American Communism Party (ACP) notes

acp notes

My response (and that of Kim Ives) to Danny Shaw’s allegations of arms trafficking:

Danny Shaw has publicly accused me, Haiti Liberté journalist Kim Ives, and American Communist Party (ACP) members Haz Al-Din and Kyle Pettis of trafficking weapons to Haiti. Shaw published the allegations in two separate posts on his website as well as video uploaded to X and Instagram.

We first want to unequivocally state that Shaw’s claims are completely false. The onus, of course, is on Shaw to prove his claims, which he fails to do. Moreover, his claims are so wildly fantastic that they would be hilarious if they were not serious attempts to create legal trouble.

In his post titled “To All of My Comrades in the American Communist Party”, Shaw alleges that “Dan Cohen and Kim Ives have worked with paramilitary factions as hundreds of thousands of Haitians have been murdered, displaced and traumatized.”

Shaw does not specify what exactly the vague accusation “worked with” means, however any suggestion that we have an improper relationship with any armed group is simply false and slanderous. Since 2021, Ives and I have produced a documentary series as well as video and written reports on armed groups in Haiti, focusing on Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Cherizier’s efforts to unite Port-au-Prince’s disparate neighborhood armed groups against the ruling class to bring about revolutionary political and social change in Haiti.

Shaw then alleges that in a November 1 remote meeting held on Zoom, “Ali, Kyle, Dan Cohen and Kim Ives began to coordinate arms trafficking with sketchy foreign actors and oligarchs to the paramilitary factions in Haiti.”

In another post titled “On the Cultishness and Liberalism of Ali “Haz” Hammoud & the ACP Executive Board”, Shaw alleges that “On November 1st, I was tricked into coming to a sitdown with Dan Cohen and Kim Ives so they could send more guns to Haiti through Haz.”

Ives has known Shaw since 2000, when he introduced Shaw to the many issues surrounding Haiti (Ives has been working around and covering Haiti since 1974). I have known Shaw since 2021, when I turned my journalistic output to the issue of Haiti, working closely with Haiti Liberté.

Shaw had long begged me to publicly debate him on Haiti. I considered him a confused and misguided, however well-meaning, friend, whom I had hosted in my home. Therefore, I did not see any benefit to publicly airing differences that could easily be settled in private via honest dialogue, nor did I want to see him humiliated.

After Shaw was fired from his university position, he was hosted on Jackson Hinkle’s stream, where he denounced our work on Haiti.

Shaw continued to implore me to publicly debate him as he continued to attack our work in interviews and at demonstrations. I contacted ACP chairman Haz Al-Din in order to warn him that I would be forced to publicly defend our position, which would create an unnecessary clash between myself and Haiti Liberté and the ACP, to which we have no affiliation nor enmity. Al-Din proposed that he and a group of ACP leadership host and moderate a private debate, to which we agreed. The debate was delayed by many months because of the Gaza genocide.

As Shaw continued his crusade, I reiterated to Al-Din the necessity of holding the internal discussion. It was finally held on November 1 via Zoom, with myself, Kim Ives, Danny Shaw, Al-Din, and Pettis.

Shaw was unable to defend any of his positions and was exposed to his own party’s leadership as confused, at best, and a fraud, at worst. Nonetheless, they believed he was redeemable and asked us to consider working with him. Between Kim having known Shaw for decades and seen his erratic, unreliable behavior and expulsion from two other parties (the PSL and Workers World Party), and me having observed Shaw’s bizarre and deceptive behavior since he had begun attacking our work, we were very skeptical of working with him, but agreed to raise it with the Haiti Liberté leadership on the condition that Shaw delete his social media posts attacking us.

It was in this meeting that Shaw preposterously alleges we made plans with the ACP leadership to traffick weapons into Haiti, and involved what he claims are an oligarch and “sketchy foreign actors”, none of whom he names.

Just logically, does it make sense that Ives and I would discuss in an unsecure (if private) video discussion in front of Shaw, who had made abundantly clear his political antipathy towards us, a question like gun-running to internationally-sanctioned armed groups in Haiti – however unjustified and politically motivated those sanctions are? Furthermore, why would Shaw bury such serious allegations with legal implications in the middle of diatribes against his former comrades? His entire premise and presentation is patently absurd.

He also claims that he objected to the alleged trafficking arrangements, and we ridiculed him and other organizations, compelling him to contact lawyers.

“I raised every objection. They laughed and laughed at me, at the PSL [Party for Socialism and Liberation, from which Shaw was previously expelled], at Black Alliance For Peace & other groups who they said were “liberals” and “humanitarians” like me and actually cared about the masses. Why would Cohen and Ives take advantage of someone like Ali Hammoud who has zero experience as a leader? I was forced to contact my lawyers and submit a sworn affidavit of this reckless adventurism that put me and the entire party at risk.” he wrote.

Absolutely none of the fabrication above is true.

On November 6, 5 days after the meeting, Shaw reposted me on X, hardly the behavior of someone who had been deceived, humiliated and believed I was putting him in legal jeopardy.

Shaw’s malicious lies can only be understood as attempts to spur investigations and legal actions to destroy me, his former “mentor” Kim Ives, and his former APC comrades.

We are left to wonder what drove him to become so bitter with jealousy and deluded with rage to attack his friends and comrades, and whether he is simply acting on his own behalf or if he is doing so on behalf of larger powers.

This episode bears all the hallmarks of a COINTELPRO operation, which U.S. intelligence agencies have long used to disrupt parties and organizations that they see as threatening to their power. It is notable that Shaw alleges we disparaged both the PSL and BAP, which is a complete lie and another typical tactic to create or exacerbate acrimony between like-minded groups.

So to reiterate:

• 1. Danny Shaw’s allegations that Ives and I, or the ACP leadership, discussed any form of providing arms to armed groups in Haiti is utterly and completely false and may be part of a larger political offensive.
• 2. Shaw’s effort to sow doubt, discord, and division between Haiti Liberté and myself with fraternal organizations like PSL and BAP smacks of COINTELPRO-like tactics.
• 3. Those who eagerly promoted Shaw's baseless allegations should also be viewed with skepticism.

11:40 AM · Jan 19, 2025