A few thousand people from the overseas diaspora, dressed in red, demonstrated on Sunday afternoon in the streets of the capital against high prices. Rodrigue Petitot, the leader of the movement in Martinique, was at the Parisian rally.
“A yen pou yo!” (nothing left to give them, in Creole). In a festive atmosphere despite the palpable anger, the demonstrators gathered on Place Denfert-Rochereau, at the call of West Indian and Kanak associations, to rally the Ministry of Overseas Territories. “Criminal monopoly”, «Peaceful insatiables», “Respektém us”could we read on the head banners. “No to the high cost of living!” chanted the crowd, Martinican, Guadeloupean and Kanak flags flying in the wind.
A figure in the movement against the high cost of living in Martinique, who arrived the day before in Paris, Rodrigue Petitot, head of the Rally for the Protection of Afro-Caribbean Peoples and Resources (RPPRAC), also took part in the demonstration. For him, it was “important to show the diaspora that we see the fight they are waging here to support our fight there”. “They told us that France is one and indivisible, that we have the right to move around, so to eat, it should be the same”he estimated.
“People have difficulty feeding themselves, especially in the city”
“We have the impression that the situation in the Overseas does not concern the French in France. This demonstration is there to make noise and make the situation known to other French people.explained to AFP Louis-Philippe Mars, vice-president of the Ultramarins Doubout (standing, in Creole) association, organizer of the event. “We are asking for territorial continuity. […] We have to align prices”he continued, saying he hoped “that there will be (it) a turning point with this gathering.”
In the procession, Corry Diomar, 31, father of four children and who has family in the West Indies, does not take offense: “Most people in mainland France are not aware that back home, we pay double to eat cereals. The children there don’t have the privilege of eating it!” The cost of living “has gotten worse in recent years”, he insists. “A shopping cart at Carrefour, we pay double or even triple here!”
Same situation in New Caledonia, notes Céleste, a 32-year-old social worker and member of a Kanak collective who has family on the “Caillou”. “Everything is more expensive” there, she testifies. “People are struggling to feed themselves, take care of themselves and educate themselves properly”. Et “it’s more complicated in the city because you have to pay for everything, we don’t have any food crops,” according to her. “They are getting rich off our backs”plague Sandrine Rosette, 42 years old, a business manager who has family in Martinique, with particular reference to mass distribution.
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