Haiti is currently engulfed in a catastrophic crisis bringing enormous suffering to the people, and spiraling further out of control every day. Fighting between armed gangs and the Haitian government has spread through most of the capital city of Port-au-Prince; gangs are also fighting with each other over “territory.” All sides are committing atrocities. The U.S. has brought in 400 Kenyan soldiers to bolster the government, with 600 more expected to join them.

At this point, the main highways connecting the capital to the rest of the country are controlled by gangs; the airport was shut down for weeks;¹ humanitarian groups are suspending operations; basic services are nonexistent. Food supplies have been severely disrupted—five million people face acute hunger nationally; tens of thousands more face outright starvation. More than 5,000 people have been killed this year. Attacks have spread to an important rice farming region. And the danger of complete political collapse of the Haitian state, or even civil war, is very real.

We will get into what is happening and why, but we want to start with a few basic points. 

First, what is happening in Haiti now is not “good guys” vs. “bad guys.” 

No—this is about gangsters on all levels: big-time gangsters of U.S. imperialism that have violently controlled Haiti for over 100 years; their junior gangster partners in the Haitian ruling class that have facilitated and benefited from imperialist domination; and the street gangsters that once controlled only the slums of Port-au-Prince, but are now trying to muscle their way into a “seat at the table” with the “legitimate” Haitian ruling class. 

Second, these different levels of gangsters are fighting with each other and among themselves over who will hold what share of power—the power to rob and oppress the masses of people. None of them are challenging the system of capitalism-imperialism, which gave rise to this nightmare to begin with. Each wants to be cut in on (or increase their current share of) the wealth drained from the blood and suffering of the masses.

Third, the Haitian people have NO INTEREST in helping any of these gangsters to consolidate power. Struggle DOES have to be waged, but that struggle has to be aimed at breaking imperialism’s grip on Haiti, and on ending all oppressive relations in which one part of society exploits others, and all inequality, as part of doing that on a world scale. 

In the midst of the current terrible situation, there is an urgent need and a very real basis for a revolutionary force to emerge to lead the struggle on that basis. 

Fourth and finally: In today’s world, taking the revolutionary road means taking up the new communism developed by revolutionary leader Bob Avakian (BA). It means taking up his analysis of why people around the world are in the situation we’re in and his vision and blueprint for a liberating socialist society that would be radically different and far better than even the best experience of past revolutions. And it especially means engaging with BA’s underlying scientific method to further apply and develop this to the conditions in different countries and different situations, and to organize people around that—making revolution as part of the worldwide struggle to emancipate all of humanity, all across this bleeding planet.²

Seriously undertaking this process is the number one task and responsibility facing all those in Haiti (and the world) whose hearts ache for a way to end all this unnecessary suffering. It is the key link in forging a road to a radically different and better world.

What Led to This Crisis?

In July 2021, an intense power struggle within Haiti’s ruling capitalist class erupted in a fury of violence. The home of Haiti’s president, Jovenel Moïse, was attacked by more than two dozen ex-military Colombian mercenaries. The president’s bodyguards “somehow” were uninjured, but Moïse was killed and his wife seriously wounded. 

To this day it is not known who organized this attack. Moïse, a corrupt right-wing president, was wildly unpopular among the masses. He had been the target of fierce street protests demanding his resignation. 

But his assassination was clearly organized by ruling class forces. Planning went on in South Florida, as well as in the Dominican Republic. Large sums of money, as well as strategic “connections” were required to hire a squad of foreign mercenaries and then move them into action right under the nose of the Haitian police and army.³ 

After the assassination, the in-fighting intensified. With the president dead, the prime minister would normally take charge.⁴ But both the sitting prime minister, (Claude Joseph), and the person that Moïse had designated as the next prime minister, (Ariel Henry), insisted they should head up the government until a new president was elected. 

Joseph had powerful backing from the Haitian army and Haitian police. But after 12 days, the “Core Group” (led by the U.S., and including other imperialist or regional powers) threw its support to Henry. Two days later, Henry took power.

The fact that the imperialists’ “Core Group” made the final decision about who would lead Haiti is just one example of Haiti’s domination by U.S. imperialism. It is a well-known fact—shown repeatedly throughout the last century—that Haitian “leaders” have to first and foremost act in accordance with U.S. interests and receive their approval. That doesn’t mean that these “local” rulers don’t have any room to maneuver—room which they mostly use to advance the interests of the capitalist forces they represent. But in the final analysis, they serve U.S. imperialism first, the Haitian “elite” second… and the masses of Haitian people not at all.

But Henry was unable or unwilling to organize elections, so Haiti has not had a president, or a legislature, for over three years. To the extent anyone had governmental power, it was Henry. But Henry was hated by the masses, by Haiti’s biggest gang and by much of the ruling class. He had zero popular legitimacy and little actual authority. 

State Authority Paralyzed, Street Gangs Move to Expand Their Power

So in essence, there was a power vacuum at the top of the Haitian state. Soon Haiti’s gangs surged into that vacuum. Two major gangs emerged, the most powerful (known as G9), led by an ex-cop nicknamed “Barbecue.” 

Historically, gangs built among the most oppressed and desperate people in the slums became tools of one or another section of the ruling class. They served as shock troops, enforcers, “get out the vote or else” squads, etc. for bourgeois forces backing them. And they maintained some kind of “order” for the system as a whole, “regulating” these potentially volatile areas. In return the gangs had free rein to prey on to the people in their “territory” without police interference.

