Miami can feel like the closest US city to Haiti because many of us know, work with or have loved ones that are Haitian –   it is the relationships that really bring these two distant places together. Even with that closeness, it is hard to find grounded perspective on the chaos of the moment they are going through. People have, and will continue to say that Haiti is cursed, backwards or hopeless. Others have said that the gang violence is a revolutionary struggle, perpetuating propaganda released by the predatory gangs themselves. In looking for the working-class perspective through the noise, we find that every city in the world should feel close to Haiti, not only because of their role in the global economy, but because they show us a bald example of the brutality of imperialism. The end result of this brutality will place all our lives at risk whether we work in a factory or in an office. The ruling class all over the world is connected, some more directly than others, but all are unified by their pursuit for profit and power. Haiti shows us that the ruling class is organized, and that there is no limit to the devastation they will oversee to increase profits and maintain their imperialist projects. 

One Struggle is grateful for our connection to Haiti: we organize around core concepts that come from the working class organization Batay Ouvriye (you can watch a short film about their struggle here). The Rapid Response Network was developed as a way to spread calls for solidarity from the workers, not only in the form of financial help but also to pressure factory owners, politicians and other parts of bourgeois Haitian society. 

Since last May, the situation in Haiti has devolved.  According to the United Nations about 5,000 people in Haiti have been killed in 2024 by gang-related violence. There is no formal government to pressure and factories have shut down. Workers in industrial parks that are still open are being gunned down in random gang attacks. The streets that used to host brave and defiant May Day protests are on lock down by gangsters heavily armed with weapons from profitable US gun manufacturers, arriving to the ports on ships from the US. Despite this, Batay Ouvriye continues to provide support to their workers. In a moment when most anyone would be dominated by fear, these workers are trying to navigate the logistics of providing for the families that have lost their loved ones, for children whose mothers have been taken by the violence. 

This needs to be the loudest story we’re telling. Batay Ouvriye has reached out asking for funds and we want to share that request, you can donate here or through Venmo @RRNSolidarity. 

The global imperialist machine has shown us what it is willing to do; getting organized is our only hope for protection. Organizing doesn’t get easier when the threat of armed militias stand between you and your neighbors or your coworkers. We can agree that things are moving towards repression. Now is the time to build the relationships, unity, strength and capacity to support each other for when the austerity gets more dire, when society is feeling more hopelessly divided. The consistency and the struggle that this kind of organization requires is not easy, but it is essential and a hell of a lot easier to do now than it will be in the future.

Where do you want to start? What do you need organizing to do for your communtiy? Discuss it with the person who shared this article with you, reach out to One Struggle through onestruggle.southflorida@gmail.com or on IG through @SeedsOfUnity. Please donate to help workers in Haiti with funeral costs and family support, and to continue to survive and fight the most essential battle of our time: it’s us versus them, the people versus imperialism.

For a longer form perspective on the moment, you can read our last article here with information shared from a member of Batay Ouvriye.