Several thousand people demonstrated this Sunday, November 3, mostly West Indians, while the movement that has shaken Martinique since the beginning of September has not died down, despite an agreement concluded between elected officials, economic actors and the State on the 20% drop in the prices of 6,000 products sold in supermarkets. The demonstrators demanded the alignment of prices with those of the Metropolis, at the call of the leaders of the Martinique movement, who came to seek support in France.
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“ Nothing for them. Colonization has already taken everything from us. There, it’s good, it’s over », chants a demonstrator.
The crowd is dressed in red, the color of the Rally for the Protection of Afro-Caribbean Peoples and Resources (RPPRAC), the collective behind the movement against the high cost of living in Martinique. The color of anger which also affects the West Indians of mainland France, in solidarity with their families, but also directly affected by the tariffs applied on the other side of the Atlantic.
Miguelle is from Martinique. For this fifty-year-old, the diaspora must make itself heard. “ Because there are enough of us. We could fill a department, even like that of Martinique. Now the question we ask ourselves is: are we really French? When you want to send a package by post, you pay as if you were sending it abroad. They want to tax us for plane tickets, it’s unacceptable », says Miguelle.
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The RPPRAC present in the demonstration
At the head of the procession, the demonstrators jostle to see the three leaders of the RPPRAC who arrived the day before from Martinique. ” These are the representatives of the people, better than our elected officials who are graduates », Judges a demonstrator.
Among them, Aude Goussard, who came expressly to address the overseas residents of Métropole. “ We went up [à Paris] to tell them that we are aware that they experience it here when they come on vacation. And we absolutely must lower prices », explains Aude Goussard.
A fight carried to the windows of the Ministry of Overseas Territories.
Also readMartinique: Rodrigue Petitot, figure of the movement against the high cost of living, in Paris calls for demonstrations