[The writer is corresponding with a PLP member in the U.S. — Editor]

Thanks for your letter. I hope this correspondence will begin the long journey we must make together in the struggle for a just and equal world.

There is a void in the union movement in Haiti: the swindlers who’ve taken the movement hostage, gangster-like pro-capitalist “unionists,” have nothing to do with unionism. They’re only there to steal money from the government and international organizations. The only “union” they represent is their own briefcase or computer.

Some of us are trying to restart real unions. But when we denounced the structural adjustment programs of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, the new unions were hit with state repression, including firing nearly all our leaders. We also have problems of organization and training, so we’re organizing forums and training workshops, but not forgetting actions like sit-ins, strikes and street protests.  

I’m very pleased to get the PLP newspaper and am open to it, especially on the question of the expansion of war. In Haiti, people tend to consider your president (the new one) a messiah who will set about resolving all the problems of humanity, when in fact he enters a system in crisis, a system by-passed by time which can supply not a single serious, lasting solution, but on the contrary could make the crisis worse.

So mustn’t we become a unified force to supply an alternative?

How can we work to make the voice of our peoples heard, instead of the multi-nationals? We need to deepen our discussions of ideas on the left, because Haiti does not have a serious left party.

The already-rich want to corner everything in Haiti by privatizing all enterprises. To do that, they’re hounding us, trying to shut us up. So your solidarity is very important.     

A Union Militant in Haiti