Imagine there being food in the shops - but you're too poor to afford it. Imagine you join a deomnstration against it and then get fired on by UN troops. That's United Nations troops. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7337792.stm
You might sigh with relief, though, that all this is happening in a far away country about which we know nothing - but it's the West's policies courtesy of the IMF and the World Bank exacerbated by the recent rise in food prices that has created these incendirary conditions. This from Ben Becker back in 2004 'Socialism and Liberation magazine http://socialismandliberation.org/mag/index.php?aid=69,
"On July 19-20, international financiers convened an "aid conference" for Haiti at the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC. More than $1 billion in loans and other financial aid to the hemisphere's poorest country was dispensed. It was the world's biggest banks' stamp of approval for the illegally-installed Haitian government of Prime Minister Gérard Latortue. [Surely the most approriate name for an IMF stooge ever invented?- R.E.L.]
It is only too fitting that the main participants in the conference were the very governments and "non-governmental" financial institutions that orchestrated the destabilization and Feb. 29 overthrow of the Aristide government—the United States, France and Canada. The Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank, which spearheaded the embargo of democratically elected President Jean Bertrand Aristide, pledged $410 million. All of that aid is in the form of loans."
The people of Haiti live on less than a dollar a day. That's where the IMF monsters want to keep them - and eventaully the rest of us. Even here in France - the fourth richest country in the World - the chill breeze of food inflation is making its presence felt. As our permantently angry and uncompromising comrades over at Révolution Internationale point out in this month's edition, bread, pasta, ceareals milk products fruits vegetables and meat have all risen in price by between 20-50% in one year. (20 000 students marched in the streets yesterday against the Government's new austerity measures, as well).
Of course, riots are not to be welcomed. Not because, "oooh they are bad for tourism." or are ". . . against discipline and order.", but because they aren't an effective weapon against zombie capitalism. What is to be done? Certainly nothing will be gained by following, for instance, the watery theory of Zizek, so much in fashion these days, with his rejection of left wing parties and Leninism. The thing is, the ruling class are highly centralized, disciplined and ruthless. Why is it the left that should be all soft and fluffy? "Fuck the fucking fuckers.", as Monty Python once said.
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