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Batay Ouvriye's Smoking Gun: The $100,000 NED grant
Recently declassified National Endowment for Democracy (NED) documents reveal that a "leftist" workers' organization, Batay Ouvriye (BO), which promoted and called for the overthrow of the constitutionally elected government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was the targeted beneficiary of a US $99,965 NED grant routed through the AFL-CIO's American Center for International Solidarity (ACILS). Listed in NED's "Summary of Projects Approved in FY 2005" for Haiti, the grant states, "ACILS will work with the May 1st Union Federation- Batay Ouvriye [ESPM-BO] to train workers to organize and educate fellow workers."
Batay Ouvriye's Smoking Gun:
The $100,000 NED grant
THIS WEEK IN HAITI
January 4 - 10, 2006 Vol. 23, No. 43
by Jeb Sprague
(Haïti Progres) Both before and after the Feb. 29, 2004 coup d'État in Haiti, Washington infiltrated "democracy promotion" programs (also known as "democracy enhancement") into almost every sector of Haitian civil society: political parties, media, human rights groups, student groups, vote monitoring organizations, business associations, and labor organizations.
Recently declassified National Endowment for Democracy (NED) documents reveal that a "leftist" workers' organization, Batay Ouvriye (BO), which promoted and called for the overthrow of the constitutionally elected government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was the targeted beneficiary of a US $99,965 NED grant routed through the AFL-CIO's American Center for International Solidarity (ACILS). Listed in NED's "Summary of Projects Approved in FY 2005" for Haiti, the grant states, "ACILS will work with the May 1st Union Federation- Batay Ouvriye [ESPM-BO] to train workers to organize and educate fellow workers."
The NED, which is funded through the U.S. State Department, provided the grant to ACILS, also known as the Solidarity Center. The grant money is then to be used by the Solidarity Center to fund and aid Batay Ouvriye's labor organizing activities for 2005-2006.
Statements made by both Batay Ouvriye and Solidarity Center officials suggest that there is further funding of the former by the latter. In a recent telephone interview with Canadian freelance journalist Anthony Fenton, a Batay Ouvriye leader Paul Philomé admitted that his organization had received US $20,000 from the Solidarity Center. A Solidarity Center official also recently said at a Dec. 22 public meeting in San Francisco that ACILS provided approximately US $13,000 to the Batay Ouvriye this past year. This funding appears to be in addition to the NED grant, since Solidarity Center officials have stated that the NED grant will not be spent until 2006.
Batay Ouvriye has been waging a successful campaign to gain high-level support from labor federations like the AFL-CIO, which shuns trade unionists who supported Haiti's constitutional democracy and are today arrested, persecuted, and harassed. The NED grant explains that NGOs and trade unions from the U.S. and Canada will meet with Batay Ouvriye to discuss working conditions in Haiti.
The Solidarity Center-administered NED support for Batay Ouvriye fits neatly into the U.S. State Department's "democracy promotion" strategy of undermining and destabilizing Haitian self-determination. Instead of supporting unions which did not call for the overthrow of the elected government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the AFL-CIO, along with mainstream international labor centers, such as the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and its Latin American regional affiliate the Organización Regional Interamericana de Trabajadores (ORIT), has sought to strengthen marginal groups like Batay Ouvriye and the Coordination Syndicale HaVtienne (CSH), which taxed the Aristide government as "anti-worker" and "criminal."
Workers affiliated with public sector unions, often seen as supporters of the elected government, have been fired and persecuted by the thousands. In a recent radio interview, Isabel Macdonald, a Canadian journalist conducting interviews in Port-au-Prince, explained that between 2,000 and 3,000 unionized workers of the state phone company TELECO have been laid off since the 2004 coup, with many of those fired placed arbitrarily on the Haitian National Police's "Wanted" lists (Listen to the Interview with Isabel Macdonald at http://www.wakeupwithcoop.org).
When questioned why the AFL-CIO was not supporting or funding unions whose membership supported the overthrown government, a high level Solidarity Center official, in June 2005, referred to pro-Lavalas trade unionists as "revolutionary ideologues."
Batay Ouvriye, like other organizations heavily dependent on foreign "democracy promotion" funding, has failed to stand up and organize against the massacres being carried out by the Haitian National Police and the United Nations MINUSTAH force. The Pacifica Radio network's Flashpoints News correspondent Kevin Pina writes: "Is it not patently obvious that, for Batay [Ouvriye] and their supporters, the killing, jailing, and forced exile of thousands since Feb. 29, 2004 are not acknowledged nor condemned by them? Can their politics be so sectarian and insular as to pretend none of this ever happened?... Members of Batay [Ouvriye] are not under fire in their communities nor the objects of this campaign of repression for the simple reason that they are not seen as a threat by the US-installed government."
Pina goes on to write: "We can get trapped into a false dialogue with pretty words like bourgeois, proletariat and vanguard, but it will never excuse their silence in the wake of this human tragedy."
Pierre Labossiere of the Haiti Action Committee sees the U.S. government grants to Batay Ouvriye as a "pay-off for their voicing no opposition to the 2004 coup."
Channeling "democracy promotion" funds through labor unions is just one of the ways that the U.S. government has sought to subvert popular democracy in Haiti. "Democracy promotion" has facilitated, what William Robinson, the author of Promoting Polyarchy: Globalization, US intervention, and Hegemony, calls a "consensual mechanism of transnational social control," by which a small minority elite can manipulate civil society and government. Through co-opting labor unions, human rights groups and political organizations, "democracy promotion" casts a wide net of social and political influence.
Recently the Washington, D.C.-based think-tank, the Haiti Democracy Project, financed in large part by members of Group 184 and board-membered by ex-State Department officials, put up a link on its website to Batay Ouvriye's "grassroots" support group.
Batay Ouvriye and its supporters have continually denied that the organization has received large-scale funding from the U.S. government via the Solidarity Center. Prior to the opening session of the International Tribunal on Haiti on Sep. 23, 2005 in Washington, DC (see HaVti ProgrPs, Vol. 23, No. 37, 11/23/2005), Batay Ouvriye's relationship with the Solidarity Center was not public knowledge. Since then, the organization has only admitted that it received from the Solidarity Center US $3,500. Batay Ouvriye and its supporters have sought to minimize the importance of the grant, saying it was a small sum of money. That argument will not be possible following these latest revelations.
Here is a summary of some of the defenses that Batay Ouvriye and its supporters have offered to revelations about its State Department funding:
On December 9, 2005, Mario Pierre, a representative of the Batay Ouvriye in New York City, claimed his organization received only "$3,500 from the Solidarity Center," while charging that those individuals and organizations criticizing his organization for accepting U.S. State Department funding were "doing the work of the CIA."
On November 25, 2005, Charles Arthur, the head organizer of the Haiti Support Group in England, wrote, "I think that the fact that Batay Ouvriye received US$3,500 from the Solidarity Center to help the 350 workers.should not distract anyone from appreciating the organization's fantastic work."
On November 28, 2005, Batay Ouvriye supporter Daniel Simidor wrote: "All [this author] can 'prove' is that the workers' organization accepted a $3,500 contribution to their strike fund from the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center in Haiti. Sprague's contention that Batay Ouvriye accepted 'monetary aid and oversight' from the US government is based not on facts."
On November 29, 2005, Batay Ouvriye supporter Mitchell Cohen of the Brooklyn Greens wrote: "Organizations and individuals who are spreading this lie need to retract it immediately and apologize for their reckless, sectarian behavior. If it turns out that you actually document that a particular group, in this case Batay Ouvriye, has received funds from the CIA or State Department, then I'll listen..Wow, what a smoking gun! (I say sarcastically)."
In late November, 2005, a supporter of Batay Ouvriye, Cort Greene, posted on the internet: "Just from looking at documents provided by J. Sprague and others, I have not seen any proof that Batay Ouvriye is a creation or in the service of U.S. imperialism."
On December 14, 2005, Yanick Etienne, a Batay Ouvriye leader, speaking at a New York City gathering, in regards to the criticism leveled against her organization, failed to mention the NED's $100,000 grant via the AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center.
In December 2005, the Solidarity Center updated its website on Haiti (see http://www.solidaritycenter.org/content.asp?contentid=531). "With funds provided by the AFL-CIO, the Solidarity Center immediately forwarded $3,500 to Ouanaminthe, where ESPM-BO and the [subsidiary union] SOKOWA Executive Board distributed these funds," the site reports, but once again it does not reveal the much larger funding of Batay Ouvriye.
