March 28, 2011 - No. 48

Quebec Workers' Fight the Government-Protected Monopoly Abuse of Power

Quebeckers reject the Charest government's actions to ensure monopoly right trumps public right.

• No to the Quebec Budget! The Economy Needs a New Human-Centred Direction! - Christine Dandenault
• Rio Tinto's Provocations Against Alma Aluminum Workers - Interview, Marc Maltais, President, USW Local 9490
• Tembec Continues Attacks on Forestry Communities - Interview, Carl Proulx, National Representative, Abitibi-Témiscamingue, CEP
• Government Betrayal of Pension Responsibilities - Interview, Gilles Bordeleau, President, USW Local 6887, CCR Xstrata Refinery in Montreal

Bernie Dwyer Tour in Ottawa -- March 28
• "The U.S. Covert War Against Cuba"

Haiti
• Aristide's Return and Haiti's Popular Movement - Dan Coughlin, Haiti Liberté
• Haitians Boycott Second Round Between Neo-Duvalierists - Kim Ives, Haiti Liberté

No to the Quebec Budget!

The Economy Needs a New Human-Centred Direction!

- Christine Dandenault -

The Charest government continues to paint its anti-social budget in the most favourable colours, repeating its mantra about how crucial it is to reach a zero-deficit. When presenting the budget Finance Minister Raymond Bachand said: "I am announcing that the government is foreseeing a $3.8 billion deficit for 2011-2012 and $1.5 billion for 2012-2013, and that the budget of the Government of Quebec will be balanced as expected in 2013-2014."

Who decided what expenditures should be made or that a "zero-deficit" should be the aim? What do we know about the debt Quebec is carrying and how it was incurred? When a family makes a budget and decides to borrow to improve its situation -- to buy a house, a car or pay for the education of the children -- it is done as part of a conscious plan including how to repay the debt. But what of Quebec's debt? The Ministry of Finance's website is striking in its lack of a simple and concise description of Quebec's debt, nor any explanation as to how and why it was incurred. This begs the question: who has benefited from the government's going into debt? Meanwhile, the government reduces funding for public services and claims even further cuts are required in the name of a zero-deficit.

"Stop billing us!" "Zero deficit? Balanced budget? My eye!"

Everyone knows that the government has no problem finding money or passing legislation when it comes to rescuing monopolies like Tembec in Abitibi-Temiscamingue, or providing them with billions of dollars of infrastructure to serve their plans to steal our natural resources. But when the people demand the recognition of their rights to health care, education, a livelihood, a decent job and security in retirement, there is no money to be found.

Why we have deficit budgets and why debts are incurred needs to be investigated to demystify this apparently impenetrable accounting that is used to justify all the anti-social attacks.

The Bachand budget deprives the people of a human-centred vision in which social wealth created by the working class and people should be used in a manner which favours their interests. In fact, it goes further and actually deprives them of the wealth itself! First and foremost this wealth must be used to provide the rights which belong to all by virtue of their being human with a guarantee. But the budget does not start from society's social responsibility to satisfy the needs of all its members. This is an anti-social budget because it starts from a capital-centred vision according to which the rich must be paid because society allegedly owes them something.

We need a new, human-centred direction for Quebec. The Charest government can only get away with its anti-people, anti-social and anti-national program because of the absence of an effective opposition that will stop its pay-the-rich program. Clearly the workers must organize themselves to become the decision-makers!

(Translated from French original by TML Daily)

Rio Tinto's Provocations Against
Alma Aluminum Workers

-Interview, Marc Maltais, President, USW Local 9490 -

TML: The Rio Tinto Alcan workers in Alma are reporting increased provocations from the company with negotiations for a new collective agreement expected soon. The current contract expires December 31, 2011. Can you tell us more about this?

Marc Maltais: We held a demonstration on March 17 in front of the plant to denounce these provocations, which do not indicate Rio Tinto is willing to negotiate with us in good faith.

For example, Rio Tinto has unilaterally decided to eliminate the established practice whereby workers who regularly work more than 40 hours a week could accumulate their extra hours as additional vacation time. Most of our workers at the plant are working atypical shifts, for example 12 hours each. They often work in this manner for well over 40 hours a week. Right at the time negotiations are about to begin, Rio Tinto has decided to unilaterally end this practice. This is an important working condition for us, now being taken away. This practice is referred to in our collective agreement but since it has not been negotiated yet it is not binding. Instead of waiting for the negotiations to take place and negotiate this issue with us, it was unilaterally terminated by Rio Tinto.

