26842: Kawonabo1500: (political) Appeal to Solidarity with the Haitian Working Class (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Kawonabo1500@aol.com

To All Genuine Progressives/Supporters of the Working Class
To the Worldâ??s Militant Labor Movements

The Haitian Working Class Under Attack

Kim Ives (Haiti Progres) has lost it! The real culprits came out nasty. We
knew right from the start that the Haiti Progres/PPN current was behind the
quack researcher (Jeb Sprague) and his sham research concerning Batay
Ouvriye/SOKOWA. Where were the researcher, Haiti Progres, the International
Action Center
(IAC), the International Tribunal et al when the SOKOWA Workers were being
bullied by the Dominican army soldiers and the so-called 'rebels' of Guy
Philippe
in February and March 2004? Where were they when 400 of those workers were
sacked by Grupo M/CODEVI Free Trade Zone in Ouanaminthe, Haiti in June 2004?
Where were they when Batay Ouvriye made the general appeal for national and
international solidarity? Whose side were they on at that time? Where were
they
when Batay Ouvriye was denouncing the forced vaccinations of the workers by
Dominican "doctors", among them pregnant women who later miscarried their
babies
and men who lost their erection? Where were they when Batay Ouvriye was
fighting
the De Facto Government of Latortue/Boniface to intervene in this case? In
this and many other struggles the workers were waging and are continuing to
wage
today all over Haiti against the bourgeoisie, the multinationals/imperialism
and neo-liberalism, Haiti Progres/PPN/Ben Dupuy/Kim Ives/Jeb Sprague/Chalo
Jaklen/KAKOLA/Haiti: the struggle continues, an opportunist radio show at
WBAI,
are totally absent. They simply don't exist in any of those struggles. They
have absolutely no base in Haiti.
 Therefore, they are left to defend the indefensible: the corrupt, immoral,
thieving, charlatan, incompetent, bankrupt, criminal, anti-worker,
pro-imperialist and reactionary lavalas government who called for the
occupation of Haiti
together with its equally reactionary and pro-imperialist oppositionists. They
claim they are defending the Constitutional Government. What Constitutional
Government? What Constitution? The Bourgeois and Imperialist-imposed March
1987
Constitution? Is it the Constitution that all Genuine Progressives denounced
back then as a â??piece of paperâ?? neither the bourgeoisie nor imperialism
intended to respect in the first place? Only opportunists in the likes of the
Ben
Dupuy/Haiti-Progres/PPN current applauded it. The blood bath registered in the
November 1987 elections proved us right. Again, the Coup Dâ?? Etat in
September
1991 proved us right. Now are we being asked to take two steps backwards to
embrace that constitution just because the putrid, pro-imperialist, and
anti-worker lavalas government was not the beneficiary of the occupation
Aristide
himself called for? Please! What if Aristide with his gangs was the
beneficiary of
the occupation, it would not be an â??occupationâ?? anymore? Would it then be
called euphemistically, â??Upholding Constitutional Democracyâ?? by Haiti-
Progres,
Jeb Sprague/Kim Ives/Kakola/Chalo Jaklen et al? In many of the labor conflicts
that opposed the workers to the bourgeoisie and the big landowners, the
Aristide government usually favored those reactionary ruling classes against
the
workersâ?? rights (cf Cointreau/Guacimal, the Northern Soft Drink Brewery, the
Industrial Park in Port-Au-Prince). In all those cases, the lavalas government
carried out systematic repression against the workers. In Guacimal, Lavalas
authorities beat and arrested a Haiti-Progres journalist alongside the
Guacimal
Workers of Batay Ouvriye who were protesting in an effort to claim their land.
The Haiti-Progres journalist lost an eye in that conflict. Two members of
Batay
Ouvriye were lynched and buried on the spot by lavalas goons. At the brewery,
Lavalas Swat teams went in to beat up workers who were asking for the
implementation of a presidential decree to adjust the minimum salary at 70
gourdes.
It is the same bad treatment for the workers from Lavalas authorities and the
bosses at the Industrial Park in Port-Au-Prince.
            Opportunists of all stripes must know that Batay Ouvriye
(Workersâ??
 Struggle) is not a petty bourgeois movement set up to â??leadâ?? the workers
in
struggle. It is not simply an organization in the literal sense of the word.
It is not a Political Party. Batay Ouvriye is an Exclusively Workersâ??
