[Marxism] News from Travayé è Payzan (Workers and Peasants), in Guadeloupe.

[nada]

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

We received yesterday an update from Robert Fabert, past Deputy 
Secretary General of the UGTG trade union federation and current editor 
of/ Travayé è Payzan/ (Workers and Peasants), in Guadeloupe.

Brother Fabert writes:

"After the president and prime minister of France intervened directly, 
negotiations between the French authorities and the LKP Strike 
Collective were renewed late in the afternoon of Thursday, February 19, 
and they continued throughout the day of February 20. Discussions are 
moving very slowly because the proposals put forward by the French 
government appear to be more like assistance to the poorest families 
rather than an across-the-board wage increase.

"This is what the negotiating team of the LKP told the Strikers' 
Assembly, which then prompted the employers to propose a 50 Euro wage 
increase for all companies with less than 20 workers and 70 Euros with 
companies with over 20 workers. But we did not accept this offer. 
Negotiations will continue Monday at 11 a.m. They will be preceded by 
meetings with mediators.

"The mobilizations are continuing throughout the weekend. Some of the 
barricades will be opened temporarily today [Saturday, February 21] to 
allow folks to participate in the many planned demonstrations that will 
lead up to the funeral procession for our comrade who was assassinated 
the evening of February 16. The mayor of Abymes and the Church have 
called for a silent march, beginning at the site where our comrade was 
killed."

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

We also received yesterday a very large PDF file with 60 photos taken by 
the Lyannaj Kont Prowfitasyon- Duport Production Team. The photos were 
taken the morning of February 16 at the Gosier barricade, where the 
confrontation between the French CRS riot police and the picketers took 
place. You will recall that 70 picketers were arrested, and one striker 
was badly injured. All were released from jail a few hours later by the 
mass pressure of thousands upon thousands of people who had assembled in 
front of the police station in Pointe-à-Pître.

We have uploaded 19 of these photos onto the Snapfish website. Anyone 
wishing to view these photos and/or download them for their publications 
or for other forms of distribution should please click on the following 
link:

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=255551148/a=161406190_161406190/t_=161406190

We want to thank all of you who have endorsed the Sign-On Letter to the 
French Ambassador in Washington. To date we have received close to 200 
endorsements, including from unions and community/political organizations.

*[If you haven't yet endorsed, please do so today, see below. You should 
send in your endorsement by midnight tonight, Sunday, February 22, so 
that your name is included in the letter we are sending to the French 
Ambassador tomorrow morning.*]

And please help us by forwarding the Sign-On Appeal below to your 
friends, co-workers, relatives, unions, organizations ... and beyond.

The French authorities have had to return to the negotiating table. This 
is a first step forward. Clearly, their intent to break the general 
strike by attacking the Gosier barricade on February 16 did not work; it 
only enraged the mobilized population, whose "people power" and 
determination forced the local authorities to release all the detained 
activists from jail.

The international solidarity movement is a key battlefield in this 
struggle. If we can focus the eyes of working people the world over on 
this struggle in Guadeloupe, if we can expand our solidarity, we could 
very well help the workers and people of Guadeloupe win their heartfelt 
demands. We must!

We thank you again for your support.

In solidarity,

*Ed Rosario* and* Alan Benjamin*,
For the ILC
International Liaison Committee of Workers & Peoples (ILC)
P.O. Box 40009, San Francisco, CA 94140.
Tel. (415) 641-8616; fax: (415) 626-1217.
To SUB/ UNSUBSCRIBE, contact ILC at <ilcinfo at earthlink.net>
website: ILC section in www.owcinfo.org