What also made us quite upset is the fact Rio Tinto sent a notice to the union stating that our representative for the office workers (one of four units in our local) is going to be replaced by a contractor for the duration of negotiations. Subcontracting is one of the major issues for the upcoming negotiations and Rio Tinto is subcontracting his job for that period. We have unionized workers who are trained to do this worker's job and the only thing required is a job posting for him to be replaced. Besides, in this case we are talking about only 20 hours a week, so why would Rio Tinto do this?

Then there is the whole issue of the maintenance centre for the potlines, the CRC. Again Rio Tinto is unilaterally changing a well established arrangement. Usually, the summer period has been used to allow workers of the CRC to apply to replace production workers during their vacation. The work at the CRC is usually interrupted during the summer in order for these workers to do the replacements. Rio Tinto now wants to change the arrangement by eliminating seniority in the assignment of these workers and itself decide who is going to be sent to work there. In exchange for not respecting seniority, the company has offered to pay some of the CRC workers at the [higher] production rate, but not others, under the hoax they are not qualified. Workers rejected that in a general membership meeting and Rio Tinto has retaliated by threatening to layoff the CRC workers during the fall under the hoax it has a limited budget to do the maintenance.

Meanwhile, Rio Tinto also persists in demanding the 69 job openings in the CRC be contracted out. This is what we call job mutation. Instead of hiring that would increase the ranks of our unionized workers, Rio Tinto wants to fill its needs for workers by contracting out jobs. This represents a drastic reduction of wages at the complex and also throughout the region.

TML: In your opinion, what is Rio Tinto's aim with these provocations?

MM: In general Rio Tinto is refusing to recognize the presence and the role of the union at the complex. Basically they want the union to disappear. They just want to decide everything themselves and impose their decisions upon us. The least we can say is they are not creating a suitable atmosphere for the upcoming negotiations.

(Translated from French original by TML Daily)

Tembec Continues Attacks on Forestry Communities

- Interview, Carl Proulx, National Representative, Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada -

"Charest! The multinationals are ready to close Quebec -- Goodyear, Gildan, Bombardier..."

TML: On February 22, the forestry monopoly Tembec announced the permanent closure of its Taschereau sawmill, in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, which has been shut since October 2009. Taschereau is a small municipality of just over 1,000 people and like other forestry communities in the region affected by the crisis, this closure is having a serious impact on the economy and the living standards in the region. The deepening of the crisis in the region, of which the closures are the most salient feature, is crying out for the renewal of the industry so as to serve the needs of the workers, their communities and a pro-social sovereign Quebec economy.

TML asked Carl Proulx, a representative of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada for the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region about the impact of the crisis on the region.

Carl Proulx: With the closure in Taschereau, 120 jobs are gone. Just a few years ago, Tembec operated two mills in the municipality of La Sarre. It closed one of them in 2008, resulting in about a hundred lost jobs. While the other mill is still operating in La Sarre, it is closed on and off based on the needs of Tembec's paper mill in Témiscamingue. Tembec's sawmill in Senneterre is also periodically closed. The sawmill Tembec runs in Béarn, Témiscamingue, closes and re-opens even more than the others. Tembec's four sawmills in the region have been carrying on like that for years. This announcement of the permanent closure in Taschereau is the hardest news to hit us.

TML: Why did it take Tembec 18 months to announce that it was permanently closing its mill in Taschereau?

CP: We knew that the mill would not reopen. Over the course of these 18 months, Tembec has been paying out severance to those workers who wanted to leave, without making them wait for the mill to hypothetically reopen. Some workers took early retirement. Others waited for news of the permanent closure to drop in order to get their Employment Insurance (EI) ahead of their severance package, so that their EI wouldn't be reduced.