Movement
with an Exclusively Workersâ?? Agenda/Platform and an Exclusively Workersâ??
Viewpoint. Batay Ouvriye doesnâ??t give a hoot who is in government because
the
workers know government and the state are in the pockets of the ruling classes
and imperialism. In the 200 years of Haitiâ??s existence, there has not been
one
government in Haiti that has made even one decision in the interest of workers
or stood firm behind one. Even those opportunists who are exclaiming for the
return of the so-called â??constitutional governmentâ?? know it very well. The
irony of it all also is that no one in their right mind could say that
Aristide
was voted overwhelmingly in a free and fair election in 2000. The fact is that
less than 5% of the electorate participated then and most of the politicians
boycotted those elections. Most of the electorate scorned those elections
because they were rigged from the start. This is what those opportunists are
putting before us as the â??constitutional governmentâ??.
 Today, those opportunist/reactionary gangs in the name of Jeb Sprague/Haiti
Progres/PPN/ Ben Dupuy/Kim Ives/Chalo Jaklen/Kakola want to question Batay
Ouvriye's ethics in accepting $3,500.00 from the Solidarity Center. What
arrogance! As for ethics, naturally, the workers do not share their bourgeois
or
petty-bourgeois viewpoint on that issue. The Workers will do whatever is
necessary
to advance their struggles whether the bourgeoisie or their petty bourgeois
stooges cry foul. As far as the opportunists are concerned, their bourgeois
and
petty bourgeois perspectives will never allow them to understand not even an
inkling of the workersâ?? viewpoint on this or any other issues, political or
otherwise.
We must also understand that the CIA functions in many forms with its hands
hidden in countless operations. These opportunists are proudly doing the work
of the CIA with such extraordinary loyalty by providing names and addresses of
people who are engaged in the Workersâ?? struggles. They are enthusiastically
providing the repressive forces with vital and necessary â??intelligenceâ?? to
prepare and plan an all-out attack and continued repression against the
Workers.
Knowing the nature of the repression and its fluidity especially in a country
like Haiti, why in the world would any true progressive provide specific,
personal and identifiable information about people in the labor movement in
public
forums such as the Internet and the Haiti-Progres Newspaper? Their actions on
that score reveal their true nature of being real stooges and agents of
imperialism and neo-liberalism.
 The historical significance of SOCOWA, affiliated with the May First Batay
Ouvriye (Workersâ?? Struggle) Federation, lies in the fact that 1) it is the
first Union in the very first of 14 Free Trade Zones to be built in Haiti
along
the lines of the neo-liberalist plans of the multinationals and imperialism 2)
It is also the first time in the history of Haiti that workers and management
agree on a Collective Contract Agreement 3) It is also the first time Grupo M
had to deal with a struggle of such magnitude in its lifetime.  It constitutes
a dynamic and militant Precedent/Pattern for the rest of the Country and/or
the whole Island including the Dominican Republic. The workers did it against
great odds too: the absolute lawlessness in Haiti, the intimidation of the
so-called Haitian "rebels", the harassment and violence of the Dominican
soldiers,
and the intimidation of the CODEVI management itself. They also had to deal
with great indifference from institutions such as the World Bank that provided
Grupo M with the funds to build the FTZ, the indifference of the
multinationals
such as Sara Lee and Levi Strauss whose garments are made in factories in the
Free Trade Zone, and the indifference of the De Facto Interim
Latortue/Boniface Government.
 Aristide's intention was to put the workers in this living hell. However, he
pocketed millions of dollars in that Free Trade Zone transaction. In a
meeting with Batay Ouvriye, Fernando Capellan, President of Grupo M/CODEVI,
together
with his General Director, Limbert Cruz, admitted that they gave the Lavalas
Government Reparations Funds for the big landowners and the peasants who lost
their land, homes and harvests. At the time, Jocelerme Privert, Aristideâ??s
Interior Minister, was in charge of the negotiations. Yes, the big landowners
received their share of the funds. However, the peasants whose fertile lands
were
taken away from them got nothing from the Lavalas Government. Why donâ??t the
opportunists/moralists denounce this scandal of the Aristide Government? Why
don
â??t they denounce the stealing of the peopleâ??s money in the so-called
Economic Cooperatives by Aristide? Why donâ??t they denounce the Rice scandal,
the
Metal sheet scandal in the Aristide Government?
