Economic meltdown causing unrest on Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe & Martinique

[Mika]

Guadeloupe strikers block roads, close airport
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/world/AP/story/908115.html

The French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe was on the verge of rebellion, a political leader said Tuesday after stone-throwing protesters set cars and buildings ablaze, forced the international airport to close and clashed with police.

Nearly four weeks of work stoppages and demonstrations for lower prices and higher pay have caused thousands of tourists to flee or cancel holidays on the normally tranquil island, prompting many hotels to close and cruise ships to head elsewhere.

"It is a political crisis, an institutional crisis and we are on the brink of sedition," Guadeloupe's Regional Council President Victorin Lurel told France-Info radio.

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Lurel warned that the islands were heading toward "radicalization, a rise in extremism."

"We have the impression that we have been abandoned, that there is an organized indifference," he told the radio station.

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1 killed in unrest on French island Guadeloupe
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/world/AP/story/909117.html

A protester was shot to death on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe as weeks of strikes and labor unrest degenerated into violence, the region's top official said Wednesday.

The death was the first since protests broke out last month, and could mark a turning point in tensions that have spread to the nearby French island of Martinique and deeply worried the central government in Paris. France's Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie called a special meeting Wednesday to discuss security on the Caribbean islands, which are an integral part of France.

The protester, in his 50s, was apparently shot by rioters manning barricades in a housing project in Pointe-a-Pitre, Nicolas Desforges, the top appointed official on the island, said by telephone.

The dead man, Jacques Bino, was a tax agent and union member returning home from protests, Desforges said.

Police and emergency workers were summoned to help a man wounded in his car around midnight (0400 GMT), but could not reach him because they were being shot at by rioters with hunting rifles, Desforges said. By the time police arrived at the scene three hours later, Bino was dead at the wheel.

Three police officers were injured in the overnight violence, one by a gunshot to the eye, Desforges said, adding that the island was facing "serious urban violence."

Paris has refused to budge on strikers' demands for higher pay, despite nearly four weeks of work stoppages and demonstrations for lower prices and better pay have shuttered stores and schools and frozen daily life on Guadeloupe. Business leaders in Martinique agreed Tuesday to a 20 percent price cut on most supermarket products, despite initial refusal.

[Peace Patriot]

1. "radicalization, a rise in extremism." --uh-huh

Where have we heard that one before?

Corpo/fascists and the super-rich of course never acknowledge that THEIR extremism comes first--their gouging, their looting, their bullying power. It's only extremism if poor people REACT, to years of thieving abuse, ever higher prices, ever lower net wages, ever reduced services for the taxes they pay, ever more poverty.

A strike is not extremism! A strike means that working people have had it!

We must remember, too, that this is the Miami (Bushwhack) Herald. Everything is framed to favor the have's, and we cannot trust one word that they print about leftist protesters. They are capable of outright lying, and have done so on many occasions regarding the Latin American left. We are getting the government's version of this death of the protester. Their version doesn't make a lot of sense, and this may be why--their version isn't true. The government itself may have shot the union member to stir up trouble between the union strikers and the poor. We also cannot trust the Miami (Bushwhack) Herald on the characterization of the protesters as "rock throwing," etc. And how often have we heard from police and military forces that there was a sniper, or whatever, and that's why they had to kill 10, 50, 100 civilians and raze the neighborhood or the village--only to have it turn out to be bullshit? We really must suspend judgement, and wait and see, on anything negative they print about leftist protesters in Guadeloupe (or anywhere else).

[Mika]

2. I post Miami-Herald stories here hoping y'all take the source into consideration.

Even Mas Canosa didn't believe the Miami-Herald. ;) ;) (If you don't know what that's about, by all means ask. Judi and I have lot's-o-links on Mas Canosa's "I don't believe the Miami Herald" campaign. Hoo boy. :crazy: )

[Peace Patriot]

3. Mika, I'm not criticizing you for posting it--just warning unsuspecting lurkers

and uninformed readers to put on their Skeptical Hat for Miami (Bushwhack) Herald scribblings.

I don't know the Mas Canosa story. Do tell.

[Billy Burnett]

4. Sorry to butt in.

Mas Canosa started a campaign against the Miami Herald and the then publisher David Lawrence because he felt that the paper was soft on Castro and didn't reflect enough of the perspective of the exile community. He started a campaign called "I Don't Believe The Miami Herald". The CANF purchased ads on english and exile radio, billboards all over Miami-Dade, local TV ads, and the City of Miami even leased ad space on the sides of the Metro bus system busses. It was everywhere. Nonstop for months. The squealing radio hosts were suggesting that the herald vending machines be destroyed and/or defaced. The feces campaign started. The vending machines were smeared with doodoo and soaked with urine (a traditional exile protest liquid of choice).

That's from recollection. I don't have time to sift through google (and I'm not using my main Mac so I don't have my bookmarks with me), but I see there's a fair amount of info on it.


