Haiti erupts in strikes and protests

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Beginning on May 19, thousands of textile sweatshop workers in Haiti walked off the job or laid down inside their textile assembly plants to protest their starvation wages. The workers are demanding a raise from $4.67 per day to $12.47 per day, a raise not tied to increased production quotas for workers. Many bosses do not pay the minimum wage.

Workers are also demanding meal, transpor­ tation, and housing subsidies, which consume much of the worker’s miserable income.

The recent wave of protest subsided by May 29, with marches estimated at up to 18,000, but the struggle is far from over.

Militants say the workers’ upsurge has been partly spontaneous and partly organized by PLASIT–BO, a coalition of the independent textile unions throughout Haiti that are affiliated with Batay Ouvriye, including SOTA-BO in Port Au Prince; SOKOWA in Ouanaminthe; and SO­ AGH in Caracol. Some 40 union organizers have been fired in the course of the upsurge.

Georges Sassine, president of the Association of Industries of Haiti (ADIH), despite the daily firing of union organizers, called strikers “out­ laws.” The ADIH was forced to suspend business on May 19, 20, and 22.

Workers struck in the Haitian capital of Port au Prince, including at the big SONAPI industrial park. Thousands of workers marched into the capital on May 19 from Carrefour, a town a few miles away. Tex­ tile workers also walked off the job in the northern towns of Ouanaminthe and Caracol.

There are about 40,000 workers in textile assembly plants, run by international apparel companies and their outsourced partners in Haiti. Many plants in Oua­ naminthe are owned by Dominican capitalists, whose anti-Haitian racism is notorious.

Working-class anger was brought to a boiling point by a new 13% government tax on all workers, sup­ posedly to pay for basic social services—services not received by the masses and often simply pocketed by corrupt officials. The new tax on workers was on top of a hike in gasoline taxes, imposed by the current U.S./ World Bank puppet, Haitian President Jovenel Moise. The gas tax increase was a deal between the govern­ ment and corrupt unions.

The gas tax ripple effect, besides its immediate im­ pact on small taxi and passenger vehicles called taptaps, will be on all workers and Haiti’s vast unem­ ployed, which stands at 40.6% (2010 estimate), 50% for women. Many jobs are informal, only marginally better than unemployment. Added to that is a punish­ ing inflation rate of 12.4% (2016 est.) on consumer prices. About 54% live in poverty. Roughly 2.5 million Haitians, out of a population of 11 million, live in ex­ treme poverty (below $1.25 per day), mostly in rural areas.

In response to protests, the Haitian police fired gas, shot rubber bullets, and sprayed protesters with wa­ ter containing a rash-inducing chemical. Of the rubber bullet victims, at least one woman was severely in­ jured, knocked down when struck in the head.

Cops blocked the doors at one factory to not let workers join the protests. At the Sewing International factory, many workers stopped work to join the dem­ onstration, but were locked inside by management. Eventually, they were able to join the march.

The Haitian cops are backed by a U.S./UN occupa­ tion force called MINUSTAH, which has not interfered directly in the recent protests—so far. The imperialist occupation began under Bill Clinton in 1994, with the support of “socialist” Congressman Bernie Sanders, and was renewed under George W. Bush in 2004. It is there to implement the austerity policies of the U.S.dominated World Bank and crush possible revolution.

U.S. imperialism has been central to the present cri­ sis. Memos obtained by Wikileaks revealed that the U.S. State Department during the years 2003 to 2010 worked with Fruit of the Loom, Hanes, and Levi’s to block an increase in the minimum wage in the hemi­ sphere’s poorest nation. Hillary Clinton, as Secretary of State, pressured the Haitian government to block raising the minimum wage from $1.75 a day to $5 a day, a demand of mass mobilizations. The bosses wanted $3 a day and got it, thanks to Hillary Clinton.

Article 137 of the Haitian Labor Code, passed under the Baby Doc Duvalier dictatorship, calls for an adjust­ ment to the minimum salary every time the cost of living index registers an increase of more than 10%, often much higher. No Haitian government, be it a dictatorship or the elected capitalist government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, has implemented the Labor Code.

Termination of the TPS?

On May 22, some 58,000 Haitians who fled to the U.S. after the 2010 earthquake, received a six-month ex­ tension of Temporary Protected Status (TPS), granted for natural disasters or war. The Trump administra­ tion had threatened cancellation of TPS for Haitians. The reversal came after Haitian advocates organized protests and received favorable newspaper editorials and statements from politicians.

