Justin Podur

More Bolivia: a coup in the offing?

Folks might recall that in October of last year there were massive mobilizations in Bolivia (you can look back through ZNet Bolivia Watch for lots of material) that led to the ouster of President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, a fellow nicknamed the ‘gringo’ for his American accent and his propensity for selling the country off to US Multinationals (to be fair, he wasn’t alone in it, nor did he invent the practice, even in Bolivia). Unlike in Haiti, Sanchez de Lozada really did resign, after trying and failing a vicious repression that killed dozens of unarmed protesters (and unlike Haiti, they really were unarmed protesters and not paramilitary killers). The Vice President, Carlos Mesa, took over.

Well one of the demands of the movement was that the military officers involved in the killings last year be judged. The Military Court absolved them, but the Constitutional Tribunal overturned that verdict. Now the Army has now taken protest action against the Tribunal’s decision. This is essentially a repudiation of the judiciary’s authority over the army. Admiral Oscar Ascarraga, president of the Military Court, says this is because “you can’t judge someone twice for the same crime”.

There is video footage that has been shown on television of these soldiers (Grover Monroy, Rafael Mendieta, Yamil Rocabado and Enrique Costas) shooting and killing people.

This could well be the first step in a coup against the civilian regime. President Mesa says he is “truly worried.”

[Source: DPA and AFP via La Jornada]

Bolivia

For North American watchers of Latin America the work of Forrest Hylton is as indispensable on Bolivia as the work of Gregory Wilpert is on Venezuela (you can find Forrest’s work on Bolivia at ZNet’s Bolivia Watch and Wilpert’s at Venezuela Watch or, of course, Venezuelanalysis.com. Both of these provide sympathetic, knowledgeable material and are very scrupulous about letting the people of these countries speak with their own voices, which is what is most needed.

Forrest Hylton recently published two stories on a political prisoner in Bolivia, accused of ‘terrorism’ because he’s Colombian: Pacho Cortes. Take a look at the story Hylton wrote and the one he translated. Now, how do you reward a good writer for doing a thorough job, presenting the facts, and actually interviewing people involved in the flesh?

You accuse them of terrorism, of course.

I got this in the mail from Forrest… he wants to send it out just so people are aware of what might come down next.

Comrades, Friends,

Greetings to all. I don’t mean to be alarmist, but following the counsel of a trusted advisor, I wanted to let everyone know that my compañera Lina and I have been accused of being members of the Colombian ELN as a result of our efforts to free Francisco “Pacho” Cortes, who, being Colombian, is currently Bolivia’s “trophy” terrorist. On Wednesday night (if I remember correctly), DA Rene Arzabe, who’s trying to put Pacho away for 30 years, said on TV that he has proof that the foreigners who’ve been visiting Pacho all along (and we’re the only ones he could be talking about) are ELN, and that they would be arrested and detained next time they tried to visit Pacho.

Obviously this is nothig more than a crude, albeit effective, way of silencing dissent and squelching human rights activism. We do not anticipate that anything will come of these threats, but they arise at a time when Pacho’s “comrades” are cutting a deal with the DA to turn state’s evidence on Pacho. To ram the deal through, the DA has demanded that we shut up. Which is what we plan to do until the heavy weather clears.

This e-mail is obviously intended to serve as a preventive security measure in case anything happens to us. In the meantime, and although we are expecting the best rather than the worst, please alert whomever you think should know about this.

Best,

Forrest

What makes a scandal, scandalous?

This is a question that’s been puzzling me.

This morning, Rahul Mahajan’s blog provided a link to the video footage of the helicopter pilots murdering helpless Iraqis from a distance with heavy machine guns. Rahul has also been scrupulous about republishing the photos of the abuse (don’t call it torture, whatever you do) that have been coming out in the mainstream media.

Now, I have to admit that I wasn’t surprised at all when I heard this was going on. Actually that’s not true. I was surprised, in fact — surprised that it got out into the mainstream media. That is what surprises me about these ‘scandals’. How do ‘scandals’ become ‘scandalous’? Why do the media choose to leak things when they do? And why do things that are shown become scandals?

