No Trespassing

From the editorial to the comments on the Darfur piece earlier to the piece on the UN vote on ending the embargo in Cuba, to the essay on the squeeze on land by Robin Palmer, thank you.

All of the essays and comment point in the same direction and lead one to ask one question: why and how do we (i.e. those who side with those without land, work, health, clean air, etc.) manage not to unite?

The bi-centenary of Haiti is passing us by (1804-2004) as if it never happened. In contrast, remember how 1492-1992 and 1789-1989 were celebrated?

President Bush, almost at the same time American and French troops were kidnapping President Aristide, in a speech meant to defend "American Freedom" concluded "there can be no compromise between Freedom and Slavery".

Is it possible to say that our problem can be described as "failure (hesitation, resistance?) of fidelity to the freedom achieved by the slaves who overthrew slavery in Haiti?"

Could that failure be explained by our inability (reluctance, hesitation?) to maintain Atlantic (and Oriental) slavery and the wiping out of Native Americans as Crimes Against Humanity against the dissolving effect, on our collective conscience, of what these crimes gave birth to: capitalism as we know it today, in which everyone is free to torture, maim, kill in order to maintain what is described as the one and only triumphant socio-economic system of all times.

Following the success of the slaves in 1804, the enslavers-capitalists motto has remained the same and can be summarized as follows: "the discovered can never ever discover anything, and if they try, the most severe punishment shall be dispensed". No one has been able to document the terror suffered by those who were kidnapped and shipped across the Atlantic, no one can imagine the terror suffered by those whose land was robbed.

It is easy to see wars in various parts of the Planet as driven by the search to monopolize resources. Has it changed from the time when land and labour were the keys to opening up the Promised Land of capitalism?

Not many media referred to it, but Aristide's crucial faults (from the point of view of the US and the French governments) were not only putting an end to the Army, asking for the French to repay what the Haitian governments paid between 1825 and 1947, more than 20 billion Euros. More serious was the fact that Haiti was resorting to Cuban doctors and teachers to resolve its health and educational problems.

Cuba is seen as one of the trespassers of the above mentioned "No Trespass" sign, and has been punished ever since. (There are other many examples). I agree with Tajudeen that Africans should unite (not just the governments) with the Cubans and all those who, since and before 1804 said no to slavery in any form, degree or shape.

The crisis of landlessness is not recent. It is genetically tied to the early beginnings of capitalism which has multiple roots and not just medieval Europe.