Recently leaked Department of Homeland Security (DHS) e-mails reveal racist efforts to demonize Hai­ tians as criminals and welfare cheats to justify termi­ nation of TPS. The extension granted by the DHS falls short of the usual 18-month extension. DHS Secretary John F. Kelly’s announcement stressed that this is likely the last extension and that TPS holders should “attain travel documents” for a return to Haiti. Haitian TPS will be reviewed again in January 2018. The an­ nouncement said conditions in Haiti had greatly im­ proved—a boldfaced lie!

The DHS’ assertions were challenged by the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH). The 2010 earthquake killed as many as 200,000 people and de­ stroyed much of its infrastructure. A post- earthquake cholera epidemic killed over 9500 Haitians and sick­ ened over 800,000 people after the UN’s Nepalese contingent contemptuously dumped human wastes into a river used by Haitians for drinking and bathing.

The UN stonewalled blame for the epidemic until Au­ gust 2016, despite scientific studies proving UN cul­ pability (see SA Sept. 2016). Moreover, last October, the most powerful hurricane in 52 years, hurricane Matthew, wiped out crops, and livestock, and was the cause of a food and potable water shortage in Haiti’s southwest.

The DHS statement also stated: “96% of people dis­ placed by the earthquake and living in internally dis­ placed person camps have left those camps … 98% of these camps have closed.”

Lie! Many were reclassified as “permanent housing,” because residents added to their makeshift shanties. In addition, many were driven away by landlords. Nev­ ertheless, an estimated 50,000 still live in unsanitary, unsafe tent cities—seven years after the earthquake! Expulsions by Dominican Republic Meanwhile, the racist Dominican government has continued its practice of expelling migrant Haitian workers and Dominicans of Haitian origin. Many have fled the Dominican Republic out of fear of expulsion or racist attacks. According to the International Organi­ zation for Migration (IOM), an organization linked to the UN since 2016, about 111,400 people, or 92,000 households, have crossed the Haitian-Dominican bor­ der since July 2015.

Georges Marc Desmangles of the Zile Foundation, a binational organization working on the HaitianDominican relationship, states that returnee Haitian migrants who remained for many months to cross the Haitian border from Anse to Pitres, “were accused of bringing the cholera epidemic.”

Haitiliberte.com Trump not welcomed in Belgium BRUSSELS—About 12,000 took part in the May 24 demonstration against Trump and the NATO summit. More than 70 organizations pro­ tested war and imperialist adventures, climate change, women’s oppression and homopho­ bia, the degradation of social and democratic rights, and and demanded an open asylum policy. The link was also made with the Belgian government’s policies.

Turkish and Kurdish activists also protested the dictatorial policies of Erdogan, who partici­ pated in the NATO summit. Unfortunately, with only a few exceptions, the unions were hardly present. — THOMAS WEYTS “Migrants from the bateys (plantation work camps) have been severely affected. Thus, they are afraid of being caught up and repatriated under inhuman con­ ditions at any time. It is the same for workers in con­ struction and hotels.”

Dominican cops will seize your identity papers and then tear them apart before your eyes, said Isidro Bellique Delmas, a member of the Reconoci.do move­ ment, an independent national civic network com­ posed mainly of Dominicans of Haitian origin who promote human rights. Delmas, 28, was able to find his documents of identity only after at least eight years of struggle.

Some 1000 Dominican troops will join 1500 soldiers regularly stationed along the border, it was announced May 3. Border “security” was enhanced by U.S. advi­ sors. Dominican spokespersons have cited U.S. depor­ tations as an example to follow.

In 2013, the Dominican government targeted Do­ minicans of Haitian descent with a racist court deci­ sion, known as “La Sentencia 168/13,” an immigration ruling that stripped citizenship rights from more than 200,000 individuals whose families had migrated to the DR since 1929. So far, the government has de­ ported tens of thousands to Haiti, even though many are not Haitian citizens. Many have never even been to Haiti or speak Haitian “Kreyol.” More than 100,000 have crossed into Haiti as the result of the threat of deportation and/or mob violence.

Human Rights Watch called upon Dominican author­ ities “to halt expulsions of denationalized Dominicans, to promptly restore their citizenship, and to respect their right to a nationality.” Amnesty International also called for an end to deportations.

