May 1st - Workers' Fight Federation

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**Batay Ouvriye**
May 1st - Workers' Struggle Federation
Intersyndicale Premier Mai - Batay Ouvriye
Founded	1996?
Country	Haiti
Office location	Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Website	www.batayouvriye.org

Batay Ouvriye is a national workers' movement in Haiti known to be active at least since 1994.

[edit] Politics

While it negotiated the first contract in the Free Trade Zone in Haiti, it agitated for workers' rights while making ideological attacks upon Haiti's democratically elected progressive Fanmi Lavalas government. In 2004 Batay Ouvriye called for the elected Haitian government to leave the country and in February of 2004 the government was overthrown. A recent study in the Lancet medical journal found that following the coup 8,000 murders and 35,000 sexual assaults have occured in the greater Port-au-Prince area. In 2005 it was found to be working with the AFL-CIO's American Center for International Labor Solidarity (ACILS) which receives 90% of its funding from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the US State Department. A total funding relationship of $449,965.00 currently exists between the NED/State Dept and the ACILS grantee program with the Batay Ouvriye. Both NED documents and Solidarity Center officials acknowledge this.