Gewerkschaft forciert Debatte um Aristide

Nach dem einfachen Muster "weil er von den USA vertrieben wurde, muss er gut sein" gibt es in der internationalen Solidaritätsbewegung mit Haiti eine wohl mehrheitliche Strömung die Präsident Aristide von der Lavalas Bewegung unterstützt. "Batay Ouvrière" die auch international einigermassen bekannte Gewerkschaftsorganisation (etwa in der Freihandelszone) fordert nun diese Position mit einer Kritik heraus, die besagt, dass Aristides Regierung keineswegs progressiv war. Eine Position, die durch die Spaltungen bei Lavalas in bezug auf die kommenden Wahlen zumindest nicht widerlegt wird, denn da werden von Teilen auch ehemalige Weltbankexekuteure und "Baby Doc" Minister unterstützt. In dem (englischen, mit kurzer deutscher Zusammenfassung) Beitrag "Haitian Labor Group Confronts US Lavalas Backers" von David Wilson (Nicaragua Solidarity Network, Grassroots Haiti Solidarity Committee) vom 11. November 2005 diskutiert der Autor diese Positionen im Zuge der Vorbereitung einer US-Rundreise einer "Batay" Vertreterin.

Haitian Labor Group Confronts US Lavalas Backers

NEW YORK, Nov. 11 2005

Long-standing differences in the Haitian left began to emerge as an issue among US progressives this fall as the well-known Haitian labor organizing group Batay Ouvriye ("Workers' Struggle") responded to what it called a "slander" from US supporters of the Lavalas movement of deposed Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

During an "International Tribunal on Haiti" in Washington, DC on the weekend of Sept. 23, a panelist charged that Batay Ouvriye had been funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of a program for "creating a leftist opposition" in Haiti in the months leading up to Aristide's overthrow in February 2004. The money came through the AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center and was part of a $3 million package for subverting the Haitian government, according to Jeb Sprague, an independent journalist and a graduate student at California State University at Long Beach. Batay Ouvriye was "working with co-conspirators overthrowing a democratically elected government," Sprague said.

The tribunal was organized by several large left and solidarity groups, including International ANSWER, the International Action Center and the Latin America Solidarity Coalition. Sprague's presentation was aired in New York on Sept. 28 on WBAI-FM's popular morning program, "Wakeup Call."

Batay Ouvriye responded on Oct 1 [see below]. The group ridiculed the idea that it had been paid to be part of "an unholy alliance fabricated by the State Department." In fact, the statement said, Batay Ouvriye has a long, very public record of opposition to "the Lavalas leaders, who we certainly exposed to be reactionaries, swindlers, complete frauds, anti-popular and fundamentally anti-worker." Sprague--who claimed to have conducted 30 interviews in his research--"never once contacted our organization for information," Batay Ouvriye charged.

Batay Ouvriye has worked with a number of international solidarity groups over the years, including the National Labor Committee and the Campaign for Labor Rights. Among its best-known campaigns were unionization drives at Grand Marnier and Cointreau plantations in northern Haitian and the recent unionization of a Dominican-owned factory in a "free trade zone" by the Dominican border in Ouanaminthe. During the Ouanaminthe struggle Batay Ouvriye received $3,500 from the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center, in response to public appeals for funds to help fired workers. This was apparently the funding Sprague was referring to.

Stressing that it focuses on grassroots struggles "against the bourgeoisie concretely in the factories, sweatshops, plantations," Batay Ouvriye asked why the International Tribunal had chosen to target it rather than a number of much less militant Haitian unions that "closely resemble...the pro-imperialist and pro-bourgeois Confederation of Venezuelan Labor (CTV)," a major force in the 2002 US-backed effort to overthrow Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.

Batay Ouvriye noted that two of its supporters were killed in northern Haiti in May 2002 by goons led by a local Lavalas mayor. Aristide's government responded to the anti-union violence by arresting several Batay Ouvriye organizers and two journalists; some were held in the National Penitentiary until December 2002, when they were released following an international campaign to press the Lavalas government for their release.

The controversy between Batay Ouvriye and US supporters of Lavalas comes at a time when many US progressives are beginning to question the picture of the Haitian situation presented here by both mainstream and alternative media, including the well-known national radio and television program "Democracy Now!" The image of Lavalas as a unified militant force on the left has been shaken recently by disarray within the movement over elections scheduled to be held in December by a US-backed interim government. A number of "grassroots leaders" in Port-au-Prince neighborhoods are supporting the presidential candidacy of former president Rene Preval, a personal friend of Aristide's. Many former Lavalas office-holders, meanwhile, are backing former World Bank official Marc Bazin, a cabinet minister in the government of deposed dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier ("Baby Doc") and a longtime proponent of US-backed neoliberal economic programs for Haiti. Meanwhile groups around the New York-based weekly Haiti Progres are calling for a boycott of the elections. All factions are claiming the support of the Lavalas base.

David Wilson - Nicaragua Solidarity Network and the Grassroots Haiti Solidarity Committee

Kurze deutsche Zusammenfassung

Die Auseinandersetzung in den USA begann im September, als während eines Internationalen Haiti-Tribunals Jeb Sprague, ein in der dortigen Solidaritätsbewegung bekannter Journalist - auch im Radio danach - sagte, Batay Ouvriere sei eine mit US-Geldern hochgezogene linksradikale Gruppierung, die den Kampf um die Wiedereinsetzung der rechtmäßigen Aristide-Regierung sabotieren solle.

Batay antwortete darauf indem sie a) ihre Tradition des Kampfes gegen Aristide zu zeiten dessen regierung unterstrichen; b) darauf verwiesen, dass die Gelder die sie vom "Solidarity Center" des AFL-CIO bekommen hatten - 3.500.- Dollar - Ergebnis eines internationalen Spendenaufrufs waren, den sie für den Kampf in der Freihandelszone an der dominkanischen Grenze publiziert hatten; c) kritisierte Batay seinerseits die Tribunalorganisatoren, dass sie Lavals treue Gewerkschaften "der Art des CTV in Venezuela" eingeladen hätten, anstelle Batay oder anderer kämpferischer Gewerkschaften; und d) wird an die Repression Batays durch die Aristide - Regierung erinnert.

David Wilson setzt diese Auseinandersetzung in den Zusammenhang dass der Mainstream der Solidaritätsbewegung Lavalas stets als einheitliche politische Strömung dargestellt habe und dies noch tue - obwohl die "Bewegung" in der frage der kommenden Präsidentschaftswahlen tief gespalten ist und ein teil - im wesentlichen ehemalige Mandatsträger - die Kandidatur des Weltbankkaders Marc Bazin unterstütze, der ausserdem auch noch Minister bei "Baby Doc" Duvaliers Diktatur gewesen sei.

(hrw)