28818: Pierre (Reply): 28797: De Verteuil (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Kawonabo1500@aol.com

De Verteuil,
            It is necessary and fundamental that Workers create Unions in
capitalist production to fight the dictatorial/repressive nature of capital. 
They
don't have any other choice unless they want to die bowing down. The
capitalists don't have any other choice neither but to accept the Workers' 
Unions. You
said, “Unions may as you believe serve the interests of the employed but they
do so whilst acting as a brake on employment.” This logic is too simplistic,
mechanical, and absolutely misleading. Lance Durbam in a recent exchange came
up with the same logic which, to me, seems rather irrational and unreasonable.
You cannot and should not pretend that Workers’ Unions are responsible for
the high rate of unemployment in Haiti. It is not true. It can never be true.
Historically, capitalist industrialization has always created an army of
unemployed in abject poverty as a means of exerting pressure on the workers to 
accept
horrible working conditions.
           In Haiti, historically, political repression has stifled every
attempt of workers to create real combative and independent Unions. We remember
how Duvalier decapitated and broke up Ulrick Joly’s L’ Intersyndicale in 
the
early 1960s in the interest of the bourgeoisie and US Capital. The Duvaliers
and the bourgeoisie never permitted the emergence of Independent Workers 
Unions.
            In his efforts to reconcile with his bourgeois partners, Aristide
and his Fanmi Lavalas Party also launched his gangs and the police under his
control against the workers’ independent Unions. Therefore, it is not Unions
that are the cause for unemployment in Haiti.             Capitalist/bourgeois
greed has been the only overarching cause for unemployment and non-compliance
with Union demands.  Workers' Independent Unions create a space for workers to
fight for better working conditions, certain necessary benefits, health
insurance, pension etc. All of these are possible without draining the 
capitalists'
profits. The emergence of Independent Unions in Haiti is changing the terms
of the working environment in production. That is a good thing.
          You also pointed out, “Americans are crying the blues because their
unemployment rate has risen to 6%.” I do not know where you get your numbers.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor statistics, unemployment in the
U.S., in June 2006, stood at 4.6% or 7.0 million people considered to be part 
of
the labor force. This can be very tricky. That’s why you cannot just use a
number and think that all is nice and good. In the U.S., you are considered
unemployed and therefore part of the labor force if you are able to work and 
are
actively looking for work but could not find a job. That’s the official
definition of unemployment in the U.S.. Therefore, if you are discouraged and 
stopped
looking for work, you are no longer considered as part of the labor force thus
taken off the unemployment statistics. In June 2006, there were about 481,000
discouraged workers (U.S. DOL, 2006). Another 1.1 million folks were also
taken off the unemployment statistics because they weren’t looking for work
either for school or family issues. Even those statistics are not complete when 
you
factor in the homeless which is estimated at 20 million people in the U.S..
          Yes, delocalization or exportation of capitalist labor relations is
the modus operandi of Capital today. Many U.S. companies are moving
operations out in search of cheap labor markets such as India, Pakistan, 
Philippines,
Indonesia, China, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti (Disney, Victoria
Secrets, Levi’s Strauss) etc. In Haiti, the Interim Cooperation Framework has 
set
the stage for this sort of thing to be more systematic.
          Further you argued, “Loud cries of shame and outrage have done
nothing over the years to
discourage Haitians from going to the incredibly hard labor of the Dominican
sugar cane fields. That has also been compared to slavery and yet most who go
are going for the second or third or fourth time; presumably the[y] believe
that these horrible jobs are better than the "no jobs" on offer in their
homeland.” To me, it is correct to send out ‘loud cries of shame and 
outrage’
against the slavery conditions existing for Haitian Workers in the Dominican
Republic. Workers tend to go look for jobs wherever they think the jobs are. We
cannot blame them. The workers go to work in these horrible conditions in the 
DR
because the Haitian bourgeoisie and the Haitian State failed to create a
politically and economically stable society. In my view, the real culprits are 
the
bourgeoisie, the Haitian State (Duvaliers, De Facto’s, and Lavalas), and 
their
U.S. godfathers.
            The truth is, in Haiti, only the Workers have the potential to
invent, create, and bring about a durable and long-term solution to Haiti’s
structural political and economic problems.