The Dominion - Florida

Haiti Liberte: Diaspora Unity Congress Ignores Class Struggle

WadnerPierre — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:52:00 +0000

By Wadner Pierre

From August 6 - 9, 2009, about 300 Haitians from different corners of Haiti's diaspora - often called the 11th Department - gathered in Miami Beach, Florida for the 2009 Haitian Diaspora Unity Congress. The event was organized by the Haitian League, whose Chairman of the Board is Dr. Bernier Lauredan. He is a Haitian pediatrician living in New Jersey, where the first conference was held last year without, apparently, too much success.

The chair of this year's Congress was Dr. Rudolph Moise, a physician and actor well known in Miami for his more or less conventional activism.

Several former Lavalas government officials took part including former Minister for Haitians Living Abroad Leslie Voltaire, former minister without portfolio Marc Bazin, former Justice Minister Camille Leblanc, former Planning Minister Anthony Dessources, and former inspector of the Haitian National Police Luc Eucher Joseph, now Secretary of State of Justice and Public Safety. These officials are considered by Haiti's masses as politically bourgeois and, excepting Voltaire, were never Lavalas Family party members.

Meanwhile, there were also members or associates of President Boniface Alexandre's and Prime Minister Gérard Latortue's de facto government (2004 - 2006). The most prominent of them was Bernard Gousse, the former de facto Justice Minister, whom the Miami-based popular organization Veye Yo brands as a criminal for his role in ordering several deadly crackdowns on rebellious shanty towns and the first arrest of the late Father Gérard Jean-Juste, Veye Yo's founder.

The Funeral of Father Gerard Jean-Juste

WadnerPierre — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 13:06:06 +0000

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By Wadner Pierre-www.haitianalysis.com

People were there from the USA, Canada, and all over the Caribbean - people of different religions and cultures. Veye Yo, his organization, organized a viewing as did his family at Notre Dame D'Haiti church in Miami,

It was crowded for the two days as approximately 3000 people gathered. Catholic bishops from Haiti and United States were in attendance. People tearfully marched for hours in Little Haiti in front of Veve Yo headquarters where a stage was set to receive his body for the last time.

Lavarice Gaudin, a close ally in his struggles, cried out during the funeral service that "Father Gerry" was poisoned.

During a sermon that honoured Father Gerard Jean-Juste, Father Reginald Jean-Mary condemned the hypocrisy within the Haitian community in the US. He wondered who could fill the priest's shoes - continue his humanitarian work in Saint Claire's parich in Haiti or his political activism on behalf of the most vulnerable. Father Reginald Jean-Mary said "they killed Father Gerry for power, because he represented a threat to them as someone who could lead Haiti."

In attendance during the sermon were Ira Kurzban and Dr. Paul Famer, both close friends and allies of Father Jean-Juste. Some Haitian officials were in attendance but not in any official capacity.

Father Adonai Jean-Juste, the late priest's cousin, said "Father Gerry did not die for his family, but for the people of Haiti and the Haitian immigrants in the USA. He did not live for himself, but according to the gospel: feed people who are angry and preach the good news to the poor. He was a father to all in his life."

Haitian Government Raises Minimum Wage to $5.50 per day

WadnerPierre — Tue, 19 May 2009 16:41:51 +0000

May 19th, 2009

By Wadner Pierre-www.haitianalysis.com

Haitian labor activists applauded the Preval administration's decision to raise the minimum wage in Haiti from 70 to 200 gourdes ($5.50 USD) per day. However, the increase has been strongly opposed by Haitian industrialists. Georges Sassine, president of ADIH (an association of Haitian industrialists) warned that the wage increase would cost tens of thousands of jobs. He claimed that similar minimum wage increases in Cambodia have proven disastrous.

HaitiAnalysis asked Jose Cordero, an economist with Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), to respond to the arguments that Georges Sassine and other businessmen have made against the increase. Cordero said ”In the case of Cambodia, I am not sure what disaster they are talking about, but I know that between 2004 and 2007 the country grew at about 11% per year. When inflation rose in 2008, and real wages declined, many factory workers left their jobs to go back to the country or to other informal activities which provide them more revenue than their work at a factory."

