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Disney workers win fight for union
The Lambi Fund of Haiti
Haiti drops nearer the very bottom
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HAITI BRIEFING
October 1998 Number 30
Rain brought by Hurricane George began to fall on the treeless mountainsides of Haiti on September 22. That night, the small town of Fonds Verrettes in the south-east was wiped off the face of the earth by a seven-foot wave of flood water, mud and debris. Buildings were demolished, and over a hundred residents were swept away and killed.
Further north, the absence of forest cover, which could have absorbed some of George's torrential rain, spelt disaster for the farmers of the Artibonite plain. The mounting water level in the Péligre lake threatened to burst the hydro-electric dam, and engineers opened the emergency flood gates. A terrestrial tidal wave was unleashed, and, fed by storm run-off, it roared down the Artibonite valley towards the sea. By the time it reached the plain, the flood was chest-high, and livestock, crops, and frail wattle-and-daub houses were washed away. A resident of Pont Sondé told the New York Times, "The whole town was like an ocean."
All across the centre of the country, the 20 inches of rain that fell as George passed across Haiti, brought death and misery to low-lying areas and to shantytowns built on the side of ravines and alongside drainage canals. The capital's pitiful slum area of Sitey Soley, home to nearly half a million unfortunates, was submerged when several feet of muddy water overflowed from open sewers. The official death toll stands at around 170, but eyewitnesses believe it to be much higher.
The country faces a desperate aftermath. More than 177,000 people are homeless, and damage is estimated at US$200 million. Cases of typhoid caused by contaminated water have already been reported, and there is an increased danger of dengue fever, a disease spread by mosquitoes which thrive in wet conditions. Disaster relief has been announced - the US is donating drinking water, food, blankets and clothing, Cuba will send doctors, France sent specialists to help with water purification, and aid money has been granted by Germany, Taiwan, and the UN.
This assistance will provide temporary relief, but most worrying of all is the longer term damage caused to Haitian food production. During the heavy rain, mud-slides and floods, at least 36,000 cattle drowned, the entire rice crop in the main rice-growing area, the Artibonite, was lost, seeds for the next harvest got wet and will rot, and all the country's plantain and banana plantations were destroyed.
A few days after the hurricane, the weekly newspaper, Haiti en Marche, ran an editorial entitled, "Towards an acute food shortage, and still higher prices". It pointed out that Haiti will neither be able to feed itself from domestic production, nor by imports from the Dominican Republic where 90% of the harvest was also destroyed by George. "For the moment, there is only one alternative: to import everything from Miami...The cargo shippers will raise their prices through the roof. That is what's called the law of supply and demand!"
* see Lambi Fund of Haiti on back page
FRAPH/FADH documents campaign
Four years ago, US military forces arrived in Haiti and seized 60,000 pages of documents belonging to death squad, FRAPH, and 100,000 pages from the headquarters of the Haitian army, the FADH. The materials consisted of reports, registers and a variety of written files, as well as video-cassettes, audio-cassettes and photographs of torture sessions. Though rightfully the property of the Haitian government, the documents were taken to the Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington.
Since then, representatives of the Haitian government have been requesting the return of the documents which are believed to contain invaluable and definitive evidence of human rights violations under the military regime. This evidence could be crucial to the legal process against the murderers and torturers who remain unpunished and at large in Haiti.
The US has refused to return the documents in their original format. According to the State Department, "The names of US citizens have been redacted from a limited number of documents in order to protect their privacy." In other words, the US feels the need to protect the names of US diplomatic personnel and intelligence agents who liaised with the FRAPH and the FADH during their reign of terror.
Earlier this year, while visiting Haiti, the US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright said the documents are now in the US Embassy in Port-au-Prince, and that the Haitian government is free to take them. However, the documentation is far from complete - not only are many pages now covered with black marks, hiding thousands of lines of incriminating text, but some have been removed altogether.
