* * * HAITI INFO * * * News direct from the people and organizations of Haiti's democratic and popular movement 27 January 1996, Vol. 4, #6 *** HAITI INFO now has photos in every issue *** Contents: Stories: ARISTIDE LEAVING - PROBLEMS STAYING BUDGET STALLED "AID" & ITS EFFECTS: THE JOBS PROGRAMS NEWS FROM NORTH & NORTHWEST: Peasants Still Struggling for Land, Fair Prices WOMEN'S MINISTRY HOSTS MEETING World of Labor: STUDY REVEALS VICIOUS EXPLOITATION JOURNALISTS FIRED SEAMSTRESS FIGHTS BACK Stories: ARISTIDE LEAVING - PROBLEMS STAYING PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan. 26 - A dozen days from the end of his term, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is preparing to leave the National Palace, but he will be leaving behind dozens of problem situations in a country where, over the past 16 months, most aspects of life have not improved and some have even gotten palpably worse. For a few days, attention may have been drawn away from serious concerns by Aristide's marriage to Haitian-American Attorney Mildred Trouillot, but the realities of every day are inescapable. The streets of the capital are piled high with garbage, many parts of the country have little or no electricity and this month the water company announced it does not have the capacity to serve Port-au-Prince's needs. Economically, the gourde continues to slide downwards and prices are climbing, the new government has announced it will be "austere" and that up to seven ministries may be closed down, and the budget process is still at an impasse. [See other story.] Problems in Cite Soleil The deterioration of the social climate is especially obvious in Cite Soleil, whose population of 200,000 is always hit the hardest by insecurity, repression, unemployment and high prices. On Jan. 16, and not for the first time, angry people were demonstrating at the gate of a Mevs property, demanding back salaries or work. Some in the crowd reportedly had guns. National Police arrived and there was shooting, and in the melee, seven people, including two police officers, were hurt and a young woman, Martha Jean-Charles, was killed. Angry people then damaged a police car and a U.N. vehicle. The media of the capital gave varying and sharply contradictory versions. Some blamed the death and injuries on "L'Armee Rouge," a supposed armed band, and others on the police. At least some reports appear to exaggerate the "armee," and its loyalities have been pinned to everyone from residents, to drug dealers, to the bourgeoisie. But if the exact details are not certain, it is obvious that the situation in Cite Soleil is extremely confusing and almostly certainly terrifying for the people who live there. Many different parties have guns: the scores of armed security guards in the heart of poor neighborhhood (working for the Mevs family, which controls a port as well as the closed Haitian-American Sugar Corporation or for Dr. Reginald Boulos' Centres pour le Developpement et la Sante [CDS]) as well as other members of the population. Many Problems with New Police Although it is not clear who shot who in Cite Soleil, it is clear that the new police resort to deadly force very easily and, due to incidents across the country, more and more the population does not have confidence in it. Also, every time an incident occurs, it is innocent citizens who are hurt or killed. Secondly, the new police are obviously not prepared for the situations they are facing here. In addition to these clashes, violent crime appears to be rising around the country, with robberies and shootings more and more commonplace. Thirdly, the force has obvious internal problems. Last week the Senate declined to approve Fourel Celestin, a former Haitian army officer, as head of the force. He was put in place late last year by Aristide. This week various senators began attacking him more earnestly. Sen. Jean-Robert Sabalat yesterday accused him of organizing a plot to have him killed, and today Sen. Samuel Madistin demanded to see a list of all the promotions he has made during his tenure. In the meantime, he remains in charge of the force. To complicate matters, Maj. Dany Toussaint, who headed the interim police force and then the judicial police force, just resigned. (He also announced he plans to sue the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation for linking him to "political" murders.) And today, at least one officer in the Port-au-Prince office is said to have resigned, while others announced a work stoppage. And even if the machinations at work behind these actions are not currently clear, it should not be overlooked that all of these events and circumstances add up to create the objective conditions for the "necessity" of another force to maintain order. Aristide Intervenes Personally In an attempt to defuse the powder keg that Cite Soleil has become, and to reconcile the residents with the police, Aristide visited and held a kind of summit meeting on Jan. 19. There, police claimed that residents should not be armed, and residents said police beat them before asking questions. "The National Police