[Marxism] France proposes to raise salaries to end Guadeloupe violence - International Herald Tribune

[sabocat59@xxxxxxx]

http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/02/19/america/france.php

France proposes to raise salaries to end Guadeloupe violence    

The Associated Press Published: February 19       

  BASSE-TERRE, Guadeloupe: Rioters fired at the police, stormed a city hall and 
burned several stores in a third night of violence on Guadeloupe, officials 
said Thursday, as France proposed raises for low-paid workers to end a 
monthlong strike.

 More than 500 police officers were deployed overnight across the French 
Caribbean island, with dozens arriving by helicopter in the southern coastal 
town of Sainte-Anne, where youths forced their way into the city hall. The 
building was not vandalized, but several businesses were looted and set on 
fire, Mayor Richard Yacou said. Early Thursday, the police dismantled 
barricades that protesters had set up on roads to the main airport, enabling 
dozens of tourists to depart. At least 39 people were detained for questioning 
overnight. Firefighters were pelted with rocks by rioters as they responded to 
28 incidents, said Nicolas Desforges, the island's prefect. Rioters also shot 
at the police in the tourist resort town of Gosier, and at least five stores or 
restaurants were set ablaze in several towns overnight, said Guadeloupe's 
subprefect, Stephane Grauvogel. No injuries were reported.  
The only fatality thus far has been a union activist who was shot and killed 
Tuesday. The government blamed rioters, but a protest leader, Elie Domota, 
questioned that conclusion and called for an "in-depth investigation to really 
determine what happened, because the circumstances are troubling." 

The LKP Collective, headed by Domota, and which organized the strike, planned 
another protest Thursday morning. Joblessness and poverty lie just beyond the 
island's white-sand beaches, groves of palm trees and all-inclusive resorts. 
The unemployment rate on Guadeloupe hit 22.7 percent in 2007, according to the 
most recent data available from France's national statistics bureau. That 
compares with 8.3 percent in mainland France that year. About 12.5 percent of 
Guadeloupe's residents live in poverty, compared with 6.5 percent in mainland 
France, according to a 2006 report by the Guadeloupe Regional 
Health Observatory. 

Strikers in Guadeloupe and nearby Martinique are demanding a monthly raise of 
€200, or $250, for low-paid workers, who now earn about €900 a month. 
Government officials met overnight in Paris to find solutions. Prime Minister 
François Fillon announced a plan on RTL radio Thursday morning that includes 
extra government benefits totaling nearly €200 a month for low-income workers. 
Fillon said the employers, not the state, would foot the bill for the pay 
increases. The issue of who would pay for a raise - one of the strikers' main 
demands - has stymied negotiations in the past. Victorin Lurel, president of 
Guadeloupe's regional council, demanded that the government make a stronger 
effort to restore calm across the island. President Nicolas Sarkozy of France 
planned to host a meeting of elected officials from France's overseas 
departments Thursday evening "to respond to the anxiety, the worry and a 
certain form of despair of our compatriots overseas," he said during a 
TV appearance. The violence has led thousands of tourists to cancel vacations 
to Guadeloupe and Martinique, hurting scores of businesses, including 
restaurants, hotels and car rental agencies, during the islands' peak winter 
tourist season.            
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