The crimes of U.S. imperialism against the people of Haiti are as great as any committed by that criminal enterprise. The first direct U.S. military occupation occurred from 1915 until 1934 and, with many long-term consequences, resulted in the deaths of many thousands of Haitians, including by forced labor.

‘U.S. Completes 19 Years of Plunder, Rapine, Murder Under Marine Occupation of Haiti’ by S. Juste Zamor from The Daily Worker. Vol. 11 No. 185. August 3, 1934.

Wall Street’s Seizure of Island Climax of Long Scheming–Exploitation of People Matched by Brutality of Military

July 28th marked exactly nineteen years since the plunderous invasion of the Negro Republic of Haiti by the armed forces of United States imperialism.

According to the opinion of the Haitian people the assassination of 351 prisoners and the shooting down of hundreds of other civilians on July 26 and 27 was directly encouraged by United States capitalists. Actually the very next day a warship carrying a large number of marines, headed by Admiral Caperton, dropped anchor in the harbor of Port-au-Prince.

July 27 is a date which will never be forgotten by the Haitian people. Besides the flow of blood in all the streets, aside from the barbaric acts performed upon the bodies of the dead, two presidents of the country where assassinated that day. Since then the United States, in order to make us believe that it was because of the disorder that the marines were landed on the Island on July 28, repeatedly bring forward the “savagery” which existed on the Island. But everyone who has a little knowledge of Haiti’s affairs and historical background knows differently. The armed invasion of Haiti on July 28 by the U. S. was primarily the utilization of a long-awaited opportunity to seize control over the Island.

Wall Street Maneuvers

For a long time Wall Street had manoeuvered in attempts to get a footing in Haiti. In 1847 the U.S. made the first attempt to acquire control of the harbors of Samana Bay, on the eastern coast of Santo Domingo, and of Mole St. Nicholas, on the northwestern coast of Haiti for the purpose of establishing naval bases. In 1891 Admiral Gharardi headed a large fleet at Port-au-Prince, sent by the U.S. to negotiate with the Haitian government for the yielding of Mole St. Nicholas. The Haitian government refused to discuss the matter. We see that the reason given as the excuse for intervention cannot be taken at face value.

Since the landing of the marines on the Island the Haitian masses have witnessed the most barbaric and tyrannical crimes. The marines have attacked women in the streets. If men dared to come to the rescue of these women they were either shot or beaten up. The homes of the people were raided, the people thrown out, while the marines took possession. No house was exempt from these atrocities. Martial law was declared all over the Island. At night, after 10 p.m. no one was allowed to keep a light on in his home.

Charlemagne Peralt

In 1919, the day after a quarrel among several civilians and gendarmes over gambling, a man named Gabriel led a group of seven men and opened fire on the headquarters of the gendarmerie at Hinche. Immediately all persons who were in any way connected with politics prior to the intervention were put under arrest. Among these was Charlemagne Peralt, an intellectual and revolutionary leader before the American occupation. He was forced to walk barefoot through the streets, and placed in prison. One morning an American official of high rank came to the prison for inspection. He saw Charlemagne, called him over, and said, “You, n***r, go get that shovel and clean the stable.” While Charlemagne was cleaning the official kicked him twice. Without a word Charlemagne picked up the shovel and smacked the officer across the face. The official dropped to the ground unconscious. Charlemagne, who had been granted certain privileges in the prison because of his reputation and popularity on the Island, had also been given the right to go out of the prison at any time without being escorted by gendarmes. He utilized that right at this time. He walked right out in the face of all the guards, who had no idea of what had just happened inside. He went into the country, mobilized all the men he could find, and organized a revolt, which lasted for nine months, until he was betrayed, and shot in the back by a marine who had painted his face black.

Reign of Terror

What horrors the Haitian peasants then went through! Their farms and homes were burned by the marines under the pretext that the marines were chasing out the hiding rebels. Any individual seen walking on the roads was immediately characterized by the marines as a “caco” (rebel) and was either shot down or arrested and beaten to death.

The outstanding leader of these tortures and terrors was an official named Lintz. He later became one of the heads of the cotton plantation at St. Michael de Latalaye. That madman had a police dog which he used in his atrocities.

It is quite consistent for the servants of Wall Street to come out with all sorts of statements in the capitalist press attempting to distract the minds of the people from the real situation by telling the masses how much good the U.S. had done for the colonies and semi-colonies, and at the same time concealing all the facts about the tyrannical oppression being used on the masses.

The bourgeois newspapers are carrying all sorts of news about Haiti these days, except that concerning the political and economic situation in Haiti.

Now the U.S. is busy creating an intense antagonism between Santo Domingo and Haiti. Santo Domingo, a country which has less than one-third the population of Haiti, has been armed to the teeth and has been provided with many modern bombing planes. In Haiti, the United States has organized a huge army with all modern equipment, but no airplanes. The strategy is to put the two countries on the same fighting and military strength. Santa Domingo has already made an open statement demanding that Haiti return some portion of land which she claims belongs to her. These lands are located in the northern part of Haiti.

Despite the intense unemployment in Haiti, in spite of the inability of the government to provide jobs for the starving population, we get the news that the Senate has voted an increase of ten dollars to every military official on the Island. Understand, ten dollars is the average monthly earning of the white collar workers in Haiti.

It is very simple to see why there is censorship on the revolutionary press, which would dare to come out with these facts.

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924. National and City (New York and environs) editions exist

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