Google search: Mas Canosa "I don't believe the Miami Herald"
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Mas+Canosa+%22I+don%27t+believe+the+miami+herald%22&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&oq=

I hope I'm not being out of line butting into this conversation.

:hi:

[Peace Patriot]

5. Thanks! I'd heard of some of this, but forgotten Canosa's name.

It's a good example of what the rightwing really thinks of a free press. I had to laugh at the Bushwhacks' feigned outrage (and the converted to fascist bullshit Miami Herald's), when Hugo Chavez denied a broadcast license renewal to RCTV, which had actively participated in the violent rightwing military coup in 2002. Chavez's rightful and legal action--something any government would do, to protect the public airwaves from being used for violent insurrection and treason--caused the Bushwhacks and our corpo/fascist 'news' monopolies apoplectic fits of phony self-righteousness.

Thanks for this info! You are welcome to butt in any time!

[Judi Lynn]

6. Here's the article the Colombia Journalism Review wrote on this:

May/June 1992 | Contents

TRYING TO SET
THE AGENDA IN MIAMI
Bashing the Herald is only part of Jose Mas Canosa's strategy

by Anne-Marie O'Connor
O'Connor, who is based in Miami, is Latin America and Caribbean correspondent for Cox Newspapers.

The Miami Herald usually takes and assumes the same positions as the Cuban government. But we must confess that they were once more discreet about it. Lately the distance between The Miami Herald and Fidel Castro has narrowed considerably. . . . Why must we consent to The Miami Herald and ElNuevo Herald continuing a destructive campaign full of hatred for the Cuban xile, when ultimately they live and eat, economically speaking, on our support?

Jorge Mas Canosa, chairman of the Miami-based Cuban American National Foundation, in a local radio broadcast, aired on January 21 and printed in full in El Diario las Americas.

The revelation that The Miami Herald and its Spanish-language counterpart, El Nuevo Herald, were in bed with Cuban leader Fidel Castro must have confounded the editors of the Cuban Communist party organ, Granma, since the Havana daily has repeatedly portrayed them as right-wing tools of the eternal CIA campaign against the thirty-three-year-old revolution.

Anywhere else, Mas Canosa's remarks might have been ignored. In the darker recesses of Miami's exile community, however, his words were clearly a call to arms. Within days Herald publisher David Lawrence, Jr., and two top editors received death threats. Anonymous callers phoned in bomb threats and Herald vending machines were jammed with gum and smeared with feces. Mas Canosa's Cuban American National Foundation quickly denied responsibility and condemned the hijinks, but Mas's words were highly inflammatory in a city where public red-baiting has served as a prelude to bombings and, in past years, murder.

That was in January, but editors at the Herald still feel besieged. Foundations ads saying "I don't believe The Herald" in Spanish are appearing on Dade County buses. Lawrence has heard that foundation people are sounding out advertisers over whether they would support a boycott -- a troubling prospect in a recession.

Coverage of the foundation and Cuba is now carefully scrutinized, Herald reports say. "There has been a watershed in how we operate with Cuban questions," says one staffer, who requested anonymity. "Before the campaign, Cuba issues were dealt with in a routine way."

Executive editor Douglas C. Clifton concedes that he "probably" reads Cuba-related copy more thoroughly now than before. "It's good sense," he says. "When you are the subject of a potential circulation boycott, an advertising boycott, an intense public relations campaign to attack your credibility, I think you'd be foolhardy not to insure that everything you put in the newspaper is something that you don't have to after the fact say, 'Oops, I wish we hadn't done that.'" He goes on to point out that "we have written lots of critical stories, potentially controversial stories and columns about Cuban issues since this began."

More:
http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:QTCFA0t1Wt4J:backissues.cjrarchives.org/year/92/3/miami.asp+Trying+to+set+the+agenda+in+Miami+CJR&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client=firefox-a

[Mika]

7. Peace Patriot, I'm embarrassed I didn't check back to this thread. Billy and Judi covered for me.

Thanks to both of them. :thumbsup:

As noted, the campaign was everywhere. You simply could not go anywhere in Miami without being assaulted with a "I Can't Believe The Miami Herald" poster or billboard or giant ad on the side of most all of the busses. It was a multi million dollar campaign. Then it escalated to the vending machines being vandalized (as mentioned) and set on fire. The stores and properties where the vending machines were located wanted them outta there because of the risk of the fire bombing campaign (nice cozy little town, isn't it?).

I seem to remember hearing, at that time, that while the subscription rate went down slightly in predominantly Spanish speaking homes, it actually went up for the predominantly English speaking demographic (which at that time wasn't such a stark minority as it is now) in Miami-Dade. I guess the gringos thought that if the exiles hated it that badly there must be something good in there. LOL. They were wrong.


Sorry for not getting back sooner, and thanks Billy and Judi for filing the stories.


:hi: