CYCLONE AND SOCIAL REVOLT ULTRAMARINES
1. The imprisonment of Gerard Jodar (1)
The months of July and August were very hot in New Caledonia. It all started with a routine layoff story that could almost raise a smile: an employee of the airline Aircal discovering that his father had traveled with his mistress on a flight Aircal, has expressed to his mother, violating professional secrecy to which it was held. The union to which the young woman returned is affiliated then applied for reinstatement, but the director was categorically opposed to any negotiation. Faced with this refusal to engage the union in question, USTKE triggered a strike that did not get more results. He then chose to peacefully occupy the airport in Noumea to protest the lack of social dialogue and protracted conflict. The authorities' response to this action was violent repression. Facing the brutal forces of the order say, a handful of protesters managed to take refuge in a plane that was open to escape the blows. Reflex is what has led the Court of Appeal of Noumea to condemn severely seven trade unionists, including the President of the USTKE, Gerard Jodar. The latter ecoppé one year in prison for "obstructing the flow of an aircraft!
Gerard Jodar, but oh no, sorry, it was Alex Lollia, is the LKP (or rather between the LKP? Is confusing) Still, the T-shirt does not make the man! 2. Silencing the USTKE
The heaviness of the sentence with the futility of the offense can only lead to speculation and many people consider Jodar as a political prisoner, imprisoned for more than an expression of his ideas for an act, finally paid a paltry and not premeditated. The USTKE through a press release published on its website on August 18, protests against the criminalization of the labor movement by the "State Sarkozian" and denounced "a state strategy relayed in its positioning in the ultra-liberal fraction of the Caledonian and employers in general with the right local who USTKE and its political wing, the Labour Party, have become a persistent threat, which could thwart their plans for huge enrichments at the expense of sustainable economic development. "
Oh this is the real Gerard Jodar, president of the USTKE. But wait and he is white?! Well gosh, it will not facilitate government propaganda to present to the public his union independence as a racist ... It is not nice, it will force Frederic Lefebvre, spokesman for the government to widen the meninges to discredit him and the trainer in the mud otherwise. Do not laugh, it's not easy when one is not accustomed to think. (Source: AFP Marc Le Chelard for Liberation)
3. Solidarity
The USTKE which claims independence and has received global justice in particular the strong support of José Bové, who maintains that union with a close relationship for many years, the NPA, the LKP course, but also the national CGT which considers, in a press release also dating August 18, that "these convictions are unjustifiable. They are a denial of democracy, abuse of power doubled from colonialist contempt to relent. They fall within the context of neo-colonialism that is the territory where the local and MEDEF representatives of the French government acting in collusion to try to suppress the first union of the archipelago. "The statement continues as follows: "The CGT is solemnly warned the government: fostering repression, the French authorities take responsibility for creating the conditions for a new period of unrest in the territory. Instead, everything must be effort to restore trade union freedoms on the island and encourage the necessary dialogue between all components of civil society. "
4. A fire and sword
In response to the arrest of its leader, the USTKE called a general strike. Started July 27, it has degenerated when the police tried to dislodge the violent blockades by protesters. They tried to resist and clashes ensued very hard. Kanak disadvantaged youth until this stage in the conflict office, then left them angry and explode during several days of riots have rocked the archipelago: cars burned, stores looted, etc.. The police came under gunfire and thirty policemen were injured mostly by various projectiles (cons next five wounded protesters according to official figures). Calm has returned momentarily around August 6, when a memorandum of agreement was finally reached with Aircal, including the payment of strike days. Nevertheless, Gerard Jodar and his companions remain behind bars.
5. LKP and USTKE in the crosshairs of government
similarities with what happened in Guadeloupe during the 44 days of general strikes are striking even though the magnitude of the movement initiated by the LKP is incommensurate with the main events of August Kanaky: the decay of a labor dispute with a refusal of dialogue from the patronage, collusion between state interests and big bosses, violent repression of peaceful and unarmed trade unionists when social conflict spills over public space, the kindling of a marginalized youth with no future that meets the institutional violence by a disorderly and uncontrolled violence, the criminalization of trade union action. Step by step the scheme's followed Guadeloupe in February and it shows a disturbing that the government has withheld any lesson from what happened in the Caribbean and is always willing to play with fire. Instead of accompanying social demands and try to provide answers, the government of Nicolas Sarkozy, as usual, made a choice at all repressive (we had another illustration at Montreuil, where a young man lost an eye after police violence unjustified and unjustifiable:
http://www.rue89.com/2009/07/12/a-montreuil-la-police-vise-les-manifestants-a-la-tete ).