Eleven Haitian organisations, including the Gonaïves section of the Justice and Peace Commission, the nine-strong Platform of Haitian human rights organisations, and various youth and peasant organisations, have launched an international campaign for the return of the documents in their entirety. A petition calling on President Clinton to immediately and unconditionally return all the documents, unaltered, so that the coup victims can find justice, has already been signed by thousands of people in the US and in Haiti.
The Haiti Support Group has been coordinating the distribution of the petition in Europe. So far, over 1,300 individuals in the UK, Belgium, France, and Switzerland have signed, as have 19 organisations including War on Want, the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund, the European Clean Clothes Campaign, the Dutch-Haitian Committee, the Swiss Haiti Platform, and a number of Belgian development aid agencies.
* We are still collecting signatures for the campaign petition. Please contact the HSG for more petition forms.
E-mail us at:
haitisupport@gn.apc.org
In September, members of the Haiti Support Group met up with Camille Chalmers, the executive-secretary of the Haitian Platform to Advocate for Alternative Development (PAPDA) when he stopped in London, en route from Brussels to Haiti.
The PAPDA is a coalition of grassroots organisations, non-governmental organisations, and popular education networks, formed in 1995, to stimulate debate about the economic situation and to coordinate alternative proposals for economic development. The PAPDA also works to internationalise the struggle of the Haitian people through contact with progressive organisations from abroad. In this context, Camille Chalmers first visited the UK as the guest of the Haiti Support Group in 1996.
Camille summarised the situation in Haiti as a "spiral of failure and despair", remarking that the population was "powerless as it witnessed the collapse of its standard of living at the same time as the funeral of its dreams of participatory democracy."
Yet, against all the odds, he said, there was still a high level of organisation and mobilisation among the poor in the provincial areas that he had visited over the last few months.
PAPDA activities
The PAPDA has launched a campaign to call for food security. It has coordinated meetings with women's and peasant organisations at regional and national level, and organised seminars to discuss food production, agrarian reform, and the consequences of the neo-liberal plan. Demonstrations and rallies were staged in Port-au-Prince and the Artibonite to encourage people to participate in the development of the campaign.
As the international financial institutions lend Haiti more and more in return for the application of a structural adjustment programme, the PAPDA has joined the international Jubilee 2000 campaign launched by Christian church organisations to petition for the cancellation of unpayable debts owed by the most impoverished nations.
Haiti has recently been admitted to the regional body, Caricom (previously composed of just the English-speaking Caribbean nations, but now also including Haiti and the Dominican Republic). Membership raises crucial questions about Haiti's economic development, not least, the issue of import tariffs. Camille pointed out that while the structural adjustment programme required Haiti to eliminate most of its import tariffs and massively reduce others, Caricom has a region-wide tariff set at 20%. The US is now believed to want Caricom to cut or eliminate its tariff, thus jeopardising local food production to the benefit of the US which enjoys a food surplus.
Toxic waste campaign
A member of the PAPDA, the Haitian Collective for the Protection of the Environment and an Alternative Development (COHPEDA), has for some time been campaigning for the removal of some 4,000 tons of toxic waste from a site near Gonaïves. The ash, containing lead and cadmium, was shipped from the US city, Philadelphia, and dumped in Haiti in 1988. After farmers reported that goats grazing near the waste dump were dying and that local residents were falling ill, Haitian organisations joined with international environmental groups, such as Greenpeace, in an effort to get the ash returned to the US.
In June, the PAPDA, together with COHPEDA and the US-based Multinational Resource Centre, organised a three-day colloquium in Port-au-Prince on 'Globalisation and Environmental Justice'. Over 60 national and international organisations took part, and called on the Haitian government to press the Mayor of Philadelphia to take responsibility for the removal of the ash. Camille reported that it was recently announced that over half the cost of the removal and transport of the ash back to the US will be met by the city of Philadelphia and the haulage company responsible for the original shipment. If (and this is a big 'if') the Haitian government comes up with the remainder of the money, then the ash will be removed early next year.
