28557: Anonymous (news) Failed Solidarity (Article) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

http://labornotes.org/archives/2006/06/articles/f.shtml




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

By Jeb Sprague

June 2006



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 Cissé and union
leaders from the AFL-CIO, France, Canada, Guyana and the Global Union
Federation.  The purpose of the delegation was to assist eleven trade
unionists of the Coordination Syndicale Haïtienne (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, â??We went to visit them
in jail.  We went with many newspapers and press, local and
international agencies.â??[1]  Just thirteen days after their arrival
on February 29, 2004, Haitiâ??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.



â??Following the coup, more than 12,000 public sector employees, who
had been hired under the Aristide government, were immediately fired
without compensationâ??, writes Isabel Macdonald, a Canadian
journalist conducting interviews with laid off workers in Haiti.[2]
The Associated Press on May 12, 2004 reported that Telecommunications
Dâ??Haiti (TELECO), the 90% government owned public telephone company,
had announced plans to lay off 2,000 workers, half of its workforce.



In May of 2004 an investigative report from a labor-religious
delegation sent to Haiti, initiated by the San Francisco Labor
Council, spoke of a witch-hunt against supporters of the former
government and of receiving reports from the â??FTPH (Federation of
Public Transport Workers of Haiti), of criminal attacks on over 100
of the buses that they had purchased for use in the bus cooperative
operated by the union.â??[3]  Sasha Kramer, a PhD student from
California traveling in Haiti took photos of the demolished public
buses.  With death threats and arbitrary placements on police
â??wantedâ?? lists, public sector employees and trade unionists, such
as teachers, port workers, and bus drivers across Haiti were
targeted. With an untold number of dead victims and political
prisoners from the coup and the consequent twenty-six months of an
unelected interim government, numerous human rights organizations
decried state sponsored violence and persecution (March 2004- May 2006).



During the weeks prior to the 2004 coup a â??general strikeâ?? was
called by businesses and organizations associated with the opposition
to the government, in which banks, gas stations, supermarkets, and
specialty shops kept their doors closed, while the marketplaces of
the poor remained open.[4]  In a recent interview Duclos Benissoit, a
founder of the Haiti Transportation Federation currently living in
exile in New York, discussed his experience during the 2004 coup.
â??The people who stick their necks out, vocal resisters were targeted
first.  I was one of those people. I was opposed to any kind of
â??strikeâ?? called by the bosses. Unless called by labor, I told
consumers to ignore the other â??strikes.â?? (Big business and
national forces) didn't like this.â??[5]



The ICFTU delegation in February 2004, just prior to Aristideâ??s
ouster, as Katia Gil explains, â??visited many people but only those
involved with the opposition to the government of course.â?? The
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), claiming a
membership of 157 million workers in 148 countries and territories,
plays a leading role in investigating and drawing attention to labor
abuse around the globe; but for the two years following the coup
dâ??etat, the ICFTU did not make a single public statement or
condemnation in regards to the massive labor persecution.  The
Organización Regional Interamericana de Trabajadores (ORIT) as the
Latin American regional affiliate of the ICFTU , currently
headquartered in Brazil, also remained silent.



CSH, the â??ICFTU/ORITâ??s fraternal organization in Haitiâ??
according to Victor Baez[6], was a member of the Group of 184,
supporting the installation of the interim government.  CSH Secretary-
general Fritz Charles, whose organization was made up primarily of
anti-Lavalas unions and labor organizations, such as the Duvalier
sanctioned and formerly U.S. government funded Fédération des
Ouvriers Syndiqués (FOS), explained, â??We adhere to the Group of 184
because it is a broad organization of the civil society which
preaches a social pact where we want to play our part, where we want
to also support the claims present in our trade-union agenda,
ratified by our general assembly.â??[7] The Group of 184 a Haitian
organization of NGOs, business elites, and foreign financed human
rights groups was the principal civil society organization that
agitated for the downfall of the elected government and was headed up
by one of Haitiâ??s most notorious sweatshop owners, Andre Apaid, Jr.[8]



â??Democracy Promotionâ?? program monies through United States,
Canadian, and European Union aid agencies were channeled nearly
exclusively to groups and organizations that were critical of the
elected government of Haiti.  In some cases, this took the form of
actively building the political opposition, such as many of those
within the Group of 184  â?? in others, it was simply supporting and
funding sectors and leaders who were sharp critics of the Haitian
government.  Fabiola Cordove, a program officer at the National
Endowment for Democracy (NED) in Washington D.C., which funds
numerous opposition affiliated groups, pointed out, â??Aristide really
had 70% of the popular support and then the 120 other parties had the
thirty per cent split in one hundred and twenty different ways, which
is basically impossible to compete [with]."[9]



