Damming the Flood
By Peter Hallward
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Once the most lucrative European colony in the Caribbean, Haiti
has long been one of the most divided and impoverished countries in the world.
In the late 1980s a remarkable popular mobilization known as Lavalas, or “the
flood,” sought to liberate the island from decades of US-backed dictatorial
rule. After winning a landslide election victory, in 1991 the Lavalas
government led by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was overthrown by a bloody
military coup. Damming the Flood analyzes how and why Aristide’s
enemies in Haiti, the US and France made sure that his second government,
elected with another overwhelming majority in 2000, was toppled by a further
coup in 2004.
The elaborate international campaign to contain, discredit and then overthrow
Lavalas at the start of the twenty-first century was perhaps the most
successful act of imperial sabotage since the end of the Cold War. Its
execution and its impact have much to teach anyone interested in the
development of today's political struggles in Latin America and the rest of the
post-colonial world.
“Very convincing, a marvellous book. This riveting and
deeply-informed account should be carefully read by those who recognize that
Haiti's tragic history is a microcosm of imperial savagery and heroic
resistance – resistance which, as Hallward argues, will continue to shape
Haiti's political future if its people are granted the opportunity to take
their fate into their own hands.” – Noam Chomsky, MIT.
“Damming the Flood demonstrates that, contrary to what so many self-proclaimed
experts have led us to believe with the steady diet of half-truths and outright
lies they have been feeding us, it is indeed possible to ‘get Haiti right.’ All
it takes is a healthy dose of respect for a nation and a people so deserving of
it, and an uncompromising devotion to the truth.” – Patrick Elie, political
activist and former Secretary of State for National Defense, Haiti.
“Damming the Flood is an excellent book, the best study of its kind.
It offers the first accurate analysis of recent Haitian history, and of its
history in the making. Finally, we have an honest rendering of how the Haitian
poor sought to advance their struggle for dignity at the close of the twentieth
century, and of the forces that have stymied their struggle. Hallward's new
book is required reading for anyone who seeks to know Haiti and to understand
the forces arrayed against all those who believe in genuine democracy.” – Paul
Farmer, Harvard University.
Praise for Peter Hallward’s Absolutely Postcolonial:
“Hallward’s stimulating book provides a new benchmark for all future debate in
this field.” — Paul Gilroy
‘Damming the Flood is a brilliant, politically
sophisticated and morally infuriating work on a shameful piece of very recent
history that the U.S. press has either distorted or ignored. It is the most important
and devastating book I've read on American betrayal of democracy in one of the
most tormented nations in the world.’ (Jonathan Kozol,
author of Death at an Early Age, Rachel and her Children, and Savage
Inequalities).
‘This is a book
about the latest crime that the world's most powerful nation committed against
one of the world's poorest. I like this book for its
scholarship, its measured tone, and its good writing. But I am grateful for it
above all because at long last it presents another side of a story that has
been reported, almost universally, with stunning tendentiousness and in
apparent ignorance of the lives and opinions of most Haitians. This book goes a
long way to setting the record straight. It tells a horrifying but deeply compelling
story. It ought to be required reading for every historian of the Americas and
for every student of political science.’ (Tracy Kidder, author
of Mountains
Beyond
Mountains).
‘Damming the Flood
is the best source for anyone trying to understand what has happened in Haiti, and it
is unfortunately equally valuable for explaining what is happening elsewhere in
Latin America. It is meticulously researched, with ample citations to the
mainstream press, human rights reports, and experts from many countries and
political perspectives’ (Brian Concannon, Jr., director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti).
‘Did He Jump or Was He Pushed? Aristide and the
2004 Coup in Haiti’, published in eight instalments in Haïti Liberté,
October-November 2007, http://www.haitianalysis.com/2007/12/7/did-he-jump-or-was-he-pushed-aristide-and-the-2004-coup-in-haiti.
‘If Stones Could Float: The British Press and the
Turks and Caicos Boat Disaster’, Radical Philosophy 145 (September
2007), 53-55. The complete version of this text is available online at http://haitianalysis.com/2007/9/4/if-stones-could-float-the-british-press-and-the-turks-and-caicos-boat-disaster.
‘Aristide and the Violence of Democracy’ [review of
Alex Dupuy, The Prophet and Power, 2007], published in three instalments in Haiti
Liberté numbers 1-3, July 2007; online at http://www.haitianalysis.com/2007/8/18/hallward-reviews-dupuy-s-the-prophet-and-power-jean-bertrand-aristide-the-international-community-and-haiti.
‘Insurgency and Betrayal: An Interview with Guy
Philippe’, HaitiAnalysis 23 March 2007, http://www.haitianalysis.com/2007/3/25/insurgency-and-betrayal-an-interview-with-guy-philippe.
‘One Step at a Time: An Interview with
Jean-Bertrand Aristide’, London Review of Books 29:4 (22 February 2007, http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n04/hall02_.html). The
complete English transcript is available online at http://www.haitianalysis.com/2007/2/18/%E2%80%98one-step-at-a-time%E2%80%99-an-interview-with-jean-bertrand-aristide
and in French at http://narconews.com/Issue45/article_fr2559.html.
‘Option Zero in Haiti,’ New Left Review 27
(May 2004), 23-47. http://www.newleftreview.net/NLR26102.shtml
‘Haitian Inspiration: Notes on the Bicentenary of
Independence,’ Radical Philosophy 123 (January 2004), 2-7. http://www.radicalphilosophy.com/default.asp?channel_id=2187&editorial_id=14344