On July 5-15, 2009, Eli Domota and Raymond Gama from the LKP Strike Collective and UGTG union federation in Guadeloupe, and Fignolé St. Cyr from the Autonomous Confederation of Haitian Workers (CATH) in Haiti participated in a seven-city U.S. tour. The tour was a big success.

Earlier this year, the trade unions of the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe led a powerful fight-back against the deepening worldwide economic crisis. United in the LKP, a coalition of 47 organizations, the workers and people of Guadeloupe waged a powerful 44-day nationwide general strike that won a $250/month wage increase for low-wage workers, more jobs for youth, a reduction in the prices of basic necessities, and a moratorium on home foreclosures.

In Haiti, the unions are playing a major role in the struggle to restore democracy after the U.S. government removed democratically elected President Bertrand Aristide -- and U.N. troops continue to occupy the country, killing activists who protest the occupation and demand their national, social, democratic, and economic rights.

The tour traveled to New York, Boston, Greensboro (NC), Philadelphia, Newark (NJ), Pittsburgh (for the National Assembly Against the War and Occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan), and Cleveland.

In every city, local tour organizing committees were formed. Dozens of Black, antiwar, unions, and activist organizations built the tour.

In most cities, the tour consisted of one major public event (with attendance ranging from 50 to 250 people); radio and/or TV interviews; a reception for the tour organizers and supporters; and meetings with leading community, political and union leaders and activists.

Everywhere there was great interest in learning directly from these worker leaders about both the 44-day nationwide general strike in Guadeloupe that won many essential demands and the dire situation facing the Haitian people as a result of the US/UN occupation of Haiti (as well as their continued resistance to this occupation).

In New York, a public rally of 150 people in Harlem organized to save WBAI Radio listened to Brother Domota. Other events included a public forum at the Brecht Forum and a presentation at the Rev. Lucius Walker's congregation in Brooklyn.

In Boston, a public forum at the UNITE HERE hall organized by a coalition spearheaded by Chelsea United Against the War heard presentations from the delegation and also discussed the current situation in Honduras.

In Greensboro, North Carolina, the mayor of the city, Yvonne Johnson, officially welcomed the delegation to the city and publicly pledged her support for and participation in — either directly or through a representative — the International Commission of Inquiry that will travel to Haiti in mid-September 2009 to gather information about the impact on the population of the US/UN occupation of Haiti.

Also present in Greensboro were members of BWFJ from Raleigh-Durham and Rocky Mount; Crystal Lee Sutton (the real "Norma Rae"); and Donna Dewitt, president of the South Carolina Federation of Labor (AFL-CIO), who drove up from Columbia, S.C., to participate in the event.

In Newark, the People's Organization for Progress (POP) hosted a lively forum that followed a meeting with the top leadership of the Women in Support of the Million Man March (WISOMMM).

In Philadelphia, trade unionists, political groups, the Third World Coalition of the American Friends Service Committee, and the International Committee of Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal hosted a forum at Philadelphia City College. Earlier in the afternoon, the Caribbean trade unionists met with Henry Nichols and other top leaders of AFSCME Local 1199C.

In Pittsburgh, Brothers Domota, Gama and Fignolé spoke in workshops and at the plenary session of the National Antiwar Conference hosted by the National Assembly to End the U.S. Wars and Occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. This conference drew 255 antiwar activists. A resolution in opposition to the US/UN occupation of Haiti was adopted unanimously. [See resolution in this section.]

This resolution has been submitted by the South Carolina Labor Federation (AFL-CIO) to the national AFL-CIO convention in September.

In Cleveland, in addition to radio and TV interviews with the Black media, a forum was organized by a broad coalition, with more than 100 people in attendance.

All in all, the tour accomplished many important goals:

1) Tour organizers promoted widely the decisions and conclusions of the 3rd Caribbean Conference in Haiti (December 2008) and obtained pledges from six organizations and one elected official to participate in the International Commission of Inquiry in September.