While foreign governments and financial institutions heavily favored
the elite opposition, the local and foreign media did as well.
Similar to the media manipulation during the 2002 attempted coup in
Venezuela, the Haitian media, owned overwhelming by opposition-
affiliated elites, refused to air pro-government demonstrations.
Instead they devoted large blocks of air time to coverage of the much
smaller opposition marches, which one observer noted were led down
the streets by â??fancy BMW motorcycles and huge, square Mercedes Benz
SUVâ??s.â??[10]



Haitiâ??s government by early 2004 had been weakened and itâ??s
impoverished masses of supporters, as well as its opposition, felt
increasingly under attack.  In the months and weeks before the large
ICFTU led labor delegation arrived, chaos reigned as rebels, from the
disbanded military, based in the Dominican Republic had begun an
invasion of Haiti, equipped with new SUVs and, reportedly,
airplanes.  For years the same rebels had been running violent raids,
into Haiti killing police, government officials, and civilians alike
â?? sparking violence and reprisals.  Even months before the
inauguration of Aristide in February 2001, Port-au-Prince had been
shaken by mysterious bombings.  OAS officials admit they never worked
to investigate the rebels or pressure the Dominican Republic to root
them out.  With the economic strangulation of a Bush and Clinton
Administration backed government aid embargo taking effect in 2000
and a small poorly armed police force, the difficulties of the
Haitian government intensified.  The CSH, like many other opposition
groups affiliated with the Group of 184, had something the Haitian
government did not have â?? foreign aid.



Fritz Charles explains that the CSH received assistance, support, and
computers from ORIT and the International Labor Organization (ILO),
which, though viewed as a labor organization, is in fact a tri-
partite body of the UN which groups together trade union bodies,
employer organizations, and governments.[11]  Katia Gil of ORIT
clarifies that â??Since 2000, we have had support from International
Solidarity funds from the ICFTU to help in a trade union education
program, organizing workers in Haitiâ?¦we helped to build the CSH, and
we provided part of the support for the CSH infrastructure, in order
to create a place where the Haitian workers [the CSH] could plan and
manage their own process.â??[12] The ICFTU continues to provide an
undisclosed amount of funding for CSH programs.



Charles also refers to the ILOâ??s financing of six seminars for the
CSH conducted by André Lafontant Joseph (Secretary-general of the
private school teachers Union, the CNEH).[13]  André Lafontant
Joseph, was the author of a major research report funded by the ILO
on the Haitian labor movement[14] and his union the Confédération
Nationale des Educateurs d'Haiti (CNEH) took a leading role,
following the coup, in working to undermine the public school
teacherâ??s in the north of Haiti.[15]  According to André  Lafontant
Jospehâ??s ILO funded study, â??ORITâ?? amongst others â??encourage[d]
more than about fifteen organizations to constitute the Trade-union
Coordination Syndicale Haïtienne (CSH).â??[16]



According to Ana Jiménez, of the ILOâ??s San Jose office, the ILO has
provided â??technical cooperationâ?¦.a program that has the objective
of fortifying the Haitian union movement, in particular the
Coordination Syndicale Haïtienne (CSH). This program is assumed
within the ordinary budget of the Officeâ?¦which does not surpass US
$70.000.â??[17]  The ILO currently has two other projects in Haiti, a
project in Gonaives worth US $413,00 (partially financed by the
United Nations Development Program) and a Canadian government
financed project working in the field of child labor with US$ 382,374.
[18] The AFL-CIO works closely with the ILO, as Harry G Kamberis,
Senior advisor of the AFL-CIOâ??s Solidarity Center explains,
â??Through our representatives at the ILO we supported what the ILO
tried to do as well.â??[19]



Kevin Skerrett, a researcher at the Canadian Union of Public
Employees (CUPE) who previously visited Haiti as a Canadian labor
delegate argues, â??There is not much evidence to suggest that the CSH
actually operates as a trade union at all.  I have not seen any
reports that they have engaged in any collective bargaining, or even
have democratic meetings of affiliated unions during which policy
positions are democratically decided.  A number of the trade
unionists that I spoke with in Haiti and in the post-coup exile-
diaspora have suggested that the CSH was only formed in the late 90s,
and with significant involvement of US and foreign agencies.  While
it continued to operate as a sort of â??advocacyâ?? group for Haitian
workers, it is not clear that they became anything more than a small
number of people that were part of the political opposition to the
Preval and then Aristide governments.â??[20] Suffice to say; led by
Fritz Charles, the CSH became the main platform for organizing labor
leaders towards the platform of the Group of 184.



