Activist's funeral turns into demo against France

A funeral for a murdered union activist turned into a demonstration by around 3,000 mourners on Guadeloupe, who demanded better treatment of the Caribbean island from France’s government.

People clad in white and black packed a gymnasium in the cane-growing area of Petit-Canal to hear poems about struggle and songs in homage to Jacques Bino, the activist shot dead last week in the French overseas department, apparently by rioting youths.

Some of the participants wore T-shirts emblazoned with images of Mr Bino, who was killed as he drove home from a meeting with the organisers of protests against low wages and high prices that have paralysed the French island for more than a month.

His body was displayed in an open coffin for two days. On Saturday, thousands passed by as it lay on display in the headquarters of the LKP, or Collective Against Exploitation, which is heading the strike.

“We are in sorrow and anger, (but) now is the time to continue the mobilisation,” LKP leader Elie Domota told mourners in a speech yesterday.

Adele Goram, an islander from a nearby town, said she attended the ceremony for Mr Bino because she wanted Paris to better respect Guadeloupe, a French overseas possession with deep economic and social disparities.

“We live in France. There should be no difference between France and Guadeloupe,” she said.

The strike by workers demanding a higher wages in Guadeloupe began in late January and has been marked by resentment of the tiny elite who control the island’s economy. Strikes have spread to neighbouring Martinique.

The funeral in Petit-Canal was attended by Segolene Royal, former presidential candidate for the French Socialist Party. She sat in the crowd but did not address the ceremony.

As Mr Bino’s coffin was closed, thousands sang the new movement’s anthem, Guadeloupe Is Ours, with their right fists held high. They continued singing later as they marched past miles of shuttered stores, following a car carrying Mr Bino’s union flag-draped coffin to a Petit-Canal cemetery.

Meanwhile, an agreement between Guadeloupe’s employers and its striking workers was probably not imminent, the head of France’s employers’ federation said.

Federation chief Laurence Parisot warned that talks were “still very complex”, suggesting an end to the stand-off might not be around the corner.

“The latest news that I received last night demonstrated that we were perhaps not that near a deal,” Mr Parisot told Europe-1 radio.

Tensions in Guadeloupe have largely died down after a televised address on Thursday by French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who announced a €580m financial package to help development in France’s overseas regions.