|
CounterPunch
February
10, 2003
Of Dream and Revolution
by Paul Laraque
Editor's Note: As worldwide resistance grows to the Bush administration's
relentless march towards war with Iraq, it is instructive to
hear the reflections of Paul Laraque, one of Haiti's foremost
living poets. The following text is extracted from a speech Laraque
presented on Jan. 19, 2003 at a public meeting of the Haitian
People's Support Project in Woodstock, NY. It is followed by
a poem from "Les armes quotidiennes/Poésie quotidienne"
(Daily Arms, Daily Poetry), which in 1979 was the first work
in French to win Cuba's "Casa de las Americas" literature
prize.
As a poet from Haiti, the first Black republic
in the world and the only state ever created by a revolt of slaves
and still in existence in the whole history of humankind, I will
emphasize other means of resistance, particularly revolutionary
violence opposed to the reactionary violence of the dominant
classes.
From the Haitian Revolution that led
to the abolition of slavery to the Cuban Revolution which introduced
socialism in the Americas, all the revolutions were violent because
the colonists and the local oligarchies would not give peace
a chance. The peoples of the world could not and will not let
the big powers keep the monopoly of violence.
My poetry tends to be an explosive mixture
of love and liberty, dream and revolution, the cruelty of the
present and the hope of the future. I believe that culture cannot
be dissociated from history. Since the Spanish conquest with
the cross and the sword, our hemisphere has been marked by native
resistance against colonialism and genocide, by Black heroism
against slavery, by peoples' struggles against imperialism, by
masses' revolt for economic equality and social, political and
cultural freedom.
As powerful as it might be, no state
has the right to violate international laws and the sovereignty
of another state. No state has the right to occupy the land of
other people and condemn them to die from hunger or otherwise.
Solidarity with the victims of terrorism is right, but preventive
war and the deliberate killing of innocent people, including
children, pregnant women, old people and patients in Iraq, are
wrong; those were the weapons of Nazis and Fascists against Jews
and Blacks. An international embargo against "Apartheid"
in South Africa was right but, according to most members of the
United Nations General Assembly, the U.S. embargo against the
Cuban people is wrong. As for the women's liberation movement,
it is an integral part of the struggle against inequality, racism,
repression, poverty and war.
Many of my French and Creole poems are
dedicated to my wife Marcelle Pierre-Louis Laraque, whose death
left me on the verge of despair. But life goes on. Today, I am
joining my voice to yours. Indeed, you and hundreds of organizations
across the country, from California to Washington, D.C., are
proclaiming the will of the people for work and peace, against
the war and repression. It is a great satisfaction to meet here
young people like my grandson Marc Arena; they are the light
of the future.
Of course, our ideologies and cultures
are different. A democratic society needs multiple voices but
one goal: liberty and the "pursuit of happiness" for
all.
Poetry is truth. The inhuman living conditions
of the masses must change. That's the only way all of us can
live in peace and dignity. Nonviolent if possible, violent if
necessary, only a revolution or a revolutionary alliance between
democracy and socialism will save Haiti and the world.
REIGN OF THE PEOPLES
You say democracy
and we know it is Bolivia's tin
Chile's copper
Venezuela's oil
Cuba's sugar
raw materials and profits
You say democracy
and it's the annexation of Texas
the hold up of the Panama Canal
the occupation of Haiti
the colonization of Puerto-Rico
the bombing of Guatemala
You say democracy
and it's America to the Yankee
it's the rape of nations
it's Sandino's blood
and Peralte's crucifixion
You say democracy
and it's the plunder of our wealth
from Hiroshima to Indochina
you spread the slaughter everywhere
and everywhere ruin
You say democracy
and it's the Ku Klux Klan
o hidden people
inside your own cities
an ogre is devouring your children
Ubu from the empire of robots
you let your ravens fly
from Harlem to Jerusalem
from Wounded Knee to Haiti
from Santo Domingo to Soweto
the people will be waving
the torch of revolution
Night is a tunnel opening on the dawn
Viet-Nam stands like a tree in the storm
the frontier which marks the place of your defeat
history's lessons have no recourse
a footbridge stretches from Asia to Africa
the reign of the white race is ending on earth
and the reign of the peoples in the universe is beginning.
Paul Laraque
(Translation from French by Rosemary Manno)
All articles copyrighted Haiti Progres,
Inc.
Today's Features
Linda Heard
Powell
at the UN: Spiel, Stunts and Special Effects
Anthony Gancarski
Peggy
Noonan, Space Case
The Columbia and the Manufacture of Tragedy
Robert Fisk
You Wanted
to Believe Him: Powell Does Beckett
Robert Jensen
Powell
at the UN:
Smoking Guns and Big Guns
William Hughes
Colin
Powell's Big Flop
Ali Abunimah
Dissecting Powell's Speech:
Hearsay and Old Allegations
Phyllis Bennis
Powell vs. Blix
The Case for War Remains Unmade
Rahul Mahajan
Responding
to Colin Powell
Is This All You've Got?
Paul de Rooij
Where Are the Incubators, Gen. Powell?
Website of the Day
Iraq:
the War Game
Keep CounterPunch Alive:
Make
a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online!
home / subscribe
/ about us / books
/ archives / search
/ links /
CounterPunch Available Exclusively
to Subscribers:
- CounterPunch Special:
The Persecution of Gershon Legman by Susan Davis: Smut, the Post Office, Commies
and the FBI;
- Reeling Democrats: Is Pelosi the Answer?
- Gandhi v. Hitler: the Secret Race for the Nobel
Prize;
- Sullying Mario Savio's
Memory;
- Lynching Then and Now;
- Earn While You Learn: Chris Whittle and Child Labor;
The Case of the Pompous
Professor;
- The Class Struggle in
Boston: All that
Effort, But What Did They Get?
Remember, the CounterPunch website is
supported exclusively by subscribers to our newsletter. Our worldwide
web audience is soaring , with about seven million hits a month
now. This is inspiring, but the work involved also compels us
to remind you more urgently than ever to subscribe and/or make
a (tax deductible) donation if you can afford it. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe
Now!
Or Call Toll Free 1 800 840 3683
home / subscribe
/ about us
/ books
/ archives
/ search
/ links
/
|