Thanks to Pablo Morales, editor of the NACLA Report on the Americas (www.nacla.org), for granting permission to publish this excerpt from an article that appears in full in their May edition.
This is the second part of the article that was carried last week about the 44 day mass strike that was launched in Guadeloupe on January 20 to protest the unbearably high cost of living.
By Yarimar Bonilla
Yarimar Bonilla teaches anthropology at the University of Virginia.
On January 25, after nearly a week of social paralysis, the French state, locally represented by the prefect, Nicolas Desforges, agreed to meet with the leadership of the LKP, the coalition that wove together 48 organizations to call a general strike demanding an end to profiteering and the expensive life in Guadeloupe. The negotiations included local employers, LKP leaders, French government bureaucrats, and local politicians. The meetings were broadcast live on TV and radio, unexpectedly resulting in strengthened support for the LKP. “For three days we were able to see with our own eyes the incompetence of the French state, the shamelessness of the employers, the uselessness of the politicians, and the fierceness of the LKP,” a Guadeloupe resident told me.
Despite the publicity and massive local support, negotiations ended after three days when Desforges left the negotiation table. As the French state stalled, 20,000, then 40,000, then 65,000 demonstrators marched in the streets in support of the LKP. There were also incidents of violence, particularly at night, when many young demonstrators set fire to cars and trash bins and vandalized businesses and public offices.
On February 4, Overseas Minister Yves Jego arrived in Guadeloupe to negotiate with LKP representatives, this time behind closed doors. Demonstrators rallied outside the prefecture in Basse Terre, where the negotiations were held, setting up drumming circles where they danced and sang through the night. On February 8, after a 20-hour negotiating session, the LKP negotiators believed an agreement had been reached. But as LKP representatives and local elected officials made their way to sign a finalized agreement, they learned that Jego was on a plane to France; he later said he had to first consult the Parisian government.
With both the prefect and the overseas minister having abandoned negotiations, 100,000 Guadeloupeans took to the streets, nearly a quarter of the territory’s population. The strike spread to Martinique, where a coalition called the February 5th Collective also declared a strike around similar issues.
After almost a month of peaceful protest, the LKP declared that the movement had “walked enough”. Barricades assembled out of palm branches, old tires, and emptied cars, sprang up across the territory, blocking major thoroughfares, and for the week of February16–21, Guadeloupe came to a complete halt. One LKP supporter told me that the most important aspect of the barricades was the relationships of solidarity and partage (sharing) that were developed. Neighbours brought food, coffee, and cigarettes to the protesters, spending time on the barricade talking about the recent events, the goals of the movement, and the actions to come.
Although the barricades were a community space during the day, at night violence escalated, as bands of disaffected youth, mostly young men, fired shots into the air and set fire to barricades, cars, garbage containers, and even local businesses. Some joined the barricades as a form of protest, but others sought to profit by charging people to pass through the barricades or by looting local stores. This type of protest, where labor conflicts are often accompanied by “unofficial” violent actions at night, is not uncommon in the French Antilles, or in French society more widely, as evidenced by the Parisian riots of 2005. But in this case the French state responded in a particularly confrontational way, deploying hundreds of gendarmes to the region.
The gendarmes arrested more than 50 demonstrators, according to news reports, including Alex Lollia, an LKP delegate and the head of the multi-industry Confederation of United Workers, who was hospitalized after a confrontation at a barricade. Professional and amateur journalists documented these clashes, and the images of heavily armed French troops facing unarmed local protesters stoked the fires even more.
On the night of February 17, the violence reached a new level when Jacques Bino, an LKP supporter and union militant, found himself heading toward a flaming barricade on his way home from an LKP meeting. As he began to turn his car around, he was fatally shot. According to the authorities, the shot came from young protesters who mistook Bino for a police officer. The investigation into his death is still ongoing, but many Guadeloupeans believe that Bino was murdered to weaken or discredit the movement.
Bino’s funeral turned into a massive demonstration, some 25,000 mourners turning out to pay him tribute. This time even the French president took notice. On February 19 Nicolas Sarkozy met with Antillean elected officials in Paris. In a public address to the Antillean population, broadcast on the French overseas TV network, he promised to solve the crisis and recognized the need for France to rethink its relationship with its overseas departments. However, most Guadeloupeans remained skeptical. That Sarkozy’s statement was transmitted on the overseas network rather than a French national network, was taken as a sign of the Antilles’ continued marginality to the French nation.
Soon after Sarkozy’s address, LKP leaders returned to the negotiating table. The powerful economic elite in Guadeloupe, represented by the local chapter of the French business association, refused to reach an agreement. However, over the course of the strike a new employer organization had emerged, representing smaller, local Guadeloupean business owners, many of whom have also long struggled against the economic monopoly of the white elites. Along with local elected officials, these business owners reached an “inter-professional agreement” that would grant a raise of 200 euros (about US$265.00) to the lowest-paid workers. On February 26 the LKP delegation, local employers’ associations, and local elected officials officially signed this agreement — called the Jacques Bino Accord.
The prefect declared the general strike over, but it continued until March 4, when a final 165-point agreement was signed and the LKP called for a suspension of the strike. Schools and banks reopened, and many Guadeloupeans returned to work. Smaller strikes and negotiations continued as workers sought to implement the Bino accord in their workplaces. LKP delegates continue to negotiate several of the other elements of the agreement, including a finalized list of reduced-price grocery items. Martinique reached an agreement on March 11, but a new movement erupted on the French island of Réunion, in the Indian Ocean, and a general strike was declared in France for March 19—fueling fears that the Antillean crisis might spread through the rest of the Republic.
Although labor strikes are common in the French Antilles, the impact, massive support, and broad agenda of the LKP strike was unique in Guadeloupe’s history. For many, this month and a half of uprising marks the beginning of a new chapter of political and social activism in the French Antilles. It is uncertain what the long-term impact of the LKP will be, but one thing is clear, as the new slogan on T-shirts and banners in post-strike Guadeloupe asserts: “Nothing will ever be like it was before!”