Cordero also pointed out that "Workers (especially those making only the minimum wage) have a higher propensity to consume than higher paid workers or company owners. They also have a lower propensity to import. These mean that a higher wage will likely increase aggregate spending, which could stimulate local production, and employment."

Georges Sassine was quoted by the Canadian online journal, the tyee.com, as saying, "Do we want 100,000 jobs paying 200 gourdes (US$5) or 200,000 jobs at 100gourdes (US$2.50)? What's better? 200,000 people working if I were a politician"

Haitians Celebrated, not without pain, Day of Independence

WadnerPierre — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:49:57 +0000

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By: Wadner Pierre - HaitiAnalysis.com

The dream of the heroic liberators is still - in many ways - far from becoming a reality - the dream that every Haitian without distinction should live comfortably and without any fear; a dream in which the father of the country, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, declared that no foreign soldier violate the soil of Haiti.

After defeating the largest and most powerful army at the time, the army of Napoleon, on November 18, 1803 in Cap-Haitien, Haiti became the first Independent Republic of black people and the second country in the Americas to declare its Independence. However, the powerful countries branded Haiti an outlaw nation and France extorted a payment of 90 million francs in "compensation" for its lost "property" which included 600,000 slaves.

Haitian artist and political activist Farah Juste ("La Reine Soleil") organized a concert in the Haitian community in Miami to honour those who fought to liberate the Haitians of slavery. This year (2009) marks the twentieth year of the great traditional concert.

"My brothers and sisters you represent the second largest ethnic community in Florida, you represent a force both socially and politically. We must unite" said Farah Juste. This year's concert was dedicated to the famous Haitian singer Martha Jean-Claude. Martha Jean-Claude fled from Haiti to Cuba in 1952. She incurred the wrath of Haitian president Paul Eugene Magloire for publishing a journal entitled "Avrinette".

¡Si, Se Puede!

hillarybain — Thu, 24 May 2007 11:43:43 +0000

Field workers in Florida say “Yes we can!” - and are

Outside it's a chilly, grey morning in Chicago, but inside the House of Blues, there's a carnival in progress. An organization of migrant farmworkers has just won an agreement for higher wages and better working conditions from McDonald's, a fast food multinational headquartered in the city.

On stage, against a backdrop of giant puppets, an MC leads the crowd in call and response. “Coalition!” he yells. “Presente!” the people chant in return. Many in the audience raise their clenched fists in the air. Now, they are saying, it is Burger King’s turn.

“Coalition” is shorthand for the Coalition of Immokalee Workers [CIW], a group made up of mostly Latino, Haitian and Mayan Indians who work in the fields of Immokalee, an area of southwestern Florida. They pick, among other crops, most of the winter tomatoes grown in the U.S. The tomatoes are sold through a series of suppliers to restaurant chains like McDonald's or Burger King; eventually ending up as part of a meal sold at fast food drive-ins and counters across the United States.

“The major buyers of Florida produce...corporations like McDonald's [and] Burger King, leverage their unprecedented market power to secure the lowest possible prices for the produce they buy,” explains an analysis paper written by the Coalition. “This downward pressure on their suppliers’ prices in turn drives down workers’ wages.”

Workers in Immokalee earn as little as 45 cents for each 32-pound bucket of tomatoes harvested. To make minimum wage in a ten-hour day, they have to pick nearly 2 1/2 tons of tomatoes. In addition to not receiving health insurance, sick leave, paid vacation or pension, they also “have no right to overtime pay even when they work 60--70 hour weeks, and have no right to organize,” adds Lucas Benitez of the CIW. The Coalition uses the word 'sweatshops’ to describe their working conditions in the United States.

John Bowe, writing in The New Yorker, notes that most farmworkers in southern Florida are recently arrived immigrants to the U.S., who often do not to speak English. They are hired as crews by labour contractors who “...can exert near absolute control over their workers’ lives; besides handling the payroll and deducting taxes, they are frequently the sole source of the workers' food and housing, which in addition to the ride to and from the field, they provide for a fee.”