2) Tour organizers obtained pledges from leading organizations, particularly Black organizations, to assist the effort in defense of the trade unionists and activists in Guadeloupe who are now facing legal and criminal charges for their valiant actions during the 44-day general strike. The National Black Lawyers Association, in particular, pledged its full support.

3) Tour organizers promoted the fight to free Mumia Abu-Jamal and all the political prisoners in the United States. Brothers Domota and Fignolé pledged to promote widely across the Caribbean the campaign demanding that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder open an investigation into the violation of the rights of Mumia and other death-row inmates.

We gave the comrades in Haiti and Guadeloupe important solidarity emanating from the "belly of the beast." The comrades told us that they were very pleased with the results of the tour. They were most particularly pleased to meet and establish ties with militant Black organizations and activists in the United States. They were also glad that some unions came forward to support their work (Letter Carriers in NC, So. Carolina Labor Fed., Unite-Here in Boston, Kathy Black of AFSCME, teachers union in Philadelphia and USLAW in Philadelphia).

There was also some discussion about organizing a follow-up tour to the Southern States this fall — to Atlanta, Jackson (Miss.) and New Orleans. This will be explored further in the coming weeks.

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Colia Clark and Alan Benjamin were the national coordinators of the Guadeloupe-Haiti Tour USA.

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Statement by Fignolé St. Cyr, General Secretary of  the CATH (Haiti)

Our union federation opposed the destabilization campaign against President Bertrand Aristide, and we opposed the coup against Aristide.

Today we are the main force exposing the new U.S.-led occupation of Haiti, now with a "human face": that of Lula and the Brazilian government, acting to cover the policies of the French, Canadian and U.S. governments.

The UN occupation forces (MINUSTAH) are not a force for peace. They are a force to defend the multinational corporations' interests. They are part of a continued effort to destabilize Haiti, and to make Haiti pay for a "crime" it committed in 1802-04, when it established the first Black Republic in world history and defeated the French troops of Napoleon.

Since July 28th, 1915, Haiti has been occupied almost without respite by the United States government - now acting through a proxy force - because they want cheap labor, sweatshop labor, slave labor; and now, they also want our natural resources, as they have discovered oil and great wealth on our island.

There can be no democracy in our country so long as our trade union members and leading popular political activists, including our legitimate President, are excluded from participation, or so long as our exiled President Aristide is prevented from returning, so that new, free and fair elections can be held, so that all candidates can run, so that all platforms can be presented to the people.

There can be no democracy in our country with UN troops; with Presidents appointed by outside forces; with security forces gunning down our people; with the present regime continuing to pay the foreign debt the old Duvalier regime contracted against our will, and used to torture our people - a debt that consumes more than one million dollars per week of our resources to pay back the foreign banks.

There can be no democracy or sovereignty while UN troops are funded to the tune of $584 million per year to shoot bullets at us, as they did most recently when they assassinated our comrade Jacob Désire during the funeral march for Father Gérard Jean-Juste; to fire tear gas at students protesting the privatization of their university; and to gun down our militants in Cité Soleil because they are calling for the return of President Aristide, protesting the UN occupation and demanding economic and social justice.

Today the CATH has taken the initiative to create a new umbrella organization of trade union and grassroots organizations, known as the GLOBS (Liaison Committee of Grassroots and Trade Union Organizations). Its aim is to organize the broadest fight for our national sovereignty and for economic, political and social justice, for the immediate withdrawal of the MINUSTAH forces, for the cancellation of Duvalier debt, for the return of our stolen democracy, beginning with the return of Aristide and all exiled political leaders and the convening of new elections, the enactment of a new minimum wage law, an end to the sweatshop conditions and the so-called HOPE Law that would return us to the slave labor conditions of the Duvalier regime.

This new coordinating body, the GLOBS, has been hailed widely in the Haitian and exile press as a progressive step forward.