do not respect our rights," said Jean- Charles' older brother. "We endured three years with the de factos and FRAPH beating us... We fought for you to return. We do not think that... the new police should be coming after us like the army did. We youth will not tolerate that... We are the ones who asked for new police!" Another man, Pierre Ellison, went further, demanding justice and expressing people's frustration: "You said you were marrying the people. That did not really happen. You asked for national reconciliation. Those people do not want reconciliation... What I am asking, president, is, are you playing the American's game? Just give the Americans the country, the same as in Puerto Rico?" Rather than responding to the question, Aristide told the crowd: "I want the police and the people to be one" but he also noted "there is a third group involved in the affair that should be here but that is not here," obviously referring to the security guards. He went no further. Ticking Time Bomb In the end, the demagogic appeal was unconvincing and can have little effect on a population which, after enduring three years of brutal repression, accepted to wait for Aristide and his government to make good on its promises and now is fed up. Despite the beautiful words during brief visits, little has changed for the neighborhood, and people's deception is starting to shine through. High prices, unemployment, misery, lack of housing, impunity and insecurity are rampant. Right before peoples eyes is a striking reminder of the unjust state of affairs. Two years after a devastating fire destroyed approximately 1,000 homes there, not a single one has been built, despite large checks ceremoniously dispatched to CDS and other organizations. Cite Soleil is not the only site of unrest. In the North, peasants clashed with police and U.N. soldiers earlier this month [see page 4] and this week, the highway between Les Cayes and Jeremie was blocked by out-of-work sugar mill employees. Also this week, National Route 1 was blocked for over 24 hours again near Montrouis by people who said the president has not kept the promises he made during a visit there. Teachers in Les Cayes and elsewhere have been on strike over back salaries not received, and at least one teacher's union is outraged that the government recently announced it will not keep its promise to give them a 180 percent raise this year. This week too, the heads of the recently elected communal councils met with the president to complain about their minimal budgets and low salaries. On the justice front, nothing has changed. The Truth and Justice Commission is over a month late with its report. The news continues to carry reports of judges releasing criminals, and there is still no word on any prosecutions of any of the criminals of the coup d'etat era. Aristide Finds Time to Marry All of the problems do not seem to upset the president too much. He found time to get married in the presence of his "friends," inviting U.S. General John Sheehan, head of U.S. Southern Command, and U.S. National Security Advisor Anthony Lake. He even asked Lake to speak, who unabashedly improvised some telling words, saying the U.S. is looking forward to "helping shape" the future of Haiti and to "working with President Rene Preval whom we admire very much." Notably absent were the Haitian people, to whom, in the past, Aristide has said he was "married." Obviously feeling he and his bride had to justify themselves, Trouillot and Aristide swore fidelity not only to each other but also, demagogically, to "the people" and they chanted in unison, "That thing about 'divorce' with the Haitian people... There will be none of that!" As he stands on the threshold of a new married life, however, there is more than a possible "divorce" in the future. The president is leaving behind a ticking time bomb. BUDGET STALLED PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan. 27 - The budget of the Republic has been blocked in parliament for almost two months. Despite the fact that a Lavalas parliament got the budget from a Lavalas executive, the two parties cannot seem to agree, a fact which illustrates the lack of homogeneity in their political organization. (At least the battle in the U.S. is more understandable, since there are two parties involved there.) Budget Commission head Dep. Alix Fils-Aime said there was "no real coherence" between revenue and expenses in the budget and that the state needs to collect taxes better, noting 85% of revenues are from the capital's port, and only 15% from elsewhere. Others have complained about where the money is going. For instance, there is money for the pensions of former Haitian army soldiers, who carried out the coup d'etat, but nothing for the "reparations" for coup victims that President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and others have repeatedly promised. The Chamber of Deputies has apparently made many changes in the budget. As presented by the Prime Minister Claudette Werleigh government, the budget was up near 5 billion gourdes and was about half reliant on foreign money, mostly