Joseph Roney (August 15, 1935, in Port-au-Prince – January 7, 2013, in Brussels) was a Haitian politician.[1] Roney hailed from a peasant family. He studied at the Ecole normale supérieure of the State University of Haiti.
In 1959 he took part in founding the Party of Popular Accord (PEP), a party in which he would serve as its general secretary.[2] [3] During the 1960s he was a leader of the National Union of Haitian Students (UNEH) and the Popular Youth League (LJP).[4] Roney organized students strike to ensure the freedom of jailed UNEH chairman Bastien. Soon, Roney himself was jailed as well.[2] On November 22, 1960 a national students strike was organized to demand that Roney (then the UNEH treasurer) and 19 other students be freed from jail.[5] [6] The strike movement was successful, and Roney resumed a leading role in the student movement after his release.[2]
In 1969 he became the general secretary of the Unified Party of Haitian Communists (PUCH). He continued in this position until 1972.[7] Soon after the foundation of the PUCH, Roney was arrested and jailed for seven years.[1] [8] He was released from jailed in 1977, and went into exile in Belgium. In Belgium, he became a member of the Workers Party of Belgium.[1]