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Vol. 73/No. 9      March 9, 2009

 
(front page)
Mass strikes in Guadeloupe,
Martinique remain solid
 
Militant/Jean-Louis Salfati
Demonstration in Paris February 21 in support of mass strikes in Guadeloupe and Martinique

BY NAT LONDON
AND JEAN-LOUIS SALFATI
 
PARIS, February 21—“Guadeloupe is ours, not theirs; they cannot do what they want in our country.” This chant, repeated over and over on demonstrations, picket lines, and at the barricades, has become the central slogan of the general strike in Guadeloupe, now in its fifth week. The strikers are demanding relief from the soaring cost of living and respect from the French government that rules them.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy met February 19 with elected officials of Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guyana, and La Réunion, the four French colonies that have the legal status of “overseas departments. The strike movement, which began January 20 in Guadeloupe, has spread to Martinique, forcing cancellation of the annual carnival there, normally a massive event in the capital city of Fort de France.

Sarkozy proposed a plan to allocate 580 million euros (US$730 million) to finance a wage and aid increase that he claimed would be “roughly equivalent” to the central demand of the strikers for an increase in average salaries of 200 euros a month. It would be extended to all four territories.

Strike leaders said they had reached a tentative agreement with small business groups to meet half the requested raise, but that the government would have to take actions to make up the difference. Larger capitalists have proposed only a 50 euro monthly increase.

“The state doesn’t believe that it should finance or reimburse wage increases for private employers,” said Nicolas Desforges, the Paris-appointed top official in Guadeloupe, after leaving a February 23 negotiating session without a settlement.

“If they don’t want to talk, we will put the popular pressure on the streets and make them share their fortune with the people of Guadeloupe,” said strike leader Patrice Tacita, according to the Associated Press.

Other agreements had already been reached freezing rent for the year, cutting gasoline and food prices, and increasing aid for school lunch programs.

Sarkozy has also promised to open an undefined “general assembly” to discuss the status of the “overseas departments.

“I do not trust the government propositions,” said LKP leader Elie Domota days before the February 23 negotiations. “We will meet with the negotiators in a few days and demand details of the plan. What we want is that they explain exactly how this plan is set up, what it will lead to, and only on that basis will we make up our minds.” The LKP, the Creole acronym for Alliance Against Exploitation, is a coalition of some 50 organizations, centered in the trade unions, that is leading the movement in Guadeloupe.

Between 80 percent and 90 percent of the production in Guadeloupe is controlled by descendants of the white plantation slave owners, known as Béké, who still dominate the island’s economy. Yet in both Guadeloupe and Maritinique they number only 1 percent of the population.

Some 1,000 French riot police, gendarmes, have been sent to Guadeloupe and Martinique to intimidate strikers.

Nearly 10,000 demonstrators took part in a march in Martinique to protest the death of trade union militant Jacques Bino, who was shot near one of the barricades February 17.

On the night following Bino’s death, barricades were reinforced in many places throughout Guadeloupe. One of the participants in the Gosier barricade telephoned a local Guadeloupean radio station to complain that the police had been firing on them with live ammunition and beating demonstrators with clubs.

By February 18, the police estimated that 50 of the barricades had reached the point where they were “hermetically sealed” and capable of stopping all traffic.

During the night the town hall was stormed and occupied by protesters. Police tried unsuccessfully to break through the barricades, which had cut off all roads into town. The cops finally sent two squadrons of mobile gendarmes by helicopter to retake city hall.
 
 
Related articles:
Paris marchers back Caribbean strikes
 
 
 
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