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From: daniel simidor <danielsimidor@yahoo.com>
http://www.grassrootshaiti.org/News/HaitianLaborGroup.html Haitian Labor
Group
Confronts US Lavalas Backers
NEW YORK, Nov. 11 2005
Long-standing differences in the Haitian left began to emerge as an
issue among US progressives this fall as the well-known Haitian labor
organizing group Batay Ouvriye ("Workers' Struggle") responded to what it
called a "slander" from US supporters of the Lavalas movement of deposed
Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
During an "International Tribunal on Haiti" in Washington, DC on
the weekend of Sept. 23, a panelist charged that Batay Ouvriye had been funded
by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of a
program for "creating a leftist opposition" in Haiti in the months
leading up to Aristide's overthrow in February 2004. The money came
through the AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center and was part of a $3 million
package for subverting the Haitian government, according to Jeb
Sprague, an independent journalist and a graduate student at
California State University at Long Beach. Batay Ouvriye was "working
with co-conspirators overthrowing a democratically elected government," Sprague said.
The tribunal was organized by several large left and solidarity
groups, including International ANSWER, the International Action Center and
the Latin America Solidarity Coalition. Sprague's presentation
was aired in New York on Sept. 28 on WBAI-FM's popular morning
program, "Wakeup Call."
Batay Ouvriye responded on Oct 1 [see below]. The group ridiculed
the idea that it had been paid to be part of "an unholy alliance fabricated
by the State Department." In fact, the statement said, Batay
Ouvriye has a long, very public record of opposition to "the
Lavalas leaders, who we certainly exposed to be reactionaries,
swindlers, complete frauds, anti-popular and fundamentally anti-
worker." Sprague--who claimed to have conducted 30 interviews in
his research--"never once contacted our organization for
information," Batay Ouvriye charged.
Batay Ouvriye has worked with a number of international solidarity groups over the years, including the National Labor Committee and the Campaign for Labor Rights. Among its best-known campaigns were unionization drives at Grand Marnier and
Cointreau plantations in northern Haitian and the recent unionization of a Dominican-owned factory
in a "free trade zone" by the Dominican border in Ouanaminthe.
During the Ouanaminthe struggle Batay Ouvriye received $3,500
from the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center, in response to public appeals
for funds to help fired workers. This was apparently the funding Sprague
was referring to.
Stressing that it focuses on grassroots struggles "against the
bourgeoisie concretely in the factories, sweatshops, plantations," Batay Ouvriye asked why the International Tribunal had chosen to target it rather than a number of much less militant
Haitian unions that "closely resemble...the pro-imperialist and pro-bourgeois Confederation of Venezuelan Labor (CTV)," a major force in the 2002 US-backed effort to overthrow
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.
Batay Ouvriye noted that two of its supporters were killed in northern Haiti in May 2002 by goons led by a local Lavalas
mayor. Aristide's government responded to the anti-union violence by arresting several Batay Ouvriye organizers and two journalists; some were held in the National Penitentiary until December 2002, when they were released following an international campaign to press the Lavalas government for their release.
The controversy between Batay Ouvriye and US supporters of Lavalas comes at a time when many US progressives are beginning to question the picture of the Haitian situation presented here by both mainstream and alternative media, including the well-known national radio and television program "Democracy Now!"
The image of Lavalas as a unified militant force on the
left has been shaken recently by disarray within the movement over elections scheduled
to be held in December by a US-backed interim
government. A number of "grassroots leaders" in Port-au-Prince neighborhoods are supporting the presidential candidacy of former president Rene Preval, a personal friend
of Aristide's. Many former Lavalas office-holders,
meanwhile, are backing former World Bank official Marc
Bazin, a cabinet minister in the government of deposed dictator
Jean-Claude Duvalier ("Baby Doc") and a longtime proponent of US-backed neoliberal economic programs for Haiti. Meanwhile groups around the New York-based weekly Haiti Progres are calling for a boycott of the elections.
