[Corporations] Aristide defied neoliberal agenda

[Sam Johnston]

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Excerpted from http://www.haitiaction.net/HidFrame.html


Resisting Globalization

Since 1994 the Haitian people and government have borne intense pressure to 
adopt neoliberal economic policies, such as the opening of markets to U.S. 
goods, austerity programs and the privatization of state-owned enterprises. 
In Haiti these policies are known as plan lanmo or the "death plan". When 
Aristide returned to Haiti in 1994, U.S. officials expected that Haiti's 
public enterprises (the telephone, company, electrical company, airport, 
port, three banks, a cement factory and flourmill) would be quickly sold to 
private corporations, preferably to U.S. multinationals working in 
partnership with the Haitian elite. In the last months of his first term as 
President, Aristide refused to move forward with privatization, calling 
instead for a national dialogue on the issue. It was at this point that 
$550 million in promised international aid stopped flowing. Despite this 
pressure, only the flourmill and the cement plant have been sold.

The Haitian government has made major investments in agriculture, public 
transportation and infrastructure. While international funds for large road 
construction projects have been blocked, the Government of Haiti has 
undertaken smaller road projects, linking the countryside to city and 
enabling farmers to get their food to market. Public marketplaces have been 
rebuilt in many rural and urban communities. Despite strong opposition from 
the business sector, on February 7, 2003, Aristide doubled the minimum wage 
from 36 to 70 gourdes a day. This wage hike affects the more than 20,000 
people who work in Port-au-Prince assembly factories, which contract with 
major U.S. corporations such as Wal-Mart and Disney.

*snip*