The Solidarity Center continues to refuse to open its books to show its full funding relationship with Batay Ouvriye. In September 2005, Samantha Tate, a Senior Program Officer for the Americas at the Solidarity Center, contacted my academic department chair at California State University of Long Beach, attempting to isolate and discredit this research.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Jeb Sprague is a researcher, freelance journalist, and a graduate student at California State University of Long Beach. To read more on the AFL-CIO's support for anti-democracy labor in Haiti, see his article Supporting a Leftist Opposition to Lavalas: The AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center and Batay Ouvriye both in Haïti Progrés (see Vol. 23, No. 37, 11/23/2005) and Monthly Review (mrzine.monthlyreview.org/sprague211105.html) Contact him at Jebsprague[nospam]@mac.com or visit his blog at http://www.freehaiti.net.
THIS WEEK IN HAITI * January 4 - 10, 2006 Vol. 23, No. 43. Copyrighted Haïti Progres, Inc. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED. Please credit Haiti Progres.
The $100,000 NED grant
THIS WEEK IN HAITI
January 4 - 10, 2006 Vol. 23, No. 43
by Jeb Sprague
(Haïti Progres) Both before and after the Feb. 29, 2004 coup d'État in Haiti, Washington infiltrated "democracy promotion" programs (also known as "democracy enhancement") into almost every sector of Haitian civil society: political parties, media, human rights groups, student groups, vote monitoring organizations, business associations, and labor organizations.
Recently declassified National Endowment for Democracy (NED) documents reveal that a "leftist" workers' organization, Batay Ouvriye (BO), which promoted and called for the overthrow of the constitutionally elected government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was the targeted beneficiary of a US $99,965 NED grant routed through the AFL-CIO's American Center for International Solidarity (ACILS). Listed in NED's "Summary of Projects Approved in FY 2005" for Haiti, the grant states, "ACILS will work with the May 1st Union Federation- Batay Ouvriye [ESPM-BO] to train workers to organize and educate fellow workers."
The NED, which is funded through the U.S. State Department, provided the grant to ACILS, also known as the Solidarity Center. The grant money is then to be used by the Solidarity Center to fund and aid Batay Ouvriye's labor organizing activities for 2005-2006.
Statements made by both Batay Ouvriye and Solidarity Center officials suggest that there is further funding of the former by the latter. In a recent telephone interview with Canadian freelance journalist Anthony Fenton, a Batay Ouvriye leader Paul Philomé admitted that his organization had received US $20,000 from the Solidarity Center. A Solidarity Center official also recently said at a Dec. 22 public meeting in San Francisco that ACILS provided approximately US $13,000 to the Batay Ouvriye this past year. This funding appears to be in addition to the NED grant, since Solidarity Center officials have stated that the NED grant will not be spent until 2006.
Batay Ouvriye has been waging a successful campaign to gain high-level support from labor federations like the AFL-CIO, which shuns trade unionists who supported Haiti's constitutional democracy and are today arrested, persecuted, and harassed. The NED grant explains that NGOs and trade unions from the U.S. and Canada will meet with Batay Ouvriye to discuss working conditions in Haiti.
The Solidarity Center-administered NED support for Batay Ouvriye fits neatly into the U.S. State Department's "democracy promotion" strategy of undermining and destabilizing Haitian self-determination. Instead of supporting unions which did not call for the overthrow of the elected government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the AFL-CIO, along with mainstream international labor centers, such as the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and its Latin American regional affiliate the Organización Regional Interamericana de Trabajadores (ORIT), has sought to strengthen marginal groups like Batay Ouvriye and the Coordination Syndicale HaVtienne (CSH), which taxed the Aristide government as "anti-worker" and "criminal."
Workers affiliated with public sector unions, often seen as supporters of the elected government, have been fired and persecuted by the thousands. In a recent radio interview, Isabel Macdonald, a Canadian journalist conducting interviews in Port-au-Prince, explained that between 2,000 and 3,000 unionized workers of the state phone company TELECO have been laid off since the 2004 coup, with many of those fired placed arbitrarily on the Haitian National Police's "Wanted" lists (Listen to the Interview with Isabel Macdonald at http://www.wakeupwithcoop.org).
When questioned why the AFL-CIO was not supporting or funding unions whose membership supported the overthrown government, a high level Solidarity Center official, in June 2005, referred to pro-Lavalas trade unionists as "revolutionary ideologues."
Batay Ouvriye, like other organizations heavily dependent on foreign "democracy promotion" funding, has failed to stand up and organize against the massacres being carried out by the Haitian National Police and the United Nations MINUSTAH force. The Pacifica Radio network's Flashpoints News correspondent Kevin Pina writes: "Is it not patently obvious that, for Batay [Ouvriye] and their supporters, the killing, jailing, and forced exile of thousands since Feb. 29, 2004 are not acknowledged nor condemned by them? Can their politics be so sectarian and insular as to pretend none of this ever happened?... Members of Batay [Ouvriye] are not under fire in their communities nor the objects of this campaign of repression for the simple reason that they are not seen as a threat by the US-installed government."
Pina goes on to write: "We can get trapped into a false dialogue with pretty words like bourgeois, proletariat and vanguard, but it will never excuse their silence in the wake of this human tragedy."
Pierre Labossiere of the Haiti Action Committee sees the U.S. government grants to Batay Ouvriye as a "pay-off for their voicing no opposition to the 2004 coup."
Channeling "democracy promotion" funds through labor unions is just one of the ways that the U.S. government has sought to subvert popular democracy in Haiti. "Democracy promotion" has facilitated, what William Robinson, the author of Promoting Polyarchy: Globalization, US intervention, and Hegemony, calls a "consensual mechanism of transnational social control," by which a small minority elite can manipulate civil society and government. Through co-opting labor unions, human rights groups and political organizations, "democracy promotion" casts a wide net of social and political influence.
Recently the Washington, D.C.-based think-tank, the Haiti Democracy Project, financed in large part by members of Group 184 and board-membered by ex-State Department officials, put up a link on its website to Batay Ouvriye's "grassroots" support group.
Batay Ouvriye and its supporters have continually denied that the organization has received large-scale funding from the U.S. government via the Solidarity Center. Prior to the opening session of the International Tribunal on Haiti on Sep. 23, 2005 in Washington, DC (see HaVti ProgrPs, Vol. 23, No. 37, 11/23/2005), Batay Ouvriye's relationship with the Solidarity Center was not public knowledge. Since then, the organization has only admitted that it received from the Solidarity Center US $3,500. Batay Ouvriye and its supporters have sought to minimize the importance of the grant, saying it was a small sum of money. That argument will not be possible following these latest revelations.
Here is a summary of some of the defenses that Batay Ouvriye and its supporters have offered to revelations about its State Department funding:
On December 9, 2005, Mario Pierre, a representative of the Batay Ouvriye in New York City, claimed his organization received only "$3,500 from the Solidarity Center," while charging that those individuals and organizations criticizing his organization for accepting U.S. State Department funding were "doing the work of the CIA."
On November 25, 2005, Charles Arthur, the head organizer of the Haiti Support Group in England, wrote, "I think that the fact that Batay Ouvriye received US$3,500 from the Solidarity Center to help the 350 workers.should not distract anyone from appreciating the organization's fantastic work."
On November 28, 2005, Batay Ouvriye supporter Daniel Simidor wrote: "All [this author] can 'prove' is that the workers' organization accepted a $3,500 contribution to their strike fund from the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center in Haiti. Sprague's contention that Batay Ouvriye accepted 'monetary aid and oversight' from the US government is based not on facts."
On November 29, 2005, Batay Ouvriye supporter Mitchell Cohen of the Brooklyn Greens wrote: "Organizations and individuals who are spreading this lie need to retract it immediately and apologize for their reckless, sectarian behavior. If it turns out that you actually document that a particular group, in this case Batay Ouvriye, has received funds from the CIA or State Department, then I'll listen..Wow, what a smoking gun! (I say sarcastically)."
In late November, 2005, a supporter of Batay Ouvriye, Cort Greene, posted on the internet: "Just from looking at documents provided by J. Sprague and others, I have not seen any proof that Batay Ouvriye is a creation or in the service of U.S. imperialism."
On December 14, 2005, Yanick Etienne, a Batay Ouvriye leader, speaking at a New York City gathering, in regards to the criticism leveled against her organization, failed to mention the NED's $100,000 grant via the AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center.
In December 2005, the Solidarity Center updated its website on Haiti (see http://www.solidaritycenter.org/content.asp?contentid=531). "With funds provided by the AFL-CIO, the Solidarity Center immediately forwarded $3,500 to Ouanaminthe, where ESPM-BO and the [subsidiary union] SOKOWA Executive Board distributed these funds," the site reports, but once again it does not reveal the much larger funding of Batay Ouvriye.
