As strike paralyzes islands, anger builds over slow French government response

For now, Dominique Dubois counts herself among the lucky ones. She still has a few groceries in the refrigerator, enough gas in her car to last about five days and, most importantly, a job. But her employer has already threatened to reduce her hours to part-time and the possibility of being laid-off is looming.

In the 23 years that she’s lived on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, Dubois said, she has never seen an economic crisis like this one, and the hardest part is not knowing how or when the impasse will end. So far, the French government’s response has done little to ease the tensions.

Guadeloupe has been paralyzed by a general strike for nearly a month, with banks, post offices, and schools closed and port activity disrupted. Grocery store shelves are nearly empty, tourists are staying away and the lines are hours long at the few gas stations still open for business. On Feb. 13, the local government announced on its web site that 42 stations had been commandeered to allow people to fill up and the police were instructed to enforce the decision.

The far-reaching strike highlights the fact that Guadeloupe is a "department" of France which means that it is an overseas territory largely run by the French government. The island’s residents are French citizens and their currency is the euro. The strikers charge that the French government has ignored their plight in the global financial crisis. They say families are struggling to survive on an island where expenses are high and poverty and unemployment levels are double those on the French mainland. 

“We’re living day to day; we’re getting by, but economically this is a disaster,” said Dubois, a 45-year-old mother of two, who works in a real estate office in Pointe-à-Pitre, the island’s largest city. Since October, her company has reduced its staff to about 4 people from 10. High unemployment coupled with the global economic crisis was already a concern for many of the islands’ 450,000 residents but now the situation has deteriorated beyond the pale, she said.

“There’s a lot of pain,” Dubois said by telephone. “We’re all suffering.”

What started out as a protest at the pumps against high gas prices has evolved into a near-revolt that has already spread to neighboring Martinique. The grievances include the high cost of living, unemployment, low wages and high rent, and protesters have put forth more than 130 demands, including, the stickiest point, a salary increase of 200 euros ($260) for the lowest-paid employees.

The French government is negotiating with the leadership of a collective representing some 47 trade unions, political organizations and associations but many islanders are frustrated with the French response, which some say is exacerbating the confrontation.

For many, President Nicolas Sarkozy’s failure to mention Guadeloupe in his Feb. 5 televised interview addressing the economic crisis was the first slight, since the protest was already well underway by that time. Sarkozy addressed the situation for the first time on Feb. 13 when he ordered the government to review its policy toward overseas territories, according to a statement on the president’s web site.

“Let us beware of false ‘good ideas’ for the short term that would end this conflict but compromise the future of those territories,” Sarkozy said about the possibility of raising salaries at a cabinet meeting. French riot police arrived in Martinique Feb. 12 to keep order, the Associated Press reported.

The secretary of state for overseas territories, Yves Jego, traveled to the island at the beginning of February promising he would stay until a solution was reached but returned to Paris precipitously, ahead of a scheduled meeting with local officials.

“People went to a meeting and he had already left; it was disrespectful,” said Marie-Christine Berthol de Mercico, a French West Indian in Paris. “We don’t behave with people the way we’d behave with dogs.”

Jego returned to the island 48 hours later with two negotiators and assurances that “the entire government was working toward a response” to their concerns, but the damage had been done already. In addition, the government has maintained that the salary dispute over the 200 euros is an employer/employee matter in which it must not interfere, a position that many said was akin to leaders absolving themselves of responsibility.

In his statement Sarkozy said the government had taken the matter seriously from the start of the conflict and remains committed to addressing the social crisis.

Berthol, who was born in France to a father from Guadeloupe but raised in Martinique, where her 67-year-old retired mother still lives, said the strike was a culmination of years of resentment and of being treated like “second-class French” finally taking their toll. She, like other West Indian French with aging parents on the islands, feels personally touched.

“If I was over there, I would be on strike too,” she said. “They’ve arrived at a point where they have nothing to lose.”

Berthol echoed the views of several people who said the islands are only mentioned when officials are seeking votes or when there’s a hurricane.

“We’re angry at this government that does nothing for us,” said Suzanne Charron, 62, born in Guadeloupe to parents from Martinique and who now works in law enforcement in Paris. “I agree completely with what’s happening over there and I hope they don’t give up.”

Like most people, Dubois said, she agreed on principle with the main reason for the strike — the cost of living — but she has started questioning the methods of demonstrators, especially those who say they won’t give in. She cited a myriad of ways the strike was turning negative: rampant price gouging, the practice of piercing another’s gas tank to steal fuel, those forced by intimidation and threats to close their businesses.

There were examples closer to home too: her 12-year-old daughter has been out of school for four weeks, watching the adults around her worry about their future; her partner, who does small home renovations, has lost 80 percent of his business, has no way of getting supplies since the shops are closed and has no gas to travel to job sites.

And among her friends: a woman whose only income was selling fried foods at an outdoor market has no cooking fuel or charcoal, nor any way of getting them or of feeding her young daughter; another friend’s computer services business will shut permanently at the end of the month, leaving many more unemployed than when the strike started.

Dubois said she wanted a peaceful end to the standoff with the opposing sides exchanging real dialogue that addresses the underlying economic problems and goes beyond the temptation to fixate on the racial tensions smarting just below the surface of the conflict.

“We’re in the process of killing the economy,” she said. “It’s the cat biting its tail.”

More GlobalPost dispatches from France correspondent Mildrade Cherfils:

Sri Lanka conflict spurs demonstrations in France

An economic downturn? Time for a strike

Barack’s ambassador emeritus in Paris