Development alternatives
The PAPDA is also currently engaged in the preparation of an alternative economic strategy that will, unlike that of the international financial institutions, put the interests of the Haitian people at the heart of development. The tasks of consultation with popular organisations and the research for the development of this strategy will receive the backing of the British development agencies, Christian Aid and Cafod.
* Camille said that the PAPDA has access to extensive English-language documentation relevant to the debate about this alternative strategy, and asked the Haiti Support Group to publicise an appeal for a volunteer prepared to spend some time in Port-au-Prince working with the PAPDA on translations into French. Contact the HSG for details.
E-mail us at:
haitisupport@gn.apc.org
Garment workers at the Megatex factory in Port-au-Prince which produces clothing for, amongst others, the Walt Disney Company, have succeeded in forming a union in order to demand higher salaries, and better conditions.
The mostly female workforce began organising earlier this year. In July, the factory management fired some workers suspected of involvement in unionising activities. After international pressure in the form of fax letters to Walt Disney and the factory owner, the workers were reinstated, and in August the official process of registering the union began. As part of this process, a letter was sent to the factory owner listing the entire union executive committee. This constituted a huge risk for the workers named who then faced the danger of arbitrary dismissal.
At this point, the Haiti Support Group and the Haiti/Disney Justice campaign in the US responded to an appeal for solidarity action by asking their supporters to send letters to the head of Walt Disney. The letters asked Disney to ensure that the right to unionise, enshrined both in the International Labour Organisation conventions and Disney's own code of conduct for licensees, would be respected at Megatex.
The pressure appears to have paid off. The owner of Megatex began formal discussions with representatives of the union, Sendika Ouvriye Antrepriz Megatex (SOAM), at the beginning of September. He agreed to meet with union delegates each week, and to allow the union to distribute leaflets inside the factory and to have weekly meetings on the premises.
SOAM organisers report that, while recognition and the start of negotiations are steps in the right direction, the factory management has shown no inclination to discuss an increase in pay or a reduction in the almost impossibly high production quota. Workers receive a daily wage of £1.36, or £1.65 if they make the quota.
Batay Ouvriye
The new union at Megatex has been supported by Batay Ouvriye, an association of unions, committees and workers from the industrial, agricultural and informal sectors in Haiti. A member of the steering committee of Batay Ouvriye visited the UK last year as a guest of the Haiti Support Group. While in London she met with War on Want who subsequently made a grant to Batay Ouvriye to help pay for the rental of a meeting/drop-in centre and the costs of legal representation for sacked workers.
* Batay Ouvriye is asking people to write to Michael Eisner, the head of Walt Disney, applauding the recognition of the union at Megatex, and asking him to bring his influence to bear regarding the lack of negotiation on the questions of wages and quotas. A model letter is available from the Haiti Support Group.
E-mail us at:
haitisupport@gn.apc.org
People in Britain sometimes ask how they can help people in Haiti directly. As Haitians reel from the effects of Hurricane George, the Haiti Support Group takes the opportunity to introduce the Lambi Fund of Haiti, a non-governmental organisation founded in 1994.
The Lambi Fund* directly assists Haitians in building a self-determined and democratic future. It raises money (mainly in the US) and provides training to promote local democratic development efforts in Haiti. It directly channels resources to organisations and programmes conceived, planned and implemented by the Haitian people themselves. Small grassroots projects have included reforestation, agricultural production, community development, and women's income-generating activities.
The Lambi Fund has a small office and a staff of three in Haiti. In the US, two directors work, not from an office, but from their homes. In this way, the maximum share of the money raised can go to fund projects in Haiti. A five-person advisory board in Haiti includes progressive priests, Fathers Hugo Triest and William Smarth, who are well-known to the Haiti Support Group for their commitment to popular education and mobilisation for social change.
