Attempting to track down information on the alleged first Haitian labor union is a trying enterprise. Unfortunately, the Syndicat des Ouvriers Cordonniers Haïtiens, which was founded on the 24th of March in 1903, does not appear in Le Nouvelliste. The main source used by Georges Fortuné, Michel Hector, and Edner Brutus for the union's existence is a report from Lamartine Cayemitte, at the first national congress of labor in Haiti in 1949. Cayemitte, a member of the organized shoemaker association, presumably described this early labor union from oral tradition, as passed down by the members of the union or the next generations of shoemakers. Based on Cayemitte, we know the union was founded at the shoe manufacturing workshop of a Dessources Poveda, and likely included 46 workers at the atelier. Discussing the union in the context of free syndicalism, Cayemitte appears to have blamed the government for interfering and putting an end to this first labor union plus subsequent attempts to organize shoemakers under Ernest Camille. Of course, it is not exactly a surprise shoemakers emerged as the first organized labor group in Haiti, since they had a penchant for being artisan intellectuals tied to radicalism in Europe and Latin America.
Unfortunately, a complete identification of Dessources Poveda has not been successful, although one source does mention a cordonnerie established by a Poveda of Cuban origins. Another Poveda of Cuban origins, Simon Poveda Ferrer, also appears in Port-au-Prince as part of a local affiliate of the Cuerpo de Consejo in the 1890s. Thus, it does appear that a cordonnerie owned by someone with the name Poveda did indeed exist in Port-au-Prince, and by 1903, it was large enough to employ at least 46 shoemakers. As indicated by Gaillard and others, the impact of Cuban immigrants on local industry and professions was significant, especially since they took on local apprentices and brought with them ideas associated with the Cuban labor movement of the era, as the appearance of worker associations in the late 19th century likely reflects. The further expansion of cordonneries like Tannerie Continentale, which employed even more shoemakers (plus tanners), were usually owned by foreigners and likely created the conditions where shoemakers were able to find solidarity through their loss of autonomy as the large-scale enterprises limited their opportunities to establish themselves as independent workers. Perhaps this is why, like cigarmakers in Cuba, shoemakers took early on to labor unions, as they saw their independent status as producers increasingly usurped by large workshops. And like the workers at Tannerie Continentale, the dissolution of the union occurred as the shoemakers walked out of the enterprise over an issue of salaries for a member of the union.
Cayemitte also identified the members of the first committee of the union. Unfortunately, their names have not yet been found in my digging through some of the newspapers of the era, but their functions as presidents, treasurers, and secretaries suggests some members were literate and the union had a degree of organization or bureaucracy. Perhaps this reflects the impact of mutual aid society structures and associations of the 1890s, or even the structure of labor unions and artisan associations as they appeared in the Dominican Republic or Jamaica at this time. Unfortunately, the union does not appear to have left any records, and their two deeds which should have garnered attention from the local press, a strike in 1905 and the sending of 500 dollars to the victims of an epidemic or catastrophe in Jamaica, do not appear in the pages of Le Nouvelliste (although it is possible other Port-au-Prince newspapers mentioned it). Indeed, the only mention of a Haitian labor organization and Jamaica in the pages of the newspaper refer to 10 gourdes sent by a worker association after the 1907 earthquake in Kingston. However, 500 dollars versus 10 gourdes clearly indicates a sizable difference in the revenue-raising capacities of the former syndicat and the latter association ouvrière. That the union could raise such a sum indicates it must have had some degree of organization and size.
It is probable that this short-lived experiment in Haitian syndicalism was not quite a labor union as we know it. Perhaps it was akin to the early artisan unions in Jamaica, which, according to Richard Hart, had members who emigrated to Haiti and elsewhere. Perhaps these Jamaican carpenters, tailors, shoemakers, etc. also brought some of their own interests to Haiti, hoping to protect the reputation of their skilled profession and regulate pay and apprenticeship. It may also be useful to look at the development of gremios and early labor organizations in the Dominican Republic, which included a Liga de Artesanos y Obreros that appeared in 1899. The organization conducted meetings in Santo Domingo and issued a challenge to capitalist classes that suggests a more heightened degree of class consciousness than perhaps anything in Jamaica or Haiti at the time.
According to Roberto Cassá, the Liga's manifesto was signed by workers from Spain and Puerto Rico, which might explain why the ephemeral league denounced capitalism and embraced a libertarian socialist view. Although there is no evidence that the Liga or Jose Dolores Alfonseca, the thinker who was associated with it, had any contact with Haiti, it may be possible that the Syndicat of shoemakers heard of or encountered news of the Dominican organization. Indeed, as urban workers with some degree of literacy, plus probably contact with foreign workers from Jamaica and Cuba, it is possible to speculate a possible degree of transnational flows of information. Indeed, during the US Occupation of the island, workers in Haiti and the DR apparently expressed an interest in the affairs of the other, looking to their mutual best interest, so perhaps there were ties before 1915/1916? This could of course be a function of the physical movement of workers themselves, but it is within the realm of possibility that news involving unions and mutual aid organizations in the Dominican part of the island reached Haiti.
