BROOKLYN, NY, February 23 — Over 200 students, staff and community members from Long Island University participated today in a conference on the situation in Haiti, organized by faculty members. Reports were given by several people who had gone to Haiti since the earthquake, including an LIU student who works as an EMT.

The reports countered the lies and distortions from the press that had spread racist stories of people fighting over food. The eyewitness gave a different picture, of many people helping each other even as they struggle in unbelievably difficult circumstances. The reports also made clear that the U.S. military and UN soldiers there are not helping more people get food and other needed supplies.

PLP members distributed CHALLENGE at the conference and spoke to some of the participants about how capitalism is to blame for the deaths of 200,000 Haitian workers and about the need to build the fight for communism all over the world.

In addition to the eyewitness accounts there were panels on the future of Haiti. During one, several members of the audience made the point that the U.S. military is there to put Haiti more firmly under U.S. control and that people in the U.S. and Haiti should unite to fight against the U.S. military invasion