An Introduction to the Thought of Edmond Paul

 

Sometimes, the internet will surprise you. This short video does a nice job explaining the thought of one of the most important minds of 19th century Haiti. Edmond Paul's influence lingers into the present day, and the more we read of his work, the easier it becomes to spot his influence in various schools of thought in Haiti. While David Nicholls has written perhaps the most extensively in English on Paul's writings on political economy, this video is a great addition, particularly as it avoids the problematic or controversial "mulatto legend" theory associated with Nicholls. 

While perusing some of Paul's essays, one sees even more clearly how he diverged from others in the Liberal Party, agreed with people like Delorme on some issues (such as the need for an elite to guide the nation and the masses, but more of a technocratic elite), and influenced people like Alix Lamaute, Jacques Stephen Alexis, Etienne Charlier, Christian Beaulieu, Jacques Roumain, and various others in the annals of Haitian economic and social thought. For instance, already in the 1860s, Paul called attention to the caste or caste-like nature of Haitian society and the need for educational reforms, industrialization, and state intervention in the economy to protect local industries and sectors. It is due to this caste system and the wide cultural and educational gap that incapable "black" rulers and "mulatto" elites could not come together to govern effectively. This caste-like approach and its understanding of the role of class and color in Haitian society had its problems, but one can see how later writers like Christian Beaulieu and Jacques Roumain struggled with the question of a transition from caste to class and the eventuality of a fairer, more egalitarian society (at least that was what socialists and Marxists ultimately wanted). 

Paul also defended the prohibition of foreigners to owning land in Haiti, a measure which demonstrates his wisdom in understanding the threats of foreign economic penetration of the Haitian economy. As he predicted in the 19th century, the Haitian cultivator, converted to a serf of foreign capital during and after the US Occupation, endured an even worse fate as a "rural proletariat," migrant laborer in Cuba or the Dominican Republic, or a life in the burgeoning slums of Port-au-Prince. Paul even foresaw the continued racial component to economic imperialism. Some of the measures favored by Paul were also clearly of some appeal to artisans, laborers, local industrialists of a nationalist bent, and proponents of economic and educational reform. Artisans, beginning as early as the 1870s in Port-au-Prince, petitioned the government for protectionist measures to protect and expand local industries and workshops, a measure which would be repeated in later decades by various organizations, journalists, government officials and, in the 20th century, labor unions. 

Thus, one wonders if Paul served as one of the conduits of Saint-Simonianism in Haiti. It may explain the Saint-Simonian and socialist aspects of La patrie et les conspirations, published in 1890, which appears to be written by someone of less formal education than Paul but influenced by Saint-Simonian emphasis on industry, production, and improving the economy to prevent toilers and artisans from engaging in political violence. Paul's influence can be seen even more obviously with Blanchet, Hudicourt, Charlier, the PSP, and Lamaute in the 20th century, with various representatives openly embracing more socialist or Marxist variants of Paul's dream of an industrial Haiti. 

Lamaute and the Bourgeoisie Nationale

One of the important theorists and activists in the annals of the Haitian Left, Alix Lamaute was one of the victims of the massacre of both PUCH members and innocent bystanders ordered by dictator François Duvalier.  Besides Lamaute, several prominent Haitian Communists were also killed, including Brisson, The  attack on the village of Cazale was particularly brutal, as young Communists and locals were mercilessly slaughtered by Duvalierist forces eager to end Communist armed uprisings. By 1969, Duvalier was already president for life with apparent total rule. Nonetheless, by the late 1960s, the two main Haitian Marxist parties unified into the Parti unifié des communistes haïtiens, which would embrace revolutionary violence to overthrow Duvalier. Rebels arriving from Cuban bases or across the Dominican border made clear the degree to which left-wing rebels poised a threat to the regime, even if their influence in numbers was rather small. 