The Solidarity Center continues to refuse to open its books to show its full funding relationship with Batay Ouvriye. In September 2005, Samantha Tate, a Senior Program Officer for the Americas at the Solidarity Center, contacted my academic department chair at California State University of Long Beach, attempting to isolate and discredit this research.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Jeb Sprague is a researcher, freelance journalist, and a graduate student at California State University of Long Beach. To read more on the AFL-CIO's support for anti-democracy labor in Haiti, see his article Supporting a Leftist Opposition to Lavalas: The AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center and Batay Ouvriye both in Haïti Progrés (see Vol. 23, No. 37, 11/23/2005) and Monthly Review (mrzine.monthlyreview.org/sprague211105.html) Contact him at Jebsprague[nospam]@mac.com or visit his blog at http://www.freehaiti.net.
THIS WEEK IN HAITI * January 4 - 10, 2006 Vol. 23, No. 43. Copyrighted Haïti Progres, Inc. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED. Please credit Haiti Progres.
For more information:
http://www.haitiaction.net/News/JS/1_6_6.html
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This fifth column attack against Batay Ouvriye goes beyond the individuals involved, i.e. the “independent researcher” Jeb Sprague and the Larouche-like Ben Dupuy and his cronies. It comes at a time when that organization (Batay Ouvriye) is dealing a serious blow against the neoliberal agenda, the low wage sweatshop dynamic with Haiti as ground zero for the entire region.
The “$100,000 Smoking Gun” is a set up that goes hand in hand with Sprague’s and Haiti-Progres’s fingering of key Batay Ouvriye organizers for potential violence. The whole thing stinks of US government counter intelligence and character assassination.
That Jeb Sprague should have revealed his own funding sources is an obvious requirement in terms of transparence or accountability. How much money did Haiti-Progres collect from the Aristide regime? We’ll never know since that book is kept closed.
The “$100,000 Smoking Gun” is a set up that goes hand in hand with Sprague’s and Haiti-Progres’s fingering of key Batay Ouvriye organizers for potential violence. The whole thing stinks of US government counter intelligence and character assassination.
That Jeb Sprague should have revealed his own funding sources is an obvious requirement in terms of transparence or accountability. How much money did Haiti-Progres collect from the Aristide regime? We’ll never know since that book is kept closed.
This authors source is a 9-5 job.
He's not getting $100,000 from the likes of your NED buddies.
Daniel you are a sad sad person. Can you compute any sort of logic? or do you lash out at every fact you are presented with. Do you live in a fantasy world?
He's not getting $100,000 from the likes of your NED buddies.
Daniel you are a sad sad person. Can you compute any sort of logic? or do you lash out at every fact you are presented with. Do you live in a fantasy world?
exposing batay for what they are. real democracy in haiti will one day come. USAID , NED, and UNOPS will never make democracy in Haiti. The haitians must make it.
Le «rideau de fumée» de Batay Ouvriye : 100.000 dollars de subvention de la NED!
Par Jeb Sprague*
Avant et après le coup d’État du 29 février 2004, les programmes de «promotion de la démocratie» («democracy promotion»), connus aussi sous le nom de «renforcement de la démocratie» («democracy enhancement»), ont fortement infiltré presque tous les secteurs de la société civile haïtienne: partis politiques, médias, groupes de droits humains, d’étudiants, organisations d’observation électorale, associations d’hommes d’affaires, et syndicats.
Des documents récemment déclassifiés sur la National Endowment for Democracy (NED) révèlent qu’une organisation ouvrière «de gauche», Batay Ouvriye (BO), qui avait prôné et réclamé le renversement du gouvernement constitutionnellement élu du président Jean-Bertrand Aristide, avait été le destinataire spécifique d’un don de 99.965 dollars US de la part de la NED. Ce don, acheminé par le biais du Centre de solidarité (ACILS) de l’AFL-CIO, était listé dans le «Résumé des projets approuvés pour l’année fiscale 2005 de la NED» pour Haïti («Summary of Projects Approved in FY 2005” for Haiti), et stipule: «ACILS travaillera avec la Fédération syndicale du 1er Mai - Batay Ouvriye [ESPM-BO] pour entraîner les travailleurs à organiser et à éduquer leurs confrères .»
La NED, qui est financée par l’intermédiaire du Département d’État des États-Unis, a octroyé la subvention au Centre américain pour la solidarité internationale de l’AFL-CIO (ACILS), aussi connu sous le nom de Centre de solidarité. Cet argent doit ensuite servir au Centre de solidarité à financer et à aider les travaux d’organisation de Batay Ouvriye pour 2005-2006.
Des déclarations de représentants de Batay Ouvriye et du Centre de solidarité font croire qu’il existe d’autres financements de celui-là par celui-ci. Au cours d’une récente interview téléphonique avec le journaliste indépendant canadien Anthony Fenton, le leader de Batay Ouvriye Paul Philome admettait que son organisation avait reçu 20.000 dollars US du Centre de solidarité. Un représentant du Centre de solidarité a aussi dernièrement déclaré lors d’une rencontre publique le 22 décembre à San Francisco que l’ACILS avait fourni approximativement 13.000$ US à Batay Ouvriye l’année dernière. Ce financement paraît s’ajouter à la subvention de la NED, car les dirigeants du Centre de solidarité ont déclaré que la subvention de la NED ne sera pas déboursée jusqu’en 2006.
Batay Ouvriye mène une profitable campagne pour gagner le support de haut niveau de la part de syndicats tels que l’AFL-CIO, qui mettent à l’écart les syndicalistes qui appuyaient la démocratie constitutionnelle haïtienne et sont à présent arrêtés, persécutés, et harcelés. La subvention de la NED indique que des ONG et des syndicats des États-Unis et du Canada rencontreront Batay Ouvriye pour discuter des conditions de travail en Haïti.
L’appui du Centre de solidarité au service de la NED pour Batay Ouvriye entre étroitement dans la stratégie de «promotion de la démocratie» du Département d’État des États-Unis consistant à miner et à déstabiliser l’autodétermination d’Haïti. Au lieu d’appuyer des syndicats qui n’avaient pas appelé au renversement du gouvernement élu de Jean-Bertrand Aristide, l’AFL-CIO, à l’instar de syndicats similaires «avec pignon sur rue» tels que l’International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) et l’Organisation régionale interaméricaine des travailleurs (ORIT), a pensé à renforcer un groupe marginal tel que Batay Ouvriye, qui a étiqueté le gouvernement d’Aristide d’«anti-ouvrier» et de «criminel».
Des milliers de travailleurs affiliés aux syndicats du secteur public, souvent perçus comme des partisans du gouvernement constitutionnel, ont été congédiés et persécutés. Dans une récente interview radiophonique, Isabel Macdonald, une journaliste canadienne faisant des entrevues à Port-au-Prince, expliquait qu’entre 2000 et 3000 travailleurs syndiqués de la compagnie publique de téléphone TELECO ont été congédiés depuis le coup d’État de 2004, dont beaucoup ont été arbitrairement placés sur les listes «Recherché» de la Police nationale haïtienne (voir Interview avec Isabel Macdonald à http://www.wakeupwithcoop.org).
Quand nous avons demandé pourquoi l’AFL-CIO n’appuyait pas ou ne finançait pas d’autres syndicats dont les membres appuyaient le gouvernement constitutionnel, un haut dirigeant du Centre de solidarité, au mois de juin 2005, qualifia d’«idéologues révolutionnaires» les leaders ouvriers pro-Lavalas.
Batay Ouvriye, comme d’autres organisations largement dépendantes du financement étranger octroyé pour la «promotion de la démocratie», n’ont pas daigné s’opposer et s’organiser contre les massacres perpétrés par la Police nationale haïtienne (PNH) et les forces des Nations unies de la MINUSTAH. Kevin Pina, correspondant de Flashpoints News du réseau Pacifica Radio, écrit: «Cela ne crève-t-il pas les yeux que pour Batay [Ouvriye] et leurs supporters les tueries, les incarcérations, et l’exil forcé de milliers de personnes depuis le 29 février 2004 ne soient point reconnus ni condamnés par eux-mêmes? Se peut-il que leurs attitudes politiques soient si sectaires et dans une bulle jusqu’à prétendre que rien de tout cela ne s’est passé?... Les membres de Batay [Ouvriye] ne sont pas ostracisés dans leurs communautés et ne font pas non plus l’objet de cette campagne de répression pour la simple raison qu’ils ne sont pas vus comme une menace par le gouvernement mis en place par les États-Unis.»
Pina poursuit ainsi: «Nous pouvons nous faire embarquer dans un faux dialogue avec de jolis mots tels que bourgeois, prolétariat et avant-garde, mais cela n’excusera jamais leur silence face au spectacle de cette tragédie humaine.»
