Haiti

Haiti: Aristide supporters return to power?

By Dan Katz Haitian authorities have rescheduled the first round of presidential and parliamentary elections for 7 February. The polls, originally set for last November, have been postponed four times because of so-called "security and organisational issues". Thirty five presidential candidates and some 1,300 legislative candidates are set to run in elections which will be the first since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was pushed into exile nearly two years ago. The Haiti en Marche newspaper suggests political reasons are factors behind the postponement: "informal opinion polls confirm the...

Workers of the world round-up

News from working-class struggles around the world... ITALY The importance of the August holiday tradition in Italy can be seen in the fact that — during the break — the trade unions and management have a “summer truce” and class struggle comes to a halt for several weeks. Except that this year, the transport union SULT called a strike of Alitalia cabin crew during the holidays. The strike’s over the derecognition of SULT after the union refused to discuss a restructuring plan put forward by Alitalia. The government has responded by threatening the “call-up” of Alitalia staff. The word they...

Workers’ victory in Haiti: Solidarity bears fruit

By Mark Osborn A year after the fall of the populist, pseudo-radical government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, conditions for the workers and poor of Haiti are terrible and getting worse. Last year, in May, 2,000 people died as a result of floods that hit the south of the island state. In September another 3,000 died following a tropical storm that hit the north of Haiti. Fighting broke out in November 2004 as gangs, perhaps based on Aristide’s party, killed opponents in the capital, Port-au-Prince. In the last six months 250 people have died in political violence in the capital. Last weekend a...

Court victory for Haiti union

A Haitian court has ordered the Grupo M Free Trade Zone located on the Haitian-Dominican border to pay 1.5 million gourdes (approximately US$40,000) in damages for violations of workers’ rights. The ruling is good news for the workers and for Batay Ouvriye, the union attempting to unionise the FTZ. In the UK the Haiti Support Group and No Sweat have both been actively helping the Batay Ouvriye initiative. The FTZ workers are employed by Grupo M, a large Dominican firm, to stitch clothes for the Sara Lee Corporation and for Levi’s. A series of protests have aimed to highlight Levi’s role, and...

Haiti: “We are workers, not slaves”

Yannick Etienne is a member of Batay Ouvriye (Workers’ Fight), a militant trade union federation in Haiti. Yannick is on a speaking tour of Britain organised by No Sweat and the Haiti Support Group. Solidarity spoke to Yannick about the situation in Haiti today and about the work of Batay Ouvriye, particularly in the new Free Trade Zone that is being built at Ouanaminthe, on the border with the Dominican Republic Haiti is in the midst of a long-term social, economic and political crisis. After ten years in power, Aristide [Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haitian president overthrown by a military coup...

Workers fight for rights in Haiti FTZ

By Mark Osborn On 11 June the Dominican Republic clothing giant Grupo M dismissed almost one-third of the 800 or so workers at its two Haiti factories in the CODEVI Free Trade Zone (FTZ), located outside of Ouanaminthe on the Haitian-Dominican border. Grupo M, the largest employer in the Dominican Republic, where it has 13,000 workers in 24 plants, built the zone and the first two of a dozen projected factories there with a 12 million-dollar loan from the World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC). CODEVI has been the site of labour strife almost since it opened. Among those fired...

Workers of the world Round up

By Pablo Velasco Inside: Strike wave in South Korea Soldiers terrorise workers Haitian workers Victory for Colombian banana workers' strike General strike in Nigeria stops petrol price rises Strike wave in South Korea Korean taxi drivers and metal workers went on strike this month for wage increases and better working conditions, joining hospital workers on their week-long walkout. About 4,600 drivers of the Korean Federation of Taxi Workers' Unions, an affiliate of the independent Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), are demanding the introduction of a minimum wage, a strengthened...

Haitian trade union says: Against Aristide and the Opposition: support the worke

A statement from the militant union organisation, Batay Ouvriye , on the current political situation in Haiti Already, before Aristide's departure, the political crisis had shifted up a gear. As of January 2004, the mandates of a number of Parliamentarians expired, creating a big vacuum. With the opposition's anti-Aristide, anti-Lavalas [Aristide's Party] offensive, the situation became more extreme: numerous officials abandoned their posts. The power vacuum increased. With the departure of the president, it was like an explosion: The state is in real crisis. This crisis is clear for all to...

Haiti - Poverty and instability

Mark Osborn spoke to Charles Arthur of the Haiti Support Group about the situation in Haiti now Charles explains: the current US intervention numbers about 1,500 troops, and the total foreign force comes to about 2,500. These forces are concentrated in Port-au-Prince. They have visited other towns, but have no permanent presence there. In the capital, much the same as last time they intervened in 1994, the US priority has been to guard the state institutions and big businesses and industrial parks. For me this indicates the nature of US interests in Haiti. There is the question of disarmament...

Haiti Free Trade Zone - Paramilitaries are helping the bosses

An attempt to violently break the union-organising drive at the Ouanaminthe Free Trade Zone in north-east Haiti on 1-2 March has been met by a wave of international solidarity in support of the Haitian trade unionists. 34 members of the newly formed Sokowa union were fired, and irregular paramilitaries attacked other workers at the Grupo M factory. In response thousands of emails were sent by trade unionists and activists from all over the world, forcing the Grupo M management to meet the Batay Ouvriye (Workers' Fight) union federation. During the two meetings that took place the factory...

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