30775L Leiderman: viewpoint: Fruit of Whose Looms? or H.O.P.E.-Suey in Haiti? (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leiderman@mindspring.com


20 July 2007

thanks to the unnamed writers who posted the Batay Ouvriye bulletin and critique about the 2006 H.O.P.E. Act.  someday, I hope they all will be comfortable appending their names.

meanwhile, I agree that the Act deserves scrutiny.  in my mind, the Act is not mostly about Haiti and the United States, nor about Haiti and the Dominican Republic at all, but about the United States and China.  specifically, on the one hand the Act is meant to give the impression that the U.S. is lessening the flood of Chinese imports -- some would say this flood has already reached illegal-trade proportions -- while on the other hand it satisfies the demands of American merchants for the lowest-cost, highest-profitable imports available.  the Act does this by allowing China (unnamed in the Act) to "launder" its huge world share of raw textiles by passing them through Third World countries for cutting, sewing, assembling and then shipping to the United States.  both of these hands are clothed in a twisted shroud, i.e. the appearance that Third World (African, Caribbean, etc.) demands for trade access to American markets are being answered in some enlightened way.  initially, the proposed HOPE legislation was limited to African countries; Haiti was added later.

undoubtedly, the turn-key sweatshop approach is what's envisioned as the assembly point by managers of the H.O.P.E. process, and I think if Batay Ouvriye looks closely, they may already find Chinese investment money, equipment and manfacturing/shipping expertise and other support to Haitian maquiladoras directly or indirectly mixed in with Dominican investments.

in this case, a peasants' and workers' association has two alternative strategies, criticize or lead.  what will Batay Ouvriye choose?  certainly, its critique is valid: there needs to be a fair-labor victory on behalf of Haitians already working in such factories and those who will soon be drawn to such factories.  but that is not enough.

in the Batay Ouvriye bulletin and on its website, I did not see one original proposal for diverting the flow of unemployed Haitians away from these H.O.P.E.-borne factories.  I did not see even the outlines of one simple alternative economic strategy or model that could answer the employment needs of 3-5 million peasants, poor and illiterate Haitian workers.  why not?  this is an honest question.

does Batay Ouvriye want to complain or lead?  I think the first and the last steps of a short-term alternative economic strategy are already in place:  the first is that China is looking all over the world for where to dump its raw textiles; that means there's a large and inexpensive supply available to Batay Ouvriye.  the last is twofold -- Haiti's population growth insures a growing internal market for clothes and other clothgoods; and the 2006 H.O.P.E. Act has eased terms of entry to the US for Haitian-assembled clothgoods, regardless of the other strictures appropriately noted in the Bulletin.

so, how many Batay Ouvriye members does it take to sit down and fill the steps in between, in other words,

a) devise an alternative and democratically-run lakou-style cooperative model assembly plant, with

b) distribution and sales networks within Haiti, and abroad to Diaspora customers, and with

c) a plain-English business plan and cost-benefit analysis?

it shouldn't take more than ten members, over a weekend.  with that, I think a fundraising trip to Haitian communities in the US could yield a million dollars of seed money; that's plenty to get started.  if, indeed, the model proves to be more attractive than maquiladoras, Batay Ouvriye will not have to waste its time fighting border factories.  instead, it can concentrate on making the authentic Haitian homegrown economy it keeps talking about but hasn't yet planned.  count me in.

thank you,

Stuart Leiderman
leiderman@mindspring.com