‘Let’s stand up and fight, against all kinds of abuses!’ This is the rallying cry of the 47 unions and community organizations that form Guadeloupe’s Committee against Extreme Exploitation. In one of the first broad-based revolts against the effects of the global financial meltdown, a wave of strikes essentially shut down the French Caribbean in January and February.
As the implications for ordinary people of advancing economic distress hits public consciousness in different parts of the world – from rural China to urban Greece – people are starting to react. In the French Caribbean, as elsewhere, this popular contagion has attached itself to local conditions and grievances.