Pierre Labossière de Haiti Action Committee considère les subventions du gouvernement des Etats-Unis à Batay Ouvriye comme une «rétribution pour ne pas élever la voix pour dire non au coup d’État de 2004».
Acheminer des fonds pour la «promotion de la démocratie» par le biais des syndicats ouvriers n’est qu’une façon parmi d’autres que le gouvernement des États-Unis aura trouvé pour subvertir la démocratie populaire en Haïti. La «Promotion de la démocratie» a facilité, ce que William Robinson, l’auteur de Promoting Polyarchy: Globalization, US intervention, and Hegemony, appelle un «mécanisme consensuel de contrôle social transnational», par lequel une petite élite minoritaire peut manipuler et coopter la société civile et le gouvernement. En cooptant des syndicats ouvriers, des groupes de droits humains et des organisations politiques, la «promotion de la démocratie» s’aménage un vaste réseau d’influence politique et sociale.
Encore récemment le groupe d’influence (think-tank) basé à Washington, D.C.-, Haiti Democracy Project, financé en grande partie par des membres du Groupe des 184 et dont les membres de son conseil d’administration sont d’ex-fonctionnaires du Département d’État, a installé un lien sur son site web pour les groupes de soutien «de base» de Batay Ouvriye.
Batay Ouvriye et ses sympathisants ont constamment nié que l’organisation avait été très largement financée par le gouvernement des États-Unis à travers le Centre de solidarité. Avant la tenue du Tribunal international sur Haïti le 23 septembre 2005 à Washington, DC (voir Haïti-Progrès, Vol. 23, No. 37, 11/23/2005), les liens de Batay Ouvriye avec le Centre de solidarité n’étaient pas de notoriété publique. Depuis lors l’organisation a seulement admis avoir reçu du Centre de solidarité 3500 dollars US. Batay Ouvriye et ses sympathisants ont cru pouvoir minimiser l’importance de ce don, arguant que ce n’était qu’une faible somme d’argent. Cet argument ne pourra plus servir si l’on se fie aux toutes dernières révélations.
Voici à la suite quelques uns des arguments que Batay Ouvriye et ses supporters ont eu à offrir pour leur défense face aux révélations faisant état de leur financement par le Département d’État:
le 9 décembre 2005, Mario Pierre, un représentant de Batay Ouvriye à New York, a clamé que son organisation n’avait reçu que «3500$ du Centre de solidarité», tout en accusant les personnes et organisations critiquant son organisation pour avoir accepté du financement du Département d’État des Etats-Unis de «faire le travail de la CIA»;
le 25 novembre 2005, Charles Arthur, le chef organisateur de Haiti Support Group basé en Angleterre, écrivait: «Je pense que le fait pour Batay Ouvriye d’avoir reçu 3500 dollars US du Centre de solidarité pour venir en aide aux 350 travailleurs…ne devrait point amener personne à fermer les yeux sur le travail fantastique réalisé par l’organisation»;
le 28 novembre 2005, Daniel Simidor, supporter de Batay Ouvriye, pontifiait: «Tout [ce que cet auteur] peut ‘prouver’, c’est que cette organisation ouvrière a accepté une contribution de $3500 pour son fonds de grève de la part du Centre de solidarité de l’AFL-CIO en Haïti… L’affirmation de Sprague disant que Batay Ouvriye a accepté de ‘monetary l’aide en argent et le contrôle’ du gouvernement des Etats-Unis ne se base pas sur des faits»;
le 29 novembre 2005, Batay Ouvriye supporter Mitchell Cohen des Brooklyn Greens (les Verts de Brooklyn) écrivait: «Les organisations et les individus qui répandent ce mensonge doivent se rétracter immédiatement et présenter des excuses pour leur conduite malhonnête et sectaire… S’il s’avère que vous avez effectivement des preuves qu’un groupe en particulier, dans ce cas Batay Ouvriye, a reçu des fonds de la CIA ou du Département d’État , alors seulement j’écouterai…. Oh, quel rideau de fumée! (Je le dis sarcastiquement)»;
à la fin de novembre 2005, un partisan de Batay Ouvriye, Cort Greene, a mis sur l’Internet: «Si je m’en tiens aux documents fournis par J. Sprague et d’autres, je n’ai vu aucune preuve montrant que Batay Ouvriye est une création ou est au service de l’impérialisme US»;
le 14 décembre 2005, Paul Philomé, un dirigeant de Batay Ouvriye, prenant la parole à un rassemblement à New York City, concernant les critiques soulevées contre son organisation, a omis de mentionner le don de 100.000 dollars US de la NED reçu par l’intermédiaire du Centre de solidarité de l’AFL-CIO;
en décembre 2005, le Centre de solidarité a mis à jour son site web sur Haïti (voir http://www.solidaritycenter.org/content.asp?contentid=531). «Avec les fonds fournis par l’AFL-CIO, le Centre de solidarité a immédiatement fait parvenir 3500$ à Ouanaminthe, où ESPM-BO et le conseil exécutif du [syndicat affilié] SOKOWA ont distribué ces fonds», indique le site en question, mais encore une fois il ne révèle point le financement beaucoup plus vaste de Batay Ouvriye.
Le Centre de solidarité persiste à refuser d’ouvrir ses livres pour montrer dans sa totalité son implication dans le financement de Batay Ouvriye. En septembre 2005, Samantha Tate, cadre supérieur du Programme pour les Amériques au Centre de solidarité (ACILS), a contacté mon département universitaire du California State University de Long Beach, pour tenter de marginaliser et discréditer cette recherche. ?
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*Jeb Sprague est un chercheur, un journaliste indépendant, et un diplômé de California State University of Long Beach. Pour en savoir plus sur le soutien apporté par l’AFL-CIO aux syndicats anti-democratie en Haïti, voir son article Supporting a Leftist Opposition to Lavalas: The AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center and Batay Ouvriye , les deux parus dans Haïti-Progrès (voir Vol. 23, No. 37, 11/23/2005) et Monthly Review (mrzine.monthlyreview.org/sprague211105.html) Pour le contacter: Jebsprague [at] mac.com ou visitez son blog at http://www.freehaiti.net
Par Jeb Sprague*
Avant et après le coup d’État du 29 février 2004, les programmes de «promotion de la démocratie» («democracy promotion»), connus aussi sous le nom de «renforcement de la démocratie» («democracy enhancement»), ont fortement infiltré presque tous les secteurs de la société civile haïtienne: partis politiques, médias, groupes de droits humains, d’étudiants, organisations d’observation électorale, associations d’hommes d’affaires, et syndicats.
Des documents récemment déclassifiés sur la National Endowment for Democracy (NED) révèlent qu’une organisation ouvrière «de gauche», Batay Ouvriye (BO), qui avait prôné et réclamé le renversement du gouvernement constitutionnellement élu du président Jean-Bertrand Aristide, avait été le destinataire spécifique d’un don de 99.965 dollars US de la part de la NED. Ce don, acheminé par le biais du Centre de solidarité (ACILS) de l’AFL-CIO, était listé dans le «Résumé des projets approuvés pour l’année fiscale 2005 de la NED» pour Haïti («Summary of Projects Approved in FY 2005” for Haiti), et stipule: «ACILS travaillera avec la Fédération syndicale du 1er Mai - Batay Ouvriye [ESPM-BO] pour entraîner les travailleurs à organiser et à éduquer leurs confrères .»
La NED, qui est financée par l’intermédiaire du Département d’État des États-Unis, a octroyé la subvention au Centre américain pour la solidarité internationale de l’AFL-CIO (ACILS), aussi connu sous le nom de Centre de solidarité. Cet argent doit ensuite servir au Centre de solidarité à financer et à aider les travaux d’organisation de Batay Ouvriye pour 2005-2006.
Des déclarations de représentants de Batay Ouvriye et du Centre de solidarité font croire qu’il existe d’autres financements de celui-là par celui-ci. Au cours d’une récente interview téléphonique avec le journaliste indépendant canadien Anthony Fenton, le leader de Batay Ouvriye Paul Philome admettait que son organisation avait reçu 20.000 dollars US du Centre de solidarité. Un représentant du Centre de solidarité a aussi dernièrement déclaré lors d’une rencontre publique le 22 décembre à San Francisco que l’ACILS avait fourni approximativement 13.000$ US à Batay Ouvriye l’année dernière. Ce financement paraît s’ajouter à la subvention de la NED, car les dirigeants du Centre de solidarité ont déclaré que la subvention de la NED ne sera pas déboursée jusqu’en 2006.
Batay Ouvriye mène une profitable campagne pour gagner le support de haut niveau de la part de syndicats tels que l’AFL-CIO, qui mettent à l’écart les syndicalistes qui appuyaient la démocratie constitutionnelle haïtienne et sont à présent arrêtés, persécutés, et harcelés. La subvention de la NED indique que des ONG et des syndicats des États-Unis et du Canada rencontreront Batay Ouvriye pour discuter des conditions de travail en Haïti.
