Editor’s Note: This letter was sent out by the CATH union on February 19th in advance of the meeting of the G20 in Brazil
Dear Comrades,
The Centrale Autonome des Travailleurs Haitiens (CATH), a member of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) and the UIS TEXGAL, draws the attention of the world trade union movement to the infamy suffered by the Haitian working masses at the instigation of the G20, which will meet in Brazil on February 22.
After the assassination of President Jovenel Moise on July 7, 2021, the CORE GROUP (Association of Destructive and Criminal Ambassadors of the G20 and allied countries in Haiti) imposed on the Haitian people a gangly system well composed of traitors to the homeland equipped with large weapons of war to bog down the country in the mud and destroy human lives for the benefit of their interests. The CORE GROUP, in violation of the Haitian constitution, imposed Prime Minister Ariel Henry to run the country, a rump of the imperialist powers, and accused of complicity in the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, according to some human rights and press organizations, far from taking initiatives to curb this phenomenon of insecurity it only reinforces it to the detriment of the Haitian people. It’s a form of governance that is inactive, miserable, criminal, visionless, irrational and lacking in political programs and projects for the country’s sustainable development. CATH retorts against this governance of shame, as a inhuman profitable secular group, anti fatherland, anti-people.
During these 30 months of illegitimate governance by Prime Minister Ariel Henry, with the support of imperialist countries, Haiti is experiencing the worst moment of its existence. Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s close ties with armed groups have led to the closure of dozens of businesses throughout the country, putting almost all Haitian workers (over 16,000 in the textile industry) out of work with no hope of resuming their activities as they relocate to other countries in the region. This imperialist governance creates the conditions for all kinds of calamities, including:
- Over five thousand (5,000) murders in 2023 under the dictation of imperialist countries;
- Thousands of kidnappings in exchange for the release of poor people;
- Thousands of women/girls of all ages are raped and abused by armed gangs;
- Thousands of children and young offenders enlisted as soldiers in gang armies;
- More than 450,000 internally displaced people fleeing attacks, gang fury and repeated violence with no apparent cause, abandoning their homes to take refuge on the streets, with a friend, under a tree, in national high schools and schools with no hope of a better tomorrow;
CATH calls on trade unionists around the world, and particularly those in Brazil, to help the Haitian people in their unprecedented distress, and to urge President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to intervene with the G-20, asking him at the very least to respect the sovereignty of the Haitian people, and to accept that an integral judge from the Court of Cassation be installed as provisional President in accordance with the constitution, to direct, stabilize and organize democratic and transparent elections, so that the country can return to constitutional order, the sine qua non condition for reviving employment to the satisfaction of Haitian workers. Dear friends and comrades, we would like to have your trade unionist and militant solidarity, because the internationalist solidarity of the class-oriented workers’ movement is the ideal way to get Haiti out of its current situation.
Long live the Haitian labor movement and the people of Haiti!
Long live the independent class-oriented workers’ movement!
Long live democracy!
Death to capitalist and imperialist destroyers of the working class!
Louis Fignole ST CYR
General Secretary