Travay é Peyizan

Since 20 January, our country has undergone an unprecedented upheaval that everyone describes as an historic movement. In response to the call of 49 organisations – unions, political and cultural associations, consumer protection groups, and those representing environmental activists, workers, youth, persons with disabilities, retirees, artists and creators, farmers and peasants, fishermen, artisans and small businesses – the people of Guadeloupe burst onto the political scene, showing that the country is theirs.

After watching the first three days of negotiations on radio and television, they understood the game quickly. They witnessed the irresponsibility and disregard of employers, elected officials, and the representative of the French government. They immediately saw the reality of the profiteer's camp, the Liyannaj Kont Pwofitasyon (LKP), and the camp of the criminals, Kan Yo.

Faced with this situation and in response the call of the collective Liyannaj Kont Pwofitasyon, which they recognised as their form of leadership in the struggle, Guadeloupians demonstrated by the tens of thousands. From 16 to 20 February, the number of protesters gradually increased from 25,000 to 40,000 to 100,000. They rose up against the aggression displayed by thousands of mobile police officers and special troops deployed in Guadeloupe by the French government with the complicity of certain elected officials.

Citizens of Guadeloupe united to address and demand immediate solutions to a dire situation, particularly the shortages of various commodities and petrol. Under the request and control of the LKP, production was maintained in order to feed and sustain the population during the strike.

PROMOTING NEW SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS

Today, mobilisation continues despite the suspension of the general strike. The mobilisation forced the French government and local officials to sign an agreement on 26 February designed to increase the minimum wage by €200. The mobilisation further succeeded in imposing the signing of a general memorandum of agreement on 4 March.

The goal is to promote new social relations, which is expressed in the preamble to the Jacques Bino Agreement (named after a trade union leader who was killed during protest):

'Considering that the economic and social conditions existing in Guadeloupe follow the model of the plantation economy. Considering that this economy is based on the abuse of dominant positions, which generates injustice. Considering that these injustices affect both the workers and internal economic growth... Considering the need to break down these barriers by creating a new economic order, calling for an adjustment of the appreciation of the work of each (owners and employees) and promoting new social relationships.'

NOTHING WILL BE LIKE BEFORE

Everyone acknowledges that nothing will be like before, nothing can be like before. This feeling, this liyannaj, finds its origin in the struggle that workers in Guadeloupe – with the support of the population – have been driven to undertake to maintain the independence of trade unions, and to resist anti-union repression, racial discrimination and lay-offs.

This resistance was manifested in particular by:

- The struggle for independence among the working class, particularly the unions against the social dialogue of compromise and class collaboration through social forums
- The struggle for respect for 27 May, symbolised by the struggle for the release of Michel Madasssamy in late May and early June 2001
- The long and difficult conflicts, such as the struggle at Destrelland Carrefour, Danone, where workers and their organisations still face the contempt békés patterns supported by the colonial power, which did not hesitate to use systematically dozens of police and mobile gendarmes at their disposal
- The struggle of the former employees of the Farm Campeche to preserve their livelihoods and farmland in Guadeloupe
- The fight for the Free Union of Free Peoples of the Caribbean driven by the Association of Workers and Peoples of the Caribbean (ATPC) created in December 2002 in Guadeloupe, in particular through the struggle for the sovereignty of the people of Haiti (in defending Haiti we defend ourselves)
- The revolution in South America, including Bolivia, Venezuela and Ecuador.

LKP: PLIS KI LIYANNAJ, ON LESPWI

This has been expressed today in the mobilisation that we have seen for two months and through the unity of these 49 organisations, a union between people and the LKP.

This imposes a responsibility on the elected officials:

‘We are not heard in Parliament… The movement initiated by LKP has managed to achieve what parliamentarians in vain have tried to ask of the French Government, in particular in relation to the greater control over fuel prices...’

These were the words of MP and Chairman of the Region Victorin Lurel at a signing of the Memorandum of Agreement to suspend the general strike on 4 March 2009, as quoted by the newspaper France Antilles, 6 March 2009.

Since the president of France raised the idea of the Estates General on 19 February – initially launched by the presidents of the General and Regional Councils of Guadeloupe – Guadeloupians have witnessed a political offensive concerning this conceptualisation from the minister of colonies, the prefect, and also certain political organisations.

All of them spend their time scorning workers and youth. They demonstrate their inability to solve the problems facing the masses while supporting colonial institutions which have been based on racial discrimination throughout the past 400 years. Now, they suddenly want to concoct a ‘future’ through their Estates General, their congress, and their consultations, that is through the French colonial institutions.

And they continue to do everything like before.

Do they not understand the message? Do they have short-term memories? What right do they have to do this? Who has given them a mandate for that?

But how can they do otherwise? They are subordinate to the colonial institutions.

It is the right of the people of Guadeloupe to decide their own future! The militants of Travay é Peyizan argue that what has been happening since 20 January is a genuine movement of class struggle. The platform of demands developed by the LKP collective with the masses expresses the will of the people of Guadeloupe to end social oppression and national oppression. It is up to the people to define the shape, pace and time of any change! It must be reiterated that only we, the people of Guadeloupe, can say what we want, through institutions created by us and for us.

The movement that began on 20 January shows that the people and workers of Guadeloupe need to have elected representatives at their service, elected officials accountable to them, whom they can monitor and revoke at any time. Activists of Travay é Peyizan believe that only a national constituent assembly can meet this need. They believe that to carry out the fight for the constituent assembly it is necessary to have a tool that will succeed in achieving this: an organisation, a party and a front.

These militants are raising the perspective of building an independent workers’ party, separate from institutions. They are seeking to implement a party that struggles for the independence of the working-class, and for the unity of the peoples of the region, for the Free Union of Free Peoples of the Caribbean.

* Liyannaj Kont Pwofitasyon (LKP) is a social movement comprised of trade unions and social organisations.
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/.