{"id":5084,"date":"2013-10-21T14:43:52","date_gmt":"2013-10-21T20:43:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lavozlit.com\/?p=5084"},"modified":"2013-10-21T14:43:52","modified_gmt":"2013-10-21T20:43:52","slug":"protest-anti-worker-dr-court-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/2013\/10\/21\/protest-anti-worker-dr-court-decision\/","title":{"rendered":"Protest Anti-Worker DR Court Decision"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\n 
\nWritten by One Struggle (NY), La Voz\/Workers Voice and Batay Ouvriye Solidarity Network\u00a0<\/em>
\nMonday, 21 October 2013 12:19<\/em>
\nOn September 23, 2013, the Constitutional Court in the Dominican Republic issued a ruling that effectively targeted and revoked the Dominican nationality of descendants of Haitian immigrant workers born in the Dominican Republic since 1929 on the ground that these workers were \u201cin transit\u201d.
\nWhile the legal basis for this judgment has been debunked, it remains procedurally beyond appeal. This ruling affects about 350.000 persons, stripping them of their civic rights like the right to vote and the right to education, and puts them at risk to be deported.
\nProtests decrying the underlying racism and unfairness of this ruling have been increasing internationally, in the Dominican Republic and in Haiti. However, most of these protests are framed in confusing nationalist rhetoric and fail to unmask the underlying interests at work:
\n1- For over a hundred years, the ruling classes on both sides of the island have colluded to profit from the super exploitation of politically repressed cheap Haitian immigrant labor through legal and illicit trafficking and apartheid-like policies.
\n2- Poorer economic and decaying sociopolitical conditions prevailing in Haiti have fueled the constant migration of destitute workers toward the Dominican Republic to replenish the reservoir of unemployed labor in those jobs where extremely low wage scales have been set to keep them relegated to \u201cillegal Haitian\u201d laborers, a condition reinforced by this court ruling.
\n3- Even though the \u201clegal Dominican\u201d sector of the workforce is itself faced with high unemployment and severe hardship, ideological campaigns have been waged by the reactionary ruling classes to keep this apartheid-like two wage scale system to convince \u201clegal Dominican\u201d workers that certain jobs are not fit for them, that they are only fit for lower paid \u201cdark-skinned illegal Haitians\u201d who, furthermore, are scapegoated by politicians for the plight of Dominican workers, to deflect protests against neo-liberal austerity measures.
\n4- This apartheid system is the cesspool fueled by nationalist propaganda to stoke \u201canti-haitianismo\u201d and maintain this highly profitable state of affairs for the ruling classes. It is estimated that \u201cillegal Haitian\u201d workers generate about 30% of the production in the Dominican economy while they only constitute about 10% of the population. Through systematic and generalized ideological campaigns in the state, the media, the education system (\u2026), \u201clegal Dominican\u201d workers are led to believe in their social privilege, their social status, which isolates them from this higher level of exploitation and repression reserved for inferior dark-skinned \u201cillegal Haitians.\u201d
\n5- This divide and conquer collusion between the ruling classes on both sides of the island has also been exacerbated by US imperialist policies of occupation and pillage that have taken advantage of cheap labor in \u201cbateyes\u201d and sweatshops, and the political division of the working class.
\n6- The ruling classes in both Haiti and the Dominican Republic have shown over and over again that they care much more for their profits than for their \u201cnation.\u201d These are the same \u201cnationalists\u201d who repeatedly sell out their nation, sign \u201cFree Trade\u201d agreements and mortgage their country\u2019s economy to the IMF, the IDB, USAID and the World Bank. These are the same \u201cnationalists\u201d who readily welcome foreign intervention to protect their interests.
\nThe challenge we face today is to debunk this nationalist problematic. The issue of immigrant labor, from a progressive working class point of view cannot be a matter of national sovereignty. National sovereignty in this context is nothing but ruling class propaganda to divide and conquer to protect capitalist interests by pitting workers against each other.
\nAs workers, we must demand justice and equality for all of us, or become victims in the race to the bottom, in the downward spiral of competing in the \u201cFree Market\u201d against the most exploited and the most abused. In the age of capitalist globalization, capital knows no borders. Dominican and Haitian capitalists invest on both sides of the island. We too, as workers, Dominincan, Haitian or workers of any national origin, must reject the artificial borders of nationality that have been placed on us to perpetuate our exploitation.
\nThat is why, based on the same convictions that drive our demand for amnesty, legalization of status and the end to the persecution of all undocumented immigrants here in the United States, we also raise the same demands with regards to immigrants and migrant workers of Haitian origin in the Dominican Republic. We must raise the same demands in defense of immigrant workers rights all over the world.
\nThe challenge we all share is to debunk entrenched anti-Haitian racism as it persists today in the Dominican Republic, through the united struggle for our common rights and working class interests. That is why, as workers, we must embrace the commonality of our condition: a common exploiter, a global imperialist system; a common quest, a world free from exploitation.
\nLegalization of Status for All Undocumented Workers!
\nDominican and Haitian Workers Unite to Fight for your Rights!
\nWorkers of the World, Unite!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Written by One Struggle (NY), La Voz\/Workers Voice and Batay Ouvriye Solidarity Network\u00a0 Monday, 21 October 2013 12:19 On September 23, 2013, the Constitutional Court in the Dominican Republic issued a ruling that effectively targeted and revoked the Dominican nationality of descendants of Haitian immigrant workers born in the Dominican Republic since 1929 on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13882120,"featured_media":5147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27799],"tags":[28413,28694,28835,28836],"class_list":["post-5084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","tag-dominican-republic","tag-haiti","tag-idb","tag-usaid"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.3","language":"es","enabled_languages":["en","es"],"languages":{"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"es":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t