il i ! | in Magazine ee orate ate Section eINTERNATIONAL SPOTLIGHT. Wall Street moves to block people’s solution of the crisis in Haiti By DANIEL MASON The seemingly irrational flout- ing of international law by Domin- ican President Juan Bosch in his aggressive acts against Haiti can be explained only as a desperate last-ditch move by the CIA and the Pentagon to block accession to power in that terror bled coun- try by its democratic forces, ‘and as an attempt by Bosch to divert the Dominican masses from their own misery. When Francois Duvalier came President of “Haiti in 1957, he was really. inaugurated as the front man of Wall Street. In the last five years, $30 mil- lion of U.S. taxpayers’ money has been: given him in addition loans. His police and army were armed and_ trained by the Pentagon and the CIA. The U.S. Marines were sent into Haiti to supervise all this and guarantee Duvalier’s control. * m * be- to big But. signs were mounting that May 15, the day the hated dic- tator is scheduled to install him- self for another six-year term as President, which is illegal under the Haitian constitution, might be the start of his over- throw. Washington was frightened by the possibility that the Haitian people might decide to deter- mine their own destiny. : The original plan of the CIA By JACK WODDIS For over three weeks George- town, British Guiana’s capital,, has been in the throes of a strike _¢alled by the Trades Union Coun- cil in opposition to the new Lab- or Relations Act. It is natural for workers to won- der what it is all about. Why is the People’s Progressive Party government, led by Dr. Jagan, so strongly opposed by the T.U.C.? What is in the act to arouse this opposition? The capitalist Press has tried to create the impression that the act gives the government power to decide which union workers should belong. to. _ The first thing to make clear‘is that the aim of the Labor Rela- lions Act is to give the workers more power, to end the rule of company unions and to establish trade union recognition. x oe * In British Guiana there have for several years acute- conflicts in certain industries, especially in sugar. between the Company unions and the genuine Unions of the workers. The em- ployers negotiate with the com- Pany union—and the workers’ interests are sacrificed. In many cases, the employers refuse to recognize unions at all. In fact, within the past six months no fewer than three strikes had to be called, one of long duration, to enforce recogni- tion of trade unions on stubborn been and the Pentagon called for of- ficers of the Haitian army to get rid of the now valieless Duvalier and take over as a military dic- tatorship. The national news weekly, the New Republic, which has close connections with one segment of the Kennedy admin- isiration, put Washington’s — ob- jective quite bluntly: “The Army is considered one group in the country cap- able of running it, since the great bulk of the population is the uneducated.” This ‘has method used by U.S. ism in ridding itself American dictators, outlived their usefulness to Wall Street. In more recent years, this method extended to Southeast Asia and *South Korea. oo: = * classical imperial- of Latin have been the who was This method was used by the CIA in the Dominican Republic. When the Trujillo dictatorship lost its value to Wall Street, the CIA had a substitute team ready to move in. It reported recently that the CtA itself had planned the assassination of Dictator Rafsel Trujillo. But in Haifi, the neighboring country, Duvalier, seeing — the hand writing on the wall, beat the CIA and the Pentagon to the was punch. He moved against the army officers with his secret police, taking away their com- employers. The aim of the new Labor Relations Act is to end this situa- tion and ensure that official recognition is given to trade unions chosen by the workers, not by ithe employers. And secondly, to ensure that once the workers have selected their union the employers wil] be compelled by law to recognize the union for negotiating purposes. * = * No sincere trade unionist would quarrel with such aims. In fact, we would jump for joy, if we had a government which compelled the boss to recognize trade unions. But, ah! say the critics. That’s all very well. But the act gives the government power to decide which union the workers should belong to. There never was a bigger dis- tortion! First, Section 3 of the Act makes clear that it is in re- sponse to the workers’ own de- mands that the Minister of Labor will initiate the necessary steps to help the workers gain recogni- tion for their union. Secondly, once the minister (through =a Lahor — Relations Board) is satisfied that an appli- cation of the workers for recog- nition of their union is “reason- able,’ he shall direct the Com- — missioner of Labour “to ascer- tain the views of the workers concerned in the particular indus- try, trade or undertaking by secret ballot.” mands, depriving them of money, and isolating them. This follow- ed an apparently CIA-inspired Army revolt in April, which faiied. Those were the army