I am convinced that Tembec has used these 18 months to make sure that it would not lose its timber license because the licence is tied to the sawmills. Under the law, if the holder of a timber licence does not cut its wood within six months, the Minister of Natural Resources can take possession of the timber. Tembec did not want that to happen and it used the 18 months to negotiate with the government. It took them 18 months I think to hold secret negotiations with the Minister of Natural Resources in order to have their wood licence transferred to their sawmills in La Sarre -- about 50 km from Taschereau -- and in Béarn -- about 120 km. It took them a long time to negotiate because the wood, which is located in Abitibi-Ouest, is going to be transferred outside of that region to Témiscamingue and this requires the authorization of the Minister of Natural Resources. That is why it took 18 months for our workers to receive the confirmation that the mill will not reopen. Everything is done behind the backs of the workers and the communities.

The impact of both the closure and the way it was done is huge. Usually when there is a closure and mass layoffs, government programs kick in for workers while they are training, looking for a new job or taking early retirement, etc. Our workers have not been able to access these programs because it took 18 months for the permanent closure to be announced. Tembec did not consider for one minute that not only would the workers lose their jobs, but that they would be further penalized. It only cared about filling its own pockets.

TML: What do you make of Tembec's argument that the closure of its sawmills is justified by the wood shortage in the region?

CP: This is not a valid argument. How can the lack of supply be the issue when Tembec did not even cut the timber it has. Its mills were closed. This is true not only of Taschereau but of the other three mills that have also been closed on and off.

Based on the current timber licenses, Tembec has enough wood to operate its sawmills. It is true that it is becoming more expensive for Tembec to get to its wood because it has to travel longer distances to get at it. Currently it has to go further north, up to Matagami, to get its wood. But now with the closure of Taschereau they are going to send this wood directly south to Béarn in Témiscamingue, which is even further and is going to be even more expensive. So what is the logic? Maybe Tembec thinks that it is easier to close a mill in a small village like Taschereau than in La Sarre which is one of the biggest municipalities in the area? Also we must not forget that Tembec already permanently closed a mill in La Sarre three years ago.

It is going to be very difficult for a small municipality like Taschereau to compensate for the loss of taxes resulting from the closure. And there is other collateral damage. Those who remain in Taschereau are going to face the devaluation of their homes and an increase in taxes. People there who have invested money in renovating their homes, probably around $30,000, will find that their houses are not even going to be worth that much. They are losing their jobs and the value of their assets is decreasing. Some have already found jobs elsewhere and others will do the same. They are not able to sell their homes and staying in Taschereau means traveling longer distances to a new job and the huge additional expense in gas. This closure has many ramifications that will be felt deeply for a long time.

(Translated from French original by TML Daily)

Government Betrayal of Pension Responsibilities

- Interview, Gilles Bordeleau, President, USW Local 6887,
CCR Xstrata Refinery in Montreal -

TML: You came to the Hamilton Day of Action in support of the locked out steelworkers at U.S. Steel as part of the delegation of Quebec workers. At that time you said that the pension issue is amongst the most important issues facing workers at this time. Can you elaborate?

Gilles Bordeleau: If we look at the Charest government's last budget, we can see it is low income workers who are going to be affected most. The Charest government wants workers to rely on personal savings to increase their pension benefits. But we know that workers with low incomes will only manage to save a little or nothing at all. Meanwhile, those workers who are going to try to save some money with the idea of retiring early, at 60 years of age, will not succeed either. One reason is the increased penalties the Régie des rentes is going to impose henceforth on those retiring before age 65. Low income workers have been put in an impossible situation.

We are facing governments that are betraying their responsibilities towards workers and especially the most vulnerable amongst them. This makes no sense at all. Not only are they attacking the poorest workers but the ranks of impoverished workers are going to swell. Governments are actively working for collective impoverishment instead of increasing living standards for all. And it is going to get worse if governments start increasing the legal age to receive a pension. There is no way companies are going to agree to pay the differential -- the bridge payments as we say -- between the time workers retire and the legal age to receive a full pension.

As a trade unionist, I do not just fight for unionized workers such as ours but for all the most vulnerable whose life is made untenable not only with respect to pensions, but also with the fees and the health tax they have to pay [being imposed by the Charest government in its latest budget -- TML Ed. Note]. There are going to be more and more people who won't go to the doctor because they can't afford it. We have fought for decades for a pension and a health care system which protects us and the governments are dismantling everything.

TML: What is the situation with the pensions at the refinery?

