Broad-Based Coalition Stages Protests : ’57 Organizations’--New Force in Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti —  The “57 Organizations,” a national coalition of activist groups and grass-roots organizations, has emerged as a major force in the struggle for Haitian power.

By paralyzing Haiti for six days over the last two weeks with a general strike against the military-led provisional government, the coalition demonstrated formidable strength and tenacity.

The 57 Organizations organized Friday’s nationwide demonstrations as a “plebiscite” to show popular demand for a change of government. It gave the ruling National Government Council, headed by Lt. Gen. Henri Namphy, until Monday to step down. And while there is no sign that the three-man council intends to resign, the deadline dramatized the deepening conflict between the government and the 57 Organizations.

Politically Left of Center

Generally left of center in its political orientation, the 57 Organizations became known as a coalition only days before the general strike began June 29.

The coalition’s member groups and leaders are not among the most familiar political parties and figures maneuvering for presidential and congressional elections scheduled for Nov. 27. But it has become increasingly clear that the 57 Organizations, with its proven power and obvious will to use it, could play a major role in the election process.

The dominant factor in the 57 Organizations is the National Congress of Democratic Organizations, known by the acronym Konakom in Haiti’s Creole language. Konakom is a national umbrella group uniting local organizations of peasants, youths, union workers, merchants, women and other Haitians. It also includes groups of nationalist and leftist political activists, mainly in Port-au-Prince.

Among its top leaders are teachers Victor Benoit and Michel Soukar, who head a group called the Mobile Institute for Democratic Education, and Jean-Claude Bajeux, a literature professor and former Roman Catholic priest who heads the Ecumenical Center for Human Rights.

Emerges After Duvalier Ouster

The Konakom alliance is part of a political thicket that has spread across Haiti in the past 17 months. Before President-for-Life Jean-Claude Duvalier fled into exile in February, 1986, the country of 6 million people was largely a political desert. The dictatorship had kept the opposition stunted and weak.

The series of protests that forced Duvalier from power were led by provincial community groups and youth organizations, many of them guided by left-leaning Roman Catholic priests.

After Duvalier left for France, activists worked with the priests to nurture the process of political change. New organizations were created. Existing organizations, especially in the countryside, were given political guidance.

“There were many organizations, but we changed them into political organizations,” said Louis Herns Marcelin, a post office employee and a spokesman for Konakom. “We did a lot of work in the field.”

In August, 1986, Marcelin said, local community and peasant groups began joining together in provincial federations. And on Nov. 7, provincial organizations cooperated in a nationwide demonstration to protest the disappearance of Charlot Jacquelin, a popular leader who was believed to have been seized by police here in the capital.

The turnout for the protest marches, estimated in the tens of thousands, signaled the advent of a significant new popular movement.

Encouraged by their success, leaders of participating organizations decided to form a national organization. From Jan. 28 to Feb. 1, Konakom held its first meeting. The leaders said the congress represented 450 organizations, mostly peasant groups.

At the meeting, Konakom planned a campaign to encourage popular support for a new constitution, drafted by a constitutional convention. In a massive turnout March 29, 99% of the voters cast ballots in favor of the constitution.

Konakom claimed victory.

Under one provision of the new constitution, a nine-member Provisional Electoral Council was chosen, representing different sectors of the society. But on June 23, the National Government Council published a decree stripping away most of the Electoral Council’s powers and giving the government control of elections.

Konakom called the decree a coup d’etat. It joined other groups to form the 57 Organizations and called for the June 29 general strike.

Washington Not Pleased

Security forces reacted harshly to the strike-related protests, and more than 22 people were shot to death in the strike’s first week. Late that week, the government revoked the electoral decree, yielding to the movement’s pressure. But by then, the 57 Organizations was demanding the resignation of Namphy’s junta.

U.S. officials have made it clear that the 57 Organizations’ demands do not please Washington.

“Elections, not demonstrations, are the way governments are changed in a democracy,” said Richard N. Holwill, deputy assistant secretary of state for Caribbean affairs. Holwill was in Haiti this week to meet with government officials.