Meanwhile, in Canada, while the Canadian Labor Congress (CLC)
denounced Canadaâ??s role in legitimizing the 2004 coup dâ??etat of
the democratically elected government,[21] it failed to investigate
the massive layoffs and persecution of public sector workers in
Haiti.  An April 2004 statement from the CLC committed itself to
â??monitoringâ?? the human rights and workers rights situation in the
coming months in Haiti, something which never occurred.[22]



 From Brussels the ICFTU played a leading role in the yearâ??s leading
up to the coup, circulating reports, heavily influenced by Haitian
opposition elites, within the European labor movement â?? and to some
extent the North American labor movement, that while informing the
public of some real ongoing labor disputes, also forwarded unfounded
allegations.  For example, attributing to the Aristide government the
killings of two labor advocates that took place in the rural area of
Guacimal in 2002, near the northeastern town of St. Raphael, which
were in fact (according to a newspaper whose reporter lost an eye in
the assault) murders carried out by employees of a local landowner,
not â??government partisansâ?? as one Aristide critic recently claimed.
[23]  Showing the echo effect of such allegations, an employee of the
AFL-CIOâ??s Solidarity Center recently made the unsubstantiated claim
that â??Aristide flew over Guacimal in a helicopter, shooting at
workers.â??[24]



While labor conditions remained extremely poor and corruption
persisted, as foreign backed destabilization plunged Haitiâ??s
economy, the Aristide government took steps towards aiding labor.
The minimum wage was increased from 36 Gourdes to 70 Gourdes a day in
early 2003, the right to organize in the free trade zone was
successfully negotiated, a provision of the labor code that
sanctioned child domestic service was repealed, and legislation
prohibiting human trafficking was passed.  A 20-person police unit
was set up to monitor cases of suspected human trafficking along the
border, while steps were taken to promote access to education,
offering a 70% subsidy to cover education supplies and calling on
families who employ children to release them during school hours.
The second Aristide administration (2000-2004) also refused to
privatize public sector industries, requested by the IMF.  Following
the coup dâ??etat many of the labor reforms were suspended, with
numerous employers reverting to the old minimum wage.



The ILO, ICFTU and ORIT were not the only labor organizations to
support the opposition to the Aristide government and ignore the
persecution of public sector workers following itâ??s overthrow.  On
March 1, 2004 the AFL-CIO released its sole statement in regards to
the overthrow of democracy in Haiti, stating that the â??current
crisis in Haiti represents a failure of U.S. foreign policy.â??[25]
Only weeks later, the AFL-CIO and its offshoot the Solidarity Center
(American Center for International Labor Solidarity) began talks with
the Batay Ouvriye (BO), an anti-Lavalas workerâ??s organization that
had agitated for the Aristide government to â??leave the country.â??[26]



By mid-2005 the Solidarity Center had won two grants for its program
with the BO.

The first grant for US $350,000 was awarded to the Solidarity Center
in May of 2005 through the U.S. State Departmentâ??s â??Democracy
Rights and Labor Departmentâ??, while the second grant for US $99,965
came in September of 2005 from the NED, also receiving its funding
from the U.S. State Department.[27]  Teresa Casertano, regional
director of the Americas for the Solidarity Center, managed the
grants.  She explains, â??We provide a service that is an educational
service, to train them, to share with them our knowledge and skills
on trade union organizingâ?¦Organizing members, doing new member
orientation, collective bargaining, contract enforcement, shop
stewards.â??[28]



As part of the grant requirements, the Solidarity Center must submit
quarterly evaluation reports to its funding sources, the NED and U.S.
State Department.  Casertano explains, â??We wrote a proposal that was
submitted. A very standard format with objectives, activities and
evaluation proceduresâ?¦So there was a grant agreement based on that,
the State Department dispersed funds for those activities describedâ?¦
The specific grant has a quarterly reporting requirementâ?¦We then
write that up and we submit it as a quarterly report.â??  In this
particular program with the Batay Ouvriye (BO), the U.S. State
Department asked to extend the program, as Casertano explains, â??They
did ask us to extend it from a year long to 18 months with the same
amount of funding and we agreed.â??