loans. Currently, it is over 3 billion gourdes (US$180 million) and, according to Radio Haiti Inter, the breakdown is: justice, 29%; education, 21.5%; health, 12.5%; agriculture and public works, about 3.5% each. Up to seven ministries may be eliminated. In a Jan. 24 interview, Werleigh said she believed the delay in the budget process is partly because the Deputies are "taking their jobs seriously," but also because they are "doing things under the table... trying to organize things for their regions." Werleigh also said the reliance on "foreign aid" makes the process "complex" because much of it is tied to the government's promise to carry out structural adjustment, including privatization, which has been temporarily halted. Privately, the multilateral bank people here are saying that if the government does not move forward, it will get no money. Werleigh said she is optimistic about her maneuvering room, but in the same interview, contradicted herself: "We really need the money... and we need to have the courage to see what is in front of our eyes." And to complicate matters more, the Rene Preval team has already taken its distance from the budget being reviewed, saying it will head an "austerity government." "AID" & ITS EFFECTS: THE JOBS PROGRAMS PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan. 10 - Through-out the country, agronomists, peasant organizers and others working with the peasant movement are complaining about one of the feathers that the Haitian government and the U.S. Agency for International development have been displaying in their hats. While politicians and technicians brag that 50,000 "jobs" have been created during their past few year's collaboration, they neglect to mention that: the jobs are minimum wage (about US$2.30 per day), they last usually only about three months and, worse, are having a detrimental if not outright destructive effect on the already battered Haitian peasant economy. Contracted through the Pan-American Development Foundation (PADF), funded here entirely by U.S. AID, the "jobs" are everything from picking up garbage to digging ditches to planting trees. PADF has been carrying out the program since August, 1993, just after the Governor's Island Accord was signed. According to many, fields are being abandoned, peasants are fighting one another to get spots [see Haiti Info v.4 #2], the "jobs" are used by politicians to gain influence, and peasants who remain on the land and used to get an extra hand for their own "high intensity labor" work, like plowing, by paying a meagre wage or through one of the Haitian cooperative work agreements like the konbit, now cannot find enough workers, or cannot afford to pay what PADF does. Criticism From All Sides In the October, 1995, Liaison, published by an association of non- governmental organizations, agronomist Harry Noel said that in Vallieres in the north, "a large number of peasants have abandoned their land to devote themselves to PADF jobs." Volny Paultre, an agronomist working for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) here, said in the same article that the jobs programs have not been coordinated with government structures, and also that in the case of the Artibonite Valley, the major rice- producing area, one of the effects is that the "participative management of the rice irrigation systems" has been upset and is now "doomed to fail." In some parts of the country, criticism goes much further. In more than one locality, in addition to having adverse effects on the rural economy, PADF projects have been used for political patronage jobs. In Limbe, for example, a road-building contract with PADF money appeared to be under the control of people associated with the PANPRA party. Only "supporters" got jobs. In the Montrouis region, where a priest has worked with peasants in Tet Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen and other peasant associations since 1988, peasants fight one another to get the 36-gourde jobs, leaving their small fields behind. The priest pointed out that the peasants are hungry, so it is understandable, but although he said the PADF work in his area is helpful (soil conservation), he also believes there are very nefarious objectives behind the massive jobs program. "You know yourself what the goal is," he told Haiti Info in an interview last month. "They killed the Creole pigs. [A reference to a U.S. AID-run project that eliminated millions of Creole pigs because some were infected with African Swine fever. The versatile and hardy pig was the backbone of the peasant economy at that time.] There is something systematic going on here that has been going on for years, where the Haitian stomach is becoming more and more dependent on foreigners. Local production, under a 'structural adjustment program'... is not important. Only exports count." The Tet Kole peasants are angry, and even if most did not take PADF jobs, they are effected. "Right now it's bean-planting season. You need people to clean the irrigation ditches, but you can't find anybody!" the priest said. The priest said Tet Kole and others continue