GB: We are still on a defined benefits pension plan. However, if we look at what is going on around us, we see that all the industries are moving towards defined contribution plans. Last year, when we negotiated our current contract, Xstrata did not come after our pensions. It is very possible that next time in two years they are going to demand two-tier pensions with the new hires on a defined contribution plan. The number of plants with defined benefits plans keeps shrinking. So we have to be ready and we are going to be ready ahead of time.

That's what they are trying to impose on the steelworkers in Hamilton and that's why we went there to support them. When they said no to concessions on pensions, U.S. Steel locked them out without further discussion. We can't call that negotiation.

This is one more reason to stick together and I hope the unions do work together more and more, irrespective of their affiliation. In fact we see this is a growing trend. We have seen it in Hamilton and recently we also went to march with everybody at the huge demonstration against the Charest government's latest budget.

(Translated from French original by TML Daily)

Bernie Dwyer Tour in Ottawa

"The U.S. Covert War Against Cuba"

In the spring of 2003, monopoly media reported on the arrest of 75 dissidents in Cuba portraying the situation as a violation of the human rights of independent journalists, trade unionists and librarians opposed to the Cuban government. The documentary "The Day Diplomacy Died" exposes the role played by U.S. diplomats in the creation and control of the "dissident" movement in Cuba through the testimony of four ex-Cuban agents working undercover, among others. The former Cuban agents speak for the first time about the inner workings of the "dissident groups" they infiltrated and the various U.S. government plans to destabilize Cuba. The film also presents the views of two former heads of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, as well as José Pertierra, a Washington-based human rights lawyer, on Cuba's right to defend its sovereignty under international law; and Ricardo Alarcón, former Cuban Ambassador to the United Nations, now President of the Cuban Parliament, on the history of failed U.S.-Cuba diplomacy.

Bernie Dwyer is an Irish journalist and filmmaker. Since 1996 Bernie has been linked to the Havana Latin American Film festivals and the Cuban Union of Writers and Artists (UNEAC) and has organized several cultural and film exchanges between Ireland and Cuba. In 1997 she organized an Irish film showcase at the Latin American Film Festival in Havana which included Jim Sheridan and Terry George in the Irish delegation. Most recently, Bernie has been making documentaries that feature cultural links between Ireland and Cuba in collaboration with Cuban documentary-maker, Roberto Ruiz Rebo. The documentary "The Day Diplomacy Died" was directed and written by Dwyer and Ruiz Rebo.

Haiti

Aristide's Return and Haiti's Popular Movement

- Dan Coughlin, Haiti Liberté, March 23, 2011 -

Haitians throng outside the residence of the Aristide family on March 18, 2011, to welcome back
the former president from exile. (Mediahacker)

Former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's triumphant return to Haiti after seven years of forced exile in South Africa signals a new stage in the Caribbean country's popular and democratic struggle just as a resurgent right wing prepares to lay electoral claim -- for the first time since Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier's 1957 victory -- to the country's presidency following a controversial US-backed presidential poll on Mar. 20.

"Today may the Haitian people mark the end of exile and coup d'état, while peacefully we must move from social exclusion to social inclusion," said Aristide, referring to the bloody 2004 US-backed coup, the second time he was driven from power after being elected with huge popular majorities.

Aristide's return comes at a key turning point in the country's history. Bolstered by a 14,000-strong UN military occupation known as MINUSTAH, and massive international aid following the January 2010 earthquake, Haiti's tiny right-wing elite have become stronger, economically and politically, than at any time in the last 25 years.

This has been dramatically underscored by the return of former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier from France earlier this year and an openly fraudulent electoral process that has barred Haiti's most popular political party -- Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas -- from participation and put forth two right-wing candidates [Michel "Sweet Micky" Martelly, 50, a popular konpa musician, faces off against Mirlande Manigat, 70, the wife of a former right-wing president.] [...]

"The international community is imposing their will, using the guns of the UN troops, to impose two very right-wing candidates with Duvalierist elements on the Haitian people," noted Pierre Labossiere of the San Francisco-based Haiti Action Committee.

Aristide's return, which threatens the resurgent neo-Duvalierist movement and represents a victory for the popular movement, changes the political equation, according to many grassroots activists.

The extent of Aristide's influence is clear from recently released Wikileaks cables.

