Red Pepper magazine - April 2004 -- http://www.redpepper.org.uk/
Article by Charles Arthur
It didn't take long for the new order in Haiti to reveal itself. The day after President Aristide 'left' for exile, 34 union members at the Ouanaminthe garment assembly factory run by the Dominican Grupo M company, were fired. The next morning, when the 600-strong workforce decided to strike, a group of armed men launched a violent attack. Some unionists were handcuffed, many others were beaten up, and the workers were forced back inside the factory.
The aggressors were members of the so-called rebel force, fresh from their victory over the government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. They said they had been called to the factory by management, to deal with workers "causing trouble".
As in so many Haitian towns, the Ouanaminthe insurgents had taken over from the police. Their leaders say they are former members of the Haitian Army, the FAD'H, a force demobilised by Aristide in 1995. Some, such as Guy Philippe and Gilbert Dragon, were trained by the US in Ecuador and flown home to senior positions in the new Haitian police force in the mid-1990s.
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