HAITI - Since the Coup A Report Back on Conditions of Haitian Workers Under U.S. Occupation

Tuesday, MAY 4, 2004, at 7:PM At AFSCME District Council 1707, 75 Varick Street, 14th Floor (NW Corner of Varick & Canal Subways 1/9 A, C, E to Canal street)

A Labor/Religious Delegation to Haiti will provide an eyewitness report on conditions in Haiti today. These union/community activists met with elected officials in hiding and with unionists and community activists operating under enormously repressive conditions. The delegation also attended the Confederation of Haitian Workers National Congress, April 29 to May 1

Hear:

Dave Welsh, Delegation Coordinator, San Francisco Labor Council Delegate and retired Vice President of the Letter Carriers Union, Local 214.

Reverend Doctor Kwame Abayomi of Baltimore City Council and Senior Minister of Unity United Methodist Church in Baltimore

Johnnie Stevens, International Action Center Staff and a Co-founder of Labor for Reparations.

Sharon Black Ceci, Steward with United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local 27 and Maryland ANSWER organizer

Also:

Thomas Griffin, a human rights and immigration lawyer will report on National Lawyer’s Guild human rights delegation to Haiti, (March 29 to April 5) Omar Sierra of Venezuela Solidarity Committee will give an update on the NYC Saturday, May 8th Demonstration on Venezuela and Haiti (12 noon, Times Sq) Special Greetings: Brenda Stokely, President of DC 1707, and Ray Laforest, Organizer for DC 1707

The meeting will hear reports of conditions for working and poor people in Haiti that are growing much worse since the U.S. coup on February 29th. Dozens of bodies are piling up in the morgues in Port- au-Prince, Gonaive, Cap Haitien. Gunfire is often heard after the 10 pm curfew. People are arrested and taken away in unmarked cars.

Beyond the political repression, wages -- already desperately low -- have fallen by 30% since the overthrow and U.S. kidnapping of President Aristide. The price of gasoline, the price of transportation needed to get to work and the price of food have soared. Working people are on the edge and poor people are facing famine. Yet resistance to occupation continues.

Update on Resistance in Iraq Building Opposition to Occupation from Iraq to Haiti Plans for the June 5th National March on the Pentagon

Sponsored by: International Action Center, New York City Labor Against the War (NYCLAW), Haiti Solidarity Network, NY ANSWER

For More Info:
39 West 14th St
#206, New York, NY, 10011
212-633-6646