Global capitalism, Haiti, and the flexibilisation of paramilitarism

Abstract

This paper looks at the shifting manner in which paramilitarism has been reproduced in Haiti, examining how it has evolved from the Cold War into the era of capitalist globalisation. The central argument of this article is that paramilitarism has not disappeared but has been altered, and that this has occurred in part due to the changing strategies of elites in the global era. Rather than a permanent and widespread force, paramilitary groups are utilised in smaller numbers and only in certain ‘emergency periods’, serving a purpose of containment: targeting political threats and beating down those large populations whose social reproduction is not required by transnational capital. This has been a difficult situation for elites to manage, as they often have only limited control over such ruthless, corrupt and violent elements, which they sometimes require. Following the 1991 and 2004 coup d’états in Haiti, a military–paramilitary–bourgeoisie grouping has repeatedly worked to recover its impunity and revamp its coercive apparatus. Under these conditions, and even more increasingly in the wake of the 2010 earthquake, a variety of elites and technocrats (most importantly, US policymakers) have sought to politically remake the country alongside processes of economic restructuring promoted by transnational capital.

Keywords:

• Caribbean
• globalisation
• paramilitarism
• IPE
• democratisation
• neoliberalism

Acknowledgements

All intellectual labour is collective, and my work here builds on the intellectual labour of many others, some of whom I have had the opportunity to know. I must especially thank Hilbourne Watson, Jasmin Hristov, Patrick Clairzier, Salvador Rangel and Phillip Hough who in the spirit of compañerismo provided comments on an earlier draft of this paper. I wish also to thank for their feedback the anonymous reviewers at Third World Quarterly, and those who attended a talk that I gave on this paper at the Caribbean Studies Association in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in June 2016.

Notes

1. To view photos that go along with this research, see: http://jebsprague.blogspot.com/2013/01/paramilitarism-in-haiti-photo-montage.html; http://jebsprague.blogspot.com/2017/01/a-reply-to-reviews-of-my-2012book.html. To view an earlier longer version of this article in French see: Sprague-Silgado, “Haïti: le capitalisme des paramilitaires.”

2. Watson, Globalization, Sovereignty and Citizenship; Sprague-Silgado, Globalising the Caribbean; CARICOM, “Transnationalization in the Financial Services Sector.”

3. Dicken, Global Shift, 106–171; Robinson, Global Capitalism and the Crisis of Humanity.

4. Harris, Global Capitalism and the Crisis of Humanity; Liodakis, Totalitarian Capitalism and Beyond; Robinson, Theory of Global Capitalism; Sklair, Transnational Capitalist Class; Taylor and Nel, “New Africa”; Sprague, Ed., Globalization and Transnational Capitalism.

5. Robinson and Sprague-Silgado, “Transnational Capitalist Class”; Robinson, Global Capitalism and the Crisis of Humanity.

6. Davis, “Non-State Armed Actors.”

7. Arias, Criminal Enterprises and Governance.

8. Hristov, Blood and Capital.

9. Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 215.

10. Budd, “Gramsci’s Marxism and International Relations.”

11. Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 263.

12. Aarseth, “Private Military Companies.”

13. Gills, Rocamora, and Wilson, “Low Intensity Democracy.”

14. Watson, Globalization, Sovereignty and Citizenship.

15. Baker, “Global Capitalism and Iraq.”

16. Sprague, “From International to Transnational Mining”; Sprague-Silgado, “Toward an Understanding of Transnational Capitalism”; Sprague-Silgado, “Caribbean Cruise Ship Business”; Sprague-Silgado, Globalising the Caribbean.

17. Robinson, Theory of Global Capitalism; Robinson, Global Capitalism and the Crisis of Humanity.

18. Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism; Mies, Patriarchy and Accumulation.

19. Robinson and Sprague-Silgado, “Transnational Capitalist Class.”

20. Robinson, “Gramsci and Globalisation.”

21. Aarseth, Private Military Companies.

22. We might describe them as ‘independent contractors hired by the elite’, much like a rara band or wall builder, who might or might not choose to work for an employer, depending on many factors. The ‘worker’ label may be a little misleading. A soldier in the army had more of a worker status: s/he must respect discipline, orders and hours. Even the members of the old Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale (VSN) had more of a ‘worker’ status as compared to the new more precarious living arrangements of paramilitaries. The new paramilitary forces are more like ‘free agents’. Everybody is a chief, and nobody is a chief, they have on-again off-again alliances, rivalries, feuds, collaborations and some can be drunk often. All that said, they can be very lethal and professional. All this said, the term flexibilisation I believe helps to describe how they have shifted from an earlier more permanent relation to in recent years a more subcontracted precarious relation.

23. Hristov, Blood and Capital; Mazzei, Death Squads or Self-Defence Forces?

24. Robinson, Promoting Polyarchy.

25. Interview with an Individual from an Upper-Class Family in Haiti. Requested anonymity (2011).

26. Robinson, Theory of Global Capitalism; Robinson, Global Capitalism and the Crisis of Humanity.

27. Dicken, Global Shift; Robinson, Global Capitalism and the Crisis of Humanity.

28. Multinational Monitor, “Interview”; Trouillot, Haiti.

29. Waltzer, “Haiti Economic Elite Families.”

30. Herman and Brodhead, Demonstration Elections; Barrow-Giles and Thomas, General Elections; Sprague, “Jamaica and the Politics; Sprague-Silgado, “Polyarchy in the Dominican Republic.”

