Minnesota Alliance of Peacemaker’s annual Celebration of Peace

The Minnesota event took place at the Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church and began with the hot sounds of Cyril Paul and the Calypso Monarchs. Under a canopy of suspended peace cranes, the audience shook their shoulders, tapped their feet and clapped along as the band sung songs in French, Creole, Spanish and English. A group of hearty souls even formed a conga line, letting the rhythmic notes sweep them through the church pews.

Guest speakers for the event included Michelle Karshan, former foreign press liaison for Haitian Presidents Jean Bertrand Aristide and Andre Preval, and August Nimitz, professor of political science at the University of Minnesota who has traveled in and spoken extensively on Cuba. The theme of the evening was “An Issue of Democracy: United States Intervention in Haiti, Cuba and Beyond.”

Michelle Karshan(right) spoke first on the legacy of President Jean Bertrand Aristide and his goal to move the Haitian people “from misery to poverty with dignity.” She explained that in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, the move to poverty would be a huge improvement for most people. Aristide was a president who truly respected people and wanted to improve life for the majority. She spoke of his commitment to education and to a nationwide literacy campaign. She also spoke of his work in reducing the transmission rate of AIDS and his legislation for the rights of children, a concept never before seen on a local or national level. She also spoke of how he dismantled the symbols of oppression from the previous dictatorship, including the army, and worked towards strengthening democracy in the country through elections.

Despite his many accomplishments, Aristide was viewed as a threat to the elite, including wealthy landowners, business owners, and former military. Michelle contends that it was Aristide’s reluctance to privatize state companies, his raising of the minimum wage, and his resistance to economic globalization that put him at odds with business owners and interests in the United States. This was, after all, setting a bad example for the region.

Aristide was disposed in a coup in February 29, 2004, just weeks after Haiti’s bicentennial celebration. Michelle explained the unfolding of the coup including the use of rumors, disinformation, hate radio, violent demonstrations by the opposition, the withholding of essential services by the elite, and threats of violence against children, to discredit Aristide and destabilize the country. She also explained how drug traffickers joined the opposition with their money and weapons and in the end, earned free borders for transporting their drugs into the United States.

Although many of the accomplishments of Aristide are now being reversed and the country is being operating extra-constitutionally, there is still hope. Resistance to the current situation is growing and people are coming out in larger numbers. Nearly 10,000 people demonstrated for peace on September 11 and more are expected in an upcoming rally at the end of September. The people are calling for a return to order, a return to the constitution and the return of the democratically-elected President Aristide.

August Nimitz(right) addressed democracy in Cuba and how it has more democracy now than anytime in history. He explained how socioeconomic advances in Cuba benefit all, unlike most countries, because power was taken out of the hands of the elite. He compared the situation to Haiti, where only a few control the majority and as a result, there is widespread poverty. He explained that the Cuban people are the revolution -they are the majority who were able to wrestle power away from the minority and because of this, the revolution will survive past Castro.

He addressed the crisis of capitalism, which can be seen in the dire futures of social security and pension plans. Because people are living longer, we will see more stresses on those systems that were established to take care of the retired and elderly. The crisis in capitalism will be a global crisis, and with this crisis, we will see resistance.

Nimitz also discussed how U.S. foreign policy represents the minority interest of society. New U.S. policies towards Cuba make it harder than ever for family members to return to Cuba for visits and for U.S. citizens to travel to Cuba on educational trips. These policies are not being crafted in Miami as some would like to believe, but in Washington D.C. and on Wall Street. Yet despite the pressures they face, Cubans give hope to people at the bottom and represent ideals that threaten the U.S. government.

Nimitz contends that our job as peacemakers is to take power out of the hands of the tiny minority. It is only then we can have a real foreign policy.

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Jeanne Morales has been active at St. Joans for the past year. She loves working in her garden, attending the St. Joan of Arc Bible Study and sneaking off for camping trips when she has time. Jeanne can be reached at moralesj@Macalester.edu.

The evening ended with the recognition of veterans by Veterans for Peace, Chapter 27. The veterans gathered on the altar and rang a bell 11 times followed by a minute of silence. In that brief moment, we all remembered our veterans and our current soldiers and prayed that peace will find its way on this earth.

	Rita Nohner is a long-time parishoner of SJA and consider St. Joans her spiritual home. She enjoys being involved in the BibleStudy, Soup Suppers, Team Oz and Arm in Arm in Africa. Rita's passions are traveling and photography - a handy combination. She is in the infant stages of creating her own business selling photo greeting cards and looking forward to the challenges ahead.