By Staff, Occupy Oakland | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Occupy Oakland will march through downtown Oakland on Tuesday Feb 14, 2012, Valentine’s Day, with flowers, flower petals, bubbles, glitter, confetti, to share with each other and the community. In the event of oppressive police presence, participants will hug and kiss.
Continue reading →By Staff, Occupy Oakland and Occupy Wall Street | Haiti Chery. Occupy Oakland moved to convert a vacant building into a community center to provide education, medical, and housing services for the 99%; police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets, beanbag rounds, and mass arrests.
Continue reading →By Staff, Longshore & Shipping News. International Longshore and Warehouse Union ILWU and Export Grain Terminal EGT reached a tentative settlement, according to a press release today from Gov. Christine Gregoire of Washington state. “This is a win for the ILWU, EGT, and the Longview community.” – ILWU President Robert McEllrath. URGENT UPDATE Thu Jan 26: “Scab’s contract has officially been terminated. Pickets have been taken down. There is still no contract! No real answers! No backing down!” – Longview Caravan. UPDATE Jan 27: Settlement reached and approved unanimously by ILWU membership! Congratulations ILWU, Occupy Oakland, and Longview community! UPDATE Feb 11: Longshore workers name Occupy Movement as crucial in settlement with EGT.
Continue reading →By Staff, Tunisia News Agency. In Zarzis, Tunisia, youths stormed a police station and freed a friend who had been arrested for suspicion of damage to property; in Kebili, relatives of several individuals who had been arrested in September have been blocking the activities of a military court for over three days so as to get them transferred to civil justice; in Mazouna, a general strike is in effect to demand provision in the budget for the agricultural sector, reopening of factories, electricity, and clean water. These are just a few examples. (English | French)
Continue reading →By Editors, Occupy Everything. On Monday Jan 23, 2012, the Occupy Oakland Labor Solidarity Committee and the Committee to Defend the ILWU will protest the use of armed Coast Guard cutters and helicopters to escort a grain ship to a terminal being picketed by the ILWU.
Continue reading →iBy Staff, Listín Diario | By Najla Passos, Carta Maior | Translated from Spanish and Portuguese by David Holmes Morris for lo-de-alla. Some 500 undocumented Haitian immigrants entered the Brazilian city of Brasileia, in the last three days of 2011. The illegal entry might have been dangerous and mediated by human traffickers. On Feb 2, 2012, during a visit to Haiti, Brazilian President Dilma Rousef said her country would grant Haitians 1,200 visas per year for the next five years. (English | Spanish | Portuguese)
Continue reading →PRESS RELEASE, European Federation of Journalists | Contrary Hungarian blog | Christine Dupre, La Libre | Translations by Haiti Chery. The EFJ, which represents over 260,000 journalists in over 30 countries, backs the Hungarian journalists and union workers on a hunger strike since December 10 to protest repression and manipulation of the news.
Continue reading →By Jake Blumgart, Dissent Magazine. Phone interview of Jake Blumgart with Balázs Nagy-Navarro: the vice-president of Hungary Television and Filmmakers’ Union and one of several journalists and union members who, on Dec 10, 2011, started a hunger strike to protest media repression.
Continue reading →By Staff, Dominican Today. Thousands of Haitians who work in banana plantations, farms, and agro-companies in northwestern Dominican Republic traditionally cross the border to visit home for the holidays. This year, Dominican authorities are not guaranteeing the return crossing, and many Haitians say they plan to stay at home anyway.
Continue reading →By Alison MacGregor, Montreal Gazette. Gildan Activewear Inc., a Montreal-based apparel firm, has ordered its Haitian subcontractor, the Genesis S.A. factory owned by Haiti’s Apaid family, to reinstate four workers illegally fired in September for forming a new union.
Continue reading →By Staff, Haiti Grassroots Watch. Part 5 of 7. Are low-wage, low-skilled assembly industries in Haiti really a “stepping stone” to more complex industrial development? In the Mexican maquiladora boom areas, the water table is dropping by 1 to 1.5 meters every year due to intensive use of water; the blue dye run-off from jeans pollutes rivers and irrigation ditches; 67% of homes have dirt floors, and 52% of streets are unpaved. (English | French)
Continue reading →By Patrick Glennon, In these Times | Balázs Nagy-Navarro, You Tube. Four journalists and members of Hungary’s Television and Filmmakers Independent Trade Union are in the seventh day of a hunger strike to protest their government’s infringements on free speech.
Continue reading →By Staff, Haiti Grassroots Watch. Part 4 of 7. ”You get some factories and some salaries, and everything else is imported…. People need to know what FTZs are, what has happened in Mexico, or Honduras, so they don’t think these things will ‘save’ us.” – Camille Chalmers, Economist. (English | French)
By Staff, Haiti Grassroots Watch. Part 3 of 7. Haiti is the only country that guarantees the U.S. market duty-free and quota-free access. With every free-trade zone that gets built on prime agricultural land, more farmers are put out of work. Thus Haitians import more food as real wages drop to rock bottom in the sweatshops, where there are now plans to legalize 3 x 8 hours work shifts. In Haiti, we sometimes talk figuratively about being eaten up. This comes pretty close to the real thing. DC (English | French)
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