But with the rulers themselves unable to consolidate central authority, the gangs grew more ambitious. Instead of just being “muscle” for the ruling elite, gangs began making demands. Gangs first demanded that Prime Minister Henry be fired (which he was) and more recently that the Presidential Transition Council (CPT) (a political structure cobbled together by the U.S. to “fill the gap” left by the absence of an actual president and to organize new election) be disbanded. 

To enforce these demands, gangs attacked public institutions—the airport, hospitals and police stations. They seized control of the highways that connect Port-au-Prince to the rest of Haiti, crippling the economy and the transportation of food. Eighty-five percent of the capital is now under their control.

Gangs recently attacked Petionville, a well-off neighborhood in the hills above the city. Although they were defeated by combined forces of police and vigilantes, the attempt shook the city. An officer of the Mercy Corps charity commented: “Before, there were some neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince that we considered safe that the gangs had never reached, but now they are threatening to take over the control of the entire capital.”

Gangs Fight Each Other for a Bigger Share of Power… the People Pay a Terrible Price

At the same time, gangs are fighting fiercely with each other over who will control the most territory. “Territory” translates into more people to rob and dominate; more youth and even children as young as eight to “recruit” as “soldiers” and more overall power to reinforce their demands for a “seat at the table” of those ruling Haiti. 

The masses are paying a terrible price for these turf wars. Marcia Biggs, a PBS News Hour reporter, traveled to the huge Cité Soleil slum where major gangs are battling for control. She writes her team had to ride motorcycles to reach their destination because “a river of sewage and garbage makes the road impassable for cars.” Once there she reported: “The people here are really struggling. They say they have no services, no electricity, no water, no schools, no hospitals. This area has been attacked many, many times. Everyone here has been a victim. At every turn are footprints of homes burned down now marked by string. Bullet holes puncture all remaining facades, remnants of horrific battles that took place between G9 and G-Pep [two major gangs].”

Biggs also says that “Most of the women we talked to had been raped. Some are now pregnant.” Macricia Athis told Biggs: “I am crying because I can’t live in this misery. I don’t have milk for my little one, … Now the children are suffering. Sometimes, I can’t even feed them.”

Many of these women end up joining gangs for protection, and also to seek revenge, and are then dragged into committing atrocities themselves. But when asked “what could the state do to end the violence,” one woman defiantly called out the role of the state in instigating and fueling it: “The state should start with their high-ranking officials first, because they are the ones who set it up. We don’t take the streets of our free will. Where do we get weapons? How can I buy a Kalashnikov? How can I buy an M16? No, they must start with themselves first before that could change.”

U.S. Tries—and Fails—Repeatedly to Reestablish State Authority

The U.S. imperialists and the Haitian ruling class are still trying to pull together a political regime that has some stability and popular legitimacy—but they have been working on this for many years and seem no closer to success. Also bound up with this, they continue trying to defeat the gangs militarily, and to arrest or kill their leaders. Last June, 400 Kenyan troops were brought in by the U.S. to bolster the Haitian police and army. So far they have had little impact, but another 600 are expected soon, along with warplanes and war ships from other countries. So it can’t be ruled out that the U.S. and its local allies will turn the tide and get a grip on things.⁵ 

But looking at this whole situation, Robert Fatton Jr., a U.S. expert on Haiti, commented that “they [the gangs] are essentially trying to get power or at least negotiate to get power. Ultimately, if the situation deteriorates further, they’ll be in a position to negotiate, whether you like it or not.” Other Haiti experts have made similar points. In fact, the U.S. ambassador has admitted that “From time to time, there are contacts with the gangs…”—though he denies that these “contacts” are “negotiations.” 

Is There Any Way Out, and if So, What Is It?

These years of violence, chaos and terror have left many people feeling despair and hopelessness. One journalist wrote, “Bloody coups, brutal dictatorships and gangs created by Haiti’s political and economic elite have long defined the country’s history, but experts say the current crisis is the worst they’ve seen.” Robert Fatton Jr. says “The whole situation is really collapsing. … There is no functioning authority. … I’m at a loss for any short-term solution for Haiti, let alone any long-term solutions.”

But this hopelessness reflects people being locked within the framework of the existing oppressive order. People are thinking that there are only two choices. As they see it, one choice is the rule of capitalism-imperialism, with its endless string of U.S. lackeys and an endless stream of oppression and injustice. And the other is the unrestrained violence of criminal gangs, and the complete breakdown of any economic or social order. Viewed like that, the “collapse” of U.S. efforts to cobble together and enforce even a fig leaf of “democratic rule” is seen as “the end of the world.”

But there is actually a positive side to the current catastrophe. On the one hand, the complete bankruptcy of the old order in all its variations (which has included the fascist dictatorship of the Duvaliers as well as the reformism of Jean-Bertrand Aristide) has become excruciatingly clear—capitalism-imperialism offers no real answer to the horrors faced by the people. And on the other hand, the state’s loss of legitimacy, and its actual incapacity to control most of the capital creates “space” (political and literal) for revolutionary forces to begin to emerge and develop. This is a situation in which the road of revolution could have a strong appeal, and draw growing numbers to it.

So what is really needed now, and urgently, is for those who yearn for a different future to engage with Bob Avakian and the new communism that he has developed, and to collectively wrangle over how it applies to the intense situation in Haiti now.