(BBC) A union leader who helped to organise a strike that paralyzed Martinique nearly two years ago, has been found guilty of inciting racial hate.
The case stems from a note that Ghislaine Joachim-Arnaud wrote in a visitor’s book at a local TV station following an interview.
She wrote in Creole that Martinique did not belong to the “bekes,” primarily white descendants of slave holders who control much of the local economy.
She called them “a gang of profit-making bekes, thieves. We will kick them out,” and stated that Martinique belonged to the black majority.
Joachim-Arnaud was ordered to pay a $4,000 penalty, nearly $3,000 in lawyers fees and to publicize the court’s ruling in a local newspaper.
Joachim-Arnaud helped lead the 2009 strike over high prices and low wages that were fuelled by resentment of the bekes controlling much of the economy.