working against the neoliberal model (being pushed by both U.S. AID and other agencies, as well as Haitian government departments), pushing for higher national production and land reform. But he is not naive. "This has been going on for a long time now," he said, and remembered projects where technicians tried to convince peasants to grow mangoes, for example. "Where are those mangoes going? All for export." NEWS FROM NORTH & NORTHWEST: Peasants Still Struggling for Land, Fair Prices PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan. 23 - A number of peasants were injured and arrested by National Police and U.N. soldiers after they attempted to take over 50 hectares of land near Milot on Jan. 7. (Milot was the site of a famous land reclamation in 1986 when members of Mouvman Peyizan Milo (MPM) recuperated about 100 hectares. In a battle with the army that followed, four were killed and hundreds hurt, but MPM held the land. [See Haiti Info v.1 #18]) On Jan. 10, Daniel Dupuy, who says he is the "owner" of the land - planted with tabacco reportedly for the "Comme Il Faut" cigarette company - called National Police to come and eject the peasants, but when they arrived, they did not find anyone on the land, only nearby at their own homes or on the road. Nevertheless, one police woman attacked a woman who was watching and knocked her to the ground, angering the population. They also arrested several people. Neighbors reacted by setting up a number of barricades to protest the arrests and the police behavior. Over two dozen U.N vehicles filled with soldiers then showed up and began shooting into the air, terrorizing people. When police and soldiers went after a man to arrest him, people began pelting them with rocks, angering police and soldiers more, who ran after people, roughing them up, handcuffing and even beating those they caught. "What is the most grave is that these foreign soldiers who said they came here to make democracy, really came to crack down on us," said a lawyer who had been watching. "They handcuffed a little boy there! It's not possible!" "The police are doing the same things to us they have always done," complained another. "Look what happened," said a third. "It's government land... [The Dupuys] took over the land, but everyone knows it's state land." Another man said the Dupuy family rents the land, but for pennies per hectare, and, together with other grandons (large landowners) control much of the land in the region. Due to the anger of the population, those arrested, including a 19-year-old-youth, were quickly freed. Moise Jean-Charles, former leader of MPM and now the mayor of Milot, said he does not blame the peasants. "This military attack that just happened is not my responsibility nor the peasants'," he said in an interview with Haiti Info. "It is the responsibility of the country's leaders, because they are moving slowly on the question of land reform... and the peasants want it so much, they anticipated the question... If the state had been responsible, this would not have happened." Demands from St. Louis du Nord Peasants in the Northwest are also frustrated with the lack of progress and state of the rural economy. While Oganizasyon pou Devlopman Peyizan Sen Lwi di No (ODEPS) peasants have not yet taken over land, they are angry with the lack of land reform, and the fact that INARA (Institut National de Reforme Agraire) has not been to their region nor apparently consulted many peasants. [See also Haiti Info v.4 #3] On Jan. 19, ODEPS went public. "They say they are doing land reform. They say they are giving people land, but for us it is a trap," said ODEPS Coordinator Delide Fraide when asked why the organization was putting out a press release now. "It's hypocrisy and we need to mobilize to put pressure on the government." "Land is truly the Number One biggest demand of Haitian peasants who have fought and died for it because only having land can assure a peasant's survival," the press release said. "Peasants believe they are people too, they have the right to talk, the right to food, to clothing, to housing, to health care, to education and justice. Land will give us all of those rights." ODEPS also reported on the general situation in St. Louis du Nord, where there have been few changes over the past 16 months, complaining: "All those politicians that the Northwest elected... all they have done so far is give their people jobs!" In addition, an invasion of U.S. beans, rice, soap, turkey and chicken parts and used clothing is hurting the economy, making peasant's products "not worth anything."" ODEPS also said there has never been disarmament or "demacoutization" of the public administration in the area, and that the public clinic is closed and people have to go to the doctor's home for health care. "What does the state say in the face of these conditions?" ODEPS asked. ODEPS demanded land reform, together with training to improve production and literacy programs, "or the same crime will happen as in the past, where two or three leaky boats full of peasants leave every day." WOMEN'S MINISTRY HOSTS MEETING PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan. 23 - Over 300 women met yesterday and today to discuss the "Platform for Action" from the 1995 Fourth Women's Conference in Peking, and also to review the work of the Women's Ministry and its future. The meeting - a day-long series of talks, a debate and workshops followed today by an audience with President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Attorney Mildred Trouillot-Aristide as well as ministers and diplomats - was held to plan a National Women's Conference for May where the platform would be discussed at greater length. Those attending included departmental representatives of the ministry as well as women from non-governmental organizations. Criticism and Challenges Before breaking up into workshops, attendees listened to addresses from Minister Therese Guilloteau, Prime Minister Claudette Werleigh and others, including Chlorinde Zephir of ENFO FANM. Guilloteau said the meeting was the "second step in the women's struggle" in Haiti, saying the opening of the ministry was the first. Zephir, who spoke about Peking, got hoots and applause when she chastised Haitian governments for signing rights agreements, like the 1981 Convention Against Discrimination Against Women, and then never respecting them. She also challenged women to organize and pressure the government and society to adapt the platform which she said can be a "tool" and an "arm" and "is revolutionary in comparison with the situation of women in this country." Zephir, and others during the debate, criticized the ministry for failing to work with women's organizations in the past. Women Go to Palace The tone changed slightly when the women shifted to the National Palace today. At that meeting, the minister and delegates praised the president, gave him gifts and pleaded with him not let the ministry close. (It is on the list of ministries that might close.) For the first time, Trouillot-Aristide spoke as "first lady," saying: "Valiant women and Titid are like fish flaked in soup [inseparable]" to thunderous applause. Trading compliments, Guilloteau "rendered homage" to Aristide for all he has done for women. Farah Juste (also Minister of the Tenth Department) and other artists sang for the attendees, but the frustration of some shown through when one woman noted that despite the multitude of colloquiums and conferences, "the women's situation has remained practically the same." She hit the nail on the head. Of the hundreds of rapes and thousands of other acts of violence committed against women during the coup d'etat, not a single case has been tried and judged, and the neoliberal economic programs being imposed here inevitably hit women and children the hardest. In terms of beautiful declarations of intentions and good will, the Haitian people have a rich experience of demagogic promises that have not been respected, and certainly the past 16 months have not contradicted that reality. World of Labor: STUDY REVEALS VICIOUS EXPLOITATION PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan. 15 - A recently released study from a U.S.- based coalition revealed once again the vicious exploitation of Haitian workers by U.S. and Haitian firms assembling products for exports. The exploitation is taking place in a sector that planners from places like the U.S. government and the World Bank, as well as within the Haitian government, have been pushing as a key to Haiti's "modernization" and survival in the "global marketplace." In fact, the 12-page study from the National Labor Committee (NLC) reveals once again, with graphic details, that the jobs provided in the "assembly" sector pay subhuman wages in barbaric and exploitative conditions, where the worker cannot support a family or pay for schooling. (The NLC works on the behalf of U.S. labor unions that are effected by the export of jobs to countries with low, exploitative wages.) Major Findings of the NLC The NLC reported: * Over half the "approximately 50 assembly firms" are "violating the minimum wage law;" * In at least one plant, workers sew "Made in the USA" labels on clothing; * When minimum wage went from 15 to 36 gourdes a day (US$2.25), many plants raised quotas, and "as a rule... if workers cannot make the quota they are paid only a fraction of the minimum wage;" * An average worker needs 363 gourdes a week to support his or her family, but working a minimum wage job, six days a week, earns "a grand total of 216 gourdes... less than 60% of a family's basic needs;" * Conditions for workers include working up to 70 hours a week, including Sundays, constant harassment, including sexual harassment of women workers. "The rosy rhetoric of U.S. intervention obscures a darker, more pernicious fact about the U.S. presence in Haiti," NLC concluded. "Most of the companies profiting from the abuse and exploitation of Haitian workers are among the largest and most successful U.S. corporations: Disney, Wal-Mart, J.C. Penny, Sears, Hanes/Sara Lee and Kellwood, to name a few... During the three years of the coup d'etat, unions and labor rights groups were decimated. Today workers