacceptable that in order to receive derisory sums of the order of $US50 million, we are obliged to reduce the Ministry for Education's budget by 50%", declares the ACP.

In the same resolution, the Assembly "expresses its concern about the inevitably disastrous consequences of the policy of free zone creation in the absence of any regional planning, particularly along the border with the Dominican Republic."

Other resolutions were adopted against the Free Trade Area of Americas (FTAA) which was described as a "recolonisation scheme" and against increasing militarisation which constitutes "a serious danger to peace and safety in the region". The ACP came out against "colonialism" in the Caribbean and in the world, considering it "an anachronism at the 21st century", and against the violence inflicted on women. The Third ACP expressed its solidarity with the Venezuelan and Cuban struggles, and condemned the embargo imposed on Cuba by the United States for more than 40 years.

Delegations from all parts of Haiti and from 20 Caribbean, European, North and South American countries took part.

Translated from French by Charles Arthur for the Haiti Support Group

People of Cap-Haïtien,

As we work in our factories, our workshops, in the marketplace, in our homes, in the streets, an event is happening in the city. An assembly organised in the name of the people of the Caribbean: the Assembly of Caribbean 'Peoples' (ACP). But we, people of Cap-Haïtien, do we feel directly concerned by this meeting, do we know exactly what is being discussed, what is being settled at this meeting, and if so, are we sure we sent delegates to this meeting?

Last year, some comrades already participating in preparing this year's ACP meeting requested we take part along with various other organisations in setting up the Assembly of Caribbean People. We did this in response to these comrades' claim that they had contacted us so we could contribute to giving the ACP an orientation truly centered on the real interests of the popular masses, the workers, the dominated countries. On this basis, and on the basis that we believe we should be present as long as we are on a fighting terrain where the interests of the exploited workers are represented, we participated without any preconceptions. Thus we convened the members of the Unions, Associations and Committees of the Batay Ouvriye May First Union Federation to discuss the question and organise our representation. In this way, six of our delegates began to participate.

Other comrades kept their distance, asking how was it possible that we were collaborating with certain people. We said clearly we weren't collaborating, we were struggling!

After a certain time in which we participated in commissions, and the general assembly, and fought various opportunistic or collaborationist, reactionary orientations, and where overt and covert manoeuvres blocked all advance in terms of democratic functioning, we pulled out and stated this clearly for all.

In short, we said:
· There was no real democratic functioning. [When some top-ranking participants realised that some orientations that they wre opposed to could pass through the general assembly, they set up new commissions from above, and with people they controlled. In this way, despite the fact that major battles had been waged to push through progressive orientations, the directorate eliminated all assembly debates, and passed their positions without any consultation or general approval.] · They were for collaboration with the Haitian bourgeoisie; · They were for organising an event with government input; · They were for organising an event linked with the official 2004 commemoration; · They were for organising an event in which formality and the folkloric-cultural element were dominant, and where major resolutions would follow intellectual debates; · They insisted in holding the event in a big hotel, just like the ruling class and the government would.

Major battles were waged against all of this. Contradictory positions shook the assembly. But, due to the manoeuvres of the new commission, all of these positions remained even more firmly even after in talk they claimed to have changed. We followed the situation for a few weeks. We examined concrete practices in which they attempted to organise events with the input of the Cap-Haïtien bourgeoisie. Faced with the impossibility of struggle in this context, we withdrew, and clearly showed we wouldn't participate in opportunistic, collaborationist events of this sort. We won't participate in demagogic practice. Yes, demagogic, because they engage in collaboration with the bourgeoisie at the same time as they slip supposed "anti-capitalism" into their documents!

Despite all of this, we believe that a practical confronting the problem of the Caribbean popular masses within the context of globalisation is of great importance. But who is posing it? In whose name? In what orientation? In what line? For us, what is taking place here is no assembly of the Caribbean people. We can just look at the composition of the Haitian presence. Not only aren't the popular masses largely aware of the event, but there aren't any worker organisations truly bringing their weight on the basis of workers' interests. It's in their name that some people are talking. In the same way, there is no real insertion of the event in the popular struggles, the workers' struggles directly and at various levels. They had no appetite, nor intention of working in this direction. On the contrary, they completely sapped the ACP of this orientation.

The Assembly's content remains in the logic of all activities organised by the petty bourgeoisie in Haiti and internationally. Perspectives are unclear. When they try to clarify them, they fall into demagogy: competing with the other "social contract" that the bourgeoisie here is pushing, they too declare the assembly is to "open up on a new country" and with their Bois Caiman referencese, even talk of "uprising"!... At the same time, they are dancing with the major reactionaries of the country!

At the international level too, the problems are no different. It's always basically, bourgeois organisations speaking for the masses. We must not forget, in line with the petty bourgeoisie's failure, that it was precisely this functioning that led us to the Lavalas catastrophe. We, of Batay Ouvriye, believe there must be solidarity amongst the people of the Caribbean and our struggles must be correctly coordinated. But, for us, this solidarity and coordination has to be built from within the peoples' struggles, from below. Furthermore, we have to build it starting from workers' interests, and their interests at short, medium and long term: it is they who carry the country on their backs, it is they who truly represent the future. And, in this, waged labor must indeed play its historical role.

LET'S ADVANCE THE STRUGGLE OF THE CARIBBEAN POPULAR MASSES WITH THE WORKERS AS CENTREPOST, AND UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF WAGED LABOUR!