For the past two years, Haiti has been paralyzed by a power struggle between the ruling Lavalas Family party (FL) of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the Democratic Convergence (CD), a Washington-backed opposition front of 14 tiny parties. Despite the constant comings and goings of diplomatic "mediators" from Washington and the Organization of American States (OAS), endless rounds of negotiations have gone nowhere.

Hoping to appease Washington, the FL has moved steadily to the right, abandoning all the principles articulated by the broader Lavalas movement when it burst onto the world scene in 1990. One movement slogan then was "Haiti is not for sale, either retail or wholesale." Today, the FL is selling some of Haiti’s most fertile farmland to Dominican capitalists who are setting up "free trade zones" along the border between the two countries. Precious state enterprises, particularly the phone company, electric authority, and airport, are also on the auction block.

Another cardinal rule in 1990 was "Macoutes are not included," meaning the new popular government should not incorporate politicians who collaborated with the Duvalier dictatorships (1957-1986). Today, the FL has integrated Duvalierists and supporters of the neo-Duvalierist coup (1991-1994) into its ranks and the government in some of the most key positions.

Meanwhile, the FL-dominated Parliament has distinguished itself above all in corruption and chronic dereliction of duty, except when they gather to facilitate neoliberal reform, obstruction of justice, or the trampling of national sovereignty.

Hunger and misery have deepened to unthinkable levels, as schools disintegrate, state workers go unpaid, and garbage piles up. This is because Aristide and the FL, just like their counterparts in the Convergence, see Washington’s "manna" as the country’s only salvation. Aristide’s countless promises have foundered since he took office 15 months ago because his government has been blocked from collecting a half-billion dollars in pledged international aid, a treasure which the Bush administration clearly intends to never let him have.

The FL’s deluded obsession of obtaining the aid has wasted precious time and millions of dollars to Washington lobbyists. In an effort to prostrate himself even further, Aristide agreed in March to allow a new OAS mission to be deployed in Haiti, with the power to enter any office, seize any document, and interrogate any official.

The FL’s betrayal of founding Lavalas principles has sown confusion, discouragement, and demobilization throughout Haiti and its diaspora. Now other progressive currents who were part of the original Lavalas uprising are fed up with the FL and are looking for an alternative to fulfill the democratic nationalist project aspired to in 1990.

On International Workers Day, May 1, the National Popular Party (PPN) organized a march of some 4000 of its militants and sympathizers through downtown Port-au-Prince, offering itself as just such an alternative.

Founded as front of grassroots organizations at Port-au-Prince’s St. Jean Bosco church in 1987, the National Popular Assembly (APN) was a leading popular organization throughout the turbulent years following Duvalier’s fall until it established itself as a party in 1999. It supported the generally anti-neoliberal platform of Aristide’s presidential candidacy in 2000 and defended the FL when the OAS meddled in Haiti’s electoral process, trying to undo FL victories.

But the PPN began to move away from the FL after Aristide’s inauguration on Feb. 7, 2001 as he placed Duvalierists in high government posts, reneged on campaign promises, and embraced neoliberal reforms.

For years, the PPN has focused its work in the Haitian countryside, where 80% of Haiti’s population lives. Therefore, most of those in PPN’s May Day march were peasants from all corners of Haiti demanding agrarian reform. They wore straw hats and a white T-shirts emblazoned with the PPN’s logo and the slogan: "National production = agrarian reform."

The marchers carried signs calling for "Justice for Peasants" in Bokozel, Piatre, and Jean Rabel, the sites of Haiti’s three most notorious peasant massacres since 1986. "The Free Trade Zone Plot Will Not Succeed" and "Lafanmi and Convergence Are Twins" were also among the placards.

PPN demands also called for OAS to stop meddling in Haiti and an end to corruption and to neoliberal reforms.

The march started at the Place d’Italie, near the capital’s waterfront, and marched up through the city to a warm reception from onlookers. Although the marchers carried a long rope around their perimeter to prevent infiltration by provocateurs, many people managed to join the march anyway.

The action had been announced to the public only two days before. The PPN organized the march in near secrecy, suspecting that the government would attempt to sabotage it.

The march had planned to terminate on the Champ de Mars square in front of the National Palace. But when the PPN marchers arrived there, they found the square barricaded and several dozen belligerent pro-FL demonstrators occupying their rally site.

Although the PPN had notified the police of their march as required by law, the police were conspicuously absent throughout the demonstration and were nowhere to be seen as the two groups of demonstrators faced each other. A jeep-load of anti-riot police made a pass through the square but did not stick around.

Meanwhile, the powerful sound system which the PPN had rented was turned off. The technician claimed that he was fearful it might be damaged by the pro-FL demonstrators and that he was told to shut down by authorities.

After a one-hour stand-off, the PPN chose to avoid a confrontation at the rally site, although the pro-FL demonstrators were largely young teens and vastly outnumbered.

"We know they will try to divide us," said PPN Secretary General as he addressed the crowd with a megaphone as it rallied on the edge of the square. "They have managed to have one peasant raise his machete against another in the past, but that’s not going to happen here today."

He went on to summarize the PPN’s differences with FL and the CD and why it was now necessary to offer an alternative. "They have given the peasants many promises, but we see that those promises have not been kept," Dupuy said. "On the contrary, peasants demanded an agrarian reform, but we see the agrarian reform [started by President René Préval] has been stopped... We see on the Marie Bahoux plain [in the Northeast] they want to take good land and turn it into assembly sweatshops so that the big capitalists on the other side of the border can make more money on the backs of the poor."

The rally closed without incident, but the large and successful march sent shockwaves throughout the Haitian political establishment. It was the largest demonstration organized in Port-au-Prince since the mobilization for the funeral of journalist Jean Dominique two years ago. The message was clear: a new force, composed of Haiti’s laboring masses and progressive militants, is emerging to challenge the feuding opportunists of the Convergence and FL.