On June 2, 2026, Parliament adopted a law in which the French State "acknowledges its share of responsibility" for the chlordecone contamination of Guadeloupe and Martinique, "commits to working towards the decontamination of the land," and sets itself the "objective" of compensating victims (without making it an obligation). --- A pesticide used in the French West Indies since 1972, chlordecone remained legal until 1993 and was then used illegally until 2000, despite having been recognized as dangerous and banned in the United States as early as 1976. In mainland France, this pesticide was banned in 1990. This blatant double standard illustrates the perception of life in non-Western territories. After decades of inaction, obstacles to research, and repression by the French state, 90% of the population of Martinique and Guadeloupe is now contaminated, causing, among other things, cancers, endometriosis, and decreased fertility. The land itself is contaminated for over 600 years, making cultivation unsafe.
This contamination is not only an ecological scandal, but it is also part of a colonial dynamic: Guadeloupe and Martinique, like other overseas territories, are subject to an extractivist logic, where intensive farming and resource exploitation come at the expense of the environment and the inhabitants. Faced with the profits of the large Béké landowners[1]who have controlled the islands' economy for centuries, the lives of the Black people who live there are considered worth very little. As Guadeloupe MP Élie Califer points out, "if such poisoning had affected 90% of the population of Creuse, Brittany, or Île-de-France, the State's responsibility would have been acknowledged long ago."
This law remains a step forward, made possible by the struggle of numerous residents and groups in Martinique, Guadeloupe, and mainland France. However, in this watered-down version of the law, the State only acknowledges a "share of responsibility" in this scandal and completely ignores the responsibility of the individuals and companies who profited from the poisoning of the two islands. It denies any compensation for the anxiety suffered by residents who can no longer feed themselves from their land and live in fear of disease. The State refuses to set clear objectives for pollution cleanup and remediation, and thus there is no formal commitment to compensate the residents. It is also important to mention the dismissal of the case on June 22nd, which closed the judicial inquiry and the investigation, thus preventing the identification of those responsible for this scandal.
It is worth recalling that during the abolition of slavery, when the question arose of compensating the white landowners (békés) who had owned the slaves and from whom the profiteers of this environmental scandal originated, the French state did not simply set "objectives" but gave them enough money to consolidate their economic control over the islands, a control that persists to this day. We cannot expect a capitalist and neocolonial state to redress its own injustices on its own. The solution, as the people of the French Antilles know, lies in the struggle for genuine reparations, for decontamination and guaranteed food sovereignty, but also for an end to metropolitan domination, for the expropriation of the Béké landowners, and for the liberation of Guadeloupe and Martinique, as with all the colonies.
Reparations, freedom, and self-determination for the French Antilles!
Libertarian Communist Union, July 17, 2026.
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[1]The Békés are the descendants of the slave-owning colonists in the Antilles. They still maintain a strong hold on the Antillean territories, particularly through economic and land domination.
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Loi-chlordecone-bien-loin-des-reparations-necessaires
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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