[Stopwar-l] Haiti book launch Friday / Sign on to housing rights campaign

[StopWar]

Dear Stopwar list reader,

At its monthly meeting last week, Stopwar voted to endorse the housing
rights campaign in Haiti titled 'Under Tents.' We invite you to read the
enclosed information sheet on the campaign and to sign the international
petition demanding action by the Haitian government and its international
allies, including the Government of Canada. The petition calls on Haitian
and international authorities to create a housing program for the hundreds
of thousands of people left homeless by the 2010 earthquake.

Please also note below that there is an important book launch on Haiti
taking place this Friday at the central branch of the Vancouver Public
Library, starting at 7pm and featuring author and activist Jeb Sprague.

In solidarity,
Derrick O'Keefe, co-chair, Stopwar
Roger Annis, member of coordinating committee, Stopwar

***

Support the international campaign for housing in Haiti: ‘Under Tents’

Find this fact sheet online here:
http://canadahaitiaction.ca/content/fact-sheet-under-tents-housing-rights-campaign

(en français ici:
http://canadahaitiaction.ca/content/sous-les-tentes-feuille-dinformation-de-la-campagne).

On July 4, 2012, Haitian grassroots organizations and international allies
launched an urgent housing rights campaign, calling for permanent housing
solutions for the nearly 400,000 people who are still living in
displacement camps more than two years after the earthquake. The Under
Tents campaign is a joint initiative of dozens of Haitian grassroots and
international organizations.

Haiti’s homeless are demanding that the government immediately halt all
forced evictions until public or affordable housing is made available.
Under Tents has launched an international petition requesting that the
Government of Haiti, with the support of its allies and donor governments
in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, move quickly to:

(1) designate land for housing;

(2) create a centralized government housing institution to coordinate and
implement a social housing plan; and

(3) solicit and allocate funding to realize this plan.


There are hundreds of thousands of homeless and internally displaced
people in Haiti. They face high rates of gender-based and other violence,
lack of access to clean water and toilets, and an ongoing cholera
epidemic. One in five is at risk of imminent forced eviction.

*To add your name to the petition of Under Tents, go here:
http://www.change.org/undertents

* To become a campaign sponsor or to contribute financially to the
campaign, write or phone to the contact information below.


For updates, check out the campaign's website: http://undertentshaiti.com/

or Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/UnderTentsHaiti.

Follow us on Twitter at @UnderTentsHaiti.

Contact:

Under Tents (Haiti) | Ellie Happel | elliehappel at gmail.com, 509 4688 9976

Other Worlds Are Possible (U.S.) | haiti.otherworlds at gmail.com

Canada Haiti Action Network | canadahaiti at gmail.com | 778 858 5179

The list of campaign organization sponsors (33 as of Aug 20,2012) can be
found at the campaign website of Under Tents:
http://undertentshaiti.com/www.undertents.com.

To read more on Haiti: www.canadahaitiaction.ca

***

Book launch with author Jeb Sprague - Friday Sept 14

'Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti'

Friday, Sept. 14 Vancouver, BC: 7:00-8:30pm in the Alma VanDusen & Peter
Kaye Rooms at the Vancouver Public Library.

President Michel Martelly now stands poised to institutionalize as a
standing army the very paramilitary forces which helped overthrow Haiti’s
elected government in 1991 and 2004. Sprague’s new book is just out and
not a moment too soon. Paramilitaries are being trained and housed on
close to 20 former Haitian Army bases around Haiti, with a wink and a nod
(if not more) from Martelly’s government.

“Former soldiers and death-squad members were set up on 23 bases around
Haiti,” explained Sen. Moïse Jean-Charles in a July 2012 interview with
Haïti Liberté. “In the face of international criticism, the government
made a big production of closing down four of those bases earlier this
year. But what about the other 19 de facto bases? They are still
functioning, and Martelly knows it. Martelly is behind it.”

Professor and author Robert Fatton has called Sprague's book a “must-read
not only for Haitianists, but also for anyone interested in the processes
of political destabilization and popular disempowerment.”Beginning this
month, Sprague will make a speaking tour throughout Canada and the U.S.for
Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti. Below is the
schedule for that tour. To order the book from the publisher, go to:
http://monthlyreview.org/press/.

Get more information on the book here:
http://www.canadahaitiaction.ca/content/new-book-dissects-violent-base-martelly-regime