officers trained by the U.S. Marine mis- sion in Haiti. To escape capture by Duvalier, many of them were smuggled out of the country into San Domingo. Others un- able to get out were sneaked into the embassies of other Latin American: countries in Port-au- Prince, the capital of Haiti. Twenty-two of them were tsin Br If, after the ballot, the Minister is satisfied that the majority of workers desire to be represented by a particular trade union, that union is given a “ertificate, and the employer is then compelled to recognize the union and to negotiate with it and no other body claiming to represent the workers. Any employer who fails to re- cognize or negotiate with a trade union which has been granted a certificate will be liable to a fine of up to £100, or to 12 months imprisonment, or both, plus a further fine of about £25 for each day during which he continues to fail to recognize the trade union. No wonder the employers don’t like it. But that’s not all. Sec- BRITISH CUTAN with SOUTH Bey the Dominican em- secreted in bassy. It was these 22 that Du- valier was most anxious to get and for which he ordered the siege of the embassy. * * * Dominican President Bosch, heir of the CIA’s putsch against the Trujillos, was called upon to make the first payment to his U.S. masters. He ordered his troops to the border and threat- ened invasion unless Duvalier’s police were withdrawn from sur- rounding Latin American embas- itish G tion 9 (1) protects the worker against dismissal or demotion be- cause of his trade union activity, and any employer who contra- venes the provisions of this sec- tion becomes liable to six months in prison or £100 fine, or both. * a * And opposition to all this is carried out in the sacred name of freedom. Not only is the act clearly in the interests of the workers. The government went out of its way to ensure consultation with the trade unions, to listen patiently to the criticisms and proposals of the T.U.C. and to consider their amendments. In fact, as passed in its final form on April 22, the act con- tains seven amended clauses, involving ten changes, arising out of the points made by the T.U.C. and by the employers’ organiza- tions. <. In. addition, the government has accepted the T-U.C.’s propo- sal for a Labor Code, and a committee including three T.U.C. representatives is being set up to draft the code. Why then the opposition? This is due to several factors. The T.U.C. is dominated by the right wing Man-Power Citizens’ Asso- ciation, a company union claimng to represent sugar workers. This outfit fears that under the new legislation the workers would reject the M.P.C.A. and choose instead the militant Guiana Agri- sies in Port-au-Prince and the Haitian dictator permitted the army plotters hiding therein to leave the country. The CIA and Bosch undoubt- ediy expected Duvalier to refuse. But Duvalier crossed them up by finally agreeing to let the plotters leave. And the countries comprising .the OAS, frightened by the possibility of a precedent of intervention of their own ter- ritory any time the CIA saw fit, began to seek a peaceful solution. os * * Not only was Bosch motivated by his desire to please the CIA. Having been chosen president by finagling and suppression of the Dominican people’s democratic rights, he is facing the masses’ demand for an end to their eco- nomic misery and the return of their democratic rights. On the very day he had mobil- ized his forces on the border, the government workers in San Domingo, the capital, struck for higher wages and improved con- ditions. Bosch thus hoped to use the invasion as a diversion. There is also an indication that he was hoping to inject racism as a further diversionary move. Al- most all the people of the Do- minican Republic are whites of Spanish descent or mulattoes. At least 90 percent of the people of See HAITI, pg. 10 uiana cultural Workers’ Union. But there is more significant opposition — that of the British and American imperialists. It is they, in alliance with local re- action, who are primarily respon- sible for stirring up opposition to the progresive Labor Relations Act. They have provoked racial strife between the Negro workers, mainly in Georgetown, and the East Indians, mainly sugar plan- tation workers and_ peasants. They have beaten loudly on the anti-communist drum. They have tried to utilize Catholic senti- ment. oe * oe It is no acident that a stream of I.C.F.T.U. agents have been visiting British Guiana during the last twelve months. Reaction hates the P.P.P. Gov- ernment led by Dr. Jagan. It hates it because it fights for eco- nomic independence and strives for normal relations with social- ist countries. Above all, it hates it because it represents the workers and peasants and cham- pions their interests. The British and American governments are determined to prevent British Guiana winning independence under the P.P.P. They will do everything they can to wreck the country and pull the government down. In Georgetown they have been See BR. GUIANA, pg. 10 May 24, 1963—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page &