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Movement for the Organization of the Country
Mouvement pour l'Organisation du Pays
AbbreviationMOP
LeaderGreger Jean-Louis
FounderDaniel Fignolé
Founded13 May 1946
IdeologyPopulism
Syndicalism
Historical:
Fignolism[1]
Noirism
Political positionLeft-wing
Colours  Green   Red

The Movement for the Organization of the Country (French: Mouvement pour l'Organisation du Pays, MOP) is a political party in Haiti, founded by Daniel Fignolé in 1946 as the Peasant Worker Movement (French: Mouvement Ouvrier Paysan).

History

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Organization and ideology

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Fignolé's MOP became the most organized labor movement in Haitian history, as well as the largest political organization in the pre-Duvalier period.[2] Alexander states that MOP membership reached its peak during the 1946-1950 period, with approximately 5,000 members.[3] The party's ideology is defined as a mixture of socialist and négritude principles, with a populist and anti-elitist approach.[4] Fignolé's MOP could mobilize a crowd of supporters known as a rouleau compresseur, sometimes used to spread terror against its opponents.[3]

The MOP openly supported women's rights in Haiti, establishing in 1948 a section called Bureau d'Action Féminine, the women's wing of the party led by Carmen Jean-François Fignolé.[5]

The flag of the MOP features a green background with a red sphere centered.[6][7] Green represents the Haitian people's hope for justice, while red symbolizes the blood of all historical leaders who sacrificed their lives for the people's struggle.[6]

In politics

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Daniel Fignolé speaking to supporters at Institut Mopique (1947)

The MOP was officially formed as a political party on 13 May 1946,[8] and its founders were Daniel Fignolé, a teacher; François Duvalier, a physician; and Clovis Désinor, an economist.[9] According to Smith, the MOP initials originated from an English word, implying 'sweeping out of the old order in Haitian politics', later becoming an acronym for Mouvement Ouvrier Paysan.[8] The Mouvement Ouvrier Paysan aimed to unite urban and rural workers, as well as small peasants, into a single party.[10] The MOP's initial core group consisted of Fignolé's supporters, including his former students, along with political figures like Lorimer Denis.[2]

The MOP party was part of the Haiti's new political forces that emerged in the wake of the Revolution of 1946.[11] Its leader, Daniel Fignolé, was unable to run in the 1946 presidential election because he was too young for the position of president. Eventually, the MOP party joined forces with a progressive coalition and supported the candidacy of Démosthènes Pétrus Calixte,[12] a former Garde commander implicated in a plot to overthrow Vincent's government.[13] A joint statement by Fignolé, Duvalier and Désinor confirmed Calixte as the 'only candidate acceptable' to the MOP.[13] The presidential race was led by Dumarsais Estimé with 25 votes, while Edgar Numa (PSP) secured 7 votes and Démosthènes Calixte (MOP) garnered 6 votes.[14]

A coalition cabinet was initially established by the Estimé administration to appease Haiti's political factions.[15]

The MOP underwent a significant split in 1947, sparked by Fignolé's approach toward the Estimé government,[3] leading to Duvalier and Denis's exit from the party.[16] After leaving the MOP, Duvalier held government positions in the Estimé administration, including Under Secretary of Labor (1948) and Minister of Public Health and Labor (1949).[11] A new MOP bureau was formed in 1948 following the split, with Fignolé remaining as party president and featuring Michel Roumain and Arnold Hérard.[3]

In 1949, the MOP joined forces with other democratic groups to oppose Estimé's attempt to revise the constitution to allow his re-election.[3] A constitutional crisis arose from the proposed amendments, resulting in Estimé's removal by a military coup in May 1950.[17] The MOP supported Paul Magloire as presidential candidate in the October elections, securing a 99% victory over Estimist candidate Fénélon Alphonse.[18] Daniel Fignolé also won a seat in the Haitian parliament that year.[1] The MOP-Magloire alliance had a brief existence. On December 30, 1950, the Magloire government banned the MOP, citing its alleged communist affiliations and dangerous maneuvers as justification.[19][20]

According to Smith, Magloire as president sought to "eliminate all forms of radicalism".[21] In the face of increasing anti-radicalism, Fignolé reconsidered some of his earlier political positions, beginning to present himself as a "National-Democrat" in 1952.[22] Based on the MOP, Fignolé formed a new party called the Great National Democratic Party (French: Grand Parti National Démocrate).[23][3] Its ideology was anti-communist, pro-labor and opposed to dictatorial policies.[22][23] Despite Fignolé's attempt to create a new party, the MOP's successor continued to face problems at the hands of the Magloire regime.[3] In the 1955 parliamentary elections, rigged by Magloire, Fignolé lost his seat in the Chamber of Deputies after running for re-election as a deputy.[24][25]

