Worker Struggles

Haiti: Aristide and the removal of Alexis

Anthony — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 20:46:10 -0400

ttp://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/4_13_8/4_13_8.html
HIP - Port au Prince, Haiti — The situation in Haiti was thrown into further confusion on April 12 as the Haitian parliament passed a vote of no confidence against Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis. Led by rightists in Haiti's parliament such as Senators Youri Latortue, Adris Riche and renegade Lavalas party Senator Roudy Herveaux , the vote of censure was passed on April 12, 2008 at 11:55 am EST.
President Rene Garcia Preval, following controversial U.N.-sponsored elections in 2006, appointed Alexis as Prime Minister. Alexis served for an administration touted as a coalition government backed by the United States and the international community that included members of the so-called opposition that forced former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide into exile in 2004. Alexis' administration gave the final appearance of a legal veneer to the ouster of Aristide and his political movement known as Lavalas by co-opting former grass-roots leaders into his government.

What sort of Left is left in Québec?

ant — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 10:05:18 -0400

By Yves Engler

Over the past century, a line has divided the left around the world. On one side sit “progressive forces” willing to support imperialism and war, usually in return for a “seat at the table” or some other perk of power. The most discussed example of Left support for imperialism was at the beginning of the First World War when most parties of the Second International sided with their own ruling class and governments in the slaughter that followed. On the other side of the Left divide, are those individuals and organizations that take a principled position in favour of real democracy for all the world’s people and oppose imperialism and colonialism in all its forms, especially when it is their ruling class involved. Some might say the former is the “pretend Left” and the later the “authentic Left.”

So what sort of Left is there left in Québec? To help answer this question the case of Haiti is instructive.

Haiti's wealthy prosper while the poor decline

Anthony — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 11:10:14 -0500

Haiti's wealthy prosper while the poor decline
http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/1_29_8/1_29_8.html
HIP - Port au Prince, Haiti — Cite Soleil, a seaside shantytown of more than 300.000 people residing in homes made of cinder blocks with tin roofs, has been described as poorer than India's infamous slums of Calcutta. On any given day it teems with the life's blood of Haiti's poorest citizens.
Despite the twists and turns of what residents describe as several foreign interventions, members of the community still recount with pride how they served as a launching site for former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide's first election campaign in 1990.

Yannick Jean, a frail 70 year-old woman whose longevity itself is a testament to hope, spoke in hushed tones as she washed her clothes in a ditch of dirty water, "We were the ones who presented Aristide to Haiti when he ran for president. He was our greatest hope. I am waiting for him again."

Haiti's Debt

Anthony — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 12:02:52 -0500

Haiti's Debt
http://www.monthlyreview.org/mrzine/emersberger040108.html
by Joe Emersberger
Despite being the most impoverished country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti
lags behind many countries in the Americas in obtaining debt relief through
a program run by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

Confédération des travailleurs haitiens: Launches Website and New Campaigns

Anthony — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 21:04:45 -0500

November 24th, 2007
Confédération des travailleurs haitiens: Launches Website and New Campaigns
By: Nazaire St Fort and Jeb Sprague - HaitiAnalysis.com
The Confederation of Haitian Workers (CTH), which is made up of eleven labor federations and three national commissions, has officially launched a website according to its General Secretary Paul Chery. Haiti, just south-east of Cuba and bordering the Dominican Republic, is host to a long thriving labor movement.

Mr. Hargrove actually says his proposal offers "maximum worker participation."

Mark — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 16:46:11 -0400

No place for phony, defanged unions

The Magna-CAW deal drives a stake through the heart of workplace democracy

Ed Broadbent

In a historic Supreme Court decision last June, Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin wrote that it is unions and their power to bargain collectively that enable working people to enhance their "dignity, liberty and autonomy." With this collective power, she said, they gain "some control over a major aspect of their lives, namely their work." Her words were inspiring, precise and truthful.