I ask this because on April 10, weeks before the torture– oops, sorry, I meant abuse — became a scandal, and just before the Fallujah massacre — oops, I meant combat — occurred, the UTS blog published a warning. Part of that warning was a video clip that came from CNN. That clip shows a soldier murdering a wounded man as he writhes on the ground, and then screaming, celebration, and commentary afterwards. Presumably, this was broadcast on CNN without any fanfare and no ‘scandal’, and yet the clip of the helicopter shooting couldn’t be aired on most networks.

What’s the difference? I found the CNN footage more appalling, not less, than the other. How did the latter become ‘scandalous’?

Why wasn’t the invasion itself a scandal? The occupation itself? Why isn’t the imprisonment of Palestinian children a scandal, or the starvation in Gaza? Or the massacres in Colombia… or in Haiti…

There’s something here I don’t understand, I guess. Journalists sometimes believe that if some explosive piece of information were to reach the public, that something would happen. Or that if it were to reach the media, they’d break the story and something would happen. But there’s plenty of explosive information reaching the media all the time. They don’t bother to pick it up and often when they do, there’s no reaction from the public.

I suppose if I understood scandals better, I’d set about trying to make scandals out of the many scandalous events that go on constantly.

Back to factual matters tomorrow.

Canadians torture too…

Just a little note to remind Canadians — in case anyone doubted it — that Canada shares the same racism, militarism, and machismo that the US has. The many macabre photos of the torture of Iraqi prisoners by US troops and mercenaries ought to have instantly brought to mind the photos of Canadian soldiers torturing to death Somali teenager Shidane Arone in 1993, and the execution of others. There’s some stuff, including one of the gruesome photos (but not the most gruesome, which I remember made the cover of the Toronto Star), archived on the CBC site.

Write letters to York’s Presidnt

Yes, I spelled Presidnt without the ‘e’, because that’s how York University’s President’s email address is: presidnt@yorku.ca. If you are going to write a letter to help Daniel Freeman-Maloy, the Jewish activist who was expelled from the campus for his use of a megaphone while he was being shouted down by large groups of counter-protesters, please be courteous and civil. I believe this is a case where pressure will help, but though the expulsion is absurd, writing emails proportionate to the absurdity unfortunately won’t help, in my assessment anyway.

If you’re interested in doing so, here’s some more facts and guidelines, and a sample letter…

Please act against the expulsion of Dan Freeman-Maloy from York University!

To All Concerned Community Members:

Last week, a 3rd-year undergraduate student of political science, Dan Freeman-Maloy, received a letter informing him of a 3-year suspension from York University, simply for using a megaphone on campus. The letter referred only to his “use of an unauthorized sound amplification device” at an “unauthorized demonstration”. He was given no information on how to appeal the suspension and was threatened with charges of trespass should he enter the campus grounds after 1 May. The suspension comes into effect on the same day that Dan is to begin work at the University’s principal newspaper, Excalibur.

Dan is a Jewish student who has been vocal in defence of Palestinian human rights, as well as in workers’ rights and other social justice campaigns. His suspension comes following a theatrical display on campus on March 16, 2004, in which students were commemorating the anniversary of the death of US peace activist, Rachel Corrie, who died last year in the Gaza Strip. At the display, Palestine solidarity activists were spat upon, kicked and threatened by an aggressive counter-demonstration. The university administration did nothing to protect the students. Instead, in an attempt to silence critical dissent on campus, they chose to suspend Dan.

Dan is due to complete his degree after one year. He has an excellent academic record and has been an active and respected participant in the life of the York University community. Despite the fact that the university’s own legal guidelines (Presidential Regulation #2) states that students be entitled to an administrative procedure allowing for student appeals (Section E, #3), Dan has been suspended by administrative fiat – in an impersonal letter without any possibility of appeal. Furthermore, York’s regulations specify that only serious infractions (such as a violation of the Ontario Human Rights Code or illegal behaviour) warrant expulsion. This demonstrates total disregard for his academic future and his right to an education, as well as to York’s own procedural regulations.