In the worst-case scenario, farmworkers are being held in involuntary servitude. In the past six years the CIW, through worker-led investigation and human-rights education, has helped the U.S. federal justice department with the prosecution and conviction of five modern-day slavery rings located in Florida, involving over 1000 workers.

The Coalition began about 13 years ago as a small group holding weekly meetings in a borrowed space. The CIW quickly grew in strength with community-wide work stoppages, three general strikes -- including a month-long hunger strike by six members in 1998 -- and a 230-mile march through Florida in 2000.

In 2001, after two decades of declining wages in the tomato industry, the CIW launched the first ever farmworker boycott of a major fast-food company, Taco Bell.

Between 2000 and 2005, 22 universities and high schools in the U.S. prevented or removed Taco Bell restaurants or sponsorships with the “Boot the Bell” campaign, spearheaded by one of the Coalition’s major allies, the Student Farmworkers Alliance (SFA).

In 2005, Taco Bell, owned by Yum! Brands, bowed to the pressure, making a historic agreement with the CIW. Taco Bell agreed to pay a penny more per pound of tomatoes picked, almost doubling the workers daily wages; and to implement an enforceable code of conduct for its suppliers, to ensure the working conditions and human rights of the farmworkers are protected.

The Coalition has since attempted to secure similar agreements with a number of other restaurants chains, including Subway, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Burger King and McDonald's. The successful campaign against McDonald's culminated in the 2007 Truth Tour: a caravan of buses full of farmworkers travelling from Florida to Chicago.

So far, Burger King has publicly rejected CIW offers to negotiate. Instead, in a statement to the press, the company offered to send “recruiters” to Florida to retrain farmworkers, offering “ongoing professional training and advancement opportunities around the country for both entry level and skilled employee jobs at Burger King restaurants.”

The CIW is unenthusiastic about the proposal. “The farmworkers who pick tomatoes for Burger King are among this country's worst paid, least protected workers,” says Lucas Benitez, spokesperson for the Coalition. “Offer[ing] to address farmworker poverty by retraining tomato pickers to work in Burger King's restaurants -eliminating farmworker poverty by eliminating farmworkers - adds insult to injury with such an obviously unworkable, and frankly pretty ridiculous idea.”

Coalition of Imolakee Workers

Throwing Tomatoes

Thu, 30 Mar 2006 23:06:00 +0000

Field workers in Florida target McDonalds buying policies

Field workers are paid pennies a pound for tomatoes picked. photo: CIW

After winning a four year long boycott against Taco Bell for better wages and an enforceable code of conduct, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a community of tomato pickers in Immokalee, Florida, is now targeting McDonald's.

The CIW and its allies are campaigning for McDonald's to negotiate socially responsible working conditions directly with them-- the people who are directly affected by the McDonald's buying policies-- as Taco Bell agreed to do.

The deal made with Taco Bell requires the company pay one cent more per pound for the tomatoes bought from Florida growers. This increases the workers' wage by almost double, to about 2.3 cents per pound. The agreement also includes a tracking and enforcement process, along with consequences for growers who do not comply with the new policy.

McDonald's refuses to negotiate with the CIW, however, and instead, has signed onto Socially Accountable Farm Employers (SAFE).

SAFE is a grower lead certification body made up of the member growers of the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association and the Redlands Christian Migrants Association, the latter a childcare and education provider for migrant families. Growers that are SAFE-certified are required to abide by general labour standards. These standards are basically the standards already required by law.

SAFE is a very new organization that was created soon after the Taco Bell boycott ended. It did not include the CIW or any other labour organization when it formulated its standards.

"As it stands today, we believe SAFE cannot sincerely be said to hold any real promise for the expansion and protection of workers' rights," states the CIW. Rather, the CIW expresses concern that "SAFE stands as the primary barrier today to hopes for the continued expansion and protection of workers' rights created by the settlement of the Taco Bell boycott."

SAFE did not come from a concern for labour conditions on the field. According to Ray Gilmer, spokesperson for SAFE, it came from a concern for the reputation of Florida growers. "There was a realization that corporate grower responsibility was extending all the way down to the farm and companies like McDonald's would be asking for an assurance that workplace conditions are meeting certain standards."