6. The Eye of the Storm and peripheries
Despite sporadic bursts of shots, France Metropolitan, as the eye of the cyclone is until now been relatively calm despite thousands of layoffs and daily measures that seek to charge victims already of the crisis, its consequences (as the now well-known principle of privatization of profits but of sharing losses). After the suburbs, the devices are ultra-marine who rebel one after the other and may well end up catching a hexagon far muzzled by many union leaders subservient vis-à-vis the government. After the fire of New Caledonia, French Polynesia has entered into a general strike on August 17 to request a stay of redundancies and to demand action against high prices. In Martinique, the vast majority of service stations are again on strike to demand the fulfillment of promises made by the state and employers as an agreement to end conflict in early March. If this action as a warning shot, is likely to cripple the sister island, resume uncoordinated movement, without the other components of the February 5 Collective is certainly a mistake that the Government will not fail to exploit. More than ever, the union of all progressive sectors of society is the only way to foil the evil designs of the repressive apparatus and capable of upholding the legitimate claims that have emerged here and there.
4. A fire and sword
In response to the arrest of its leader, the USTKE called a general strike. Started July 27, it has degenerated when the police tried to dislodge the violent blockades by protesters. They tried to resist and clashes ensued very hard. Kanak disadvantaged youth until this stage in the conflict office, then left them angry and explode during several days of riots have rocked the archipelago: cars burned, stores looted, etc.. The police came under gunfire and thirty policemen were injured mostly by various projectiles (cons next five wounded protesters according to official figures). Calm has returned momentarily around August 6, when a memorandum of agreement was finally reached with Aircal, including the payment of strike days. Nevertheless, Gerard Jodar and his companions remain behind bars.
5. LKP and USTKE in the crosshairs of government
similarities with what happened in Guadeloupe during the 44 days of general strikes are striking even though the magnitude of the movement initiated by the LKP is incommensurate with the main events of August Kanaky: the decay of a labor dispute with a refusal of dialogue from the patronage, collusion between state interests and big bosses, violent repression of peaceful and unarmed trade unionists when social conflict spills over public space, the kindling of a marginalized youth with no future that meets the institutional violence by a disorderly and uncontrolled violence, the criminalization of trade union action. Step by step the scheme's followed Guadeloupe in February and it shows a disturbing that the government has withheld any lesson from what happened in the Caribbean and is always willing to play with fire. Instead of accompanying social demands and try to provide answers, the government of Nicolas Sarkozy, as usual, made a choice at all repressive (we had another illustration at Montreuil, where a young man lost an eye after police violence unjustified and unjustifiable:
http://www.rue89.com/2009/07/12/a-montreuil-la-police-vise-les-manifestants-a-la-tete ).
6. The Eye of the Storm and peripheries
Despite sporadic bursts of shots, France Metropolitan, as the eye of the cyclone is until now been relatively calm despite thousands of layoffs and daily measures that seek to charge victims already of the crisis, its consequences (as the now well-known principle of privatization of profits but of sharing losses). After the suburbs, the devices are ultra-marine who rebel one after the other and may well end up catching a hexagon far muzzled by many union leaders subservient vis-à-vis the government. After the fire of New Caledonia, French Polynesia has entered into a general strike on August 17 to request a stay of redundancies and to demand action against high prices. In Martinique, the vast majority of service stations are again on strike to demand the fulfillment of promises made by the state and employers as an agreement to end conflict in early March. If this action as a warning shot, is likely to cripple the sister island, resume uncoordinated movement, without the other components of the February 5 Collective is certainly a mistake that the Government will not fail to exploit. More than ever, the union of all progressive sectors of society is the only way to foil the evil designs of the repressive apparatus and capable of upholding the legitimate claims that have emerged here and there.
7. Social return in Guadeloupe
now remains to know what comes next that will Guadeloupe in September in their movement. Can they kowtow decently, giving up in battle when nothing is resolved, that the promises that have justified the suspension (not end) of the general strike were ignored. Victory is at hand to condition to remain united and determined. It seems difficult that we can continue to operate as if the 44 days of pride and dignity found did not exist. In any case, the author of Doggy Creole, which has still not been transferred by force to Roubaix, is ready to write this new page in the history of Guadeloupe on his website and look forward to seeing you in September for the social return.
Frederick Gircour ( chien.creole @ gmail.com )
(1) Gerard Jodar who presented himself as "an activist who fights for social justice, for fair and effective distribution of wealth, to rebalance in favor of the Kanak people, to build a multicultural country as part of a community of destiny "(source: http://www.liberation.fr/politiques/0101585626-en -new-caledonia-we-are-always-in-a-colony )
