As the Haitian people continue to weather ongoing political and economic instability, the need for Haitian-led solutions – not foreign intervention – is clear. The president of Haiti’s Confederation of Public and Private Sector Workers, Jean Bonald Golinsky Fatal, is helping build a labour-community coalition that is organizing for desperately-needed change.
Fatal shared some of Haiti’s history and struggles in a speech to CUPE’s 2023 National Convention, thanking our members for decades of unwavering solidarity with the Haitian labour movement.
Haitian slaves rose up in 1791 and fought a revolution that won their freedom and independence from French colonial rule. France and other colonial powers retaliated with a punishing embargo, ultimately forcing Haiti to pay the present-day equivalent of nearly US$40 billion to France in “reparations” to slave owners.
“This ransom paid to France was, and continues to be, a burden for us,” says Fatal. “Since then, everything has been done to destabilize my country. Leaders, policies and programs have been imposed with the complicity of foreign countries, including Canada, and a right-wing elite in Haiti.”
Fatal is passionate about the importance of public services, especially in developing countries. “The next generations can have a promising future if public services like education, health care, public transit and electricity stay public. A country’s standard of living is measured by looking at its public services. There is no acceptable and dignified standard of living without high-quality public services that are accessible to all.”
He describes the painful experiences of countries in the South, including Haiti, where the International Monetary Fund led the privatization of public services. He shares the example of Haiti’s cement plant, once a state-owned company. Today, the country imports cement and the plant workers are unemployed. It’s a similar story for other former state-owned companies that have been privatized in areas like telecommunications and sugar production.
“We were self-sufficient. Now, we import goods and workers face unemployment and poverty. These workers’ children have nothing to do except join gangs. When public services are attacked, this is the result,” says Fatal.
Fatal believes everyone has the duty and the obligation to join the fight for public services because privatization worsens the attacks on all our rights.
“It’s important to fight any privatization of public services because privatizing them will create even more poverty while building up a small group of wealthy people,” he says. “These experiences show you don’t have to wage war to destroy a country, all you have to do is attack public services to reduce the population to indignity, suffering and poverty.”
He also stresses that unions are “the engine of democracy” and workers are the first line of defense for human rights. “There is no democracy without unions!” Fatal adds.
He warns us not to be fooled by the “right-wing machine that is constantly attacking unions with its destructive rhetoric, spreading lies about unions being useless and having no role. A country without unions, or where unions are weak, is a country where people can’t have a dignified life.”
Thus, when CUPE members make decisions that enhance the working and living conditions of over 750,000 workers across Canada, their positive impact extends beyond Canadian society and future generations, reaching countries like Haiti.
