1946, January 1–11: (Vive la Liberté, À Bas Lescot: La Ruche’s Four Flaming Lines, the Student Strike, and the Three Booms from Fort National): A student jou…

1946, January 1–11: (Vive la Liberté, À Bas Lescot: La Ruche’s Four Flaming Lines, the Student Strike, and the Three Booms from Fort National): A student journal, Zinglins, called for freedom of the press in May 1945 and was quickly suppressed, but the cry was picked up by La Ruche — René Depestre, editing La Ruche with Théodore Baker, brought forth Étincelles, a collection of revolutionary poetry that sold like hotcakes. On January 1, 1946, La Ruche saluted the New Year as the year of victory over certain hostile forces and the triumph of democracy over all forms of fascist oppression, followed by four flaming lines of verse: Down with all the Francos! Long live Democracy on the march! Long live Social Justice! Long live the World Proletariat! Within forty-eight hours the editors were inside the old police station on the Champ de Mars and their paper was suppressed — this, in the words of Hogar Nicolas, was the drop of water that overflowed the vase. It could have been 1929 again: first the medical students took to the streets, then the rest of the university, then the lycées, and finally boys and girls some as young as ten, trooping over the Champ de Mars crying Vive la Liberté, Vive la Démocratie, À bas la Dictature. The Garde replied with kokomakak — heads were broken but not the strike. On January 7, headed by Jacques Stephen Alexis, Depestre, and Baker, a new party, Parti Démocratique Populaire de la Jeunesse Haïtienne, trumpeted demands for release of political prisoners, immediate elections, and freedom of the press. On the 8th and 9th, first the government clerks, then the teachers, and finally the shopkeepers struck. Lescot went on the air threatening the most drastic measures, but on the afternoon of January 11, Jacques Alexis and Dr. Georges Rigaud went to the Manoir des Lauriers and told the president he must step down. Finally at bay, Lescot lowered his eyes and replied softly that it had taken him by surprise and he had no private means and needed time to put his affairs in order. Two hours later, the saluting battery on Fort National boomed three times — within minutes, Colonel Lavaud announced that the Garde had assumed power, the president was under house arrest, and elections would be held as soon as possible, as the streets rang with Vive la Liberté and À bas Lescot and the presidential flag was hauled down over the Palais National.