Nevertheless, some of the ideas expressed by intellectuals within the PUCH are worth remembering for what it reveals of the nature of Haitian Marxism and political thought. Lamaute, whose La bourgeoisie nationale: une entité controversée encapsulates some of the main streams of Marxist thought in Haiti during the 1960s, deserves attention today for the still disturbing question of the Haitian prospects of a national bourgeoisie that could work with proletariat forces and a Marxist vanguard to transform Haiti. Lamaute, whose thought owes much to Alexis, Ambroise, Rameau, Pierre-Charles and other Haitian historians, economists, and intellectuals on the Left, presents an overview on primitive accumulation in Haiti, the idea of the 19th century Liberal party as progressive and the Nationals as feudal, and the weakness of the Haitian bourgeoisie. 

Lukacs and Christian Beaulieu also make an appearance on the caste question, as the so-called feudal or semi-feudal nature of the Haitian economy prevents the emergence of a full class-based society in which the embryonic national bourgoisie can truly emerge. Caste-like features actually, according to Lamaute, hinder the development of class consciousness among the bourgeoisie. Thus, the caste-like nature of Haitian social structure of that era is linked to the semi-feudal economy of rural Haiti and the dependence of the Haitian bourgeoisie on US and foreign capital and machinery. Borrowing from Gramsci, Lamaute also describes the the mimetism of the Haitian dominant classes and the forms of alienation one might suspect earlier generations of Haitian intellectuals to refer to as cultural bovarysme. But like Beaulieu, Lamaute probably saw the supposed caste system as being weakened by increasing industrialization and urbanization in Haiti over the course of the 20th century, particularly after 1915.

The remainder of the text focuses on the prospects of a joint anti-imperialist front connecting the proletariat and local bourgeoisie. Arguing against Fanon, who saw the bourgeoisie as a still-born class in the struggles of Third World liberation, Lamaute instead sees the development of a local bourgeoisie, primarily oriented towards the internal market and directing industries using local industry and labor and products as aligning itself with the proletariat and popular masses in the name of nationalism. For Lamaute, the national bourgeoisie only needs to see how nationalism could strengthen their class position. For, a truly national bourgeoisie (instead of the existing comprador Haitian one) would and could fight for a number of economic and social reforms that would benefit the proletariat and masses (free press, state policies, etc.) as well as accentuate the coming class conflict between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. This, to the Marxist teleological paradigm of Lamaute, would eventually usher in a socialist state with the proletariat and a vanguard of professional revolutionaries constantly pressuring the bourgeoisie to avoid too much collusion with imperialist powers.

In order to truly make sense of Lamaute's argument, however, one must see it as part of a trajectory of Haitian Marxist thought dating back to the 1940s and the Parti Socialiste Populaire. Like his 1940s forebears, Lamaute saw the peasantry, who comprised the majority of the Haitian population, as incapable of leading the path to socialism. Instead, Haiti must oppose imperialism and develop its bourgeoisie and proletariat, thereby strengthening class conflict and a shift in the mode of production to capitalism. Then, and only then, would a working-class revolution ultimately succeed. To Lamaute, who cited the example of the peasantry of Bolivia as a cautionary tale, the Haitian peasant will not come to a strict class consciousness and must be led by the proletariat in any alliance. Otherwise, the peasant will be used against the proletariat by the petit or moyenne bourgeoisie, as in Bolivia. In other words, the proletariat will make the revolution or there will be no revolution. But in order to reach that point, a truly national bourgeoisie must emerge that is not a comprador one, and which would heighten the class conflicts while further eroding the semi-feudal characteristics of the Haitian economy. 

One wonders if Lamaute, like Alexis, Roumain and other Haitian Marxists, may have adopted a somewhat anti-paysan perspective by viewing the religion of Vodou as encouraging fatalism. The complex question of the Haitian peasant in Haitian socialism, however, is beyond the immediate concerns of Lamaute's La bourgeoisie nationale. And after another half century, it is clear that the kind of national bourgeoisie called for by Lamaute did not emerge. If anything, an anti-national bourgeoisie strengthened itself under the rule of Baby Doc, and the question of the peasantry and democratic reforms would have to change. Nevertheless, Lamaute's treatise provides a window onto the thoughts and theoretical formulations that guided the young militants of the PEP, PPLN, and later PUCH in the turbulent 1960s and 1970s. 