of Haiti are once again trying to organize to defend their rights, but they need our support." NLC Digs Up Dirty Details In factory after factory, NLC's researchers found multitudes of examples of exploitation and arrogance. Asked if working on Sundays is a problem for Quality Garments, where workers had stitched seven Sundays in a row making dresses for Kmart and Mickey Mouse pajamas for Walt Disney, Manager Raymond DuPoux said: "The problem is mine because I can't go to the beach, so I have problems with my wife." His workers are paid as little as 15 gourdes (less than US$1) a day. It contrasts sharply with the figures NLC dug up on Disney CEO Michael Eisner. His 1993 salary and stock options totalled US$203 million, or about 325,000 times the salary of a full-time Haitian worker earning minimum wage. To earn what Eisner earned in one day in 1993, a worker would have to work 1,040 years. NLC discovered the lowest wage at Seamfast Manufacturing, which makes dresses for Kmart. One woman with three years experience earned 13 gourdes (about ten cents an hour) a day. Asked about the main challenges he faces, owner Abraham Felix said: "The workers can't work effectively because they don't eat enough." At Chancerelles S.A., a subsidiary of Fine Form in New York, "the workers we spoke to make an average of 26 to 27 gourdes per day and are often shortchanged" and supervisors, "especially Franck Charles... verbally abuse the workers... calling them 'bitch,' 'whore,' 'shit,' and 'dog,'" NLC said. These men are typical of the people who oversee about 10,000 people working in the assembly industries, and where the mere mention of "union" results in dismissal. But what NLC did not explain was the extent to which U.S. and Haitian businesses and technocrats in both governments see such plants as part of Haiti's future. Haiti Info will investigate that topic in a future issue. JOURNALISTS FIRED PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan. 24 - Two press workers were fired because of their involvement in organizing, the recently launched Syndicat Haitien des Travailleurs de la Presse (SHTP) said on Jan. 11. One is Colson Dorme, a member of the SHTP executive committee. "The idea of organizing and the materialization of a union of press workers ran into some resistance," SHTP organizers said. SHTP filed a complaint against the former employer, Tropic FM and is currently involved in "conciliation" talks. SHTP, which is affiliated with the Federation Internationale des Travailleurs de la Presse, was founded in August, and recently began to look for members. "We need to be representative," one organizer explained. "If we defend others' rights [in the press], why not defend our own? The union is there to defend all people who work in the media... The more we have, the more force we will have." SHTP said it wants to organize collective bargaining, a pay scale and better conditions, and that it is also planning training programs, one with a Swedish delegation in February. SEAMSTRESS FIGHTS BACK PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan. 24 - A sewing machine operator who nearly lost her eyesight now is fighting to survive. Nadia Exume, 28, mother of a 9-year-old, had worked at Julianex run by George Sassine, for over three years sewing tee shirts when, on March 15, 1995, a broken needle flew into her eye. When a doctor determined she needed glasses, the plant told her she would have to come up with half the approximately US$150 needed to buy them. (That would be about one-half a year's salary.) Sassine laid her off, and cut off her insurance. She cannot work and has not been paid in ten months. She decided to challenge Sassine (on her own, since Julianex has no union) for the glasses money as well as back salary and other benefits at theTribunal de Travail which is notoriously pro-business. "My eye is bothering me. I can't be near dust or in the sun. I have to stay at home until they buy my glasses. My bonus, vacation money and severance pay are all still in the factory's hands," she explained. Today, the case was postponed until next month. In the meantime, Exume said she has had to rely on her mother to feed her and her daughter, as well as to pay for the girl's school. She also said the father of her child was shot and killed because "he had an Aristide paper with him" while on a bus several years ago. ABOUT HAITI INFO: * Haiti Info is published every two weeks in Haiti by the Haitian Information Bureau, an alternative news agency, and is edited by a group of committed individuals from democratic and popular sectors. * All articles Copyright HIB. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED. Please cite Haiti Info and send copies of usage. * Haiti Info is available by mail, by fax, and also electronically via computer. Subscription rates range from U.S. $20 to $100, depending on location and method of reception. For subscriptions, other correspondence and help for journalists: Haitian Information Bureau, c/o Lynx Air, Box 407139, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, 33340, USA. For electronic mail: hib@igc.apc.org.