Kamberis explains further the cooperation between the U.S. State
Department and the AFL-CIOâ??s Solidarity Center. â??The State
Department has annually a labor officer conference that we are
invited to come and speak at and also when they have labor officer
training programs they send the officers over to speak with us. We
design our own programs and run them.  But we do talk with the State
Department. We exchange information and we help them with information
on their annual labor and human rights reports.â??



Kamberis argues that there is a difference today between the
activities of the Solidarity Center and its Cold War predecessors.
â??Since the end of the cold war the global trade union movement has
become less ideological.  What you see in Haiti [the support for
opposition labor organizations] is just a coincidence...We are
supporting the efforts of workers to organize. For example with the
World-Bank, we worked to build labor rights conditionalities and
thatâ??s what we have achieved in Haiti to help workersâ?¦I would say
that working with the Batay Ouvriye does advance U.S. Strategic
interests, because it helps to advance freedom of association in
Haiti and that is a U.S. government objective, to allow workers to
freely associate.â??  In regards to the Solidarity Centerâ??s
predecessor, AIFLD (American Institute for Free Labor Development),
and itâ??s support for unions run through Duvalierâ??s secret police
in the 1980â??s Kamberis states, â??We had programs under the Duvalier
government that addressed the same thing: worker exploitation whether
they were or were not Anti or Pro-Duvalier. That was not for us the
issue.â??[29]



As the United States, Canada, and France played integral roles in
overthrowing the Aristide government; those with close ties to Haiti
- CARICOM and the African Union - refused to recognize the interim
government put in its place.  Unions such as the Oilfield Workersâ??
Trade Union (OWTU) of Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean spoke out
against the coup.  On March 1, 2004, the day following the coup,
Errol McLeod, President of OWTU condemned the foreign role in
occupying Haiti, stating â??It was totally wrong for the US, France
and Canada to determine that President Aristide was â??unfit to
governâ??.â??[30]



There are numerous trade unions and labor organizations that did not
join the political opposition movement, while none have received
support from any of these four bodies.  These organizations continue
to support political interventions through groups that espouse the
undemocratic removal of governments in selected countries (i.e.
Haiti, Venezuela), at the expense of workers and in collaboration
with the foreign policy of the Bush Administration.



The blind eye turned towards the major transgressions of the interim
government can be partially explained by the vested interests that
international labor organizations had in the participants of the coup
and pre-coup destabilization campaign.  Political parties of Western
Europe that have strong ties to their countries large and influential
trade unions such as Germanyâ??s SPD (Social Democratic Party of
Germany) have consistently supported Haitian political parties
opposed to Lavalas such as the OPL (Lâ??Organistation de Peuple en
Lutte), a backer of austerity measures forwarded by the IMF.[31]
While the majority of Haitians speak kreyòl and live at abysmal
subsistence levels; the French-speaking opposition aligned elite,
many with European educations, were apt to form long term relations
with foreign institutions already predisposed against popular
democracy â?? so called â??radical populismâ??.  The ICFTU released a
statement on November 23, 2000, over two months prior to Aristideâ??s
inauguration, titled â??Return To Dictatorship?â?? heavily reliant on
OPL sources, labeling Haitiâ??s largest political party Lavalas as
â??much feared.â??[32]  Another deeply partisan ICFTU Bulletin in May
of 2001 cited OPL leaders Sauveur Pierre Etienne, Gérard Pierre, and
Paul Dennis, as well as a Convergence leader Evans Paul, with no
mention of their heavy reliance on foreign government aid agencies.
[33]  In comparison to its overtly critical stance during the second
Aristide Administration (2001-2004), not a single ICFTU bulletin
decried coup and post-coup labor rights violations against public
sector workers and trade unionist supporters of the ousted
government.  Dominique Esser, a New York based human rights advocate,
argues that labor â??persecution is a non-topic if it happens to
elements of society that are not supported by those wealthy parties
that are strongly intertwined with international union
heavyweights.â??[34]



The most prominent international labor organizations active in Haiti,
the ICFTU, AFL-CIO, ILO, and ORIT, working to support and strengthen
labor unions that agitated for the ousting of Haitiâ??s democratically
elected government, have simultaneously refused to condemn the
massive layoffs and persecution of public sector workers and trade
unionists committed by its illegally-imposed successor.  In regards
to the Solidarity Centerâ??s aloofness towards labor persecution
resulting from the coup, Casertano states, â??We make public
statements. We make plenty of statements.â??  In reference to post-
coup labor persecution Katia Gil of ORIT explains, â??We have not
looked into that.â??



