Marxist - Haiti Observer Blog

Rene Theodore died of lung cancer in June, 2003 because of lung cancer. He was the former head of the Haitian Communist Party. He was receiving treatment in Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital. His death was confirmed by Max Bourjolly who was second in command of the Haitian Communist Party. Rene Theodore entered politics when he was in High School and then continued his political life for 47 years. His last political act was in 2002 December when he co-signed a declaration from the opposition which called for resignation of the then President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

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Writer, economist, and firebrand Gérard Pierre-Charles was born in Jacmel in 1935. A radical, whose political beliefs were shaped by the government of Haiti's failed attempts at democracy, he co-founded a Marxist organization. In 1959, feared dictator François Duvalier caused him to flee to Mexico.

For the next quarter-century, Pierre-Charles taught economics at Mexico City University. He achieved respect as an academician and political extremist. He co-founded Haitian Unified Communist Party (HUCP) and waited for Jean-Claude Duvalier to be deposed, which happened in 1986.

Back in Haiti, he grew disenchanted with the Communist Party, and became an ally of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who had founded Lavalas Party. Aristide was riding high on a wave of popular support, assuming the presidency in 1991. But military opposition ousted him shortly into his presidency. Pierre-Charles seized control of Lavalas and shaped it into an effective political tool, Lavalas Political Organization.

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"I am this: this earth here, and I have it in my blood. Look at my color; it seems as though the earth faded onto me and onto you too."

Jacques Roumain, like many of history's other literary giants, lived a short life but managed to leave such brilliant words behind they would be spoken for centuries following his death. Through his poems he opened up a colorful, complex world that harkened to the struggles of his contemporaries and has given fodder for great new works by those he inspired and homage-paying re-enactments in the present.

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Jacques-Stephen Alexis was born in 1922 with literary blood already in his veins courtesy of his writer father, Stephen Alexis. His upbringing in Haiti and the influence of other prolific Haitian writers, like Jacques Roumain before him, molded Alexis into one of the country's most well loved writers.

Though he'd completed his schooling in medicine, writing had remained a passion and he gained early recognition on his first piece, an essay on the poet, Hamilton Garoute. This early success was soon followed by his work with La Ruche and then by a string of novels which tended towards the heavy narrative telling of the Haitian city-dwelling peasant.

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