This expulsion is not only callous toward Dan’s future, but is politically motivated. Megaphones have been used without authorization at countless other “unauthorized demonstrations” in Vari Hall without a single student being penalized, let alone suspended for 3 years, which is a de facto expulsion. Moreover, other students used a megaphone at this very demonstration without any consequences. Dan is being singled out and scapegoated because he is an articulate and effective Jewish advocate of Palestinian human rights. Or, as a member of York’s Board of Directors explained to a concerned graduate student outside a recent press conference, because he is a “rabble-rouser.”

President Marsden is not impartial in this matter, and her record is clear. She has consistently supported right-wing speakers on campus – “Campus Watch” host Daniel Pipes last year, Israeli Minister Natan Sharansky (a proponent of mass expulsion of Palestinians to neighbouring countries) this year. Last year, her administration also brought mounted police on to campus for the first time ever, and coordinated to have three organizers of an anti-war student strike arrested. York’s campus has become more and more repressive recently, as exorbitant and arbitrary “security fees” have been forced upon student groups hosting dissident speakers, as club activities have been prohibited in various public spaces on campus, and as certain student organizations have faced outright bans. This crackdown on critical dialogue – the cornerstone of higher learning – marks a significant step backward for all members of the York community.

We urge everyone who is concerned about maintaining York University’s campus as a progressive space, and all those intent on protecting student rights to free expression and assembly, to contact President Marsden.

We are demanding the immediate reversal of the decision to expel Dan Freeman-Maloy from campus for his political activities. York University prides itself on a reputation as a progressive space where critical development and engagement is encouraged, not stifled. If this reputation is to be maintained, the current administration must act accordingly.

Sincerely,

York Free Speech Committee

How to get involved:

Below we have attached a letter to President Marsden demanding that she immediately reverse the suspension of Dan Freeman-Maloy, so that he can complete his studies and report for work on campus without fear of being charged with trespassing. Please sign the letter below and send it to President Marsden at presidnt@yorku.ca (no “e”) and cc freespeechyorku@yahoo.ca. Or, better yet, write a letter outlining these demands yourself, and get whatever organizations you are a part of to draft letters of their own.

Letters can also be postmarked to:
Office of the President
4700 Keele St.
Toronto, ON
Canada M3J 1P3

For more information on our ongoing campaign, contact freespeechyorku@yahoo.ca

Thank you, and we appreciate all of your help!

President Marsden,

I recently learned of the 3-year suspension of Dan Freeman-Maloy for his use of a megaphone at an “unauthorized” demonstration. I find your decision appalling for a number of reasons. First, your decision is a violation of Mr. Freeman-Maloy’s right to freedom of expression as it is a response to his participation in political activity, not his use of a sound amplification device (many students have used a megaphone without authorization in Vari Hall – why is Dan being singled out?). Second, in contradiction with your own regulations on student conduct, your decision provided no opportunity for Dan to defend himself, nor an opportunity for an appeal. Third, this decision reflects a troubling pattern of silencing progressive political activity on campus (including banning tabling and leafleting for political purposes, and imposing exorbitant “security fees” on student groups). Finally, given York’s official commitment to the pursuit of social justice (as declared in the university’s mission statement), it would seem that you should support and actively create space for social justice activism on campus, instead of shutting it down.

I demand that you immediately reverse your decision to summarily expel Dan Freeman-Maloy. You are the head of a prestigious academic institution with a reputation for academic freedom and political diversity. I am requesting that York uphold its own standards.

Sincerely,

The War on the Indigenous of Colombia

Some news from Colombia’s indigenous.

In Cali, 5 days ago a member of the indigenous reserve of San Francisco, in Northern Cauca, Colombia named Aparicio Nuscue Nuscue died of wounds in a hospital in Cali. The wounds were taken courtesy of the Colombian Army, who shot him while he was performing a traditional ceremony at a sacred site on April 5 of this year. Northern Cauca is being steadily militarized, occupied by the National Police and Army, who commit a regular grind of abuses against the remarkable indigenous movement of the Nasa in that region.