Jeb Sprague is a graduate student, freelance journalist, and a
correspondent for Pacifica Radioâ??s Flashpoints. This article is in
part based off a talk he gave at the 32nd Annual Conference of the
South-West Labor Studies Association.  Visit his blog at http://
www.freehaiti.net





[1]Telephone Interview on March 6, 2006.

[2] <http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/12_17_5/12_17_5.html> Also
listen to an interview with Isabel McDonald at <http://
www.wakeupwithcoop.org>

[3]<http://dominionpaper.ca/weblog/2004/05/
statement_on_the_current_situation_of_workers_the_labor_movement_and_hum
an_rights_in_haiti_.html>

[4]Kevin Pina, â??Haitiâ??s Large Businesses Shutter Doors as the Poor
Markets Remain Openâ?? <http://www.hatford-hwp.com/archives/43a/
626.html>

[5] Journeying in the struggle together: An interview with Haitian
labor leader Benissoit Duclos

   <http://www.sfbayview.com/030106/journeying030106.shtml>

[6] <http://cioslorit.org/detalle.php?item=948&leng=es>

[7] Translated from the CSH: Reporte De Actvidades Por La CSH: Haiti
(2002-2003).  January 10, 2003.

<http://cioslorit.org/detalle.php?item=616&leng=es>

The ILO recorded the unions that were members within the CSH in early
2004.  The ILOâ??s Provisional Record, Ninety-second Session, Geneva,
2004 states â??CSH groups together the following workersâ??
organizations: Fédération des ouvriers syndiqués (FOS),
Confédération nationale des éducateurs haïtiens (CNEH),
Confédération des ouvriers et des travailleurs haïtiens (KOTA),
Corps national des enseignants haïtiens (CONEH), Syndicat national
des travailleurs de la presse (SNTPH), Confédération indépendante
des syndicats nationaux (CISN), Réseau national des femmes
(RENAFANM), Rassemblement

des petits planteurs (RASPA), Confédération générale des
travailleurs (CGT), Groupe dâ??initiative des enseignants de lycée
(GIEL), Mouvement des paysans haïtiens (MOPA), Centrale autonome des
travailleurs haïtiens (CATH), Syndicat des chauffeurs coopérants
fédérés (SCCF).  < http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/
ilc/ilc92/pdf/pr-6c.pdf>

[8] Choosudovskyâ??s article â??The Destabilization of Haitiâ??
explains that Andy Apaid Jr., â??owns Alpha Industries, one of Haiti's
largest cheap labor export assembly lines established during the
Duvalier era. His sweatshop factories produce textile products and
assemble electronic products for a number of US firms including
Sperry/Unisys, IBM, Remington and Honeywell. Apaid is the largest
industrial employer in Haiti with a workforce of some 4000 workers.
Wages paid in Andy Apaid's factories are as low as 68 cents a day.
(Miami Times, 26 Feb 2004). The current minimum wage is of the order
of $1.50 a day.â??  < http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/
CHO402D.html>

[9]Anthony Fenton, Declassified Documents: National Endowment for
Democracy FY2005, Narco News,

<http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2006/2/15/205828/741>

[10] Corbett List Entry 27934. See <http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/
haiti/haiti.html>

[11] <http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/norm/sources/mne.htm>

[12] March 17, 2006 E-mail

[13] <http://cioslorit.org/detalle.php?item=616&leng=es>

[14] â??Le Mouvement Sydnical Haïtien: De ses origines aux débuts du
21ème siècleâ?? André Lafontant Joseph (Premiere edition 2003)

[15] â??Proposal: Community Based Human Rights Advocacy in Haiti
â?? <http://www.hurah.revolt.org/Hurah/Fundraising/proposal.htm>

[16] â??Le Mouvement Sydnical Haïtien: De ses origines aux débuts du
21ème siècleâ?? André Lafontant Joseph (Premiere edition 2003), Pg.
53.  <http://www.oit.or.cr/mdtsanjo/actrav/pdf/haiti/haiti.pdf> â??53
La première est à  lâ??actif de lâ??ORIT, de la Fondation Friedrich
Ebert et le Centre Pétion Bolivar qui à  la faveur dâ??un processus
de dialogue et de réalisation dâ??activités conjointes, ont pu
encourager plus dâ??une quinzaine dâ??organisations à  constituer la
Coordination Syndicale Haïtienne.â??