Why then now, all of a sudden, Haiti Progres/PPN/Jeb Sprague/KAKOLA want to
discover a â??money trailâ?? to SOKOWA to make it the "left opposition" that
contributed to the ouster of Aristide? Why is the tentative to lump the
militant
and combative nature of Batay Ouvriye together with Aristide's oppositionists
who are in essence his twins politically and ideologically? In fact,
Haiti-Progres/Jeb Sprague/Kim Ives/International Action Center/ KAKOLA/Chalo
Jaklen et al
are cleverly combating Batay Ouvriye under that guise and pretext, to hide
the fact that they are really part and parcel of a chain of reactionaries who
are conspiring to destroy the Batay Ouvriye Movement/SOKOWA in very subtle and
tacit coordination with Grupo M, CODEVI, the Haitian Bourgeoisie, the big
landowners, the national and international yellow unions, the multinationals,
the
imperialists, the MINUSTAH, the reactionary opportunist-populist politicians
and political parties, the Congressional Black Caucus, Fanmi Lavalas, and
Aristide himself.  They all congregate and target the Haitian Working Class
with
impunity. This is the ultra-reactionary camp the Working Class has to face in
struggle today in Haiti and internationally.
The Jeb Sprague stunt at the international tribunal was only the beginning of
this vile and shameful campaign against the Working Class of Haiti. Their
strategy has been to bring Batay Ouvriye to its knees before the sham
elections/selections take place. They are truly embracing and defending the
interests of
the Haitian ruling classes and imperialism by trying to tear down the most
important and militant Workersâ?? Movement that could really challenge the
neo-liberalist policies of imperialism in Haiti today, particularly the
Interim
Cooperation Framework. These are the imperialist policies designed to make
Haiti a
Protectorate. The national and international supporters of the Working Class
will not be swayed by so-called â??discoveriesâ?? of nothing-better-to-do
stooges
of imperialism like Haiti Progres/PPN/Jeb Sprague/Kakola/Chalo Jaklen et al.
 The imperialists and their media like to say that Haiti is the poorest
nation in the Western Hemisphere. Unfortunately, they are right. However, they
created and continue to create that generalized poverty in Haiti. In this
vein,
the Haitian bourgeoisie has been boasting for a long time now that Haitiâ??s
comparative advantage is its cheap labor. In real terms, it means that the
Working
Class is extremely poor. They are living in constant debt. They cannot afford
to pay Union dues. It is really heroic that these workers can actually
organize themselves autonomously and move their struggles forward as they have
in
many places already throughout Haiti within the Batay Ouvriye Movement. Itâ??s
an
amazing feat. No wonder why this Workersâ?? Movement is hated so much by its
class enemies. And that is why Haiti-Progres/Jeb Sprague/Kim Ives/KAKOLA/Chalo
Jaklen et al are trying to discredit it using some lousy castle-of-sand
arguments. They wish to wipe out Batay Ouvriyeâ??s International Solidarity
Base which
has been very helpful and instrumental in many of the Workersâ?? Struggles
achieving important victories against Disney(U.S.), Cointreau-Guacimal
(French),
Marnier-Lapostolle(French), CODEVI-Free Trade Zone (U.S./Dominican), all of
these
multinationals that are chasing cheap labor on a race to the bottom around the
world under the regime of imperialist globalization.
 We must understand the predicament of the work of workersâ?? organizing in a
poor country like Haiti. They badly need political, ideological/moral, and
financial solidarity nationally and internationally. Ben Dupuy and the other
stool-pigeons know very well that the workers will not be able to take their
struggles too far with â??corn seedsâ?? and/or â??pebblesâ??. For instance,
the CODEVI
struggle required and called for solidarity. The Solidarity Center among
others
responded.  Now, could the Solidarity Center have other intentions? Possibly.
It's up to the workers to be vigilant in whatever relationship the Solidarity
Center wants to have with them. It is not up to clumsy/flimsy bourgeois
representatives like Haiti Progres/PPN/Ben Dupuy or a charlatan researcher
like Jeb
Sprague to dictate who the workers can have relations with or the extent of
that relationship. If the Workers determine that the Solidarity Center is
trying
to influence their strategic line which is Autonomous Struggle, they will push
it away for sure.
The workers, in their autonomy, will decide that, not Jeb
Sprague/Haiti-Progres/Kim Ives/KAKOLA/Chalo Jaklen et al. Instead of battling
the workers on the
head for accepting money in a period of crisis from the Solidarity Center,
honest leftists would of course criticize but also offer alternatives because
they really care about the development of the Workersâ?? Struggles. They would
offer suggestions on how to do fundraising and participate in the fundraising
effort. Unfortunately, that has not been the intent of the workersâ??
detractors.
