Whereas:
On Thursday, September 16, 2004, masked police commandos attacked a Union meeting at the Confederation of Haitian Workers (CTH) local office in Port-au-Prince, arresting without charge or explanation 12 Haitian workers and their allies from the religious community of St. Jean Bosco, and,

Whereas:
Those arrested, who are now being held in terrible, inhumane conditions in a tiny cell, were targeted for being known supporters of the popular Lavalas movement, whose elected President, Jean Bertrand Aristide, was kidnapped by U.S. marines and embassy officials on February 29, 2004, ushering in a coup d’état lead by wealthy sweatshop owners of the Group 184, the corporate, banking and landlord elite, and former military officers of the death squad Duvalier regime and leaders of the first coup d’état against President Aristide in 1991, during which thousands of Haitian workers and poor people were killed, jailed and exiled, and,

Whereas:
The Confederation of Haitian Workers (CTH) represents over 150,000 workers in all of the Departments of Haiti, who are struggling to better their families’ living conditions amidst a coup regime which allows Group M, Levi’s, Sara Lee, Disney and other billion dollar U.S., European and Dominican corporations to pay Haitian workers as little as $1 USD/day, and the arrests of September 16th are clearly yet another attack on the right of Haitian workers to organize, and,

Whereas:
A U.S. Human Rights Delegation, lead by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsay Clark, visited the National Penitentiary and other prisons in Port-au-Prince, and interviewed dozens of victims of the February 29th coup d’état during its investigation from September 3-6, 2004, and concluded that the prisons hold many hundreds of political prisoners, from Lavalas Prime Minister Yvon Neptune to singer Anne Auguste (So Anne) to teachers, lawyers, bus drivers, Telecom workers and grassroots Lavalas activists from Cité Soleil and other poor communities from throughout Haiti, and, now, leaders of the CTH and their Union supporters.

Therefore, Be It Resolved That:
WE DEMAND that U.S. President George W. Bush; U.S. Ambassador to Haiti James Foley; the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH); and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights take immediate action to gain the release of the September 16th CTH arrestees and all political prisoners in Haiti, and to allow an open, full, public, and independent investigation into the perpetrators of this heinous crime against the workers of Haiti and their Unions.

Unanimously adopted, September 25, 2004

For the members of the New England Million Worker March Committee:
Steven Gillis, President, USWA Local 8751
Frantz Mendes, Vice President, USWA Local 8751
Stevan Kirschbaum, Chief Steward, USWA Local 8751
Ed Childs, Chief Steward, Local 26 UNITE/HERE
Josue Renaud, New England Human Rights Organization for Haiti
Rachel Nasca, member AFSCME 65
Maureen Skehan, Women’s Fightback Network
Bryan G. Pfeifer, Graduate Employee’s Organization (GEO), UAW Local 2322, University of MA/Amherst
Conor Clark, Hampshire College student activist
Kerrie Roche, member UNITE/HERE Local 26
Sarah Mossberg, Smith College student activist
Nick Camoratta, Western MA International Action Center
Liza Green, member AFSCME 65
Gerry Scopettullo, Pride at Work, Stonewall Warriors
Mike Shaw, Providence RI Pride at Work, National Writers Guild

Resolution sent to:
U.S. Ambassador to Haiti: James B. Foley
PHONE: 011.222.0200 OR 011.222.0354
FAX: 011.509.223-9038 OR 011.509.223.1641

UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH)
PHONE: 011.509.244.9650.9660
FAX: 011.509.244.9366/67