L’appui du Centre de solidarité au service de la NED pour Batay Ouvriye entre étroitement dans la stratégie de «promotion de la démocratie» du Département d’État des États-Unis consistant à miner et à déstabiliser l’autodétermination d’Haïti. Au lieu d’appuyer des syndicats qui n’avaient pas appelé au renversement du gouvernement élu de Jean-Bertrand Aristide, l’AFL-CIO, à l’instar de syndicats similaires «avec pignon sur rue» tels que l’International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) et l’Organisation régionale interaméricaine des travailleurs (ORIT), a pensé à renforcer un groupe marginal tel que Batay Ouvriye, qui a étiqueté le gouvernement d’Aristide d’«anti-ouvrier» et de «criminel».
Des milliers de travailleurs affiliés aux syndicats du secteur public, souvent perçus comme des partisans du gouvernement constitutionnel, ont été congédiés et persécutés. Dans une récente interview radiophonique, Isabel Macdonald, une journaliste canadienne faisant des entrevues à Port-au-Prince, expliquait qu’entre 2000 et 3000 travailleurs syndiqués de la compagnie publique de téléphone TELECO ont été congédiés depuis le coup d’État de 2004, dont beaucoup ont été arbitrairement placés sur les listes «Recherché» de la Police nationale haïtienne (voir Interview avec Isabel Macdonald à http://www.wakeupwithcoop.org).
Quand nous avons demandé pourquoi l’AFL-CIO n’appuyait pas ou ne finançait pas d’autres syndicats dont les membres appuyaient le gouvernement constitutionnel, un haut dirigeant du Centre de solidarité, au mois de juin 2005, qualifia d’«idéologues révolutionnaires» les leaders ouvriers pro-Lavalas.
Batay Ouvriye, comme d’autres organisations largement dépendantes du financement étranger octroyé pour la «promotion de la démocratie», n’ont pas daigné s’opposer et s’organiser contre les massacres perpétrés par la Police nationale haïtienne (PNH) et les forces des Nations unies de la MINUSTAH. Kevin Pina, correspondant de Flashpoints News du réseau Pacifica Radio, écrit: «Cela ne crève-t-il pas les yeux que pour Batay [Ouvriye] et leurs supporters les tueries, les incarcérations, et l’exil forcé de milliers de personnes depuis le 29 février 2004 ne soient point reconnus ni condamnés par eux-mêmes? Se peut-il que leurs attitudes politiques soient si sectaires et dans une bulle jusqu’à prétendre que rien de tout cela ne s’est passé?... Les membres de Batay [Ouvriye] ne sont pas ostracisés dans leurs communautés et ne font pas non plus l’objet de cette campagne de répression pour la simple raison qu’ils ne sont pas vus comme une menace par le gouvernement mis en place par les États-Unis.»
Pina poursuit ainsi: «Nous pouvons nous faire embarquer dans un faux dialogue avec de jolis mots tels que bourgeois, prolétariat et avant-garde, mais cela n’excusera jamais leur silence face au spectacle de cette tragédie humaine.»
Pierre Labossière de Haiti Action Committee considère les subventions du gouvernement des Etats-Unis à Batay Ouvriye comme une «rétribution pour ne pas élever la voix pour dire non au coup d’État de 2004».
Acheminer des fonds pour la «promotion de la démocratie» par le biais des syndicats ouvriers n’est qu’une façon parmi d’autres que le gouvernement des États-Unis aura trouvé pour subvertir la démocratie populaire en Haïti. La «Promotion de la démocratie» a facilité, ce que William Robinson, l’auteur de Promoting Polyarchy: Globalization, US intervention, and Hegemony, appelle un «mécanisme consensuel de contrôle social transnational», par lequel une petite élite minoritaire peut manipuler et coopter la société civile et le gouvernement. En cooptant des syndicats ouvriers, des groupes de droits humains et des organisations politiques, la «promotion de la démocratie» s’aménage un vaste réseau d’influence politique et sociale.
Encore récemment le groupe d’influence (think-tank) basé à Washington, D.C.-, Haiti Democracy Project, financé en grande partie par des membres du Groupe des 184 et dont les membres de son conseil d’administration sont d’ex-fonctionnaires du Département d’État, a installé un lien sur son site web pour les groupes de soutien «de base» de Batay Ouvriye.
Batay Ouvriye et ses sympathisants ont constamment nié que l’organisation avait été très largement financée par le gouvernement des États-Unis à travers le Centre de solidarité. Avant la tenue du Tribunal international sur Haïti le 23 septembre 2005 à Washington, DC (voir Haïti-Progrès, Vol. 23, No. 37, 11/23/2005), les liens de Batay Ouvriye avec le Centre de solidarité n’étaient pas de notoriété publique. Depuis lors l’organisation a seulement admis avoir reçu du Centre de solidarité 3500 dollars US. Batay Ouvriye et ses sympathisants ont cru pouvoir minimiser l’importance de ce don, arguant que ce n’était qu’une faible somme d’argent. Cet argument ne pourra plus servir si l’on se fie aux toutes dernières révélations.
Voici à la suite quelques uns des arguments que Batay Ouvriye et ses supporters ont eu à offrir pour leur défense face aux révélations faisant état de leur financement par le Département d’État:
le 9 décembre 2005, Mario Pierre, un représentant de Batay Ouvriye à New York, a clamé que son organisation n’avait reçu que «3500$ du Centre de solidarité», tout en accusant les personnes et organisations critiquant son organisation pour avoir accepté du financement du Département d’État des Etats-Unis de «faire le travail de la CIA»;
le 25 novembre 2005, Charles Arthur, le chef organisateur de Haiti Support Group basé en Angleterre, écrivait: «Je pense que le fait pour Batay Ouvriye d’avoir reçu 3500 dollars US du Centre de solidarité pour venir en aide aux 350 travailleurs…ne devrait point amener personne à fermer les yeux sur le travail fantastique réalisé par l’organisation»;
le 28 novembre 2005, Daniel Simidor, supporter de Batay Ouvriye, pontifiait: «Tout [ce que cet auteur] peut ‘prouver’, c’est que cette organisation ouvrière a accepté une contribution de $3500 pour son fonds de grève de la part du Centre de solidarité de l’AFL-CIO en Haïti… L’affirmation de Sprague disant que Batay Ouvriye a accepté de ‘monetary l’aide en argent et le contrôle’ du gouvernement des Etats-Unis ne se base pas sur des faits»;
le 29 novembre 2005, Batay Ouvriye supporter Mitchell Cohen des Brooklyn Greens (les Verts de Brooklyn) écrivait: «Les organisations et les individus qui répandent ce mensonge doivent se rétracter immédiatement et présenter des excuses pour leur conduite malhonnête et sectaire… S’il s’avère que vous avez effectivement des preuves qu’un groupe en particulier, dans ce cas Batay Ouvriye, a reçu des fonds de la CIA ou du Département d’État , alors seulement j’écouterai…. Oh, quel rideau de fumée! (Je le dis sarcastiquement)»;
à la fin de novembre 2005, un partisan de Batay Ouvriye, Cort Greene, a mis sur l’Internet: «Si je m’en tiens aux documents fournis par J. Sprague et d’autres, je n’ai vu aucune preuve montrant que Batay Ouvriye est une création ou est au service de l’impérialisme US»;
le 14 décembre 2005, Paul Philomé, un dirigeant de Batay Ouvriye, prenant la parole à un rassemblement à New York City, concernant les critiques soulevées contre son organisation, a omis de mentionner le don de 100.000 dollars US de la NED reçu par l’intermédiaire du Centre de solidarité de l’AFL-CIO;
en décembre 2005, le Centre de solidarité a mis à jour son site web sur Haïti (voir http://www.solidaritycenter.org/content.asp?contentid=531). «Avec les fonds fournis par l’AFL-CIO, le Centre de solidarité a immédiatement fait parvenir 3500$ à Ouanaminthe, où ESPM-BO et le conseil exécutif du [syndicat affilié] SOKOWA ont distribué ces fonds», indique le site en question, mais encore une fois il ne révèle point le financement beaucoup plus vaste de Batay Ouvriye.
Le Centre de solidarité persiste à refuser d’ouvrir ses livres pour montrer dans sa totalité son implication dans le financement de Batay Ouvriye. En septembre 2005, Samantha Tate, cadre supérieur du Programme pour les Amériques au Centre de solidarité (ACILS), a contacté mon département universitaire du California State University de Long Beach, pour tenter de marginaliser et discréditer cette recherche. ?