Still worse is what the Colombian Army and paramilitaries, and therefore US backers, have done to the Wayuu indigenous community in La Guajira. This is a preliminary communique, from the community itself. More thorough investigations may follow, but only if a human rights organization takes it up.

Starting on April 18, the paramilitaries came to their community, “raping our daughters, torturing our children to get information on where their parents were… they didn’t believe them so they killed them or left them…”

“They killed women, youth, and elders (tortured and raped) and we are worried because our children are disappeared and we don’t know if they are alive or dead…”

“We were 580… who abandoned with pain in our souls our territory, our animals, our ancetral belongings, there in the territory there is no one, everyone has fled to different parts, to look for security and protection of our lives… neither the Mayor of Uribia nor the Governor of la Guajira said a word.”

12 were killed and 30 disappeared. And the point of the operation: 580 were displaced from their lands.

The communique I received (spanish) includes some of the names of those killed who the community could identify, which I reproduce below.

1-NICOLAS BARROS BALLESTEROS.
2-ARTURO EPIAYU
3-ALBERTO EVERTS FINCE
4-ROLAN EVERTS FINCE
5-ROSA FINCE URIANA
6-DIANA FINCE URIANA (Desaparecida sin saber el lugar donde tiraron su cuerpo)
7-REINA FINCE PUSHAINA (Desaparecida sin saber el lugar donde tiraron su cuerpo, menor de edad 13 años).
8-MARGARITA EPIANAYU
9-RUBEN EPINAYU (Menor de edad 16 años).
10-Niños que fueron asesinados y comos señala le cortaban miembros de su cuerpo para que fueran reconocidos).
11-Una joven del Clan Epinayu, la sacaron de su casa y aún no ha sido encontrado su cuerpo.
12- Además de todas estad personas, hay muchas mas que estan enterradas en las diferentes zonas de Portete.

Special Killing Train Job Offer!

Private Mercenary Company Seeks to fill Baghdad Interrogator Position

To be honest, I can’t verify the authenticity of this, but I thought I’d blog it anyway. It looks real. Someone emailed it to me, and it definitely deserves linking. It might predate the recent scandals, but it does have the gruesome and macabre quality you’ve come to expect from this blog. Here’s the ad. You can even submit your resume online. Some people are likely to be vacating these positions, so they might have some openings… I’ll put some higlights in.

CACI’s Job Database

Interrogator/Intel Analyst Team Lead Asst.
BAGHDAD, Iraq

(Requisition #BZSG308)
Clearance: TS

Description:
Assists the interrogation support program team lead to increase the effectiveness of dealing with Detainees, Persons of Interest, and Prisoners of War (POWs) that are in the custody of US/Coalition Forces in the CJTF 7 AOR, in terms of screening, interrogation, and debriefing of persons of intelligence value. Under minimal supervision, will assist the team lead in managing a multifaceted interrogation support cell consisting of database entry/intelligence research clerks, screeners, tactical/strategic interrogators, and intelligence analyst.

Required:
Position requires a bachelor’s degree or equivalent and five to seven years of related experience, preferably in intelligence field. Requires a Top Secret Clearance. Strong writing and briefing skills, with competency in automation, research and basic software applications. Familiar with intelligence collection capabilities/planning, as well as analytical procedures.

Desired:
Minimum of 5 years in intelligence field. Requires a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent. Requires a Top Secret Clearance. Strong writing and briefing skills, with competency in automation, research and basic software applications. Familiar with intelligence collection capabilities/planning, as well as analytical procedures.

The Surreal World of Campus Activism, Part II

Campus activists who work on Israel/Palestine issues will know about Hillel. Hillel is a group that ostensibly exists to promote Jewish cultural and religious life on campuses, but in fact promotes occupation and militarism in many cases. When the Hillel chapter President at University of Richmond objected to this, she was removed as President a day later. This is a story worth reading in full, so I’ve posted the entire story from the Chronicle of Higher Education below. The bare bones: Jillian Redford, the Hillel chapter president, had been receiving messages from the Israeli Embassy. She wrote to them:

“Could you please stop sending me email after email about radical zionist propaganda?… “I don’t know if you realize that Hillel’s mission statement is based on fostering religious life on college campuses and not organizing marches, protests, or listening to speakers who encourage us to hate our Palestinian neighbors.”

