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The severe deterioration of the working classes' life conditions in Haiti, mainly due to the domination they are subjected to and the general falling standards of life, is a harsh reality which is steadily growing. After the three years of coup d'Etat-embargo in which the imperialist super-powers literally attempted to strangle the popular masses, the very ones who had orchestrated the coup d'Etat and inflicted the embargo landed to occupy the country directly. The situation fell further back. Despite the minimum wage's adjustment from 15 to 36 gourdes ($US 1 to US$ 2,40) in 1995 and from 36 to 70 gourdes in 2003 (US$1.60), the working classes' living conditions haven't stopped losing ground. |
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in real terms, the salary has decreased of half and continues to decrease today. Worse, this wage adjustment has been largely fictional for many workers. The degree of exploitation continues to grow in all the production centers, without exception. At the same time, although the Lavalas government has largely demobilized the combative impetus shown by the popular masses during the last decade, it's accomplished splitting apart is visible to the naked eye. A new conscience is emerging. BATAY OUVRIYE AT THE LATINOAMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN WORKERS' MEETING - Betim, Brazil.7 and 8 July 2008 With CONLUTAS of Brazil, CCURA (Corrente Classista, Unitária, Revolucionária e Autônoma) of Venezuela, TCC (Tendencia Clasista y Combativa) of Uruguay, COB (Central Obrera de Bolivia) and MECOSI (Mesa Coordenadora Sindical do Paraguai).
Read our HEADLINES page (top left) to find out about a few of our latest struggles and contribute your solidarity.
In March 2006, Batay Ouvriye supported the janitors' struggle at the University of Miami (March 2006) who after three weeks of protests over low pay wages, finally getting what they wanted. University of Miami President Donna Shalala and the board of trustees voted to raise the minimum wages of its contract employees, including striking janitors and groundskeepers, by at least 25 percent. The new policy will apply to about 900 workers...". Read on: http://www.local10.com/news/8078651/detail.html / http://tinyurl.com/zoy9g Our notes in solidarity with thiis struggle:
Our STANDS section includes the following files:
On the SOLIDARITY page, you'll find connections towards other comrades carrying out these same struggles. |
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BATAY OUVRIYE (Workers' Fight) is a Haitian labor movement in struggle which provides a framework allowing members of the Haitian working class to participate in democratic struggles within this country. It is outright opposed to class collaboration with the exploiters and their domination apparatus - the State - and takes side with all of the dominated and exploited class fractions within the country and internationally, by participating in their task of organization and fight.
.Our struggle continues, also:
- Against the conditions of extreme exploitation in free trade zones and assembly factories;
- Against sharecropping and archaic forms of production prevalent throughout the countryside;
- For conditions of life suitable for human persons within participative society determined by social justice and universal access to the goods and services available in the world today.
BATAY OUVRIYE salutes the courage and constance of our comrades of the Haiti Support Group (England), Réseau-Solidarité Peuples Solidaires (France) and the Batay Ouvriye Solidarity Network (New York).
Download our description hand-out: 
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"Here's the country the technocrats want to stick down our throats!
THAT country, we don't want it!"T country, we dot want Batay Ouvriye 2004 |
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