PORT-AU-PRINCE, December 10 — Ten years of struggle by the unions in a progressive federation here have mostly meant heartbreaking frustration for the workers involved. They are still organizing, although their strikes, marches, mass meetings, forums, legal fights, petitions and press conferences have yielded so little. Yet they fight on. Many hundreds have been fired, in several different industries, for union activism. In fact almost every delegate at the dinner was currently jobless for that reason! In two unions they are still battling after three years or more for back pay and reinstatement after mass illegal layoffs of unionists. The workers in one case were rounded up and physically kicked out of their workplace by police swat teams.
So how do we win? Among the ideas considered by this group of committed men and women workers was the road to revolution, the need for a communist party, and the importance of an international revolutionary movement. These ideas were raised by a union leader from the old communist movement and developed by PLP speakers from two countries. They put it in the context of inter-imperialist rivalry and war, and what this turmoil in global capitalism means for Haitian workers.
They spoke of the bitterness of this period for workers under fascist and imperialist attack like those in Haiti, but also even in the U.S., where workers face frozen wages in union contracts and over 20% unemployment. They showed how Haitian unemployment and labor migration (1 million in North America) are an important tool in the bosses’ plan to drive down wages and divide the working class in this whole region.
Unemployment in Haiti is between 70% and 90%, which makes any union struggle difficult as bosses use unemployed workers as weapons against those with jobs. Workers here respond to the bosses’ use of the “reserve army of the unemployed” by helping one another day to day, making every job feed many of the jobless. Some progressive unions also seek to cross the divide by including the unemployed in their ranks. In one union there are 400 employed and 400 unemployed members. Those employed have actually taken the jobs of those fired en masse for unionizing. But despite the initial feeling against scabs, they are now accepted as brothers and sisters by those who were kicked out. This union sings a song at the end of its delegate assembly that leads off: “Unions stand up! Strike for liberty!”
Critically and self-critically, one major weakness of the event was the absence of the hospital workers recently on strike — the sharpest struggle of the moment. Inevitably, four of their leaders were fired during the strike. Party members should certainly have made sure these workers were not only present but cheered and supported by the meeting. The anniversary dinner could and should have become a moment of organizing by the federation of more active and militant support of these members under attack.
Unfortunately at this point the federation focuses not enough on getting masses of workers behind struggles like this one, and too much on legal cases, trainings in union organization, and political forums. These are all useful, especially the political forums, which some unions use effectively as an organizing tool. But haven’t 10 years shown them to not be really the road ahead?
This federation is also courted by a few big international union federations like PSI (Public Services International) and some big U.S., Canadian, and French unions like the AFT, CUPE (Canadian public employees), and SNES (a French teachers’ union). It’s interesting that these unions come from the Big Three imperialist powers who dominate Haiti. The term “labor imperialism” was coined to describe such international union operations. Not everyone involved deserves this term, but they could have the effect of pulling Haitian unions to the right as they pay to build clinics and rebuild union halls.
Revolutionaries in Haiti, like everywhere else, have a ways to go in making our ideas of a need for a communist revolution a material force which grips the masses. In small group discussions around the edges of this event, however, and in firming up political friendships between communists in PLP and other workers, those ideas are slowly picking up steam. The Party and workers generally can expect to be attacked as fascism gathers momentum in Haiti (see box). These ten years of pain and bitterness will toughen up workers for more decisive battle if we all learn from our mistakes and strike harder for workers’ communist freedom. The cruel alternative is fascism and global war.
Fascism Grows in Haiti but Workers Are Resisting
One unionist reported to his delegate assembly how he had infiltrated a march through Cité Soleil, a desperately poor district, organized by a pro-Martelly group called “Ghetto Réuni” (“Reunited Ghetto”) to whip up support for a Haitian army. They gave out t-shirts printed with “Haiti: Vous Etes Souveraine!” (“Haiti, You Are a Sovereign State!”), implying that UN MINUSTAH troops should be replaced by a fascist local army. A new t-shirt would be half someone’s clothing needs for six months, and there were also small money handouts. A Rara (festival music) marching band attracted more people. March organizers used their hands like guns, chanting “The army’s coming back!” Bosses will try to use the unemployed to build fascist mass movements, but the communist answer is to crush fascists ruthlessly with workers’ strength and courage, such as that displayed by the worker who infiltrated Ghetto Réuni for his union.