May Day

May Day is a national holiday in Haiti, and all over the world except in Canada and the US, so people were out in the streets enjoying themselves. We arrived at CTH headquarters where the fired Teleco workers were gathering for a rally and march to demand their 36 month severance package. There slogan, written in French, English, and Creole, was "do you want to hurt our people and country or fight with us against poverty and hunger. They concluded the first part of their demonstration affirming "our destiny is to struggle with you or against you," directed particularly against the government. Simultaneous to this was a press conference where their representative made three points: 1) We must protest against the IMF and World Bank; 2) 36 months severance pay with 6 additional months health insurance; 3) Negotiation regarding future dismissals. Then everyone stood and sang the national anthem in Creole. We wanted to join them protesting against the neo-liberal plan and the jailing of Levi Mileot, the president of the hospital workers union. This was a genuine expression of rank-and-file militancy. We were unable to join the march itself do to miss-communications and instead went to the Champ de Mars, PAP's central square, and celebrated May Day with the people. We returned to CTH headquarters and enjoyed food, music, beer, and dancing. Happy May Day