Consumer awareness of the working conditions of tomato pickers has increased as a result of the CIW campaign, but the reputation of many Florida growers had been tarnished before the campaign.

Ag-Mart, a tomato operation with fields in Immokalee, is one such grower. According to Source Watch, a project of the Center for Media and Democracy, Ag-Mart was ordered by the Florida Department of Agriculture to pay $111,200 in fines in October for pesticide misuse.

These fines were the result of an investigation initiated by the Environmental Protection Agency in connection with the deformities of three children of Immokalee tomato workers. One baby was born with a cleft palate and facial abnormalities, another was born so disfigured that her sex couldn't be determined and died soon after birth, and a baby boy was born in December with no arms and legs. All three of the mothers worked for Ag-Mart during their pregnancies.

Ag-Mart has also hired Yolanda Cuello, wife of convicted slaver Abel Cuello Jr., as a labour contractor. Cuello was convicted of involuntary servitude in October 1999 for enslaving migrants. Workers at Ag-Mart say Cuello is the supervisor they see. Ag-Mart was contacted and directed the Dominion to their lawyer, who did not respond to requests for an interview. Ag-Mart supplies grape tomatoes to McDonald's.

The CIW's campaign for better wages and greater control of their livelihoods began by targeting the tomato growers themselves. With hunger strikes, marches, tours and intensive coalition building, the CIW fought for the improvement of their livelihoods. Despite these efforts, conditions did not change. "The growers are very protected from pressure from traditional labour organizing because farm workers are excluded from the National Labour Relations Act," explains Greg Asbed of the CIW. "Growers don't sell to the public. They were able to ignore us because consumer awareness has no impact on them."

The CIW realized that to change working conditions in the fields, they would have to target the buyers. The result was the Taco Bell consumer boycott, which resulted in increased wages for tomato pickers. This, in the face of extreme poverty, as noted by a United Nations special envoy to the community, is a small but important gain for the Immokalee workers.

Bridrigo Oregon, who left fieldwork for construction in 2002, describes the conditions he worked under. "You work in the sun, you run all day, 12 hours... I look at my people working hard. I tried to find a good job. I can't find a good job. I need vacation, I need benefits, but the company says 'no.' It's a big problem," he says. "One bucket of tomatoes is 40 cents. That's $45 all day! It don't make no sense to work for $45 a day."

Growers are concerned that these penny-per-pound deals, like the one made with Taco Bell, will scare away other large buyers like McDonald's, explains Gilmer. "We're worried [that] if enough of these penny-a-pound deals are crafted, then large corporate buyers will look at the extra money they're paying and see Florida as the higher cost provider. If this is not applied to the entire industry, including Mexico, a corporate accountant can say we need to buy somewhere else, not Florida."

The context for this concern is the North American Free Trade Agreement. Gilmer explains, "Just after NAFTA was signed, the Mexican government devalued the peso. It made it incredibly attractive to buy [in Mexico] and it hammered the industry [in Florida]."

A 2001 USDA report stated that labour costs in Mexico are markedly lower than in the United States. As of 2000, the daily wage rate of a farm worker in Mexico was $3.60 US compared to $66.32 US, earned by the farm worker in the United States.

In 2005, McDonald's revenues reached a record high of over $20 billion.

Carole Ferrari talks to the people at the bottom of McDonald's food chain and investigates a new campaign targeting the fast food giant.

Barn-Raising on Air: the Prometheus Radio Project

Mon, 22 Dec 2003 21:42:33 +0000

Prometheus Radio Project volunteers working with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to build Radio Consciencia. photo: JJ Tiziou

A recent trip with The Prometheus Radio Project to 'barn raise' a community radio station in Immokalee, Florida has me thinking about low-power radio regulations in North America. I am mostly thinking about pirates. Radio pirates in the United States actually prefer the term 'micro broadcaster', and consider their transmissions an act of civil disobedience. There are many pirate / micro-broadcasters in the US, forced to seize a frequency because their country's media regulations won't grant low-power radio licenses. I don't know as many radio pirates in Canada. Some would-be Canuck pirates have campus/community radio stations in their towns. Others are trying to finish up their CRTC license application. As I learn more about current low-power policies in the States, it's obvious who the real pirates are- and it isn't the kid next door with the 2 watt transmitter.

