The assault on the Guadeloupe strikers has begun! ALL OUT!
February 16, 2009 by B. Ross Ashley
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Dear Sisters and Brothers:
The French colonialist police and army forces have begun the repression against the people of Guadeloupe, who have organized a nationwide general strike since Jan. 20 around a 146-point platform of fundamental demands. More than fifty people have been arrested thus far, including Robert Fabert and Charlie Lendo of the UGTG trade union federation, in a brutal onslaught that began early Monday, February 16.
Picket lines that had been set up in various places across the island, including in Gosier and Sainte-Rose, were violently repressed by the French troops, with brutal beatings. This is the latest phone message info we just received from Guadeloupe.
A communiqué issued by the LKP Strike Committee a few hours before this latest phone message [see below, in French] announced the beginning of the repression.
An international labor delegation is being put together to travel to Guadeloupe later today or first thing tomorrow morning. The presence of a U.S. trade unionist and/or or recognized progressive leader on this delegation would be extremely important.
A communique has been issued by the ILC and will be sent to you once it is translated into English.
This is extremely serious and requires our immediate attention.
We urge all readers of the ILC International Newsletter -- and all supporters of democratic rights -- to please send protest statements to the French Embassy in Washington, DC to demand an immediate end to the repression, the release of all the prisoners, and a return to the negotiating table, so that the legitimate demands of the people of Guadeloupe can be met.
Your statements should be sent to (or called into) the French Embassy in the U.S. TODAY!
Telephone: (202) 944-6000
Fax: (202) 944-6072
E-mail: info@ambafrance-us.org
Please send a copy of your statement to <ugtg@wanadoo.fr> and <ilcinfo@earthlink.net>.
Thanks in advance for your support,
In solidarity,
Alan Benjamin and Ed Rosario
for the ILC/US
*****************
Communiqué de LKP
Comme il l'avait promis Jégo a décidé de réprimer LKP et le peuple de Gwadloup.
En ce sens, les forces de répression tabassent à tout va. Ils ont déjà arrêté une dizaine de personnes au Gosier et deux à Sainte-Rose, manifestants ou non. En plus tout un bataillon encercle en ce moment une cinquantaine de personnes (manifestants ou non) toujours sur le Gosier les enserrant de plus en plus avec l'intention bien décidée de frapper et d'arrêter.
Serge A'PATOUT
16 fév 09
********************
MXGM Solidarity Statement
To our Sisters and Brothers in Guadaloupe and Martinique, You Are Not Alone!
The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) denounces in the strongest terms the threatening posture of the French government to the peoples of Guadaloupe and Martinique. We will not sit idly by and let the French government continue to treat our brothers and sisters as colonial subjects, or worse. We stand in full support of the just demands of the people's movements of Guadaloupe and Martinique for economic, social, and cultural rights, human dignity, and self-determination.
MXGM serves notice to the French government that the resolution to the crisis in Guadaloupe and Martinique can only be addressed through diplomatic means in full accord with international law. Any invasion or use of force to crush these political conflicts would constitute a clear human rights violation. This crisis will only be justly resolved when the French government fully complies with all 146 of the people's demands. Nothing less will be satisfactory.
No Invasion!
Respect, Honor, and Fulfill ALL 146 Demands!
Self-Determination for Guadeloupe and Martinique!
Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
Friday, February 13, 2009
www.mxgm.org
info@mxgm.org
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B. Ross Ashley
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Support statements from the ILC and the POI in France:
Dear friends, dear comrades,
On this Monday February 16th, we have received the following call for help from Guadeloupe that has been brought to a standstill these 28 days by the general strike against high living costs and for pay raises; it has been sent us by the committee Lyannaj kont Pwofitasyon (a strike committee comprising 49 organisations among which are all the island's trade unions):
Declaration of the LKP
"As he had promised, Jego* has decided to slam down on LKP and on the people of Gwadloup.
In this sense, the repressive forces are hitting as hard as they can. They have already arrested some ten people in the town of Gosier and two in Sainte Rose, whether they were demonstrators or just passers-by. Besides, an entire battalion has been detailed to surround some fifty people, (demonstrators or passers-by) still in the town of Gosier; they are closing in, obviously meaning to hit them and arrest them."
*Yves JEGO: a minister of the French government, as Guadeloupe is one of the last French colonies.
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We have learned that among the first 50 persons arrested are comrades Charly LENDO, one of the leaders of the LKP and Victor FABERT, the former deputy general secretary of the UGTG (General Union of Guadeloupan Workers) and editor in chief of the bulletin "Travayié et Payzan", member of the International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples.
We are also informing you on the statement of the Independent Workers' Party (POI) of France:
"Statement
Halt the repression in Guadeloupe
We have just received the most serious and worrying information from Guadeloupe.
For the first time during these four weeks of general strike, a large number of police forces mustered by the French government have just brutally intervened against strike pickets that are blocking the major thoroughfares of the island. We have also heard that workers and activists have been wounded and strikers arrested.
The POI denounces any attempt by the French State to use force to break the general strike in Guadeloupe.
The POI calls on all the organisations that claim they side with the labour movement and democracy to demand without delay, the end of police intervention, the release of the jailed activists and that demands be met.
It is worth noting that for 26 days the "Lyiannaj Kont Pwofitasyon" (LKP) and the 49 organisations that it comprises, especially the trade unions, insist that 133 demands be met - especially the demand of a 200 Euro raise of the Minimum Wage - articulated by Guadeloupe's workers and labouring population.
The present situation originates from the government's refusal to meet those demands.
The POI reaffirms, as it has never stopped doing since January 20th, while fully respecting the prerogatives of the LKP Strike committee and the 49 organisations composing it, that it fully supports the general strike and the demands that have motivated it.
-Halt repression!
-Release all the jailed people NOW!
-Meet the demands!
The International Liaison Committee of Workers and People calls on all the activists, labour and democratic organisations internationally to take every measure to demand from the French government:
- End repression NOW!
- Release all the jailed people NOW!
- Meet the demands!
We call on labour organisations worldwide to send their statements to the French embassies everywhere across the world and to the French authorities.
Yves JEGO Secrétaire d'Etat Chargé de l'Outre-mer
27 rue Oudinot 75007 PARIS
Fax
International : 00 331 53 69 28 04
France : 01 53 69 28 04
Pierre Vimont
French Embassador to the United States
Washington, DC
Telephone: (202) 944-6000
Fax: (202) 944-6072
E-mail: info@ambafrance-us.org
Send copies to Collectif des 47 organisations
UGTG Rue Paul Lacavé 97 110 Point à Pitre Guadeloupe
Fax
International 00 335 90 89 08 70
France 05 90 89 08 70
Mail address : ugtg@wanadoo.fr
Send a copy to Daniel Gluckstein
Coordinator of the ILC
87 rue du Faubourg St Denis 75010 Paris France
Tel (331) 48 01 88 28
Eit.ilc@fr.oleane.com
In solidarity,
Daniel Daniel Gluckstein
Coordinator of the ILC
Paris February 16th 2009
B. Ross Ashley 358 days ago