January 29, 2006--Chicago

Dear Folks--

Please excuse this form message, but I want to draw your attention to what I believe is something very important.

Not being able to sleep, I got up and checked e-mail. And as I often do, I check the web site of the New York Times. In today's paper, there is a quite interesting article on the US operations in Haiti. THIS IS AN IMPORTANT PIECE--PLEASE READ. On-line, it is at www.nytimes.com/2006/01/29/international/americas/29haiti.html . (If you're not registered with the NYT, you may have to do so to get access to the article--I don't know--but it is worth it if you don't see the hard copy of the paper.) I have not yet seen the hard copy of today's paper, but expect a major spread from this.

The article is titled "Democracy Undone: Mixed US Signals Helped Tilt Haiti Toward Chaos" and is written by Walt Bogdanitch and Jenny Nordberg. (As I mention below, I don't think the "US signals" were "mixed," but this is a case where the two different "wings" of US foreign policy came into conflict, and now has been exposed, with some very interesting information included.)

Despite straight journalism's approaches to something, what you get here in an incredibly detailed look at US policy in Haiti. But, crucially, what these journalists show is not only official policy, but also the activities of the International Republican Institute (IRI). I cannot remember such a detailed accounting in the straight press about IRI operations. (And while minor, there are references to Venezuela included.) US Senator John McCain, the darling of many for being a "maverick," is the head of the IRI, and refused to comment on this article.

The important thing about the IRI is that it is one of the four core "institutes" of the NED, the National Endowment for Democracy. The others are the International Democratic Institute, the International Wing of the US Chamber of Commerce, and the AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center. (Go to www.ned.org for information.)

This article ties in the IRI, NED and the Bush Administration, including those like Otto Reich, who I believe, and Elliot Abrams who I know, were involved in the Iran-Contra scandal. Reich has played a key role re US policy in Venezuela.

Now, there is no mention of the Solidarity Center or the AFL-CIO in this article. (FYI, the formal name of the Solidarity Center is the American Center on International Labor Solidarity or ACILS.)

However, Jeb Sprague has been doing research on the Solidarity Center's activities in Haiti, and just reported that the Solidarity Center had channeled $100,000 from the NED to the Batay Ouvriye Labor Federation. And I just included that information in a piece that I wrote that ran on January 25, 2006 on MRZine, the Web Zine of Monthly Review, titlted "Worker Rights ARE Human Rights--Not Just in USA, but around World" (mrzine.monthlyreview.org/scipes250106.html --links to Sprague's work as well as many other things is included in this article. (And I also reported the amounts to the Solidarity Center from the NED in FY 2005 for the Solidarity Center's work across Latin America, information that was provided by Anthony Fenton, who has also done some fine writing on Haiti.)

Further, at the end of my article, there are links to three recent articles that I have written on the AFL-CIO foreign policy program. The most important, in connection with this, is "An Unholy Alliance: The AFL-CIO and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in Venezuela" that ran on ZNet on July 10, 2005 at www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm . What I did in this piece is detail the connection of the AFL-CIO and the NED. If you don't know this material, I suggest you read this piece.

What I'm trying to bring together is this excellent report on IRI and the NED, and draw attention to those of you interested in Labor that at least some of the work of the Solidarity Center is very similar to what the IRI has been doing in Haiti, although in the local labor movements. And, apparently, even in the labor movement in Haiti.

This is just another example why we in the labor movement must break the link between the Solidarity Center and the NED--it is a toxic relationship.

This information needs the widest dissemination, so please spread widely in your networks in North America and around the world. If we do this, and build on this information, we can have an even greater impact on breaking the link between the AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center and the NED. And have a major impact on US foreign policy.


In international solidarity--

Kim Scipes