All factions are claiming the support of the Lavalas base.
http://www.grassrootshaiti.org/News/HaitianLaborGroup.html Haitian Labor
Group
Confronts US Lavalas Backers
NEW YORK, Nov. 11 2005
Long-standing differences in the Haitian left began to emerge as an
issue among US progressives this fall as the well-known Haitian labor
organizing group Batay Ouvriye ("Workers' Struggle") responded to what it
called a "slander" from US supporters of the Lavalas movement of deposed
Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
During an "International Tribunal on Haiti" in Washington, DC on
the weekend of Sept. 23, a panelist charged that Batay Ouvriye had been funded
by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of a
program for "creating a leftist opposition" in Haiti in the months
leading up to Aristide's overthrow in February 2004. The money came
through the AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center and was part of a $3 million
package for subverting the Haitian government, according to Jeb
Sprague, an independent journalist and a graduate student at
California State University at Long Beach. Batay Ouvriye was "working
with co-conspirators overthrowing a democratically elected government," Sprague said.
The tribunal was organized by several large left and solidarity
groups, including International ANSWER, the International Action Center and
the Latin America Solidarity Coalition. Sprague's presentation
was aired in New York on Sept. 28 on WBAI-FM's popular morning
program, "Wakeup Call."
Batay Ouvriye responded on Oct 1 [see below]. The group ridiculed
the idea that it had been paid to be part of "an unholy alliance fabricated
by the State Department." In fact, the statement said, Batay
Ouvriye has a long, very public record of opposition to "the
Lavalas leaders, who we certainly exposed to be reactionaries,
swindlers, complete frauds, anti-popular and fundamentally anti-
worker." Sprague--who claimed to have conducted 30 interviews in
his research--"never once contacted our organization for
information," Batay Ouvriye charged.
Batay Ouvriye has worked with a number of international solidarity groups over the years, including the National Labor Committee and the Campaign for Labor Rights. Among its best-known campaigns were unionization drives at Grand Marnier and
Cointreau plantations in northern Haitian and the recent unionization of a Dominican-owned factory
in a "free trade zone" by the Dominican border in Ouanaminthe.
During the Ouanaminthe struggle Batay Ouvriye received $3,500
from the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center, in response to public appeals
for funds to help fired workers. This was apparently the funding Sprague
was referring to.
Stressing that it focuses on grassroots struggles "against the
bourgeoisie concretely in the factories, sweatshops, plantations," Batay Ouvriye asked why the International Tribunal had chosen to target it rather than a number of much less militant
Haitian unions that "closely resemble...the pro-imperialist and pro-bourgeois Confederation of Venezuelan Labor (CTV)," a major force in the 2002 US-backed effort to overthrow
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.
Batay Ouvriye noted that two of its supporters were killed in northern Haiti in May 2002 by goons led by a local Lavalas
mayor. Aristide's government responded to the anti-union violence by arresting several Batay Ouvriye organizers and two journalists; some were held in the National Penitentiary until December 2002, when they were released following an international campaign to press the Lavalas government for their release.
The controversy between Batay Ouvriye and US supporters of Lavalas comes at a time when many US progressives are beginning to question the picture of the Haitian situation presented here by both mainstream and alternative media, including the well-known national radio and television program "Democracy Now!"
The image of Lavalas as a unified militant force on the
left has been shaken recently by disarray within the movement over elections scheduled
to be held in December by a US-backed interim
government. A number of "grassroots leaders" in Port-au-Prince neighborhoods are supporting the presidential candidacy of former president Rene Preval, a personal friend
of Aristide's. Many former Lavalas office-holders,
meanwhile, are backing former World Bank official Marc
Bazin, a cabinet minister in the government of deposed dictator
Jean-Claude Duvalier ("Baby Doc") and a longtime proponent of US-backed neoliberal economic programs for Haiti. Meanwhile groups around the New York-based weekly Haiti Progres are calling for a boycott of the elections.
All factions are claiming the support of the Lavalas base.