I was working for CHMA Radio in Sackville, NB when I first heard about the Prometheus Radio Project in West Philadelphia. Apparently a radio pirate named Pete TriDish had mobilized low-power radio supporters in an attempt to challenge the Federal Communication Commission's ban on new low power stations. Hiding out in an attic for 2 years, clandestine Radio Mutiny beamed through West Philly neighborhoods shaking a modulated fist at the FCC, the media regulatory body in the United States. Community radio advocates claim preferential treatment is given to multi-million dollar Big Media owners while low power, community-based FM hopefuls are forced to broadcast illegally or not at all. In 1998, the FCC literally kicked down the studio door and seized Radio Mutiny's transmitter. As the FCC dismantled what was Philadelphia's only volunteer-run, community radio station, Prometheus Radio Project emerged from the cinders.

photo: JJ Tiziou

At the same time corporations like Clear Channel-which owns nearly 1,200 radio stations and effectively controls the rock radio market-were pressuring the FCC to loosen media ownership rules. As Big Media began to gobble up small stations at an alarming rate, Prometheus Radio lobbied the FCC to change policies protecting the airwaves from homogeneous commercial monopolies and began an aggressive campaign for low power, community-based frequencies in the United States.

In 2000, pressure from community radio advocates forced the FCC to open a window for low-power FM radio license applications in late 2000. This was a one-time only window, and the FCC was flooded by hundreds of thousands of applications, which, in 2003, they are still processing. Under the act, new LPFM stations could not be placed on frequencies that were three channels removed from an existing station, eliminating about 75% of opportunities of the frequencies available for new LPFM stations. However, hundreds of applicants in rural areas were granted low-power licenses as they posed little threat of signal interference.

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a community-based farmworker organization in southwest Florida, was a successful low-power radio applicant. From December 5-7, Prometheus Radio Project barn raised its fifth low-power/community radio station. Like an old fashioned gathering where neighbors pitch in to construct a building, CIW's Radio Conciencia in Immokalee, Florida was assembled by volunteers, from the antennae mast to the microphones. The station will be an integral tool in CIW's struggle to organize migrant farmworkers . Their members are largely Latino, Haitian, and Mayan Indian immigrants working in low-wage jobs throughout the state of Florida. They fight for fair wages and the right to organize.

When Pete TriDish, Sue and I pulled into Immokalee a couple days before the barn raising was to begin,

Everything seemed incredibly unresolved. About 100 or so volunteers from across the country were about to arrive in Immokalee for the barn raising and CIW hadn't yet decided where the new studio was to be. But who can blame them? CIW had just returned from a 34 mile march from Fort Lauderdale to Miami to protest FTAA meetings. Just months before, they had organized a 10 day hunger strike in front of Taco Bell headquarters, protesting the franchise's refusal to pay an extra penny per pound for tomatoes.

"An organization just like Prometheus," Pete said "They're too busy to do anything but fly by the seat of their pants!" As I headed out to scour pawn shops for decent cassette decks for the new station, I had an internal freakout. How would we be on the air in 3 days?

In the end, we all became honorary midwives by pitching in and sharing whatever skills we've picked up along the way, birthing a radio station in the process. Communication was a two-way rush of Spanish and English as the mast was raised, the board was wired and cables were soldered. Workshops about interviewing, radio production and governance happened in behind construction scenes. Experienced radio gurus worked with keen beginners to teach skills and pass on information. The Prometheus barn raising philosophy puts emphasis on skill sharing and teaching rather than simply having engineers build the whole station.

On Sunday at 7:15pm, members of CIW sat behind the microphone and began the inaugural broadcast of Radio Conciencia. First words spoken were a mixture of disbelief and celebration.

In the past 2 days, we had experienced the magic of community collaboration. In a time when the airwaves are becoming increasingly monopolized, Radio Conciencia represents an accessible space and a powerful local resource, as well as a viable model for other communities.

Janna Graham helps the Prometheus Radio Project out with a radio barnraising in Immokalee, Florida.