The next day, she was no longer President of Hillel U of R…

Wednesday, May 5, 2004
Student President of Hillel Chapter at U. of Richmond Is Ousted After Criticizing Israeli Embassy
By ERIC HOOVER

The organization that sponsors the University of Richmond’s Hillel chapter removed the group’s student president this semester after she sent a critical e-mail message to the Israeli Embassy, in Washington.

Jilian R. Redford, a junior, had served as the Hillel chapter’s president since the beginning of the fall semester. On February 12, after receiving an e-mail message from the Israeli Embassy’s office of academic affairs, Ms. Redford wrote in a response: “Could you please stop sending me email after email about radical zionist propaganda?”

In the message, a copy of which she gave to The Chronicle, Ms. Redford continued, “I don’t know if you realize that Hillel’s mission statement is based on fostering religious life on college campuses and not organizing marches, protests, or listening to speakers who encourage us to hate our Palestinian neighbors.”

She also asked to be removed from the embassy’s e-mail list.

In an interview on Tuesday, Ms. Redford said that the next day she was summoned to the Weinstein Jewish Community Center — a Richmond-based organization that oversees the university’s Hillel chapter — to discuss the e-mail message, which the embassy had forwarded to officials at the center

In a meeting, two staff members of the center asked Ms. Redford to apologize to the embassy, but she refused to do so, according to both Ms. Redford and Lisa Looney, the center’s director of university services.

Ms. Redford said that during the meeting Ms. Looney and another staff member told her that the embassy had demanded her ouster. She said that she was “grilled” about her opinions on Israeli policies, and also that one of the two staff members mentioned that Ms. Redford, who had been raised as a Southern Baptist, had converted to Judaism only after coming to the university.

But Ms. Looney disputed those assertions.

“The embassy had absolutely, unequivocally nothing to do with the decision,” Ms. Looney said in an interview.

“Her political views never came up” during the meeting, Ms. Looney said. “All I wanted to see happen was for her to apologize for the tone of her letter, not the content.” She said she had had a good working relationship with Ms. Redford before the incident.

Ms. Looney said that if Ms. Redford had not included her title in her e-mail message to the embassy, the center’s staff would not have objected to it.

In a February 18 letter to Ms. Redford, Orly Lewis, the center’s director of adult services, suggested that Ms. Redford’s goals were “in conflict” with those of Hillel. “While all of us are entitled to our own opinions, in this instance you are representing the Hillel organization and not yourself,” Ms. Lewis wrote.

The letter also referred to Ms. Redford’s refusal to invite to a Hillel event a speaker the center had mentioned earlier in the semester. Ms. Redford said she had told a staff member at the center that the speaker, a faculty member at Richmond, was a “racist.”

After Ms. Redford again declined to apologize, Ms. Looney informed her of her dismissal in a letter, dated March 3, that called Ms. Redford’s conduct “both unprofessional and disrespectful.”

Ms. Redford said Tuesday that she had mixed feelings about her ouster. “It feels good not to be a part of an organization like that,” she said. “After the way they treated me, it made me want to completely distance myself from them.”

Richmond’s Hillel chapter receives its financing from the center. Previously, the chapter did not have a clear policy governing the election and removal of student leaders, according to Leonard S. Goldberg, Richmond’s vice president for student affairs. But following the incident, the university helped students and the center draft bylaws.

“I questioned whether an outside organization should be able to fire or terminate a student leader,” said Mr. Goldberg, who met with staff members of the center this spring to discuss the new policy. “We had a cordial conversation, but I made it quite clear that we can’t have an outside organization removing students.”

Officials at the Israeli Embassy did not return calls requesting comment on Tuesday.

The Surreal World of Campus Activism, Part I

I assume that a (small) part of my (humble) readership consists of campus activists working on Israel/Palestine issues. These very strange stories will be of interest to that demographic and others. First is the tale of Daniel Freeman-Maloy, one of the En Camino co-conspirators, a member of OCAP, and a very principled activist. He has done work on anti-poverty issues and anti-occupation/war issues, which has brought him into conflict with the organized right-wing ‘zionist’ groups on the York University campus where he studies, and also with the administration on that campus.

