By Yves Engler

Over the past century, a line has divided the left around the world. On one side sit “progressive forces” willing to support imperialism and war, usually in return for a “seat at the table” or some other perk of power. The most discussed example of Left support for imperialism was at the beginning of the First World War when most parties of the Second International sided with their own ruling class and governments in the slaughter that followed. On the other side of the Left divide, are those individuals and organizations that take a principled position in favour of real democracy for all the world’s people and oppose imperialism and colonialism in all its forms, especially when it is their ruling class involved. Some might say the former is the “pretend Left” and the later the “authentic Left.”

So what sort of Left is there left in Québec? To help answer this question the case of Haiti is instructive.

Haiti's Debt
http://www.monthlyreview.org/mrzine/emersberger040108.html
by Joe Emersberger
Despite being the most impoverished country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti
lags behind many countries in the Americas in obtaining debt relief through
a program run by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

Haiti's Deadly Class Divide:
Class war takes on a new meaning in Cite Soley
by Leslie Bagg and Aaron Lakoff
Port-au-Prince, January 10/06 - Driving into Cite Soley on January 8th, the day Haitians were supposed to go to the polls in a presidential election, there is no mistaking the fact that we are entering an occupied zone. The streets are almost deserted, the atmosphere tense, and UN armored personnel carriers patrol the streets.
Cite Soley, one of Port-au-Prince's poorest neighborhoods, is home to around 500,000 people living in abject poverty. According to Jean-Joseph Joel, the Secretary General of the local branch of Fanmi Lavalas, the area's residents are virtual prisoners, and their movements restricted by armed police at checkpoints. Vilified as bandits or chimeres by the elite-run press, he says they face persecution if they do manage to escape the neighborhood. There is no work and signs of malnutrition are obvious in the children.

THE CANADIAN CORPORATE/STATE NEXUS IN HAITI
BY ANTHONY FENTON
Haiti-Progres, May 12, 2005

Haiti's de facto government will soon announce the appointment of Robert
Tippenhauer as its new ambassador to Canada. Previously, Tippenhauer was
the President of the first-ever Haitian-Canadian Chamber of Commerce. He
says he will be arriving in Canada shortly after the early June visit to
Haiti of Quebec Premier Jean Charest. Should the Canadian government
accept Tippenhauer's credentials, it will mark Canada's clearest
official alignment with Haiti's right-wing elites.

Prior to the Feb. 29, 2004 ouster of democratically elected President
Jean Bertrand Aristide, Tippenhauer was Jamaica's honorary consul in
Haiti. His ideological leanings were apparent on Mar. 15, 2004, when he
"resigned in protest against the decision by the Jamaican government to
host former President Jean Bertrand Aristide, which he reportedly
described as a 'slap in the face' to the Haitian people." (Radio
Galaxie, Mar. 17, 2004)

Haiti: the forgotten milestone in Bush's crusade for "freedom"
By Bill Van Auken
12 March 2005
World Socialist Website

Dozens of Haitian men, women and children drowned when their rickety homemade craft went down in the waters of the Caribbean, the Associated Press reported Thursday. Some 50 people had crowded onto the boat, which sank under their weight.

Three survivors made it ashore to tell of the disaster, while officials reported recovering nine bodies, which were buried in a mass grave. "There’s nothing we can do," said Cap-Haitien Mayor Apile Fleurent. "We’re just waiting to see how many bodies are brought in by the waves."

Agence Haitienne Presse [AHP] News - February 28, 2005 - English translation (Unofficial)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Editorial: February 29, a troubling anniversary...
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today marks practically one year since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was
forced to leave the National Palace under pressure from certain countries in
the international community who claimed they were acting out of a desire to
avoid a blood bath in Haiti.

Dear all,

The Haitian people can't continue to live in this
situation, illegal arrestation, assassinations every day,
misery, repression. Please, Haiti, cry Help! Find a
way to help this people who are senselessly dying.

SUPPORT THE HAITIAN COMMUNITY IN THEIR PROTEST AGAINST THE ARRIVAL OF THE DE FACTOPRIME MINISTER OF HAITI IN MONTREAL.

Conference de Montreal avec la Diaspora Haitienne

10-11 Decembre 2004

http://www.haiti-info.com/article.php3?id_article=2904
PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) - Businessmen representing a dozen Canadian companies are in Haiti, battered by floods, riots and a change in government, to rebuild the Caribbean nation’s infrastructure, a trade group said.

MO takes out options on "beheadings" in Haiti:
Wall Street opportunists try out a "Swift Boat" attack on Kerry
by RAW, http://www.haitiaction.net
October 10 2004

John Kerry has had little to say about the U.S. kidnapping of Haitian President Jean Betrand Aristide since March 4th, but that doesn't slow down right-wing mouthpiece Mary O'Grady (symbol: MO) from trying to jumpstart a new scandal — or an "October Surprise," if you will — to provide her own contribution to the Bush-Cheney campaign. Parroting the latest anti-Lavalas strategy — an intentional misrepresentation that was premiered by Associated Press on October 6th — MO states that Lavalas militants are now employing the "Islamic terrorist" practice of executing infidels by decapitation.