[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [sftalk] The AFL-CIO's foreign policy program
Ricky Baldwin
baldwinricky at yahoo.com
Wed Jan 11 16:52:39 CST 2006
Hi Mort-
Great. I think it's good that we're discussing Haiti
more, starting to discover some of the complexities,
the more difficult questions we have to sift through.
But we can't take this at face value. These two guys
- Sprague and Pina - have been have been on a crusade
to spread a very black-and-white picture of what's
going on in Haiti (Aristide vs. the world), and in the
process glossed over, or lied about, some
uncomfortable details.
For example:
1. It is definitely untrue that "[m]embers of Batay
[Ouvriye] are not under fire in their communities nor
the objects of this campaign of repression," as they
repeatedly claim. "Rebel" troops physically attacked
a Batay-affiliated union in Ouanaminthe just two days
after the coup in 2004 at the behest of plant managers
there. Similar attacks have continued around the
country since then, recently including the attack I
mentioned at one AWARE meeting in which Jordanian
troops under the UN flag attacked a group of factory
workers and beat them severely, and so on. I can't
believe that Pina at least does not know of these
attacks, but Sprague may not.
2. It is also not true that Batay Ouvriye "has failed
to stand up and organize against the massacres being
carried out by the Haitian National Police and the
United Nations MINUSTAH force." Here is just the
latest statement from Batay on the topic:
"During the end of 2005, particularly during these
last two weeks, while the politicians thrashed about
in their tenuous electoral process and the
imperialists daily reinforced their stronghold on this
process as well as the national situation generally,
repression and terror continued with ever more force.
This state of affairs had already reached a climax in
November in the Pelé neighbourhood, when MINUSTAH
soldiers literally machine-gunned the population.
Presently, even more and with greater intensity, this
climate is spreading throughout the country,
particularly in Port-au-Prince.
[...] We, of Batay Ouvriye, denounce these crimes in
this specific context, since for us, at the end of the
day: it is the masses that endure its consequences."
3. Sprague wrote essentially this same article a
couple months ago, and here repeats the convenient
assumption that money from the AFL-CIO (originating at
NED) - which Batay apparently did take - had any
effect on their position with regard to Aristide. In
fact they have been denouncing him since at least
2001, when members of Aristide's own party marched
angrily thru the streets denouncing a series of
"about-face" moves: including Duvalierists from the
1991-94 coup as well as the 1857-86 dictatorships in
the cabinet, shielding Aristide's indicted commerce
minister Stanley Theard from prosecution for swindling
millions from the treasury under Duvalier, shielding
another official from prosecution on charges of
murdering journalist Jean Dominique, etc. -- which
events Sprague and Pina have yet to mention to my
knowledge. Personally, I am sorry Batay Ouvriye took
the money, but I can't see what difference it made in
terms of Aristide.
4. Perhaps most importantly, Sprague and Pina both
continually ignore the crimes being committed by
pro-Aristide people, and the repression committed by
Aristide's government during 2001-2004. These include
shootings, kidnappings and attacks on grassroots
activists not perceived as loyal to their cause. It
is true that these are far outweighed by the crimes of
the coup government and its allies as Batay Ouvriye
and their supporters have pointed out. But this does
not bring back the dead or heal the injuries they have
inflicted. It is also a far more serious matter than
the disloyalty that they're accused of.
There's more to say on this, but I'll stop for now.
Maybe I'll post separately Batay Ouvriye's "year in
review" statement - not because it helps clarify the
other side of this attack (though it does) but because
I think it's a fairly sober analysis of what's up in
Haiti. Anyway, you can see what you think.
See you all soon-
Ricky
--- "Morton K. Brussel" <brussel4 at insightbb.com>
wrote:
> Shenanigans in Haiti by the NED, etc.
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> > From: "David Johnson" <unionyes at ameritech.net>
> > Date: January 10, 2006 6:07:53 PM CST
> > To: <@returns.groups.yahoo.com;>
> > Subject: [sftalk] Fw: [Working-Class] The
> AFL-CIO's foreign policy
> > program
> > Reply-To: sftalk at yahoogroups.com
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Kim Scipes
> > To: Working Class Studies
> > Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2006 8:30 AM
> > Subject: [Working-Class] The AFL-CIO's foreign
> policy program
> >
> > Dear Folks--
> >
> > I have long been campaigning against the AFL-CIO's
> labor
> > imperialism. See my listings on my on-line
> bibliography on
> > "Contemporary Labor Issues" under AFL-CIO foreign
> policy at http://
> > faculty.pnc.edu/kscipes/LaborBib.htm .
> >
> > We know much of what the Solidarity Center did in
> Venezuela, and
> > now, evidence emerges about their operations in
> Haiti. This needs
> > to be distributed widely--and labor progressives
> need to develop a
> > conscious program to break the AFL-CIO's
> connection with the
> > National Endowment for Democracy.
> >
> > For more information, please contact me at
> kscipes at pnc.edu .
> >
> >
> > In solidarity--
> >
> >
> > Kim Scipes
> > Batay Ouvriye's Smoking Gun:
> >
> > The $100,000 NED grant
> >
> >
> >
> > THIS WEEK IN HAITI
> > January 4 - 10, 2006 Vol. 23, No. 43
> > byJeb 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 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.
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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