Haiti has chosen to become a poor country?

Due to the ongoing protests and depreciation of the Haitian gourde, this blogger decided to read Etzer Emile's Haiti has chosen to become a poor country: The 20 reasons that prove it. Emile's short book focuses on the period after the fall of the Duvalier regime, which helps condense the text, could also cause readers to overlook the exceptional violence, corruption, and economic malaise made by decisions under the dictatorship. It's difficult to understand the socio-economic crises of Haiti after 1986 without taking into account the uniquely negative impact of the Duvaliers. Nonetheless, Emile is clearly aware of the antiquity of the several problems shaping Haitian economic underdevelopment, but using data from the post-Duvalier period illustrates how Haiti continues to reproduce poverty while other countries in the Latin America and Caribbean  region have reduced it. 

Emile argues from a pro-market perspective that promotes productive activity, protective tariffs, and educational reform. He does mention several differing definitions of poverty by theorists, but anyone expecting Marxist interpretations or what this blog would consider a neoclassical approach of Lundahl will be disappointed. Instead, one can see elements of past Haitian economic theorists in Emile, particularly Edmond Paul. The work of scholar David Nicholls, who wrote extensively about Edmond Paul, Janvier, Auguste Magloire and others who, over 100 years ago, argued in favor of economic reforms, industrialization, self-sufficiency, etc., shows how long Haitians have debated the economic troubles of the country. 

Emile's work, especially in his concern for educational reforms geared toward entrepreneurialism,  the sciences, and mathematics, resembles these past reformers. He even appears to echo some of them in his calls for educational reform that pushes Haitian youth towards business, math, and science instead of things like poetry or managing wealth over creating it. Clearly, Haitian graft, social conflict, corruption, and dependency have deep roots. Consequently, a thesis on Haitian underdevelopment must adopt a larger time frame, perhaps akin to Leslie Péan's work on the political economy of corruption.

However, where I take issue with Emile's book is the somewhat arbitrariness of 20 distinct reasons, as well as the focus on the post-1986 period. Many of the 20 reasons are hardly unique to Haiti, such as the middle-class living above its means. They are not unique to Haiti since they're common in places like the US or Canada. Indeed, elite opposition to raising wages is also common in the US, so the Haitian upper-class are not alone. Corruption, like monopolistic businesses or corporations, are also not limited to Haiti or the 'Global South.' 

Nor do I find irresponsible behavior towards the environment to be exceptionally Haitian. Moreover, Emile does not address the concerns about a potential mining industry in Haiti bearing negative consequences for the environment, despite acknowledging past bad deals with SEDREN or Reynolds. Furthermore, while it is certainly the fault of Haitian leaders and the private sector, ultimately, for the abysmal conditions of life, Emile does not question the nature of globalization and international markets which structurally keep poor nations trapped. 

In spite of a few quibbles I have with it, this remains a very useful book and source for statistics on contemporary economic troubles of Haiti. The wastefulness of the national electric company, for example, was astonishing. The problem of a focus on rent-seeking instead of production and exports is explained very well by the author. Haiti's missteps with full liberalization of the economy as a disaster is not ignored at all, since it raised unemployment and contributed to the destruction of agricultural production. Surely, Haiti definitely needs to diversify trading partners, too. 

Dependence on the US, Dominican Republic, Canada, or, recently, Venezuela for oil, will not work and the nation must look to forge partnerships and trade with countries in Asia or Africa. Successful examples abound, such as Jamaica and the DR expanding economic ties to Asia, BRICS or even Senegal expanding the market for its exports. Undoubtedly, there must be a change with relations to the Haitian Diaspora, too. Remittances that don't serve towards wealth-generating activity will leave Haiti dependent on the Diaspora while contributing to Haiti's trade deficit as that money is used to purchase imports. There must be a change with regards to the role of the Diaspora in the economic affairs of the country.