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*Jeb Sprague est un chercheur, un journaliste indépendant, et un diplômé de California State University of Long Beach. Pour en savoir plus sur le soutien apporté par l’AFL-CIO aux syndicats anti-democratie en Haïti, voir son article Supporting a Leftist Opposition to Lavalas: The AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center and Batay Ouvriye , les deux parus dans Haïti-Progrès (voir Vol. 23, No. 37, 11/23/2005) et Monthly Review (mrzine.monthlyreview.org/sprague211105.html) Pour le contacter: Jebsprague [at] mac.com ou visitez son blog at http://www.freehaiti.net
Before Jeb Sprague, Haiti Progres and Ben Dupuy can ever dare to expose Batay Ouvriye, they need first to reach the heights of the tremendous amount of work Batay Ouvriye has done to organize and build the workers' movement throughout the country with their bare hands for at least the last 20 years. Because of the economic strangulation of the country, and the workers in particular, by imperialism, only recently Batay Ouvriye felt obligated to accept money from any donor regardless of their sources. To hold this recent event against Batay Ouvriye by accusing it is a hyperbolic exaggeration. Only agents of imperialism, enemies of the working-class take pleasure in attacking the only independent, democratic, and combative workers movement, Batay Ouvriye.
Why would Haiti Action republish such a ridiculous article charging Batay Ouvriye with overthrowing the so-called, "constitutionally elected" government of Jean Bertrand Aristide? Haiti Action knows very well Batay Ouvriye had absolutely nothing to do with this outcome. To put out such a lie is uncionscionable and outright unethical. Aristide himself and his opposition brethren called for foreign intervention in Haiti which Batay Ouvriye and all progressives opposed.
Because of internal bickering within the imperialist establishment, Aristide was not the beneficiary of the foreign intervention and occupation like he was in 1994.
Secondly, Aristide was far from being a "constitutionally elected" government. In 2000, he became president through fraudulent means.
The $99,965 Solidarity Center grant was an effort to support the work of Batay Ouvriye because it is the only workers movement in the country combative enough to really address the negative effects of globalization and delocalization. However to this day, according to Batay Ouvriye, it has only seen but a small fraction of it.
All this noise about Batay Ouvriye being NED/State Department funded is disproportionate. 'Those who are involved in this smear campaign are not honest. They are not talking about the lavalas treason of the interests of the Haitian People and the country's sovereignty. They are not talking about how the lavalas government sold out the Haitian Workers to Dominican capitalists in the Ounaminthe Free Trade Zone. They don't talk about how the lavalas government expropriated peasants off the Maribaroux fertile lands in favor of the Dominican Capitalists and did not pay them a cent.
Batay Ouvriye is under attack by the enemies of the working- class, the reactionary petit-bourgeois, the gran manje (big eaters), the lavalas bourgeois and the other bourgeois sectors, the big rural landowners, the pro-imperialist reactionaries in the haitian diaspora, and some american "leftists" with a superficial understanding of Haitian events.
I call on Haiti Action to stop its selfish attacks on Batay Ouvriye, the only independent, democratic and combative workers movement in Haiti today.
M. Pierre
Because of internal bickering within the imperialist establishment, Aristide was not the beneficiary of the foreign intervention and occupation like he was in 1994.
Secondly, Aristide was far from being a "constitutionally elected" government. In 2000, he became president through fraudulent means.
The $99,965 Solidarity Center grant was an effort to support the work of Batay Ouvriye because it is the only workers movement in the country combative enough to really address the negative effects of globalization and delocalization. However to this day, according to Batay Ouvriye, it has only seen but a small fraction of it.
All this noise about Batay Ouvriye being NED/State Department funded is disproportionate. 'Those who are involved in this smear campaign are not honest. They are not talking about the lavalas treason of the interests of the Haitian People and the country's sovereignty. They are not talking about how the lavalas government sold out the Haitian Workers to Dominican capitalists in the Ounaminthe Free Trade Zone. They don't talk about how the lavalas government expropriated peasants off the Maribaroux fertile lands in favor of the Dominican Capitalists and did not pay them a cent.
Batay Ouvriye is under attack by the enemies of the working- class, the reactionary petit-bourgeois, the gran manje (big eaters), the lavalas bourgeois and the other bourgeois sectors, the big rural landowners, the pro-imperialist reactionaries in the haitian diaspora, and some american "leftists" with a superficial understanding of Haitian events.
I call on Haiti Action to stop its selfish attacks on Batay Ouvriye, the only independent, democratic and combative workers movement in Haiti today.
M. Pierre
$500,000 for Batay Ouvriye from the US STATE DEPARTMENT.
BATAY OUVRIYE IS NO WAY IN HELL THE ONLY AND BEST WORKERS ORGANIZATION IN HAITI.
THEY SUPPORTED THE COUP!
YOU ARE A COUP SUPPORTER!
HOW DARE YOU MAKE THESE ALLEGATIONS
BATAY OUVRIYE IS NO WAY IN HELL THE ONLY AND BEST WORKERS ORGANIZATION IN HAITI.
THEY SUPPORTED THE COUP!
YOU ARE A COUP SUPPORTER!
HOW DARE YOU MAKE THESE ALLEGATIONS
I am asking all supporters of the lavalas bureaucratic bourgeoisie with Aristide at its helm to answer the following questions clearly and very succinctly without their usual ramblings. Earn the right to make other statements or ask questions by answering the following first. Thanks!
1) Who called for the 1994 Imperialist Occupation of Haiti?
2) Who called for the February 2004 Imperialist Occupation of Haiti and got duped?
3) Who killed and attacked independent and combative workers’ organizations from 1995-2004 (including the Guacimal Workers) in the interests of imperialism, the big landowners, and the bourgeoisie in Haiti?
4) Another question to you: When was the last time you supported financially a workers’ movement like Batay Ouvriye which has been in existence since 1994, about 10 years before the empty story of the solidarity center, the ned and the state department started?
1) Who called for the 1994 Imperialist Occupation of Haiti?
2) Who called for the February 2004 Imperialist Occupation of Haiti and got duped?
3) Who killed and attacked independent and combative workers’ organizations from 1995-2004 (including the Guacimal Workers) in the interests of imperialism, the big landowners, and the bourgeoisie in Haiti?
4) Another question to you: When was the last time you supported financially a workers’ movement like Batay Ouvriye which has been in existence since 1994, about 10 years before the empty story of the solidarity center, the ned and the state department started?
By insisting on publishing this out-of-context article, “$100,000 NED Funding for Batay Ouvriye”, Haiti Progres is reaffirming its reactionary anti-worker character more and more. It is making a colossal mistake of historic proportions to choose to ignore the real issues here and prefer to lie about the true political orientation of Batay Ouvriye. The facts and truth are more powerful than pathological lies. Contrary to the false assumptions Haiti Progres wish the readers of this site to swallow, Batay Ouvriye has absolutely no relationship with the NED or the State Department of the United States. Batay Ouvriye has nothing to do with any imperialist-sponsored “democracy promotion” programs in Haiti. It further has nothing to do with the coup d’etat against Aristide. On the contrary, it denounced the fact that Aristide himself together with the opposition to his autocratic rule called on the imperialists to intervene in Haiti toward the end of 2003 and the beginning of 2004. He was the one who had set the precedent in 1994-1995 for imperialists to come as they please and occupy the land of Dessalines in total violation of our country’s sovereignty. All Aristide cared about was his freaking power. He was the one who signed UN/OAS resolutions giving those imperialist institutions the right to intervene in Haitian affairs. He and his “hired guns” should therefore stop blaming others just because he was not the beneficiary of the occupation he called for.
Since its inception in 1994, Batay Ouvriye - as all progressives who knew its work in Haiti can attest - had been at the vanguard of workers’ struggles in Haiti. The workers movement took on many international company giants such as Disney, Cointreau (French liquor company), Marnier-Lapostolle (Grand-Marnier Liquor company-French), Victoria Secrets etc. The workers built their movement with their bare hands, teeth and nails for twelve years from 1994 through the present. Not once had Fanmi Lavalas, Haiti Progres, National Popular Party or the International Action Center ever offered any kind of support, financial or otherwise to Batay Ouvriye. The workers movement grew and baked itself in its own lard, so to speak. The movement had solidified itself in many parts of the country despite outrageous efforts on the part of the bourgeois leadership of lavalas to destroy it. Even Haiti Progres, in May 2002, at the time of the lynching of the Guacimal workers, criticized the lavalas government for siding with the big landowners against the workers. Was that a hypocritical cry on the part of Haiti Progres then? The lavalas government was calling the workers who were protesting to defend their rights to their land, “terrorists”.
