23722: (pub) Arthur - Batay Ouvriye at the European Social Forum (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

Haiti's Yannick Etienne at the European Social Forum, October 2004
by Charles Arthur for the Haiti Support Group


Haitian workers' activist, Yannick Etienne, was among the more than 20,000
people from nearly 70 countries who participated in the European Social Forum
(ESF) in London on 15-17 October. This, the third meeting of Europe's
non-governmental organisations, environmentalists, peace campaigners and left wing
parties, followed gatherings in previous years in Florence and Paris. Participants
heard over 2,500 speakers at over 500 meetings during the three-day event.

Etienne is a prominent activist in the Batay Ouvriye (Workers' Fight)
organisation in Haiti, and was in the UK as a guest of the Haiti Support Group and
the anti-sweatshop campaigning organisation, No Sweat. During the ESF, she spoke
at four meetings.

At one seminar entitled 'The US militarisation of Latin America and the
Caribbean' on Friday, 15th October, Etienne shared a platform with speakers from
Cuba, Colombia and Venezuela. She reminded the audience that Haiti was at
present experiencing its third military occupation in less than 90 years. She said
US troops intervened, not to keep the peace, but to secure US business and
strategic interests. Referring to Haiti's position as a stepping stone for the
trafficking of cocaine between South and North America, Etienne said that the US,
far from trying to stop the trade, was actually heavily involved in it. The
current United Nations force in Haiti is led by Brazilian and Argentinean
troops, and some commentators have suggested that these countries' involvement is a
progressive development. Etienne disagreed, denouncing them for occupying a
sovereign country, and for doing the US's work for it.

Later the same day, she participated in a fiery debate on the struggle for
real democracy in Haiti. Responding to Lavalas Family Party supporters who said
that progressives should condemn the February 2004 coup and call for the
re-instatement of President Aristide, Etienne insisted that Batay Ouvriye's
analysis of the situation at the time remained valid. She recalled the organisation's
December 2003 slogan describing the Lavalas Family and the local
bourgeoisie's Group of 184 as "two rotten buttocks in the same torn pair of trousers." She
said that of course the US role in building up the Group of 184 and former
Army opposition was reprehensible, but stated that those who claimed Aristide
was pro-worker did not know what they were talking about. As an example, she
described the violent attack on organised workers at the Guacimal orange
plantation in May 2002 which was led by local Lavalas Family officials, and which was
supported by the government spokesperson, Mario Dupuy. Two members of Batay
Ouvriye were killed during the attack. "Imagine", she said, "You are fighting
for your rights, and the Minister of Communications goes on the radio and calls
you a 'terrorist'!"

On Saturday, 16th October, Yannick Etienne participated in two discussions
about union organising. At the No Sweat seminar, "Workers’ Rights, Human Rights
- Taking on Poverty and Sweatshops," she joined a platform of trade unionists
from Britain, Belgium and France. While some speakers suggested that
tripartite consultations and legislation monitored by the International Labour
Organisation were the appropriate mechanisms for countering the abuse of workers,
others stressed the merits of direct action by workers themselves, backed by
international solidarity.

Rein de Tremmerie representing the Confédération des Syndicats Chrétiens de
Belgique (CSC) explained how a well-known company selling women's underwear in
her country was pressurised into improving the very bad situation of workers
producing its products in Hungary and Indonesia. The company had a good
reputation and hence became supportive of the call not to spoil its good image.

For her part, Etienne outlined the year-long struggle for union rights at the
new free trade zone in north-east Haiti where a Dominican company uses
Haitian labour to assemble Levi's jeans. In June, over 370 workers - members of the
newly-formed Sokowa union - were sacked. An international solidarity campaign
is continuing to press the Levi Strauss company and the World Bank, which
funds the free trade zone, to have the workers re-instated. Etienne said, "We will
continue to fight until all those workers are back at work, and we will
negotiate with the management so that they agree to recognise workers' rights and
union rights." She added, "We want to count on your support to win this
victory."

At a workshop at the Trade Union Congress centre in Bloomsbury in central
London, the Battersea and Wandsworth trade union council (BWTUC) vowed to
continue to back the Sokowa union in what is expected to be a long campaign to
unionise the free trade zone workers. Up to 20,000 workers are expected to be
employed in the Codevi FTZ over the years ahead. Julia Brandreth of the BWTUC said
that Yannick Etienne and the Batay Ouvriye-affliliated unions in Haiti were an
inspiration to rank and file workers in the UK.

On Sunday 17th October, Etienne joined tens of thousands at a demonstration
and rally to denounce the war against Iraq. The rally gained emotional strength
from the intervention of Rose Gentle, whose son Gordon - a soldier in the
British army - was killed in an ambush near Basra earlier this year. Rose Gentle
was cheered loudly when she asked Prime Minister Tony Blair to come to
Trafalgar Square to meet the demonstrators. Veteran Labour Party left-winger, Tony
Benn,  said at the rally: "The Iraqi war is an act of criminal aggression which
the US launched and Britain supported - it's illegal and immoral, and it will
not succeed."

Among other prominent supporters of the anti-war rally were Aleida Guevara,
daughter of Che Geuvara, who was the most celebrated martyr of the Latin
American left, Ahmed Ben Bella, leader of the Algerian independence struggle,
Richard Boyd Barret from the anti-war movement in Ireland, Sami Evren from the
confederation of public sector workers unions in Turkey, and Maria Stylou from the
anti-war movement in Greece.

Commenting on a hectic three days in London, Etienne said, "As regards the
European Social Forum, it's been very interesting to see so many young people
involved in important issues and struggles."

On the other hand, Etienne was critical of the lack of involvement on the
part of local working class people, and felt that European perspectives and
issues were not really discussed. "As a person involved in social struggles, I
didn't learn much about what is going on in Europe." She also noted the
contradiction that at the same time as solidarity activists were campaigning against
giant multinationals and the exploitation of workers, vendors at the ESF were
selling Coca Cola drinks, and t-shirts manufactured by the anti-union Gildan
textile company.

On the eve of her return to Haiti, Yannick Etienne remarked, "I enjoyed the
trip and I think it was very worthwhile. I feel very good to have been greeted
by dynamic people in the solidarity campaign - the BWTUC, No Sweat, and the
Haiti Support Group. "

______________________________________________


This email is forwarded as a service of the Haiti Support Group.

See the Haiti Support Group web site:
www.haitisupport.gn.apc.org

Solidarity with the Haitian people's struggle for justice, participatory
democracy and equitable development, since 1992.
____________________________________________