After Magloire's overthrow in the 1956 Haitian protest movement,[25] the MOP experienced a brief revival during the 1957 crisis.[3] Fignolé reformed the party and, in 1956, renamed it to Mouvement Organisation du Pays, representing a less militant direction.[26]

The Kébreau junta, besides imposing other authoritarian measures like a ban on strikes, outlawed the MOP party.[27] The Haitian army held a contentious election months later, disqualifying Fignolé as a candidate and securing Duvalier's victory amid allegations of fraud.[28] Under the Duvalier regime, the remaining MOP supporters were subjected to persecution and elimination.[1] Following his overthrow, Fignolé, in exile, became an active actor in the opposition to the Duvalier regime.[3] After 29 years in exile, Fignolé returned to Haiti in 1986, but died shortly afterward.[29]

The MOP was revitalized under Gérard Philippe Auguste's leadership,[29] registering on October 22, 1986, and gaining official recognition as a political party in April 1987.[30] The MOP's split resulted in two internal factions: one linked to the anti-Aristide opposition, led by Gérard Philippe Auguste and Franck Adelson, and another associated with the Lavalas movement, led by Gesner Comeau and Jean Molière.[31] At the October 1989 Party Congress, Greger Jean-Louis was elected the new leader of the MOP by the Bel Air branch.[32]

In the 1995 general elections, the MOP joined the Lavalas Political Platform, a coalition with the OPL and PLB.[33] The MOP, through a statement issued in 2002 by Secretary General Franck Adelson – a member of Convergence Démocratique, demanded Aristide's resignation during his second term.[31]

Electoral history

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Presidential elections

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Election Party candidate Votes % Result
1946 Démosthènes Pétrus Calixte 6[14] Unknown Lost Red XN
1950 Paul Magloire 527,625 99% Elected Green tickY
1988 Gérard Philippe Auguste 151,391[30] 14,30% Lost Red XN

References

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Footnotes

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  1. ^ a b c Mielke 2013, p. 537.
  2. ^ a b Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall 2012, p. 268.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Alexander 1982, pp. 467–469.
  4. ^ Gad Heuman & Malcolm Cross 1988, p. 95.
  5. ^ Sanders Johnson 2023, p. 16.
  6. ^ a b Smith 2009, p. 123.
  7. ^ "Junta Takes Over; Fignole In New York (pages 1–2)". Haiti Sun. 1957-06-16. Retrieved 2024-12-01.
  8. ^ a b Smith 2009, pp. 93–94.
  9. ^ James Saint Germain (2022-10-26). "Le fignolisme ou l'activisme d'émancipation des classes populaires". lenational.org. Archived from the original on 2023-04-25. Retrieved 2024-12-01.
  10. ^ Nicholls 1996, p. 10.
  11. ^ a b Adélaïde-Merlande 2002, pp. 33–34.
  12. ^ Metz 2001, p. 285.
  13. ^ a b Nicholls 1996, pp. 185–186.
  14. ^ a b Smith 2009, p. 97.
  15. ^ Dupuy 1989, p. 151.
  16. ^ Smith 2009, p. 104.
  17. ^ Nicholls 1996, p. 192.
  18. ^ Gad Heuman & Malcolm Cross 1988, p. 100.
  19. ^ Pamphile 2017.
  20. ^ Smith 2009, p. 155.
  21. ^ Smith 2009, p. 153.
  22. ^ a b Smith 2009, p. 158.
  23. ^ a b Nicholls 1996, p. 193.
  24. ^ Smith 2009, p. 167.
  25. ^ a b "Haitians strike and overthrow a dictator, 1956". Global Nonviolent Action Database. Retrieved 2024-11-29.
  26. ^ Smith 2009, p. 179.
  27. ^ Alphonse Férère, Gérard (27 May 2019). "Il y a 62 ans, l'éclatement de l'armée d'Haïti". AlterPresse (in French). Archived from the original on 2023-09-24. Retrieved 2024-12-01.
  28. ^ Metz 2001, p. 287.
  29. ^ a b Phil Gunson, Greg Chamberlain & Andrew Thompson 2015, p. 140.
  30. ^ a b "Les Partis politiques". Haiti-Reference (in French). Archived from the original on 2024-08-16. Retrieved 2024-12-01.
  31. ^ a b "Un parti d'opposition invite le président Aristide à démissionner". metropole.ht (in French). 27 February 2002. Archived from the original on 2024-04-16. Retrieved 2024-12-01.
  32. ^ J. Ray Kennedy, Marta Maria Villaveces & Jeff Fischer 1991, p. 31.
  33. ^ Metz 2001, p. 446.

General bibliography

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{{Haitian political parties

[[Category:Political parties in Haiti [[Category:Political parties established in 1946 [[Category:Haitian nationalism [[Category:1946 establishments in Haiti

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