[17] Transcript of ILO E-mails in possession of author.

[18] Ibid

[19] Kamberis Interview/ February 2006. Kamberis headed the AFL-CIO's
Solidarity Center from 1997 to 2004, when he moved to Senior Advisor
status.  Barbara Shailor replaced Kamberis in 2004 as head of the
Solidarity Center.  For a recent analysis of the AFL-CIOâ??s foreign
policy, see Kim Scipes, â??Labor Imperialism Redux? The AFL-CIOâ??s
Foreign Policy Since 1995,â?? Monthly Review, May 2005: 23-36, and on-
line at <http://www.monthlyreview.org/0505scipes.htm>

[20] Discussion conducted in February of 2006.

[21] See the CLCâ??s Executive Vice President Marie Clarke Walker
speech <http://canadianlabour.ca/index.php/Marie_Clarke_Walker/
Canadian_Peace_Alliance>

[22] <http://canadianlabour.ca/index.php/Haiti/CLC_Statement_on_Hai>

[23] â??Time to Support Haitiâ??, April 25, 2006 <http://
www.henryjacksonsociety.org.uk/> Also see Haiti Progres, June 6,
2002  <http://www.haitiprogres.com/2002/sm020605/eng06-05.html> which
explains that â??the landowner's thugs killed with machetes and buried
an elderly peasant couple who had been with BO's St. Michel
delegation.â??

[24] Notes on this conversation with the Solidarity Centerâ??s In-
Country Haiti Organizer in possession of author (December, 2005. San
Francisco).  Also see <http://www.quixote.org/hr/news/haitireport/
7-12-2002.php>

[25] <http://www.aflcio.org/aboutus/thisistheaflcio/ecouncil/
ec03112004o.cfm>

[26] See my previous article â??Batay Ouvriyeâ??s Smoking Gunâ?? on
Znet < http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=9505> and
â??Supporting a Leftist Opposition to Lavalasâ?? on MRZine < http://
mrzine.monthlyreview.org/sprague211105.html>

[27] This is acknowledged by Harry Kamberis, Teresa Casertano, and
Barbara Shailor at the AFL-CIOâ??s Solidarity Center in a telephone
interview conducted with this author in February of 2006.  Transcript
in possession of author.  Also see NED grants for FY 2005 at <http://
inthenameofdemocracy.org/en/node/8>.  For an in-depth analysis of the
relationship of the Solidarity Center with the NED, see Kim Scipes,
"An Unholy Alliance:  The AFL-CIO and the National Endowment for
Democracy (NED) in Venezuela," ZNet, July 10, 2005 <www.zmag.org/
content/showarticle.cfm?sectionID=19&itemID=8268>

[28] Telephone interview conducted in February of 2006.

[29] Ibid. The estimates on the total amount of state sanctioned
killings under the Duvalier Regimes (1957-1986) that I have found
range from 30,000 to 60,000.  For another account of how AFL-CIO
foreign policy leaders work with the Bush Administration, see Kim
Scipes, "AFL-CIO Foreign Policy Leaders Help Develop Bush's Foreign
Policy, Target Foreign Unions for Political Control," Labor Notes,
March 2005, <http://www.labornotes.org/archives/2005/03/articles/
e.html>. Also see Tim Shorrock, "Labor's Cold War," The Nation, May
19, 2003, <http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030519&s=shorrock>

[30] â??No to U.S. Intervention in Haitiâ??, Oilfield Workers' Trade
Union (OWTU), March 1, 2004 <http://www.owtu.org/owtu%20&%20haiti.htm>

[31] Haiti News (haiti-news@listhost.uchicago.edu) May 13, 2006.  In
February 2001 as Aristide was being inaugurated after his second
democratic election, the OPL hosted a â??counter-inaugurationâ?? in
front of a handful of opposition officials in which Gerard Gourgue, a
75-year-old lawyer, was dubbed â??provisional presidentâ??. Gourgue
called for the return of the disbanded military.

[32] â??Haiti: A Return to Dictatorship?â?? <http://www.icftu.org/
displaydocument.asp?Index=991211921&Language=EN>

[33] â??Haiti: From Bad to Worseâ??  <http://www.icftu.org/
displaydocument.asp?Index=991212264&Language=EN>

[34] Haiti News (haiti-news@listhost.uchicago.edu) May 13, 2006

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