Vol. 73/No. 8      March 2, 2009

A union activist in the strikes was shot dead as he approached a barricade in the Guadeloupe capital Pointe-à-Pitre, reported Agence France-Presse.

The strikes have been called against the high cost of living on the islands. In Guadeloupe it has been led by a broad trade union-based coalition, the Lyannaj kont pwofitasyon (LKP), which in Creole means Stand Up Against Exploitation.

The central demand of the nearly 50 unions and associations that make up the LKP is for a 200 euro (US$250) per month wage increase for the 45,000 lowest paid workers on the island. The French government has refused to meet this demand, insisting that this can only be negotiated directly with local capitalists. The LKP has also demanded a freeze on rents, reduction of taxes and food prices, and a 50-cent cut in the price of a liter of fuel.

Among the organizations affiliated to the LKP are the General Union of Guadeloupe Workers (UGTG), the Union of Guadeloupe Agricultural Producers, and two of the main teachers unions on the island.

In a phone interview Tony Dagnet of the UGTG said the cost of living on the island is 40 percent higher than in France. The unemployment rate is 43 percent, he added.

Jacques Bino was shot dead after returning from a union meeting and protest, said LKP leader Elie Domota, who is also head of the UGTG. Nicolas Desforges, the top appointed official on the island, claimed that Bino was shot by armed youth at a barricade in a housing project, according to the Associated Press.

In the interview Dagnet said that a person in the car with Bino called for ambulance help that did not arrive for more than two hours. He said that Bino was struck three times by bullets from heavy weapons, likely fired by police.

After having ignored the strike for the first two weeks, the government of French president Nicolas Sarkozy finally sent Yves Jégo, the government minister in charge of relations with overseas French territories, to Guadeloupe to open negotiations with the strikers.

A number of agreements were reached, including a freeze in public housing rents for the coming year, a reduction in gasoline prices, a 10 percent cut in the price of more than 100 basic commodities sold by supermarkets, and a 20 percent increase in aid to finance school meals for a quarter million students. But the agreement on raising wages by 200 euros a month was vetoed by the government, which then broke off further negotiations.

Alain Huygues-Despointes, the leading capitalist in Guadeloupe, stirred up considerable controversy after his televised remarks that he was opposing the strike in order to “save his race.” Huygues-Despointes is the head of the Guadeloupean Békée, the descendants of the white plantation slave owners who still dominate the island’s economy.

In answer to his remarks a Guadeloupean economist pointed out that the Békée represented less than 1 percent of the island’s population but owned between 80 percent and 90 percent of its production.

The French government has dispatched Christiane Taubira, a parliamentary deputy from the French colony of Guyana and a member of the Socialist Party’s parliamentary caucus, to Guadeloupe. She attacked what she called the monopolistic economic power “which has been abused by the Békée caste.” But as an alternative to raising wages, she urged strikers to accept suggestions by some members of the Sarkozy government to turn the question of high prices on the island over to a government commission.

Victorin Lurel and Jacques Gillot, local elected officials of the Socialist Party, called on the strikers to soften up the impact of the strike by allowing some stores and gasoline stations to reopen. They proposed a 100-euro-a-month bonus for three months to 40,000 workers. The bonus offer was firmly refused by strikers, who reiterated their demand for a wage increase instead.

With further negotiations blocked, the government has prepared for a more direct confrontation with the strikers, moving two squadrons with 130 heavily armed gendarmes, a branch of the French army, to Martinique on February 12. Other forces have been brought into Guadeloupe. The main supermarket on the island and 42 of the 115 gas stations were seized by the government February 14 and ordered to reopen. The police were ordered to “enforce this decision.” Jégo announced that the government would be “very rigorous in ensuring respect of the law.”

Seth Galinsky in New York contributed to this article.
 
 
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