US corporations clearing land before in Haiti uprising...

[mac2]

Link: http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/458.html

It's about cheap labor..about to come to your town soon!!

Is this rioting in the street from Mother Nature Bush?

[BayCityProgressive]

1. of course

CLinton put Aristide there...so of course Bush has to do the opposite.

[DuctapeFatwa]

2. Importing cheap US rice to Haiti has been very beneficial for America

For a long time, Haiti grew their own rice.
Now thanks to free trade, they import cheap US rice!

The price of rice there has really gone down a lot.

It's empowered all the Haitian rice farmers to change their lifestyles!

[mac2]

6. The farmers in LA and Al won't be happy about that.

They grow rice. So...it the slave labor for cheap food off shore too.

[DuctapeFatwa]

7. US subsidizes them to grow rice, and sells it to Haiti

thus empowering Haitian rice farmers to develop creative strategies in hopes of obtaining some of the US rice to eat, which while it is too cheap to let them keep growing rice, is not free, presenting an exciting challenge for hungry ex-rice farmers!

[Gman]

3. If there's a revolution going on anywhere south of Brownsville or Miami

you can bet the BFEE has its hands in it.

[Gman]

4. More links:

This is interesting

• The Board of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank's private-sector arm, is in the final stages of approval for a loan for development of the first of a series of proposed free trade zones along the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Several local NGOs have raised serious concerns over the proposed project's impact on farmers' livelihoods and the environment.
  
  The total cost of the project is estimated at $43 million. The proposed IFC financing consists of a $20 million loan for Dominican clothing manufacturer Grupo M and $3 million to the Haiti Project development company. Grupo M is the largest apparel producer in the Caribbean/Central American region supplying to major US companies including Liz Claiborne, Polo, Levis, Hanes and Tommy Hilfiger. The company has won awards for labour practice and corporate citizenship.
  
  The Maribahoux Plain, site of the development, is one of Haiti's most fertile agricultural regions with production capacity to feed half a million people. Taking this land out of food production is being questioned at a time when the FAO says that a "silent food crisis is looming in Haiti".
  
  Compensation for expropriated lands
  In a response to the NGO Haiti Support Group (HSG), Brian McNamara of the IFC says he recognizes "that some resentment and confusion has been generated as a result of the government's aquisition of the land for the industrial zone." The Environmental Review Summary, released 12 August, states that project consultants and a local NGO are searching for land for smaller farmers and sharecroppers who want it. For those seeking financial compensation, the Social Compensation Plan contends that payment will be made at a meeting at the end of August.
  
  at http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/trade/2003/0819haiti.htm
  
  
• Grupo M:
  Project number 20744
  Project name Grupo M
  Country Dominican Republic
  Sector Textiles, Apparel & Leather
  Department Global Manufacturing & Services
  Company name Grupo M
  Environmental category B
  Date SPI disclosed May 1, 2003
  Projected board date June 12, 2003
  Status Pending Disbursement
  Previous Events Signed: January 16, 2004
  Approved: October 9, 2003
  
  at http://ifcln001.worldbank.org/ifcext/spiwebsite1.nsf/0/9f06d27d61b3152a85256d19006a63f1?OpenDocument
  
  More on Grupo M:
  “Then, the next day, at nine in the morning, when I was working at my machine, I saw the same two men coming towards me. They were armed with a machete and a metal pipe, and said they were now coming after me because I was number two in the union. I escaped by jumping over three machines and running up to the personnel office on the second floor. Imagine. It isn’t easy to get away when you are in a closed factory.
  
  “I thought I’d be safe in the office; but they called Ali Corona, the second-in-command of Grupo M security. He knocked on the door but I wouldn’t let him in because I thought the guys were still outside. Then I opened the door a little and this massive man smashed his way in. He had a .45 pistol. He lifted me up and hit me on the neck with the pistol. And then he handcuffed me.”
  
  at http://www.labournet.net/world/0309/haiti2.html
  
  
• Haitian free trade zone: Aristide's "different" capitalism is the same old story.
  
  "They" is the government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, for decades labeled "firebrand" and "radical" by enemies and supporters alike. Yet this same Aristide is leading the charge to set up a new industrial park on one of the few irrigated plains in the arid northeast. It is the first of 14 projected free trade zones Aristide's administration and the parliament--controlled by his Lavalas party--have in the works. As elsewhere, these zones will offer investors cheap infrastructure, extended tax holidays, easy repatriation of profits, and--in Haiti--the lowest wages in the hemisphere.
  
  at http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m2548/2002_Nov-Dec/95056815/p1/article.jhtml
  

It looks like Aristide has been seriously pushing the Haiti Free Trade Zone. I'm now wondering if this is one reason driving this revolution.

[mac2]

5. Thanks for the links

I think the Haiti Free Trade Zone was the goal. It's the goal in all the conflicts now. Those who refuse to join the WTO are punished and they upset their govenment.

We are the mercinaries for the World Bank. It is a coup to take their land and set up slave labor for the corporations.

We are headed that way.

Congressman Commings(D, leader of the Progressives in Congress, was on CSPAN today talking about Haiti riots, etc. He was so dazzled by his meeting with Bush, Rice, and Powell. They actually met with him and a group of the Progressives for the first time in a long time!!

I'm thinking...ya not since the election when they wanted your votes.

Ya...They use them (Black Congressmen) to plead for the violence to stop. Does he know what is going on? Does he know the farmers lost their land and are being placed into slavery for the profit of corporations?