26570: 3 Batay Ouvriye News Releases - Arcahaie, Drouillard, Cap-Haitian (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: batay@batayouvriye.org

Three Batay Ouvriye News releases

BATAY OUVRIYE (batay@batayouvriye.org)


1) Oct. 31, 2005 - ALERT !

Batay Ouvriye is informing the public in general and concerned friends, in
particular, of a bloodbath in the making once again in the country. This
time, it is in the 5th communal section of Arcahaie that a bloody plot is
being prepared.

Indeed, after having dismissed the past mayor for all of the stealing he
committed, a new one was installed: Wilbert Casséus, supposedly to resolve
the situation. But this was actually adding fuel to fire!

All over the Arcahaie plain and even further, because of the soil's
excellent quality and the illegal and archaic sharecropping practices still
prevalent in production, this area has always been highly violent, with
large scale conflicts. We can just remember Piatre, where houses were burnt
down, blood flowed and people died or had to flee the region. we can just
recall Fond Batiste where, at harvest times each year, fatal strife erupts,
even police died last year. And these land conflicts always oppose the
archaic big landlords with the poor peasants who, for their part, have to
work hard as they can, alone, ameliorating the land, and have to face,
alone, any sort of problem arising from nature, when it isn't Dominican
bananas that the government allows to invade the market.

In the fifth communal section of Arcahaie, there is a land conflict opposing
a large landowner named Klébert with the poor working peasants. The
situation had more or less stabilized, until the mayor Casséus, a Klébert
crony, arrived. And, in fact, right from the start he received funds from
Klébert to supposedly establish a "rural police". But this "rural police"
has a single goal, that of intervening, armed and "in the name of the law",
in the Klébert conflict with the impoverished peasants. They've already
obtained the help of Judge Claudy, of the Arcahaie district, who, himself,
is directly attempting to "legalize" the massacre they are preparing. Judge
Claudy is Klébert's brother-in-law! He's already issued a number of arrest
warrants against all small peasants opposed to Klébert's archaic
exploitation system. The areas especially singled out are Bois-Neuf, Dupuy
and Michel. Already, three peasants have been arrested, one in Bois-Neuf and
two in Michel. Now they're demanding 125,000 gourdes (over four thousand US
dollars!!!) to release each! Several peasants, fearing "the State", have
begun to flee the region to avoid being arrested, even though they don't
know why they should be. But others stand steadfast on their demands that
they know to be just, in a country! And they aren't decided to let Klébert,
nor the mayor Casséus with their "judge" Claudy come to murder them in this
way.

The population at large stands with the peasants. Not only because they know
these are the ones in their right but also because they also are familiar
with Klébert's regular abuses in the region. They even formed a crowd and
blocked a meeting certain members of the supposed "rural police" had
organized to settle down in the area.

So, as we can see, it is a new bloody conflict that is taking shape in the
region. The archaic landowners who feel they are seated in "their" power now
with the reactionary government currently in place, are seeking to take
advantage of the situation to carry out all sorts of exactions and even
massacres to block the workers' demands, the rights of those who carry the
country on their backs without ever obtaining the slightest benefit from the
fruit of their labor.

Alert! Batay Ouvriye once again is declaring: alert!

We've already noticed since a long time, this government, aside from the
U.S. agenda, the occupation and the bourgeoisie, isn't decided to pay
attention or even hear anyone. That's why it is the population and all
consequent progressives we're addressing today.

Alert!!! We say! As we've always announced: another bloodbath is in the
making!