We reproduce below an appeal letter written by the executive director of the Lambi Fund. Should you require more information about the Fund please contact us. We will pleased to receive cheques made payable the Haiti Support Group and marked "Lambi Fund' on the reverse, convert the amount into US dollars, and then forward it on to the Fund.
Dear Friend of Haiti,
Although media coverage of Hurricane Georges' toll in Haiti has been scant, huge portions of the country are buried in three feet of mud. Eighty-five percent of the annual crop is ruined, threatening epidemic starvation. Entire villages have been displaced. Every river in the country has flooded.
Members of popular organisations file into our office to share ruinous news. Field visits, where roads still allow access, have confirmed the worst for our current projects. Some of these horror stories follow:
In the Artibonite Valley, home to 12 Lambi Fund projects, grain depots, processing mills, and food crops have been destroyed. Peasants are without food or income sources. Fields are covered with water and mud.
In the South, where the Lambi Fund supports three projects, high winds and rain have destroyed entire communities. Roads have completely washed away, making passage in or out of the zones impossible by vehicle and treacherous by foot;
In the Western region, home to eight projects, the River Grise swelled so much that it took survivors two days to empty their homes of mud. Irrigation ditches, critical to peasant survival, were wiped out within hours of the downpour.
Infrastructure that the Lambi Fund provided (mobile water pumps, grain mills, and tilling machines) has suffered extensive damage. Grain that was the next season's investment for hundreds of farmers will rot from wet conditions. Plans for projects which grassroots groups were enthusiastically ready to launch have suffered severe setbacks.
What remains are the organising and technical skills which the Lambi Fund has helped provide to the people.
However, years of community building efforts are now destroyed. Worse, the devastation of peasant crops and food processing systems makes cultivators and market women extremely vulnerable to competition from food imports, in lieu of revitalising Haiti's indigenous resources.
What can you do to respond to this disaster?
While large international organisations will likely respond with short-term aid like food and clothing, our staff are already meeting with local organisations and leaders to plan and initiate a response for the medium and long-term. After the aid agencies have moved on to the next disaster, the Lambi Fund, along with community organisations, will be building infrastructure and productive capacity to enable self-sufficiency.
Communities will need help with:
clearing fields and re-digging irrigation ditches;
recapitalising seed banks;
expanding loan funds to support short-term income generation alternatives;
reconstructing community centres;
restocking community stores and agricultural tool and credit banks;
overhauling and replacing damaged farming and processing equipment;
replanting fruit trees and controlling erosion.
"We can't sit with our arms crossed" says Josette Perard, the Lambi Fund's Haiti Director. Our mission has been to rebuild Haiti on terms defined and designed by the Haitian people. We were slowly accomplishing this goal on grassroots levels before Hurricane Georges. We must continue, now more than ever.
You can help Haitians respond to this disaster on their own terms.
An espwa (In hope),
M. Catherine Maternowska, PhD
Executive Director
* The lambi, or conch shell, has long been used as a musical instrument. During the days of slave resistance, the lambi's call alerted communities to impending danger and the need to assemble. Today, the echo of the lambi alerts villagers in distant hamlets that a community meeting is about to begin.
The 1998 United Nations Development Programme annual report showed the dire state of Haiti relative to other countries. Using a 'human development index', the report ranks countries in terms of life expectancy, standard of living, and education. Between 1992 and 1997, Haiti had already dropped 32 places in the ranking. This year it slipped another three to 159 out of 174 countries. Neighbours Cuba and the Dominican Republic were ranked 85 and 88 respectively. Canada was first, France second, and the UK eighteenth.
In Haiti the average annual per capita income is US$ 250, 20% of the population accounts for 86% of personal consumption, 25% of the population is not expected to survive to the age of 40, adult illiteracy is at 55%, and 70% of the workforce is unemployed.
Unless otherwise indicated all articles are written by Charles Arthur.
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