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30284: Pierre (Reply) Re: 30269: Laborsoul (fwd)
From: Kawonabo1500@aol.com
‘Batay Ouvriye is the only Independent Workers Movement created and
controlled by Workers on the ground in Haiti today’ is a reality as we
speak. You
seem to be a person who has been watching a debate from afar with absolutely
no
knowledge of what is happening on the ground. I would advise you to go to
Haiti and see for yourself instead of basing your conclusions on what you read
merely on websites. I met with the workers personally in Haiti and had a feel
of their everyday struggles. In July 2003, as I was visiting the workers
meeting space in Port-Au-Prince, about 30 workers came because they were beat
up by lavalas chimeres from the Delmas Police Precinct called on by the bosses
at the Wilbes factory at the Industrial Parc. The workers are struggling
against great odds. That’s why people like you, if you are honest, need to
really find out more before you simply scapegoat the workers.
Now about US State Department funding: the detractors of Batay Ouvriye are
constantly using this issue of US State Department funding as a whipping flag
to try to silence the workers. It is to no avail. The workers do not have a
relationship with the US State Department. In June-July 2004, they were
approached by the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center for assistance because 400
workers
were fired at the Ouanaminthe Free Trade Zone on the border of Haiti and the
Dominican Republic. From there, the Solidarity Center promised the workers to
do some International fundraising to support the workers’ work in
Ouanaminthe.
The workers in the Batay Ouvriye Movement discussed the issue, the pros and
cons, and even the possibility of smear campaigns etc. They decided to accept
any support the Solidarity Center can provide to them. This was not a
decision that came from a handful of individuals. It was a decision of the
workers
movement itself. They really didn’t care where the Solidarity Center would
get the funds. Is that a mistake? Only history will tell.
A couple of words about those who love to raise this funding issue about
Batay Ouvriye: Most of those who are doing this are hypocrites because if the
funds went to the lavalas Gran Manjè (Big Eaters), they would have no
problems
with that, and also, they are the very ones who supported Aristide’s
betrayal
of Haiti’s Sovereignty returning to Haiti under US/UN occupation on the
backs of 25,000 imperialist soldiers in 1994-1995. They still support
Aristide
and his neo-macoute gangs who came on television and called for the recent
occupation together with the opposition in late 2003 and early 2004.
Unfortunately, he was not the beneficiary of the occupation this time around.
In other
words, when the occupation is good for them, it’s simply a good thing. When
it
turns bad for them, they cry foul. That’s the essence of opportunism.
Furthermore, they have not come out to say who's funding their media outlets,
their
newspapers, and their travels to South Africa, and all over the place to
promote their propaganda against Batay Ouvriye.
You said, “Haitain trade unionists have been violently targeted for
supporting democracy.” 1) That’s another version of the opportunism,
speaking of
democracy in general. Democracy for whom? You cannot have true democracy under
foreign imperialist occupation. Are you talking about bourgeois democracy?
Whose democracy? The lavalas populist-opportunists and reactionary leadership
are all on the bandwagon of democracy in general creating illusions on the
minds of the Haitian Masses about the very concept of democracy. 2) Batay
Ouvriye
always denounced all types of repression against workers and the popular
masses by any government whether it is lavalas or Latortue-Boniface or the
Haitian army. 3) As a matter of fact, the whole Haitian Left and the
international
Left have joined the Right in promoting democracy in general. That’s why I
say both the left and the right are the two poles of reaction today. The
workers have to face both as enemies of the people.
What is necessary in Haiti and pretty much around the world are not trade
unionists supporting democracy but Workers who are taking matters into their
own hands in their independent struggles throughout the world.
As for the websites you mentioned, they are very biased in their treatment
of the Haitian Workers. They are not the most reliable sources today. At this
point, the best and most reliable thing anyone can do to get reliable
information concerning the struggles of workers is to go to Haiti with an open
mind
and see for yourself. Don’t just rely on what you see on websites or the
mercenary media.
Again, stop trying to demean my statements to the level of ‘assertions’,
because they are not. They are facts on the ground in Haiti. If you don’t
want
to believe me, it’s your right. But the best way to test it is to go on the
ground in Haiti and meet with Batay Ouvriye.
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