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28615: Sprague (Comment) Further on Peter Dailey
From J.Sprague <jebsprague@mac.com>
Peter Daily writes that Sprague "sasks" where is the "'overwhelming
evidence' of FL's complicity.."
Peter Daily misquotes me. Here is what I asked: "Where is this
'overwhelming evidence? of government sanction?"
See Corbett List 28593 for the proper quote. This question still
stands having not been answered by RV(Deibert) or yourself.
Next off, I want to point out that Anoop Singh's statement
acknowledges that the Latortue and transitional government was
working closely with their economic vision for Haiti. And I quote
(DIRECTLY) from Anoop Singh's 7/20/04 statement in his first
point: "I was very encouraged by the presentation that was just made
by Prime Minister Latortue that augurs well for the success of this
conference. His government's commitment to work closely with the
international community to secure political and economic stability
will help create the necessary opportunities for the Haitian people
to build a better and more prosperous future." On his 4th point he
writes, "The response of the transition government has been key to
maintaining macroeconomic stability." In the 5th point Singh makes
the statement, "However, recent expenditure cuts have been very
ambitious and have adversely affected the ability of the authorities
to deliver basic public services."
I explain again. Third time is the charm. Only from firing real
workers would you receive a decline of basic public services when you
are discussing expenditure cuts. This does not mean that ghost
workers could have also been or not been fired. What it does mean,
is that real workers were in fact fired. Check out Michael Parkin's
Sixth Edition Macroeconomics (University of Western Ontario, 2003)
for a basic understanding of how macroeconomic priorities work. Of
course unions should have the right to strike and utilize collective
bargaining. I suggest you check out Kim Scipes' labor bibliography on
the AFL-CIO foreign policy at <http://faculty.pnc.edu/kscipes/
LaborBib.htm> and as I state in my Labor Notes article "The most
prominent international labor organizations active in Haiti, the
ICFTU, AFL-CIO, ILO, and ORIT, working to support and strengthen
labor unions that agitated for the ousting of Haiti?s democratically
elected government, have simultaneously refused to condemn the
massive layoffs and persecution of public sector workers and trade
unionists committed by its illegally-imposed successor."
On Jul 13, 2006, at 12:01 PM, Bob Corbett wrote:
From: Peter Dailey <phdailey@msn.com>
RV asserts that Teleco was a notorious patronage mill and that the
Latortue government's decision to cut 50% of the work force- 2,000
employees- eliminated "no show patronage jobs." Sprague argues that
real jobs were eliminated and that this resulted in a decline of
public services and "sites" in support a statement by Anoop Singh,
Director of the Western Hemisphere Department at the IMF.
However, Singh, speaking in the summer of 2004 only weeks after the
advent of the Latortue government, never mentions Teleco, stated
only that "expenditure cuts" by the state "adversely affected the
ability of the authorities to deliver basic public services."
Nowhere does Singh state that this inability was the result of the
firing of municipal workers, or that the Latortue government was
eliminating basic public services that had been previously provided
by the Aristide government. Is Sprague arguing that the quality of
service provided by Teleco has declined in the past two years? What
about garbage collection etc. ? What services has the Haitian
government traditionally provided, and which are no longer available?
I've been told that although in indexes like literacy, life
expectancy, access to potable water, etc. Haiti is close to the
bottom, it leads the hemisphere in municipal employees per thousand
phone lines. Is this true? When Aristide returned to power in 1994
were their similar layoffs? My impression is that in addition to
legions of ghost workers like Rene Civil, Teleco has traditionally
provided a safe haven for the otherwise unemployable sons and
nephews of prominent bourgeois whom Aristide or any other head of
government may fire at their peril. There are undoubtedly many
persons who would be interested in an analysis of Teleco's
operations over the last thirty years or of the Port Authority and
how they came to be a byword for corruption and incompetence. There
are probably others besides myself who would welcome an explanation
by Sprague of some of his fundamental assumptions. Should
independent unions under a "progressive" government have the right
to collective bargaining and to strike? I've read that the support
of the AFL-CIO was crucial to the success of Solidarity in Poland.
Was this an example of the undermining of a "progressive"
government that Sprague has in mind?
Sprague sasks where the "overwhelming evidence" of FL's complicity
in the attack on the organizers of Guacimal is to be found. I
suggest that he examine contemporaneous accounts, many of which
were posted on the Corbett List, including the thoroughly
mendacious efforts by various Aristide flaks to justify the attacks
and subsequent imprisonments.
Peter Dailey
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