A June 2005 State Department cable describes the US and Brazilian governments agreeing "that all efforts must be made to keep Aristide from returning to Haiti or influencing the political process." In another just released 2005 cable, US and French diplomats threatened to block South Africa's seating on the UN Security Council unless South African President Thabo Mbeki managed to keep Aristide in exile there.

The French said Aristide's return would be "catastrophic" and even plotted to hinder Aristide in the logistics of reaching Haiti by air from South Africa.

"There has been a political vacuum at all levels since the absence of Aristide and especially since January 12 [2010 earthquake]," said Yves Pierre Louis, the Port-au-Prince bureau chief of Haiti Liberté, a left-wing weekly newspaper. "Aristide's presence alone will be like a serum. It will revitalize the popular movement and the struggle against occupation and neo-liberalism."

"Aristide can't physically lead the fight against the MINUSTAH. But at least we'll have somebody who can talk for us," said 38-year-old Basil Gilene, standing in front of eight heavily armed Brazilian soldiers in Bel Air, one of the popular neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince. "The money they spend for the mess they call elections would have been better spent for housing for the people living in tents on the Champ Mars [in downtown Port-au-Prince] or to rebuild homes in [the hard-hit neighborhood of] Fort National. But instead we see it spent on worthless elections."

While many grassroots activists welcome Aristide's return, others caution that electoral politics and a focus on individual leadership has serious limits.

Outside her teeming neighborhood health clinic in Carrefour Feuille, amid earthquake rubble, young teenagers putting on "Welcome Home" Aristide T-shirts, and market women selling US AID food aid, community health activist Rosy Auguste notes the difficulties and mistakes that the popular and democratic movement has made over the last 25 years.

Leaders of popular organizations have been forced to move abroad, grassroots groups failed to educate younger generations on the horrors of Duvalierism, and the dominant role of international actors in Haitian society continues unabated, says Auguste.

"It is for sure that the big countries have had a big weight in the country and that didn't begin on Jan. 12 with the huge increase in volume of NGOs in the country," observes Auguste. "What will change this reality of Haiti, and the international role, is the mobilizations in the neighborhoods and the popular organizations to construct a stronger and more accountable Haitian state."

One outcome seems certain, though: Aristide's return will inject new energy into many parts of the popular and democratic movements, whose partisans had begun to despair that their inspirational symbol would never return.

"We in the popular masses, since [the] January 12 [earthquake], we have never found anybody who can get us out of the tents we are under," said 29-year-old Guillaume Joseph, standing on a street corner with an unexcavated quake-collapsed building next to him. "When you see the misery the people are living in, the problem we have is we need a leader and that leader is Aristide. The elections are nonsense, whether it's Martelly or Manigat, they are both putschists."

Haitians Boycott Second Round Between Neo-Duvalierists

- Kim Ives, Haiti liberte, March 23, 2011 (excerpts) -

[In Haiti's March 20 presidential runoff election,] the majority of Haiti's 4.7 million voters shunned choosing between a vulgar pro-coup konpa musician, Michel "Sweet Micky" Martelly, and a professorial former First Lady, Mirlande Manigat, for president. Both candidates share right-wing histories (supporting the 1991 and 2004 coups d'état against Aristide) and programmes (most tellingly, reactivation of the Haitian army, which Aristide demobilized in 1995).

Most polling stations had only light turn-out. Any voting lines observed around the capital, Port-au-Prince, and its tent-strewn suburbs were due to administrative delays and irregularities (which were widespread), including a lack of ballots, finger-marking ink or poll workers. One station had ballots for a 2009 senate race delivered. Some polls opened up to four hours late.

Our random sampling of final vote tallies at four polling stations (each composed of several "voting bureaus") in Cité Soleil, Delmas and Lalue revealed that only 17.7% of their registered voters turned out to vote. That participation rate is well below the almost 23% rate of the dramatically flawed Nov. 28 first round, which already marked a record low for Haiti, and all Latin America, since such record-keeping began over 60 years ago.

An OAS poll observer said that turnout in Arcahaie and Cabaret, two rural towns north of the capital, was only about 25%. The random samples showed Martelly leading Manigat by about three to one. The elections took place despite the fact that the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) never voted to authorize a second round. This illegality was "one of our concerns," OAS/Caricom observer team chief Colin Granderson told Haiti Liberté and Democracy Now! the evening before the election. That "concern" about the law didn't stop the election though.