If any of the above is useful at all, perhaps one can surmise that the first labor union in Haiti probably combined elements of a mutual aid organization with a labor union. It successfully organized shoemakers at the enterprise (although its unclear if every cordonnier was part of the union or only 46 out of an unknown number were unionized), survived for a number of years, and presumably brought some degree of security to the affiliated shoemakers. It was probably too ephemeral to have developed its own center and maybe lacked the patronage or association with a prominent middle-class professional or member of the elite to protect from the political pressures of Nord Alexis's presidency. If the voices of the workers at Tannerie Continentale provide any indication, the workers presumably saw themselves as the creators of wealth whose labor was necessary for the function of the workshop. Of course, one cannot say these workers were advancing any sort of socialist perspective, like the aforementioned Liga in the Dominican Republic, perhaps the syndicat was part of a larger wave of mutualist organizations, a wave of further associations of various sorts across different social classes, and changes in Port-au-Prince's urban landscape. Unfortunately, without any written sources from the union or about it, it's difficult to say to say much, but it probably reflects the convergence of mutualist and syndicalist organization in the Caribbean at the time. The context of Haitian nationalism would also be significant in terms of the Centennial of Haitian independence, in addition to the reformism of Firmin's supporters and possible ideological overlap with the Coeurs-Unis in Cap-Haiti.
It is probable that this short-lived experiment in Haitian syndicalism was not quite a labor union as we know it. Perhaps it was akin to the early artisan unions in Jamaica, which, according to Richard Hart, had members who emigrated to Haiti and elsewhere. Perhaps these Jamaican carpenters, tailors, shoemakers, etc. also brought some of their own interests to Haiti, hoping to protect the reputation of their skilled profession and regulate pay and apprenticeship. It may also be useful to look at the development of gremios and early labor organizations in the Dominican Republic, which included a Liga de Artesanos y Obreros that appeared in 1899. The organization conducted meetings in Santo Domingo and issued a challenge to capitalist classes that suggests a more heightened degree of class consciousness than perhaps anything in Jamaica or Haiti at the time.
According to Roberto Cassá, the Liga's manifesto was signed by workers from Spain and Puerto Rico, which might explain why the ephemeral league denounced capitalism and embraced a libertarian socialist view. Although there is no evidence that the Liga or Jose Dolores Alfonseca, the thinker who was associated with it, had any contact with Haiti, it may be possible that the Syndicat of shoemakers heard of or encountered news of the Dominican organization. Indeed, as urban workers with some degree of literacy, plus probably contact with foreign workers from Jamaica and Cuba, it is possible to speculate a possible degree of transnational flows of information. Indeed, during the US Occupation of the island, workers in Haiti and the DR apparently expressed an interest in the affairs of the other, looking to their mutual best interest, so perhaps there were ties before 1915/1916? This could of course be a function of the physical movement of workers themselves, but it is within the realm of possibility that news involving unions and mutual aid organizations in the Dominican part of the island reached Haiti.
If any of the above is useful at all, perhaps one can surmise that the first labor union in Haiti probably combined elements of a mutual aid organization with a labor union. It successfully organized shoemakers at the enterprise (although its unclear if every cordonnier was part of the union or only 46 out of an unknown number were unionized), survived for a number of years, and presumably brought some degree of security to the affiliated shoemakers. It was probably too ephemeral to have developed its own center and maybe lacked the patronage or association with a prominent middle-class professional or member of the elite to protect from the political pressures of Nord Alexis's presidency. If the voices of the workers at Tannerie Continentale provide any indication, the workers presumably saw themselves as the creators of wealth whose labor was necessary for the function of the workshop. Of course, one cannot say these workers were advancing any sort of socialist perspective, like the aforementioned Liga in the Dominican Republic, perhaps the syndicat was part of a larger wave of mutualist organizations, a wave of further associations of various sorts across different social classes, and changes in Port-au-Prince's urban landscape. Unfortunately, without any written sources from the union or about it, it's difficult to say to say much, but it probably reflects the convergence of mutualist and syndicalist organization in the Caribbean at the time. The context of Haitian nationalism would also be significant in terms of the Centennial of Haitian independence, in addition to the reformism of Firmin's supporters and possible ideological overlap with the Coeurs-Unis in Cap-Haiti.
Bibliography
Cassá, Roberto. 1990. Movimiento obrero y lucha socialista en la República Dominicana : (desde los orígenes hasta 1960). Santo Domingo: Fundación Cultural Dominicana.
Congrès national du travail. 1958. Actes du premier Congrès national du travail, 1er mai 1949. [Port-au-Prince?]: Impr. de l'état.
Cross, Malcolm, and Gad J. Heuman (editors). 1992. Labour in the Caribbean: from emancipation to independence. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Fèquiére, Fleury. 1906. L'éducation haitienne. Port-au-Prince: Impr. de l'Abeille.
Gaillard, Roger. 1984. La république exterminatrice ; P. 1. Une modernisatiion manquée: (1880-1896). Port-au-Prince: Autor.
Hector, Michel. 1989. Syndicalisme et socialisme en Haïti: 1932-1970. Port-au-Prince, Haïti: Impr. H. Deschamps.
Hobsbawm, E. J., and Joan Wallach Scott. "Political Shoemakers." Past & Present, no. 89 (1980): 86-114.
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