The lavalas government in 2001 secretly signed an agreement with Hypolito Mejia, the then president of the Dominican Republic, to set up Free Trade Zones in Ouanaminthe on the border with the Dominican Republic. Aristide seized thousands of acres of fertile land from the peasants for this project. The various protests of peasants were to no avail. The lavalas government did not take into account the rights and interests of the peasants in this macabre deal. The peasants never got remunerated for their losses.
A branch of the workers movement, Batay Ouvriye, had established a solid foothold in the area of Ouanaminthe at the time that the Free Trade Zones became operational. Very carefully and subtly, the workers created a Union, known as, SOCOWA, affiliated with the May First Federation-Batay Ouvriye. When management learned of the formation of the Union, they started to harass and intimidate its members. Finally in June 2004, the management of CODEVI sacked 400 workers. Immediately, Batay Ouvriye made a national and international appeal for solidarity. In response to that appeal, the Solidarity Center among other individuals and organizations offered their help. Batay Ouvriye received $3,500 from the Solidarity Center to help out the fired workers. Within the period of time following that, the Solidarity Center, with its presence already in the border region in the Dominican Republic, began talks with Batay Ouvriye about the possibility of opening up a worker center for worker Union education in Ouanaminthe. Batay Ouvriye was the only workers’ movement with a solid foothold in that area. Batay Ouvriye hesitated for a while. However, with the dire situation of the 400 fired workers, the uncertainty of a resolution to the crisis any time soon, in the Free Trade Zone created by management, and the survival of the movement in the area, Batay Ouvriye, after a lot of thinking, analysis of the concrete situation, after considering all the possibilities, decided to proceed with the idea of setting up the center. At that point, the Solidarity Center promised to do some fundraising within the U.S. and internationally by summoning all its contacts for help. At that point, Batay Ouvriye didn’t really care where the Solidarity Center was going to find the support, financial or otherwise.
The AFL-CIO Solidarity Center explained that their concerns had been the negative effect of globalization and delocalization of U.S. companies overseas on American workers. They reasoned that by helping set up projects like a worker center, workers will know their rights and be in a better position to fight for them. In such instances, U.S. companies will have to think twice before leaving the American labor market on a wink. In addition, this would help the American workers maintain their current salary as well as be able to fight for its increase. This is the whole logic behind the money given to Batay Ouvriye by the Solidarity Center to organize this worker center in Ouanaminthe.
Why Batay Ouvriye and not a pro-lavalas bureaucratic bourgeoisie union?
They chose Batay Ouvriye simply because Batay Ouvriye had a strong foothold in the Free Trade Zone, in the area of Ouanaminthe, where the worker center was going to be established. Would it make sense for “CTH” to receive assistance to open up the worker center in Ouanaminthe?
The money Batay Ouvriye received had absolutely nothing to do with criticisms Batay Ouvriye made toward the lavalas bureaucratic bourgeoisie. The reactionary lavalas government deserved those criticisms big time because it was bourgeois, pro-imperialist, and anti-worker. The lavalas government became so autocratic that many members of Fanmi Lavalas began leaving the Party, splitting it into pieces, and asking Aristide to resign. Around January-February 2004, when Aristide was calling on the imperialists to intervene, he was in control of nothing in the country. Therefore, on February 29, 2004, when the U.S. plane transported Aristide out of the country, they actually short-circuited a growing popular movement to take Aristide out. That was a popular movement outside of the control of the group 184. The imperialists panicked at the sight of this eventuality. They weren’t certain they would be able to control that without a massacre that would complicate matters for them. And that was one of the main reasons that they took the ultimate step of taking Aristide out very quickly. They didn’t want to take any risks with that popular movement just like they did when they quickly took Jean-Claude Duvalier out on February 7, 1986. Remember! They saw it coming. At this point, it became clear that they had no need for Aristide, their servant, anymore. Historically, this has been the way U.S. imperialism treat its servants who fall out of favor around the world.
It is unconscionable that Jeb Sprague in his article speaks of a ‘constitutional democracy’ under Aristide. That’s a big laugh. Over the years, Aristide made use of his gangs and the police to get control of every living institution of the country. His autocratic tendencies scared the hell out of his other bourgeois co-conspirators who are equally anti-worker. Repression against independent and combative workers organizations, in particular, Batay Ouvriye, journalists, and other popular organizations not under the control of his gangs was rampant under the reactionary Fanmi Lavalas/Aristide government. There was no rule of law. Aristide and his gangs decided everything. They had power of life and death on the people. How can anyone have the audacity to speak of “constitutional democracy” under this impostor?
In my opinion, in 2000, Aristide didn’t respect even the minimum of the rules of bourgeois democracy in carrying out the elections. Only 5% of the electorate voted because of the insecurity that reined as a result of lavalas gangs’ politically-motivated criminal activities throughout the country. Most of the opposition boycotted the elections. I am not a believer in bourgeois democracy because there is nothing in it for the masses. If Jeb Sprague, Haiti Progres and the International Action Center want to believe in the crumbs of bourgeois democracy, that’s their business. They should not try to force their opportunistic and reactionary beliefs on others. There was absolutely no democracy for workers under Aristide. That was quite clear. I dare the Jeb Sprague, Haiti Progres, Ben Dupuis, and International Action Center gang name one case involving labor conflicts between the workers and the bourgeois bosses where the lavalas government’s labor department favored the workers. Name just one!
What progressives around the world should know is that for the past 50 years, the petty bourgeoisie turned politicians, starting with Francois Duvalier in 1956-1957, once in government, turned state power into a cash mill to accumulate capital leading every time to the creation of a fraction of the bourgeoisie nominally called the bureaucratic bourgeoisie. The populist-opportunist petty bourgeois fraction that rode to power on the backs of the people in 1990 with Aristide as president was no exception to the rule. They failed to deliver the expectations of the masses. They were incompetent to be able to fulfill all the expectations of their masters in the rest of the bourgeoisie and for the imperialists. They were only able to make themselves so filthy rich that the people called them ‘Gran Manje or Big Eaters’. They became the embryonic bureaucratic bourgeoisie using state power to accumulate capital.
We should not forget the Latortue/Boniface government came about as a result of the intervention/occupation called on by Aristide and his opposition brothers and sisters. Aristide was the one who named Boniface as Chief Justice of the Haitian Supreme Court. According to the 1987 Constitution, in the absence of the president of the Republic, the head of the Supreme Court shall assume the role of president. Boniface was an Aristide buddy and a lavalas. The repression under the Latortue/Boniface de facto interim government systematically avoided the gangs but hit the masses hard in the slums. The repression targeted the masses to intimidate them. However, the strategy had been to try to neutralize or co-op the gangs into the general repressive apparatus not under the control of their gang leader, Aristide. Those that resisted got killed. However, as I said, the gangs were not the main target of the U.N./Police repression but the masses.
Why then the attacks against the Workers’ Movement?
The lavalas bureaucratic bourgeoisie just like the other fractions of the Haitian bourgeoisie and imperialism are afraid of the workers’ real mobilization and organization. It is classical class struggle. It is natural that those who stand to benefit financially from the crumbs of the bureaucratic bourgeoisie in the hope of making millions some day too should target the workers now. They have to do everything in their power to stop the growth of the workers’ movement. They know the workers’ movement will stand in their way sooner or later. They have to use continued provocations against it on a daily basis. This is a form of ideological and political repression against the workers by these stool-pigeons. As hard-headed and die-hard opportunists and reactionaries, Haiti Progres, Jeb Sprague, Ben Dupuis are using the Solidarity Center support of the May First Federation-Batay Ouvriye as an opportunity to concoct silly stories and pathological lies to attack the Workers’ Movement. They wish to erase twelve years of dynamic, harsh and heroic struggles of the Haitian Working-Class. At the same time, they are hard at work in the attempt to whitewash the horrible crimes, intimidation and repression of the reactionary lavalas government against the workers. History has already classified them as enemies of the Haitian Working-Class and the Working-Class around the world.
It is clear to me that a durable solution to Haiti’s structural crisis is in the hands of the Haitian Working-Class, and no one else.
PS: Mario Pierre is not a representative of Batay Ouvriye but a solidarity supporter of the Haitian Workers’ Movement, Batay Ouvriye.
Since its inception in 1994, Batay Ouvriye - as all progressives who knew its work in Haiti can attest - had been at the vanguard of workers’ struggles in Haiti. The workers movement took on many international company giants such as Disney, Cointreau (French liquor company), Marnier-Lapostolle (Grand-Marnier Liquor company-French), Victoria Secrets etc. The workers built their movement with their bare hands, teeth and nails for twelve years from 1994 through the present. Not once had Fanmi Lavalas, Haiti Progres, National Popular Party or the International Action Center ever offered any kind of support, financial or otherwise to Batay Ouvriye. The workers movement grew and baked itself in its own lard, so to speak. The movement had solidified itself in many parts of the country despite outrageous efforts on the part of the bourgeois leadership of lavalas to destroy it. Even Haiti Progres, in May 2002, at the time of the lynching of the Guacimal workers, criticized the lavalas government for siding with the big landowners against the workers. Was that a hypocritical cry on the part of Haiti Progres then? The lavalas government was calling the workers who were protesting to defend their rights to their land, “terrorists”.
