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Dukens Raphael of the Confederation of Public and Private Sectors
Workers of Haiti (CTSP) in Vancouver last week
CUPE: Has there been any support
from international labor organizations?
RAPHAEL: I can only speak for
my own organization. We’ve had a
lot of moral support. Concrete support
we’ve had very little.
CUPE: What can we do to help get
that aid through, for shelter?
RAPHAEL: Communication and
support between unions, within the
union movement, is fairly easy. Our
union has defi ned a certain number
of needs. You need to know also that
within the union movement there’s
a bureaucracy that slows things
down. The expressions of solidarity
within the union movement have
been very strong. We hope very
soon that we will pass from expressions
of moral solidarity to expressions
of concrete solidarity.
So fi rst of all, the question
of shelter, and a lot of our unions
have lost our offi ces, so we have
to reconstruct a place to work. The
third thing we have defi ned that
we’re looking for is support of the
children of union members who
were going to university who can
no longer attend. We’re looking for
support so that they can continue
their studies elsewhere. So far, the
Brazilian government has provided
500 university scholarships, and
the Dominican Republic has also
offered various types of support to
Haitians, including waiving the fees
for a year, at the university. I would
just ask that other governments and
organizations that are able to follow
those examples do so.
CUPE: What will you tell people
in your speech (on April 24), and
at the forum?
RAPHAEL: I think it’s important
to thank the people who
have made this visit possible. It’s
an opportunity for us to get our
message out to people who might
not have heard it otherwise. We’re
looking for solidarity; charity we’re
not interested in. |