In a Mar. 21 press conference, Granderson acknowledged the low turnout, admitting that the "final numbers were a bit disappointing." The CEP will not announce preliminary results until Mar. 31; final tallies are due Apr. 16.

Arrival of Aristide

Aristide landed in Haiti from a seven-year exile in South Africa aboard a small government jet from that country at 9:10 am on Mar. 18. He was met first by scores of elbowing journalists on the tarmac, and then greeted on his two-mile drive home to Tabarre by tens of thousands of Haitians, who descended on the airport as the news of his arrival -- preceded by many false alarms -- spread like wildfire through the capital region.

In his arrival speech, Aristide did not directly criticize the illegal elections, as the US and French governments (which had spearheaded the 2004 coup against him) had feared, causing them to work hard at blocking his return. (Despite crises in Japan and the Middle East, President Barack Obama found the time to make two phone calls to his South African counterpart Jacob Zuma in an unsuccessful effort to have the flight that carried Aristide cancelled.) Instead, Aristide simply observed that "the problem is exclusion, the solution is inclusion." The CEP had arbitrarily barred Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas party from the election in November 2009, two months before the Jan. 12 earthquake.

Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide arrivese in Port-au-Prince, March 18, 2011.
(Haiti Progrés, Mediahacker)

"The exclusion of the Lavalas Family is exclusion of the majority," Aristide continued in Kreyòl. "Exclusion of the majority is exactly like cutting off the branch that we are all sitting on."

The Haitian people got the message loud and clear, although many of the young people who flooded into the Aristides' courtyard, scaling the compound's walls and climbing onto the only partially repaired house's roof proclaimed that they would vote "tet kale," a reference to Martelly's bald head. However, others in the giant crowd often interrupted them, saying "there was no first round, so there can be no second round," a slogan devised by boycotting Lavalas base organizations and embraced by 10 of the 17 other jilted presidential candidates.

"Very few are participating in this selection today," said Wilson St Val, a former member of Aristide's presidential security unit, standing in front of a Cité Soleil voting station guarded by UN occupation troops and tanks on election day. (Boycotting Haitians prefer "selection" to "election.")

"There is minimal participation in all the popular neighborhoods because they are Lavalas bastions," he said. "The foreigners thought Aristide would disrupt the mascarade, but he didn't. He and we are letting them do their thing, but we are still here, watching."

Martelly has seduced parts of Aristide's urban poor base with intermittent populist and nationalist posturing, an irreverent stage persona and a well-financed, professionally-run campaign, which climaxed with a star-studded concert (including Wyclef Jean and Prad of the Fugees) on the Champ de Mars, complete with confetti, smoke machines, fire-works and a bone-vibrating sound system. If that is not enough, Martelly has also borrowed a trick from François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, the cagey dictator who won a 1957 election and then rigged a 1964 referendum to make himself "President for Life" until his death in 1971. To consolidate his ruthless power, Duvalier formed the Volunteers for National Security (VSN), more commonly known as the Tonton Macoutes. Every Macoute received a card that afforded him many privileges, like free merchandise from any store he entered, entitlement to coerced sex, and fear and respect from people in general.

This system, which hoisted many a poor devil from low station to high, may have inspired a 21st-century variant. For $30, before the election, potential voters could join the Base Michel Joseph Martelly (BMJM)) and invest in a pink plastic membership card, with photo, which promises many advantages (such as a job, say) when the Martelly administration comes to power. The move ensures prepaid voter participation and an esprit de corps among the loyal. [...]

When Martelly came to vote in Pétionville on election day, it briefly looked like a replay of 1990, when Aristide was first elected president. An ecstatic crowd massed on the sidewalks and hailed the candidate, chanting the same songs their parents did 20 years ago, just replacing "Titid" with "Micky."

But just beyond the crowd on which all cameras were trained, hundreds of people walked like ghosts among the tents still pitched on the Place St. Pierre, completely uninterested in the commotion 25 yards away. 1990 this definitely was not. Aristide summed it up when giving Amy Goodman and Sharif Abdel Kouddous of Democracy Now! an interview in his home just hours after his return. He spoke of the similarities between 1990 and the outpouring for his return and of "sharing love with the people, loving them."

But, he continued, "they are so bright, if you are faking, pretending that you love them and using beautiful words, they will smell it, they will get it."

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