The lavalas government in 2001 secretly signed an agreement with Hypolito Mejia, the then president of the Dominican Republic, to set up Free Trade Zones in Ouanaminthe on the border with the Dominican Republic. Aristide seized thousands of acres of fertile land from the peasants for this project. The various protests of peasants were to no avail. The lavalas government did not take into account the rights and interests of the peasants in this macabre deal. The peasants never got remunerated for their losses.
A branch of the workers movement, Batay Ouvriye, had established a solid foothold in the area of Ouanaminthe at the time that the Free Trade Zones became operational. Very carefully and subtly, the workers created a Union, known as, SOCOWA, affiliated with the May First Federation-Batay Ouvriye. When management learned of the formation of the Union, they started to harass and intimidate its members. Finally in June 2004, the management of CODEVI sacked 400 workers. Immediately, Batay Ouvriye made a national and international appeal for solidarity. In response to that appeal, the Solidarity Center among other individuals and organizations offered their help. Batay Ouvriye received $3,500 from the Solidarity Center to help out the fired workers. Within the period of time following that, the Solidarity Center, with its presence already in the border region in the Dominican Republic, began talks with Batay Ouvriye about the possibility of opening up a worker center for worker Union education in Ouanaminthe. Batay Ouvriye was the only workers’ movement with a solid foothold in that area. Batay Ouvriye hesitated for a while. However, with the dire situation of the 400 fired workers, the uncertainty of a resolution to the crisis any time soon, in the Free Trade Zone created by management, and the survival of the movement in the area, Batay Ouvriye, after a lot of thinking, analysis of the concrete situation, after considering all the possibilities, decided to proceed with the idea of setting up the center. At that point, the Solidarity Center promised to do some fundraising within the U.S. and internationally by summoning all its contacts for help. At that point, Batay Ouvriye didn’t really care where the Solidarity Center was going to find the support, financial or otherwise.
The AFL-CIO Solidarity Center explained that their concerns had been the negative effect of globalization and delocalization of U.S. companies overseas on American workers. They reasoned that by helping set up projects like a worker center, workers will know their rights and be in a better position to fight for them. In such instances, U.S. companies will have to think twice before leaving the American labor market on a wink. In addition, this would help the American workers maintain their current salary as well as be able to fight for its increase. This is the whole logic behind the money given to Batay Ouvriye by the Solidarity Center to organize this worker center in Ouanaminthe.
Why Batay Ouvriye and not a pro-lavalas bureaucratic bourgeoisie union?
They chose Batay Ouvriye simply because Batay Ouvriye had a strong foothold in the Free Trade Zone, in the area of Ouanaminthe, where the worker center was going to be established. Would it make sense for “CTH” to receive assistance to open up the worker center in Ouanaminthe?
The money Batay Ouvriye received had absolutely nothing to do with criticisms Batay Ouvriye made toward the lavalas bureaucratic bourgeoisie. The reactionary lavalas government deserved those criticisms big time because it was bourgeois, pro-imperialist, and anti-worker. The lavalas government became so autocratic that many members of Fanmi Lavalas began leaving the Party, splitting it into pieces, and asking Aristide to resign. Around January-February 2004, when Aristide was calling on the imperialists to intervene, he was in control of nothing in the country. Therefore, on February 29, 2004, when the U.S. plane transported Aristide out of the country, they actually short-circuited a growing popular movement to take Aristide out. That was a popular movement outside of the control of the group 184. The imperialists panicked at the sight of this eventuality. They weren’t certain they would be able to control that without a massacre that would complicate matters for them. And that was one of the main reasons that they took the ultimate step of taking Aristide out very quickly. They didn’t want to take any risks with that popular movement just like they did when they quickly took Jean-Claude Duvalier out on February 7, 1986. Remember! They saw it coming. At this point, it became clear that they had no need for Aristide, their servant, anymore. Historically, this has been the way U.S. imperialism treat its servants who fall out of favor around the world.
It is unconscionable that Jeb Sprague in his article speaks of a ‘constitutional democracy’ under Aristide. That’s a big laugh. Over the years, Aristide made use of his gangs and the police to get control of every living institution of the country. His autocratic tendencies scared the hell out of his other bourgeois co-conspirators who are equally anti-worker. Repression against independent and combative workers organizations, in particular, Batay Ouvriye, journalists, and other popular organizations not under the control of his gangs was rampant under the reactionary Fanmi Lavalas/Aristide government. There was no rule of law. Aristide and his gangs decided everything. They had power of life and death on the people. How can anyone have the audacity to speak of “constitutional democracy” under this impostor?
In my opinion, in 2000, Aristide didn’t respect even the minimum of the rules of bourgeois democracy in carrying out the elections. Only 5% of the electorate voted because of the insecurity that reined as a result of lavalas gangs’ politically-motivated criminal activities throughout the country. Most of the opposition boycotted the elections. I am not a believer in bourgeois democracy because there is nothing in it for the masses. If Jeb Sprague, Haiti Progres and the International Action Center want to believe in the crumbs of bourgeois democracy, that’s their business. They should not try to force their opportunistic and reactionary beliefs on others. There was absolutely no democracy for workers under Aristide. That was quite clear. I dare the Jeb Sprague, Haiti Progres, Ben Dupuis, and International Action Center gang name one case involving labor conflicts between the workers and the bourgeois bosses where the lavalas government’s labor department favored the workers. Name just one!
What progressives around the world should know is that for the past 50 years, the petty bourgeoisie turned politicians, starting with Francois Duvalier in 1956-1957, once in government, turned state power into a cash mill to accumulate capital leading every time to the creation of a fraction of the bourgeoisie nominally called the bureaucratic bourgeoisie. The populist-opportunist petty bourgeois fraction that rode to power on the backs of the people in 1990 with Aristide as president was no exception to the rule. They failed to deliver the expectations of the masses. They were incompetent to be able to fulfill all the expectations of their masters in the rest of the bourgeoisie and for the imperialists. They were only able to make themselves so filthy rich that the people called them ‘Gran Manje or Big Eaters’. They became the embryonic bureaucratic bourgeoisie using state power to accumulate capital.
We should not forget the Latortue/Boniface government came about as a result of the intervention/occupation called on by Aristide and his opposition brothers and sisters. Aristide was the one who named Boniface as Chief Justice of the Haitian Supreme Court. According to the 1987 Constitution, in the absence of the president of the Republic, the head of the Supreme Court shall assume the role of president. Boniface was an Aristide buddy and a lavalas. The repression under the Latortue/Boniface de facto interim government systematically avoided the gangs but hit the masses hard in the slums. The repression targeted the masses to intimidate them. However, the strategy had been to try to neutralize or co-op the gangs into the general repressive apparatus not under the control of their gang leader, Aristide. Those that resisted got killed. However, as I said, the gangs were not the main target of the U.N./Police repression but the masses.
Why then the attacks against the Workers’ Movement?
The lavalas bureaucratic bourgeoisie just like the other fractions of the Haitian bourgeoisie and imperialism are afraid of the workers’ real mobilization and organization. It is classical class struggle. It is natural that those who stand to benefit financially from the crumbs of the bureaucratic bourgeoisie in the hope of making millions some day too should target the workers now. They have to do everything in their power to stop the growth of the workers’ movement. They know the workers’ movement will stand in their way sooner or later. They have to use continued provocations against it on a daily basis. This is a form of ideological and political repression against the workers by these stool-pigeons. As hard-headed and die-hard opportunists and reactionaries, Haiti Progres, Jeb Sprague, Ben Dupuis are using the Solidarity Center support of the May First Federation-Batay Ouvriye as an opportunity to concoct silly stories and pathological lies to attack the Workers’ Movement. They wish to erase twelve years of dynamic, harsh and heroic struggles of the Haitian Working-Class. At the same time, they are hard at work in the attempt to whitewash the horrible crimes, intimidation and repression of the reactionary lavalas government against the workers. History has already classified them as enemies of the Haitian Working-Class and the Working-Class around the world.
It is clear to me that a durable solution to Haiti’s structural crisis is in the hands of the Haitian Working-Class, and no one else.
PS: Mario Pierre is not a representative of Batay Ouvriye but a solidarity supporter of the Haitian Workers’ Movement, Batay Ouvriye.
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