Union launches call for general strike in Haiti

Anthony — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 01:56:55 -0400

Union launches call for general strike in Haiti
By Roger Annis
PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI--At a press conference here on August 17, one of Haiti's transport unions, the Association des propriétaires et chaffeurs d'Haiti (APCH—Association of Owners and Drivers of Haiti), launched an appeal for unions and popular organizations to hold a two-day, country-wide general strike to protest the disastrous economic situation facing working people in this country.
In an interview following the press conference, the communications director of the union, Fortune Patrice, explained that the initial appeal is supported by many trade unions, student organizations and other popular movements. The union will hold discussions with more unions and popular organizations in the coming week to broaden support for the strike, set for August 27 and 28.

HAITI: Pain at the Pump Spurs Strike Actions

Anthony — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 19:23:25 -0400

HAITI: Pain at the Pump Spurs Strike Actions
By Jeb Sprague and Wadner Pierre
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=38228
[Photo]A normally bustling street in Port-au-Prince on Jun. 13, 2007 during the two-day transport strike.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jun 19 (IPS) - A two-day transport strike last week gripped Haiti's major cities and underscored a mounting crisis over fuel prices, which rose nearly 20 percent in just two weeks.
On Jun. 12 and 13, transport workers shut off their engines, leaving residents of Port-au-Prince and other urban centres largely without the services of taxis or the colourful buses and pick-up trucks known as tap-taps.
A spokesperson for the Initiative de Secteur de Transport, an ad hoc strike committee representing 18 transport unions, Benissoit Duclos, said the action was driven by three pressing issues.

Failed Solidarity: The ICFTU, AFL-CIO, ILO, and ORIT in Haiti

Anthony — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 22:55:21 -0400

Failed Solidarity: The ICFTU, AFL-CIO, ILO, and ORIT in Haiti
by Jeb Sprague June 2006
http://labornotes.org/archives/2006/06/articles/f.shtml#30
On February 16, 2004 a group of foreign trade union officials arrived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, amongst them ORIT General Secretary Victor Baez, ICFTU Assistant General Secretary Mamounata Cisse and union leaders from France, Canada, Guyana and the Global Union Federation. The purpose of the delegation was to assist eleven trade unionists of the Coordination Syndicale Haitienne (CSH), accused by Haitian authorities as working to bring down the government. The labor delegation drew international coverage as Katia Gil, General Coordinator of Programs with ORIT explains, "We went to visit them in jail. We went with many newspapers and press, local and international agencies."(1) Just thirteen days after their arrival on February 29, 2004, Haiti's popularly elected Lavalas government was overthrown and its President Jean-Bertrand Aristide after being sent on a plane to Africa, declared he had been kidnapped by U.S. Marines. An interim government made up of elites drawn from the political opposition to the Aristide government was quickly put into place, supported by the United States, France, and Canada.

AHP editorial: The double standards pose a mortal threat to democracy and human rights

Anthony — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 20:30:56 -0400

AHP News - May 29, 2006 - English translation (Unofficial)
The adherence to a policy of double standards constitutes a mortal danger to democracy and human rights
Any policy of double standards is a deadly poison acting against the birth of democracy or its reinforcement in a country.
In any country where law and justice have meaning, any abuse is an abuse, any violation of human rights is a violation of human rights and any criminal act is a criminal act, regardless of who commits them.
Unfortunately Haiti is one of the countries where the most notorious violators of human rights can be elevated to the ranks of heroes while someone who is guilty of theft or who is innocent altogether can be presented publicly as the most notorious criminal as long as such an act suits an agenda, as long as, you belong to a given social or political sector, as long as... whatever.
We have become accustomed to the indecent practice of preferring to create a lot of commotion and thereby transform a lie into the truth and to downplay evidence until we fall into our own trap...
And that is what happened to us in the elections of February 7, 2006. The majority of the population thwarted a sector in decline that believed it truly possessed all the power because it dominated the economic, political and judicial machinery from one end to the other, and on top of that, it controlled the propaganda machine.