He’s been expelled by York for 3 years for ‘unauthorized use of a megaphone’ on two incidents. Lucky for us, today’s activists are often armed with cameras, and some activists put together a film of the two incidents. The film shows Daniel getting shouted down and roughed up by zionist activists who far outnumber the anti-occupation group in both instances. But Daniel was the one who was ‘disrupting the academy’ and hence expelled. Just a little story to indicate the hypocrisy and double standards on campuses in North America. The story made national news, in the National Post and the Toronto Star, today. Below is Daniel’s initial statement.

My Expulsion from York University: an appeal for support and reconsideration

On April 30, 2004, I received a letter signed by York University President and Vice-Chancellor Lorna Marsden declaring that I “will have no purpose on campus” after May 1, 2004. If I set foot on York’s campus at any point in the three years following this date, she threatens, I will be charged for trespassing. My expulsion comes in the context of escalating repression of student dissent by York’s administration, and sets an ominous precedent regarding student rights to freedom of speech, expression and assembly.

The administration’s declaration that I now “have no purpose on campus” is baffling. I am a full-time student at York, and May 1 was both the very day I formally started my job as an editor at York’s main student paper, Excalibur, and nearly three weeks before my last exam. I am being treated as if I have acted dangerously and criminally, even in the absence of any allegations of criminally dangerous conduct.

In fact, those looking for a description of my behavior as dramatic as the administration’s response to it are likely to be disappointed. The alleged crime for which I have been exiled from my school for three years is use of “an unauthorized sound amplification device” (that is, a megaphone) on two separate occasions: October 22, 2003, and March 16, 2004. While general issues of freedom of expression and procedural fairness lie at the heart of this matter, I still feel compelled to address the specific allegations in turn.

Firstly, the events of October 22, 2003. On this date, the administration provided space for “Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Appreciation Day,” an event at which people sporting Israeli military paraphernalia congregated in one of York University’s principal public spaces to celebrate Israeli militarism. The mayor of an illegal Israeli settlement led the event, which was attended by many people who have served in the forces. In this situation, as a Jewish anti- nationalist and an avid anti-militarist, I did use a megaphone to highlight the event’s glaring impropriety. But vocal opposition to militarism, even expressed loudly, is far from criminally threatening.

The second instance cited, March 16, was the first anniversary of the death of Rachel Corrie, a US peace activist who was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer as she tried to block it from demolishing a Palestinian family’s home in the Gaza Strip. What happened on that day was without precedent in my experience. While approximately thirty of us set up a mock check-point, some dressed as soldiers and some as civilians, a crowd of some 150 militant Zionists that had been congregating nearby in preparation proceeded to rush our display. We had postponed our action for a period to avoid a clash, but were unsuccessful. We were surrounded, and for nearly an hour faced physical and verbal intimidation.

In this context, I was one of many students organizing the mock check-point who tried, through chants and small speeches, to let confused onlookers know the purpose of the display that was being aggressively swarmed. President Marsden is contending that this somehow “contributed to the threat of harm to the safety and well-being of York University community members.” If this is the case, why am I not being charged criminally? Why did the administration wait so many months to paint my conduct as dangerous?

When I was informed in early November by Ms. Ridley from the Office of Student Affairs (OSA) that I needed to review the student code of conduct, which she alleged I had broken on October 22, I told her that I would do so and then get in touch with her. That same month, I visited her to set up an appointment (I was in and out of the OSA office throughout this period regarding the status of Students for a Critical Consciousness, a campus club of which I am President). She informed me that she would need to coordinate the meeting with the security personnel who had been present on the day in question. I told her that the meeting had been called at her request, and that I was in no rush to meet – Ms. Ridley smugly responded that she was not surprised, and that she would contact me in the near future. She never followed through.

The administration had every opportunity to contact me. Again, I am the President of a recognized student club, my York University email account is listed online as the group’s contact information (and is used readily by York’s library to notify me of late fines), and I even had a minor debate in late February/early March in the pages of Excalibur with Nancy White, York’s director for media relations (regarding some of our school’s questionable corporate connections). Plainly, it is hardly as if I had gone underground.