For decades, Haitians were brought to the DR by cor­ rupt politicians on both sides of the Haiti/DR border to work in sugar cane fields under conditions called “modern day slavery.” Today, Dominican-Haitians also work in the service sectors, where they face discrimi­ nation. The Dominican government, a staunch anticommunist U.S. ally, has historically promoted “antiHaitianism.” Everything Haitian—whether skin color, culture, or religion—is degraded.

U.S. policy is to blame for the misery of the Haitian masses. Their conditions cry out for international soli­ darity. n SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 2017 3

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By ANN MONTAGUE This is the fifth year that Fight For 15 made the trek to Chicago and then to suburban Oak Brook, Ill., where the annual McDonald’s shareholders meeting was tak­ ing place.

The first day, May 22, started with showcasing the leading role of women of color. A panel of activists expressed their message expanding on a quote from poet activist Audre Lorde, who spent her life address­ ing racism, sexism, and homophobia: “We cannot build a single issue movement, because we do not live single issue lives.”

On May 23, around 2500 activists took to the streets of Chicago to protest McDonald’s low wages and sex­ ual harassment of workers. They seemed undaunted by the pouring rain. Using the slogan “McDonald’s is the Trump of Corporations: Sexual Harassment, Wage By BILL ONASCH Mark Ugolini / Socialist Action Theft, Poverty Wages, Tax Evasion” brought out allies of fast-food workers. There were workers from many fast-food restaurants, as well as from Amazon’s ware­ houses, home health-care workers, and workers from other corporations.

Terrance Wise, a McDonald’s worker from Kansas City, blamed McDonald’s for perpetuating “intergen­ erational poverty.” He recalled that his mother worked at fast-food restaurants for 30 years: “Watching her get up faithfully every morning at 5 a.m., working hard for years and years, and yet we continued to live in poverty in my childhood. We would come home some days and the lights were off, an eviction notice on the door.

“Now I see the repeat of it with me and my three little girls and fiancée. We are working hard every day, I am working for a profitable company, and I am still not able to provide for my family.”

Marches across the nation supported the workers marching in Chicago. Tina Sandoval, a McDonald’s worker in Richmond, Calif., told the crowd, “As the biggest fast food company, McDonald’s sets the bar for jobs and pay across the economy.”

The marchers connected their struggle with McDon­ ald’s to the struggle for clean air and water. McDon­ ald’s is the largest global buyer of beef, pork, toma­ toes, and lettuce. They are responsible for farmwork­ ers’ exposure to toxic chemicals and the environmen­ tal impacts of mass agriculture.

On the following day, May 24, about 300 activ­ ists—including many who had taken overnight bus­ es—brought their protest to Oak Brook, Ill., where McDonald’s annual shareholders meeting was being held. Many were workers who wanted to support the fast-food workers’ struggle for $15 and a union. The protest included Madie Cummings, 40, who got on a bus in Cleveland. She is a kindergarten teacher who supports the workers and believes they will win. She said she didn’t sleep because “everyone was talking and very motivated.” It also included a 75-year-old member of the United Auto Workers local from Kan­ sas City. “We fought for that stuff,” he said.

Ashley Bruce, a McDonald’s worker from Chicago, said, “No matter who is in office we are still going to fight for what belongs to us. We deserve $15 an hour and union rights.”

Her observation was quite timely. On the same day that the workers’ movement for $15 gathered across the country to support its five-year fight for a living wage and union rights, Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi made a politician’s promise that the next Congress, in its first 100 hours, would pass a $15 minimum wage—a measure that would not take effect until 2024(!).

This is a typical Democratic Party ploy. Historically, any time the Democrats see a social movement they do not control, they find a way to undermine it and to divert it from the streets and into the Democratic Party swamp. Of course, the small print in this case is “if the Democrats regain control of the House in 2018.”

Anyone who has been paying attention the last five years should be startled to see that the name of the bill that Pelosi is proposing is called the Raise the Wage Act. This the same name of the tactic the Demo­ crats have been using in state after state to undermine the movements for $15 and a union. By ignoring the workers’ movement and working with businesses in a number of states, they passed small raises that were way below a living wage.

Workers like Ashley Bruce should keep their eye on the prize: Keep striking and marching and broaden­ ing their movement. Expose the Democrats’ ploy to undermine them, and keep fighting, “no matter who is in office.” n Carpenters union finally showed up a day