------------------------------

2) Port-au-Prince, Nov. 7, 2005
Last week, the occupying troops in the country committed one more exaction
yet. Jordanian soldiers rammed down the gate to the Larco soft drink
factory, barged into the plant, forced people to lay flat on the ground,
beat them and humiliated them. They also entered the ECEM industry and did
the same thing. Amongst the victims, the majority were plant workers. At
Larco, they threatened to return. Batay Ouvriye is raising its voice to
denounce these acts of outright violence and abuse. But we should be clear
concerning two things:
These acts are part of a general situation. For us, words shouldn't be
played with to speak of "limited sovereignty" or other such gibberish,
trash, to mask this reality. These acts are nothing else than those of
foreign forces under the UN flag occupying the country. They are responsible
for everything, with a puppet government, a lackey electoral board. They
destroy as they wish, when they wish. They have no accounts to give to
anyone. We denounce these acts and we denounce the disguised occupation that
every day is unmasking itself more.
Denouncing is one thing, mobilizing to fight another, with correct tactics
and strategic line, another yet. Forces are already rising to denounce. We
need to go beyond the denunciation to attain a mobilization to force the
occupiers out. Here again, we need to clearly understand that if they are
here, if we are in this situation, the true ones responsible are the ruling
classes who have completely failed. The true persons responsible are the
rotten, putrid politicians who have no problem with the occupation and who
put us in this situation. It's by no means accidental that no candidate has
a program. It's by no means accidental that virtually all agree to apply the
Intermediary Cooperation Framework (CCI, in French). It's by no means
accidental that not one of them has a line of action to "regain the country'
s sovereignty", as they say when they engage in demagoguery.
Today, we need to perfectly ascertain the situation, to unmistakably
determine our enemies, to clearly define the battles we must engage in.
To return to these acts, in their own context, the occupiers must compensate
all those they imposed sufferance upon, they humiliated. Both industries are
in charge of the workers during the time they are in the factory, so they
have to compensate the workers. But we say outright, the occupiers have to
compensate the industries. However : occupation is occupation! They won't do
a thing. Quite the contrary!
In our logic, we need to go beyond the basic demand of compensation We have
to engage in the task of kicking them out of the country, the only way for
them to stop having total initiative, the only way for them to stop playing
with us, playing with a country gradually advancing towards a new form of
disguised occupation that will be called tutorship.
Comrade workers at Larco and ECEM, Batay Ouvriye is in solidarity with you.
While we reinforce the committees in both these plants and attain a higher
level of organization within the factories, we have to work fast to
establish a firm coordination with the workers of other plants and begin our
battle while we walk on both feet:
Battle in both factories, battle against the rapacious bourgeois, battle
against exploitation;
Build the people's camp, battle against the occupiers, against the
occupation.

DOWN WITH FRAUD ELECTIONS! DOWN WITH EXPLOITATION! DOWN WITH THE OCCUPATION!
---------------

3) DOWN WITH ANTI-UNION REPRESSION AT LA COURONNE BREWERY, CAP-HAITIAN!
(Nov. 9, 2005)
Already in 2001, Batay Ouvriye had published a document showing how the
"long 'big-eater' La Couronne drinks are sweet, they're big, but working at
La Couronne brewery isn't sweet!!!". The workers of this industry, owned by
Raymond Jaar, indicated the wrong wages, hellish work conditions,
intransigent owners, firings, absence of employment security and anti-union
repression. We concluded by saying that "drinking 'big-eaters' is good and
sweet., but making them is hell"!
Today, once again, we're raising our voice to denounce the despotic and
illegal actions of La Couronne brewery. Presently it is in the North that
these actions are occurring. Indeed, it is after many efforts and suffering
that the workers of La Couronne Brewery managed to establish their union,
affiliated to the May First Batay Ouvriye Union Federation (ESPMBO) in the
month of August 2005. After addressing their legal recognition affidavit
from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor to the management, a first
meeting was held in which the workers presented their demands such as wage
adjustment and overtime that hadn't been paid to them in over 8 months. An
agreement was reached on several points.
However, since then, two months later: nothing has been done. Not only hasn'
t management respected any of the agreed upon points, but on top of this,
there is the aggravating case of the driver Gérard Petit-Frère who was
accused by the company, without any proof, of missing funds in the truck's
cashbox, whereas the car was in the factory's premises and the cashbox
locked with only management having its key. The driver was squared off to
jail for several months, closed in a cell without judgment; when finally he
was freed, management refused to reemploy him with payment for the time he
was submitted to such injustice.
All of these exactions cause the workers now to say: that's enough! And to
hold work stoppages to show their disagreement with the situation that keeps
going downhill. Then, the regional directors, particularly Jerome Seraphin
and Jean Gary Mentor, singled out the union's treasurer, Semeran Philome,
and fired him. At present, it is all of the company's workers who are fed up
with this kind of brutal abuses La Couronne Brewery is carrying out. All of
them gathered together to stop work and demand the intervention of the
Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor. But even though the Northern director,
Mr. Cadet, indeed convoked both parties to hear them out and concluded that
the firing was illegal, he didn't invoke all the numerous articles of law
that the Brewery is ignoring and that constitute the workers' right.
Batay Ouvriye is mobilized with the La Couronne Brewery - North Union to
demand a complete change in this company that doesn't respect the workers,
nor even the country's laws. All of the points of agreement attained should
be respected, Gérard Petit-Frère should find justice for his illegal
imprisonment and the union's treasurer should return to work. Both should be
compensated for the time they couldn't work because of the company's
arbitrary practices.
DOWN WITH THE RETROGRADE LA COURONNE BREWRY MANAGEMENT!
FORWARD THE BREWERY WORKERS' JUST STRUGGLES!