Published: February 17, 2009
POINTE-À-PITRE, Guadeloupe: As President Nicolas Sarkozy prepared Tuesday to meet with labor unions and employer representatives to try to head off mounting unrest over France's declining economy, a month-long general strike on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe escalated into widespread rioting, raising fears that political violence would spread to other French territories.
Protesters ransacked shops and torched vehicles in Guadeloupe overnight as a strike over the cost of living escalated, and one senior local official said the island was "on the verge of revolt."
Trees and smoking car wrecks were strewn across streets in Guadeloupe's largest town, Pointe-à-Pitre, and in other areas including Sainte-Rose in the north after a night of clashes between the police and protesters, although no injuries were reported.
Tear gas was fired during a standoff overnight between a group of 60 protesters and two squadrons of riot police, according to the French newspaper Le Monde, which reported that some protesters were armed with shotguns.
Interior Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie issued a statement appealing for "calm, responsibility and restraint." The French government, which last week deployed 100 riot police officers to Guadeloupe, has become worried about violence spreading to other French territories.
In mainland France, 1 million to 2.5 million people took to the streets Jan. 29 in the largest general strike in three years. French unions are demanding that Sarkozy better protect jobs and consumers during the global economic crisis, and are already planning new strikes for March.
Sarkozy called a "social summit" earlier this month in a televised address during which he sought to reassure a nation nervous after the Jan. 29 strike, which hobbled transport systems, schools, hospitals and mail services.
French university professors have also been protesting higher education reforms for three weeks, and have called their own strike for Thursday.
In the back of everyone's minds are massive protests that shut France down for weeks in the winter of 1995 and sapped President Jacques Chirac's appetite for reform for years to come.
Despite putting in place a €26 billion, or $33 billion, economic stimulus package and pledging billions of euros more to aid the car industry, Sarkozy is coming under increasing criticism for seeming to do more to help businesses than average French workers. Reversing that view is the president's challenge at the meeting Wednesday, which will include the leaders of France's five labor unions and three employers' organizations.
The following day Sarkozy plans to meet with lawmakers and local leaders from Guadeloupe and Martinique at the Élysée Palace in an attempt to calm the situation, French news media reported. He has said he may address the Guadeloupe crisis when he gives another televised address the same day.
Victorin Lurel, the Socialist president of Guadeloupe's regional council, told France Info radio that the island was "on the verge of revolt," adding, "there is a tense standoff between the security forces and demonstrators."
The demonstrations, which have been coordinated by an alliance of about 50 unions and associations known as LKP or "Liyannaj Kont Pwofitasyon" - "Stand Up Against Exploitation" in local dialect - have been peaceful. But the tone has grown angrier recently as the government in Paris has refused to budge on a demand for a €200 monthly increase for low-paid workers.
The LKP leader, Elie Domota, warned in a television interview Saturday that "if anyone injures a member of the LKP or a striker on Guadeloupe, there will be deaths."
Guadeloupe, a French overseas department, has been brought to a standstill for nearly a month by strikes and demonstrations over high prices for food and other necessities. The situation has degenerated over the past two days as protesters have set up roadblocks in different parts of the island and police have made dozens of arrests.
Living costs are high on the French islands, which depend heavily on imports and use the euro. Prices for many staples are far higher than in mainland France, while salaries are generally lower and unemployment is high.
The strike also is exposing racial and class tensions on islands where a largely white elite, many the descendants of colonial settlers, makes up only 1 percent of the population but controls most businesses.
Fears are rising in the government that similar unrest would spread to other French territories, the newspapers Le Monde and La Tribune reported. The popular far-left leader Olivier Besancenot, who has been a key figure behind recent protests in France, was planning to travel to Guadeloupe on Friday, according to the newspaper Le Figaro.
France's National Travel Agencies organization has reported that 10,000 tourists have canceled planned vacations in Martinique and Guadeloupe. Several hotels in Guadeloupe reported Monday that they could not accept guests because protesters were congregated outside and staff did not show up to work.
The airport in Point-à-Pitre was closed, according to American Airlines, which canceled flights to the island.
On Monday night, groups of hooded protesters blocked roads at several points around the town of Le Gosier on the south coast of the island, burning rubbish bins and wooden pallets.
The police detained about 50 people on Monday after coming under a barrage of stones as they tried to take down barricades on Guadeloupe, said Nicolas Desforges, the island's top government official. Most of those detained were released as a large crowd gathered outside the main police station in Pointe-à-Pitre.
Lines of cars snaked outside of gas stations in Martinique as islanders tried to fill their tanks.
Strikers allowed 28 of the island's 85 gas stations to be resupplied, but forced small shop owners, who had opened over the weekend, to close again. They also blockaded industrial zones.
Matthew Cowen, a British technology consultant who lives on Martinique, said Fort-de-France, the island's main town, was encircled by barricades, and garbage has been piling up along the island's narrow streets.
"I had a colleague who tried to cycle to the office but he was told under no circumstances would he be allowed to pass through," said Cowen, who lives on the outskirts of Fort-de-France. "It seems there is a certain hardening of the movement and there are a lot of people behind it."
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