Stop AFL-CIO Intimidation Of Researcher/Open The Books Of AFL-CIO's CIA Partnership

From: Jeb Sprague <jebsprague [at] mac.com>
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2005 12:28:30 -0800

DEMAND THAT THE AFL-CIO's SOLIDARITY CENTER PROVIDE PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY FOR ITS ACTIVITIES IN HAITI AND APOLOGIZE FOR THE TARGETING OF STUDENT RESEARCHER.

Please contact Barbara Shailor, Director of International Affairs, AFL-CIO, Solidarity Center, American Center for International Labor Solidarity (ACILS)

Contact her at: phone: 202-778-4500 and fax: 202-778-4525

Ask her the following questions:

#1. When did the Solidarity Center begin funding the Batay Ouvriye?

#2. How much is the annual budget for this funding relationship?

#3. What type of oversight does the Batay Ouvriye receive from the Solidarity Center, for example Jeff Hermanson's oversight role in a March 2004 meeting in Port-au-Prince, in which workers were not allowed to speak. Jeff Hermanson is a known Solidarity Center operative for backing anti-left worker movements in Latin America and the Caribbean.

#4. Why did the Solidarity Center after refusing to answer the most basic questions malign a student researcher and attempt to cause harm to his academic career?

Below is an open letter to Barbara Shailor and the Solidarity Center. For more information see this weeks copy of Haiti Progres or on the web at http://www.narconews.com or http://www.haitiaction.net and listen to the Nov 21st Podcast on flashpoints.net

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An Open letter to the Solidarity Center

To:
Barbara Shailor, Director of International Affairs
AFL-CIO, Solidarity Center, American Center for International Labor Solidarity (ACLIS)
Fax Number: (202) 778 4525

I am writing in regards to the Solidarity Center’s operations in Haiti. I left a long message with your secretary at the Federation earlier today but have yet to receive a call back. I will continue my attempts at reaching you.

I conducted an interview at your D.C. office with a member of the Solidarity Center at 10am on June 28, 2005. During this interview I was refused any information as to the funding and history of the relationship between the Solidarity Center and the Batay Ouvriye.

After discussing the role of the Solidarity Center in supporting Batay Ouvriye, an Anti-Lavalas “worker organization” in Haiti, at the International Tribunal on Haiti I was subjected to a smear campaign by Samantha Tate, the Senior Program Officer for the Americas at the Solidarity Center.

Following the International Tribunal on Haiti, Samantha Tate first contacted my academic department by phone and then sent an email with an attached PDF document on an AFL-CIO letterhead, with John Sweeney’s name on it. The letter was sent to my academic department’s chair and thesis committee chair. In this letter she attempted to “discredit and isolate” my research in the words of a professor on campus.

Samantha Tate has continually refused to answer the most basic questions of public accountability in regards to the Solidarity Center’s relationship with Batay Ouvriye.
I urge you to answer these questions:

#1. When did the Solidarity Center begin funding the Batay Ouvriye?
#2. How much is the annual budget for this funding relationship?
#3. What type of oversight does the Batay Ouvriye receive from the Solidarity Center, for example Jeff Hermanson’s oversight role in a March 2004 meeting in Port-au-Prince. Jeff Hermanson is known to be a Solidarity Center operative for backing anti-left worker movements in Latin America and the Caribbean.
#4. Why did the Solidarity Center after refusing to answer these most basic questions malign a student researcher and attempt to cause harm to his academic career?

I declare under penalty of perjury that this statement bears my original signature and that the authorization attested to is correct.

Signed

Jeb Sprague
Graduate Student, Freelance Journalist
Long Beach, CA
JebSprague [at] mac.com