Over the past year, as a York-based social justice activist who is both Jewish and anti-Zionist, I have been called a “self-hater” and a “terrorist”; I have received death threats. Now, the administration of Lorna Marsden is topping all of this off with a summary suspension order. York University’s mission statement describes the school as “a community of faculty, students and staff committed to academic freedom [and] social justice.” In the hope that this is truly the case, I appeal to the administration to allow me to return to my studies and to my job without any further harassment.

To everyone else reading this (in case the administration’s response is not immediately favorable), the York Free Speech Committee, which recently formed to deal with this situation, will be circulating an important call-out shortly. Please keep posted on this situation, and consider providing your personal support to our campaign if you get the chance.

Sincerely,

Daniel Freeman-Maloy

More Haiti Evidence

It’s not clear how much evidence it would take to convince people about what is going on in Haiti. But on the assumption that more evidence is better, here is the preliminary press release of a 9-member delegation of unionists who visited Haiti to look at the problems Haiti is facing under its new democratatorship/occupation. Some notes:

-Lavalas can’t have demonstrations or open political action. They’ve been driven underground by massacres and repression.
-Living conditions are worse than before the coup; basic food prices have skyrocketed.
-Unions are under attack. The transport workers report a hundred attacks on their buses.
-Sweatshop lord Andre Apaid is one of the coup-makers and is being rewarded now.

More details below. Also, the “Let Haiti Live” Coalition has prepared a human rights report, dated April 30. You can get a copy by writing to haitihumanrights@yahoo.com.

An Initial Statement on the Current Situation of Workers, the Labor Movement, and Human Rights in Haiti – Tuesday, May 4th, 2004

From: The International Labor/Religious/Community Fact-Finding Delegation to Haiti (April 26-May 2nd) organized by the San Francisco Labor Council

A nine-member international labor/religious/community fact-finding delegation has just returned from a week spent in Haiti. Its objective was to assess and report on the current situation of Haitian workers, the Haitian labor movement, and the state of human rights in that country. Within this mandate, particular attention was given to understanding the new realities following the coup d’etat that deposed President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on 29 February 2004. The brief statement, which follows, is an initial report on our findings.

The delegation’s work focused on interviews with Haitian trade unionists and workers, as well as political leaders and activists. Part of this time was spent attending the National Congress of the CTH (the Confederation of Haitian Workers), the largest labor federation in Haiti composed of 11 different union federations. Based on these interviews and discussions, we can report that in the labor movement is in significant crisis, brought on in large part by the decade-long economic and political destabilization campaign orchestrated in Washington. The crisis has become much worse since 29 February, with the campaign of violence by the US-backed opposition that preceded and followed the coup. Facing a massive problem of unemployment (estimated at some 70% in the formal economy), the turmoil and economic difficulties of recent years has only been worsened with the change of government.

The coup regime was formed by a coalition of the unelected political opposition; the governments of France and the United States; former Haitian military and paramilitary death squads (FRAPH); and the Haitian business elite – particularly the “Group 184”, led by Andre Apaid. Mr. Apaid, a US citizen who is known by Haitian workers as the single most notorious owner of Haitian sweatshop factories, has been a virulent opponent of unions organizing in his factories. The delegation heard reports of extremely dire working conditions in the Apaid-owned sweatshops, with little or no access to safe drinking water, and wages at the legal minimum of 70 Haitian gourdes (approximately US$1.80) per day – or less. Those workers courageous enough to attempt the organization of trade unions face dismissal. Clearly, Mr. Apaid and his clique are no supporters of Haiti’s workers or their labor movement.

The coup also led to serious attacks on Haiti’s trade unions. The delegation heard reports from one union, the FTPH (Federation of Public Transport Workers of Haiti), of criminal attacks on over 100 of the buses that they had purchased for use in the bus cooperative operated by the union. These attacks involved the torching and destruction of the union co-op’s buses, yet went unreported in the North American media, despite having taken place in the days immediately following the 29 February coup d’etat (the peak period of international media presence). Given their timing, and the fact that the union bus cooperative’s success had been viewed as a positive symbol of social advances under the Aristide government, such attacks were seen by the union as acts of political reprisal by supporters of the coup. No arrests have been made in association with these attacks.

