Solidarity with Guadeloupe, Martinique, Reunion, Guyana

Solidarity with the struggle of the workers, peasants, youth and people of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Reunion, Guyana, Kanaky and the Comoros
After one month of contemptuous silence, Sarkozy addressed the people of the colonies.
With unlimited cynicism, he said that he shares their “feeling of injustice” and denounced those who profit from the situation and the super-profits which increase prices.
That has lasted for decades, and it is only today that the representative of the colonial power, of the interests of the monopolies which are growing rich on the backs of the workers and peasants, discovers the injustice of which the colonized people are victims!
Behind this paternalistic statement there is fear! Fear in the face of the powerful social movement which started in Guadeloupe and which involves the French colonies one after the other. This movement of a general strike, supported by the vast majority of the populations, expresses their refusal to pay for the crisis intensified by the mechanisms of colonial domination which condemns large sectors of the population to misery.
There is also the fear of the bourgeoisie to see solidarity developing in France and on an international level, which is seen in the flood of messages coming from organizations from all the countries, including from Africa (such as those from the trade-union organizations of Burkina Faso), and the increase in demonstrations.
The other aspect of the colonial policy is repression: the gendarmes sent in great number did nothing but increase the accumulated anger and recall the unpunished massacres of the 1960s. The demonstrators did not let themselves be intimidated.
Sarkozy and his government had to retreat on some points. “These are only promises,” “they remain vague” said the LKP [Lyannaj kont Pwofitasyon – Collective Against Exploitation – translator’s note] which correctly adds that one is far from “200 Euros for all," a demand which also resonates well among the workers and popular masses in France.
It is necessary to maintain and reinforce the pressure to win the social and political demands brought out by this movement.
This fight is ours.
Together with the colonized people, we say, “the time of colonies is over!”
Paris, February 20, 2009
Communist Party of the Workers of France
________________________________________
JOINT COMMUNIQUE
Support the workers of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyana and Reunion

For more than three weeks, the workers of Guadeloupe have been on a united and unlimited general strike. The general strike spread to Martinique, Guyana and Reunion. They are fighting against the high cost of living, low wages, layoffs and unemployment, for their dignity.
Their fight is ours, it is exemplary.
After the success of the great mobilizations of January 29 [in France – translator’s note] and before the one for March 19, we give all our solidarity to the people of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guiana and Reunion who proclaim with the same force that the people will not pay for the crisis!
The fight of the workers of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyana and Reunion is ours.
All together, Solidarity!
All out into the street Monday February 16 at 6:00 PM, Place de Clichy
Appeal signed by: Democracy Socialism Alternative (ADS), Alter-Ekolo [network of ecologists – translator’s note], Libertarian Alternative (AL), Association of Unitary Communists, National Coordination of Unitary Collectives for an alternative to liberalism (CNCU), the Federation, the Alternatives, Workers Struggle (LO), New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA), Communist Party of the Workers of France (PCOF), Left Party (PG).