31. Robinson, Promoting Polyarchy. Without going into detail, it must be noted that other means for achieving hegemonic consent (such as in culture-ideology) also play a vital role, helping secure local alignment with transnational capitalist interests and better ease a population’s integration with the global system.

32. Harvey, Condition of Postmodernity; Harvey, A Brief History.

33. Edmonds, “Beyond Good Intentions.”

34. Robinson, Transnational Conflicts; Dominguez, Technopols.

35. Hristov, Blood and Capital; Mazzei, Death Squads or Self-Defence Forces?

36. Robinson, Promoting Polyarchy.

37. Sylvain, “Duvalier’s Macoutized Nostalgia.”

38. Ives, E-mail communication.

39. Hallward, Damming the Flood.

40. Laguerre, Urban Life in the Caribbean.

41. Laguerre, Urban Life in the Caribbean.

42. Laguerre, Urban Life in the Caribbean, 110–114.

43. Meanwhile, under Francois Duvalier's regime, the grandon came to dominate the military (with some exceptions). Prior to Duvalier, the Haitian military had been dominated by mulattoes, thanks to the racist policies of US Marine officials, set in place during their 1915–1934 occupation.

44. Gros, State Failure, 111.

45. Trouillot, Haiti.

46. Robinson, Promoting Polyarchy; Regalado, Latin America at the Crossroads.

47. Belleau, “Massacres Perpetrated.”

48. Wilentz, The Rainy Season.

49. Robinson, Promoting Polyarchy.

50. Elie, “Interview on Haiti.”

51. Elie, “Interview on Haiti.”

52. Robinson, Promoting Polyarchy.

53. Robinson, Promoting Polyarchy, 112.

54. Sprague, Paramilitarism and the Assault, 76.

55. Robinson, Promoting Polyarchy, 304.

56. Robinson, Promoting Polyarchy, 304.

57. Theriot, “To Help Haiti.”

58. Sprague, Paramilitarism and the Assault.

59. Mobekk, “International Involvement in Restructuring,” 102.

60. Mendiburu and Meek, Managing Arms in Peace Processes, 27.

61. Mobekk, “International Involvement in Restructuring,” 101.

62. Concannon (2007).

63. Beeton, “What World Bank and IDB Owe Haiti”; Bogdanich and Nordberg, “Mixed US Signals Helped”; Hallward, Damming the Flood; Blumenthal, “The Other Regime Change.”

64. As I found through FOIA (Freedom Of Information Act) research and through interviews (see, esp: Roy, interview) the FLRN paramilitaries had relied primarily upon funding from a collection of wealthy Haitian and diasporic elite.

65. Saati, Interview.

66. Sprague, Paramilitarism and the Assault.

67. Fenton and Engler, Waging War; Hallward, Damming the Flood; Pina, “Haiti”; Podur, Haiti’s New Dictatorship; Robinson, An Unbroken Agony; Rossier, Aristide and the Endless Revolution.

68. Concannon, “Beyond Complementary”; Flynn and Roth, “We Will Not Forget”; Sprague, Paramilitarism and the Assault.

69. Foley, Cable F8F917.

70. Griffin, Haiti Human Rights Investigation; Kolbe and Hutson, “Human Rights Abuse.”

71. Pina, “Haiti”; Griffin, Haiti Human Rights Investigation.

72. Sprague, “WikiLeaks Reveal.”

73. Numerous human rights investigations (from Harvard Law School, Miami University, the Lancet Medical Journal, the National Lawyers Guild and the Quixote Centre) documented and decried the post-coup state-sponsored campaign of violence and persecution. Ironically the donors and mainstream media that had been so often critical of the ousted Aristide government, now exhibited restraint and silence. Some of the larger Washington DC based human rights groups, such as Human Rights Watch, said virtually nothing. For more on this see: Macdonald, “Parachute Journalism”; Emersberger, “Failure of Human Rights Watch”; Danticant, “A New Chapter.”

74. Pierre and Sprague, “HAITI.”

75. Pierre and Sprague, “HAITI.”

76. Haiti Information Project, “UN Commander Dead.”

77. Burron, “Michel Martelly”; Podur, Haiti’s New Dictatorship; Ford and Bailey, “Massive Voter Suppression”;Weisbrot, “Haiti’s Election.” A polyarchic arrangement in the present context, ideally, for transnational elites, would be between the Martelliste macouto-bourgeoisie and the Prévalist weak-pseudo-nationalist-capitulationist bourgeoisie. Through such a setup, transnational elites and their local allies could isolate and seek to further divide local populist political currents.

78. Sprague, “Reviving Haiti’s Army”; Sprague, “Haiti’s Excluded Majority.” The country is being remade politically. This is evidenced by the fact that whereas the turnout of voting age citizens during the elections that brought Aristide and Préval to office hovered between sixty and seventy percent, the election of Martelly and then of Moïse obtained around twenty percent.

79. Sprague, “Report on ex-Fad’H Camp.”

80. Schuller, “Haiti’s CCI”; Klein, The Shock Doctrine; Sprague, “Labor, Neoliberalism.”