The general living conditions of Haitian workers and the general population have drastically worsened since the coup of 29 February. The delegation heard that the price of rice has jumped dramatically, as much as doubling. Other vital foodstuffs have seen even more serious price inflation. Several witnesses testified that whereas before the coup, Haitians were able to eat at least once per day, the cost of food has reduced this to as little as 3 meals per week. Even those Haitians fortunate enough to have a job are barely subsisting.

As for human rights, things are even more serious. The coup which deposed President Aristide has led to a serious wave of attacks and persecutions of supporters of President Aristide and his Fanmi Lavalas Party. The delegation heard testimony from an elected member of Parliament for the Fanmi Lavalas who is living in hiding, having been driven out of his town under gunfire. Other political leaders and known activists have also been forced into hiding, living underground, fearing the death threats and violence directed at supporters of the ousted government. Despite its obvious popularity, the Fanmi Lavalas movement is not currently able to have political demonstrations or otherwise take open political action due to the threat of attack. The coup regime, supported by an international military coalition led by the US, France and Canada, has not provided security for those currently most at risk. The names of Lavalas supporters – and even those suspected of being Lavalas supporters – are being read off on right-wing radio stations as an implicit threat. Neither the coup regime nor its international backers have taken action to contain what many Haitians refer to as an anti-Lavalas “witch hunt” that continues to this day.

Based on six days of interviews, meetings, recorded testimony, and on-site examinations, the International Labor/Religious/Community Fact-Finding Delegation has collected extensive material to compile and report. We wanted to provide this brief summary as soon as possible for immediate use. A more detailed written report will soon be published and circulated which will contain a more detailed overview of our findings.
Participants
* Reverend Dr. Kwame O. Abayomi, is the Baltimore City Council 6th District Representative and Senior Minister of Unity United Methodist Church in Baltimore.
* Dave Welsh, a San Francisco Labor Council delegate, was for many years Executive Vice President of Golden Gate Branch #214 of the Letter Carriers Union. He has been active in Haiti support work since 1991, and speaks French. He was part of a Pastors for Peace delegation to Haiti in 1997.
* Johnnie Stevens is an activist with the International Action Center. He represented Ramsey Clark on a recent delegation that met with Jean-Bertrand Aristide in the Central African Republic, where the Haitian President had been taken after his abduction. Their meeting paved the way for press interviews with Aristide, and his return to the Caribbean region. He also attended the World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa, and is a co-founder of Labor for Reparations.
* Sharon Black Ceci, a Registered Nurse, is Labor Coordinator for the Haiti Commission of Inquiry. She is a shop steward with United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local #27, and was a founding member of the All Peoples Congress, a community organization in the Baltimore area.
* Charlie Hinton is a member of the Printers Union (GCIU) and a member of a worker-owned cooperative, the union printing company Inkworks in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is a long-time solidarity movement activist and member of the Haiti Action Committee.
* Sister Maureen Duignan, is a Franciscan nun who runs the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, which has a long history (as does Sr. Maureen) of solidarity and sanctuary work with Central American and other refugees, from the 1980s to the present. Sister Maureen has been to Haiti a number of times and speaks French.
* Michael Zinzun is director of the Los Angeles-based Coalition Against Police Abuse (CAPA), which he co-founded in 1975. He was also a founding member of Police Watch and Communities in Support of the Gang Truce, and recently attended Haiti’s Bicentennial celebrations in Port-au-Prince. As a result of his activism around police issues, he suffered a police beating which left him blind in one eye.
* Kevin Skerrett is Research Officer for the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), Canada’s largest union. He has done significant research on the international trade union movement, and speaks French.
* Dr. Adrianne Aron is a clinical psychologist who works with victims of political repression. She has worked in the solidarity movement for many years, and served as an election monitor in Haiti during the 2000 elections there.