Ben Dupuy and his flock are in the imperial bandwagon, determined to beat down
the Working Class of Haiti, in the interests of the Haitian ruling classes,
imperialism, and neo-liberalismâ??s Free Trade Zones.
More and more, itâ??s becoming clearer that the international tribunal on
Haiti
orchestrated by Ben Dupuy was used by him merely as a hair-dresser exercise
and disingenuous smoke-screen to attack the Working Class of Haiti and not
imperialism nor the occupation and its horrors as he claimed. Thatâ??s usually
how
the Ben Dupuy/PPN/Haiti-Progres/Kim Ives current had used and continues to use
people who honestly want to contribute something. That has been its chronicled
history. These reactionary opportunists must know that international tribunal
or not, only the Workers can wage real and genuine struggles against
imperialism, the occupation, neo-liberalism, Free Trade Zones, exploitation,
and
repression in Haiti. On that score, the Workers will definitely call their
bluff
because the opportunists of all stripes are shining by their absence in their
struggles throughout Haiti.
Yet, we know, and the opportunists know, the context in which the workers are
fighting, the type of beasts they are facing, they canâ??t afford to refuse
financial assistance. They are robbed and exploited to their bones everyday,
and
every minute of their existence by the ruling classes and imperialism. They
are already sucked dry in an impoverished country. As a largely democratic
autonomous popular movement with different levels that include but not limited
to
workersâ?? rights issues, human rights issues, and civil rights issues, Batay
Ouvriye should absolutely have the right to receive assistance from any
organization that offers it regardless of their funding sources. The Workers
of Haiti
do have the right and the obligation, if they are to be able to lead the
Peopleâ??
s Camp in struggle today, to repatriate funds from individuals, organizations
and institutions around the world in an organized way. The key issue for the
Workersâ?? Organizations and Movement here is what they use it for. For
example,
the international solidarity gave SOKOWA a good boost in its struggle against
Grupo M/CODEVI/the World Bank/Levi Strauss/Sara Lee.
Itâ??s really â??cuteâ?? for petty bourgeois opportunists on a vengeance to
tell
the workers you cannot get assistance here or there while they have absolutely
no intention to support them in their struggles in any way, shape or form.
What Hypocrisy? Obviously, this simple truth is not at all evident in the eyes
of
imperial lackeys/do-nothings/dried-fruits in the likes of Haiti Progres/Kim
Ives/Jeb Sprague/ KAKOLA/Chalo Jaklen. They merely want to sprinkle the path
of
the Workersâ?? Struggles with poisonous spikes and enough obstacles to stop
them on their tracks.

Therefore, we must let these ruminants continue to regurgitate and swallow
the same rotten meal of opportunism-populism, anti-worker verbiage, bankrupt
ideology and ideas, lazy and unintelligent/non-intelligible research, and
so-called â??constitutional democracyâ?? under imperialist domination,
occupation and
tutelage. They are out-of-touch with the political, ideological,
organizational,
economic and social realities of the Working Class of Haiti. They have
exposed themselves most definitely in the eyes of the Workers and Progressives
as
real stooges of imperialism even when they pretend to fight it.
 The Workers simply need to continue to fight autonomously for their
fundamental rights on the battlefield, always counting on the Internationalist
Spirit
of the Supporters of the Working Class Worldwide. Therefore, this is an appeal
for all Supporters of the Working Class on our Planet to come to the
Solidarity Congregation of the Haitian Working Class today. The Haitian
Working Class
is undergoing a tremendous transformation in Haitian Society. It is high time
now for Progressives to display some level of curiosity to come to know it
better. The negative splash-attacks of the Jeb Sprague/Haiti
Progres/PPN/KAKOLA/Chalo Jaklen opportunist current against the Haitian
Working Class is a wake-up
call on all genuine progressive, militant, and political labor forces around
the world.
 Letâ??s use this as an opportunity to come together and pose the major
contradictions and challenges faced by the Working Class in the Age of
Imperialist
Globalization.
WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!!!
 In Solidarity,
 Mario Pierre
(Mario Pierre is a member of the Batay Ouvriye (Workersâ?? Struggle)
Solidarity
Network and also the Grassroots Haiti Solidarity Committee in NYC)

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