Demonstrations in Guadeloupe and Martinique, crisis meeting Tuesday in Paris

just a bit of information on what is currently taking place in the French colonies (aka departments) in the Caribbean since the Recession

Demonstrations in Guadeloupe and Martinique, crisis meeting Tuesday in Paris

Published on Tuesday, February 10, 2009 Email To Friend

POINTE-A-PITRE, Guadeloupe (AFP): Thousands of people demonstrated on Monday in Guadeloupe, denouncing the return to Paris of the Secretary of State to the Overseas Territories, Yves Jégo, at a time of crisis. Protest marches also paralysed Fort-de-France in Martinique.

A meeting of ministers is planned for Tuesday on the crisis, which has paralysed the island for 20 days, Jégo indicated after a meeting with French Prime Minister Francois Fillon.

People hold the banner of CTU (United Workers' trade-union) which reads : "Togetheir, let us reinvent hope" as they demonstrate in Pointe-a-Pitre (Guadeloupe) against the high cost of living, for better pay and employment. AFP PHOTO More than 10,000 people demonstrated in Pointe-a-Pitre and 1,500 in Basse-Terre, according to the prefecture, often in family groups, shouting “la Gwadloup sé tan nou, la Gwadloup a pa ta yo, yo péké fè sa yo vlé an péi an nou” (Guadeloupe is with us, it is not with them, they will not do what they want in our country).

The demonstrators forced local shops and businesses to close, the stores reopening as soon as the marchers had passed. Strikes have closed the 115 service stations on the island and the container terminal at the port of Pointe-a-Pitre was deserted.

The price of fuel is one of the causes for dissatisfaction, which Guadeloupe deputy Victorin Lurel denounced on Monday as a “scandal”, whereas a preliminary report ordered by Jégo highlights, according to the Le Monde newspaper, the opacity of their method of price fixing.

In Martinique, thousands of demonstrators –11,000 according to the police force, 25,000 according to the organisers – with their trade union banners in hand and wearing red tee-shirts, converged towards the prefecture where the negotiations started on the fifth day of a generally observed general strike.

The same slogans against “the expensive life” were used and “Martinique sé à nou, Martinique sé pa ta yo” (Martinique it is with us, Martinique it is not with them).

Jégo, who had announced that he would remain on the spot and that it would be necessary to resolve the crisis, which has paralysed the Guadeloupe for 20 days, left the island on Sunday evening – a departure immediately denounced as a sign of “contempt”. But no decision was announced and a meeting of the ministers concerned was to be held Tuesday.

We have acted, said Jégo, “to give a description of the implementation” of the 132 measurements negotiated for eight days and which, according to him “will change the life of the Inhabitants of Guadeloupe”. But especially to examine the “cut-off point”, the requirement of the “Collective against Exploitation”, which is pushing for an increase in the minimum wage of 200 euros, and new salary proposals for employers.

For Jégo, this “last stumbling block does not relate to the State, it is a conflict between workers and employers”.

The signing of the agreement, according to the negotiators, is subject to a green light from Matignon for its financing: 108 million euros.