Guadeloupe: order must reign in the overseas territories and
departments. It is a question of restoring the republican order: "Areturn to authority", but also of maintaining the presence of French
imperialism in these maritime confetti. ---- In the West Indies ---- In
the 2022 presidential election, Mr. Le Pen is ahead of the other
candidates with his demagogic anti-system program. The candidate who has
never set foot in the West Indies obtains 60.87% of the votes, her best
score. Here again, faced with a seriously degraded economic and social
situation, the electoral competition is very tough for the government
party -Renaissance- and its president E. Macron himself. And here too,
faced with the security demagoguery of the National Rally, the
government is perpetuating its colonial policy of repression. The
challenge: to maintain its electoral capital for the R.N, and for the
government, to win back the disappointed people of the right. Thus,
following a series of news items (attacks, incivility), and following
threats of resignation from the mayor of Pointe à Pitre if the State
does not ensure security, the Minister of the Interior, visiting
Guadeloupe, announced and orders the establishment of a curfew from 8
p.m. for minors in Pointe à Pitre for a period of two months. The two
months of an ongoing electoral campaign, time to reassure the population
and give assurances to this electorate which is lacking in the face of
its competitor. As in Mayotte, the Minister of the Interior is setting
up his "Place Net" operation. To the repressive forces present, the
minister adds some 200 police officers as well as 3 gendarmerie brigades.
To the rhythm of the batons
As elsewhere, the French state chooses the strength of its armed bands
to resolve structural problems. French department, by the law of 1946,
this archipelago remained a confetti of the French colonial empire.
While these departments or territories had, until 2022, a minister
(whatever one thinks) responsible for overseas affairs, since then they
have been placed under the supervision of the Minister of the Interior.
An affront to the licensed representatives of Martinique and Guadeloupe,
a lack of consideration for the population. We thus measure the space
reserved for dialogue. The brutal announcement of the curfew is an
example of this:
Guadeloupe, the West Indies, let us remember, the revolts of slaves then
that of proletarians: 1967, a strike followed by riots, the colonial
repression will be brutal, bloody. 200 dead according to historians. The
years 2021-2022, "COVID" years and the vaccination obligation for
healthcare workers and firefighters. Against the measures imposed by the
French state, a powerful protest movement followed, a general strike
accompanied by demonstrations, road blockades and clashes against the
state. Martinique and Guadeloupe were paralyzed, which will force the
prefect to establish a curfew from 6 p.m. This health crisis will once
again reveal the problems of insecurity, high cost of living, identity, etc.
Guadeloupe has prices 33% more expensive than the national average.
Certainly the island reality is a handicap, but the agri-food economy,
fuels, mass distribution, etc. are in the hands of the descendants of
the colonizers, the whites: "the Békés". These "Profiteurs" who have
been able, over the decades, to design and create, through their
monopolies, a closed market with little competition which has a strong
impact on the purchasing power of populations who are predominantly
black because they are descendants of slaves.
Guadeloupe is also home to the Chlordecone scandal - an environmental
and health scandal. Declared carcinogenic by the UN, it was banned in
France in 1990. Successive French governments allowed the use of this
pesticide in banana plantations until 1993. In February 2019, E. Macron
still declared: "We must not say that chlordecone is
carcinogenic...because we are both saying something that is not true and
fueling fears." Its intense use will pollute the soil, rivers and
coastline, prohibiting fishing in certain coastal areas. If the world of
capital is doing well, it is not the same for the world of work. A study
by "Santé Publique France" reveals that 92% of Martinicans and 95% of
Guadeloupeans are contaminated by this pesticide. The French West Indies
hold the sad world record for prostate cancer. But the most infuriating
and sickening thing about this scandal is the verdict rendered by the
investigating judges of Paris who, 16 years after the first complaint,
issued an order dismissing the case concerning those responsible.
Another insult for the populations and the workers. No industrialist, no
boss, no complicit minister (from the right or the left) has been found
responsible.
Guadeloupe is also a water management scandal. A catastrophe that has
lasted for decades and which affects populations. This is where the
price of water is the most expensive in France. Old, defective or no
longer existing pipes. Significant water loss. Disastrous management
etc. Managers, local or state politicians blame each other for this
negligence. Remember that it is in such a situation that the government
in its fight against COVID advocated frequent hand washing. A population
once again abandoned, left to fend for themselves which push some to no
longer pay water bills. What irony for this island called "the Island of
Beautiful Waters".
Guadeloupe and the Antilles are also the no-future for young people.
Nearly 30% of 15-19 year olds are neither in training, study, nor
employment (NEETs), which is twice as many as in France. Half of those
with few or no qualifications live with their parents. More than a
quarter are single women/mothers in difficulty or long-term unemployed.
One in 5 young people is unemployed with a diploma according to INSEE.
But, 60%, without any prospect of employment commensurate with the
qualifications obtained, find themselves forced to leave without
returning to Paris, Canada...
It goes without saying that in the face of these structural situations,
none of the measures taken by the government will solve the problems,
both in the West Indies and in Mayotte... The "clean square" operations,
the curfews will in no way improve daily life. nor the fate of the
populations. In this period when the threatening RN seems at the gates
of power, the government, the president's party, the torn right (and
more discreetly the left and the ecologists) are trying to reassure
their electorate attracted by the RN, or part of the population ,
without any illusions, also slides towards abstention. If the majority
of Guadeloupean elected officials welcome this measure put in place by
the French state, others denounce its ineffectiveness and see it as a
discourse with neo-colonialist overtones. The EELV mayor of Pointe à
Pitre welcomed the minister's announcement and the firmness of the
return to order: "this is something concrete... if the children are at
their parents' house at night, they are not going to burn the trash cans
...". Obviously, for him, this violence and delinquency are in no way
linked to the worsening of the economic and social situation. Other,
more worried voices are raised and warn: "under the cover of a
legitimate fight against delinquency and for the security of
populations, it is deprivation of liberty which is threatened. We can
welcome the irony of the autonomist leader of the ANG (Alyans Nasyonal
Gwadloup): "So the curfew is to resolve the dropout problem for which
national education is doing the minimum! ". Feeling neglected, the
population no longer expects much from Paris.
The confetti of the empire
But beyond this short-term policy, French imperialism, undermined in
Sahelian Africa: Mali, Burkina, Niger...see Senegal, is on its guard.
For the Comoros archipelago in the Indian Ocean, Russia, through its
ambassador, from Madagascar, expressed its desire to support the Comoros
in their quest to recover their sovereignty over Mayotte. Serious
dilemma for the bourgeoisie linked to the macronie and its president
Macron. Should they send the soldiers to Ukraine or Mayotte?
For the Caribbean confetti of the French maritime empire, the shadow of
China looms large. It already had links with Cuba or Venezuela, but was
able to forge links in Central America: Salvador, Nicaragua...and other
South American countries. It also knew how to extend them to the
Caribbean region, including the Dominican Republic. Strong economic ties
which of course remain micro markets, but which open up easy maritime
access to the Pacific or Atlantic Oceans or the Caribbean Sea. Routes,
with strong international trade, which are places of passage: Panama
Canal, Caribbean Sea..., and multiple transports: Oil, food resources
etc. essential for and towards the United States. Growing economic
success and diplomatic influence, China challenges, without yet
weakening, the historic imperialist powers, the USA and especially
France and the United Kingdom in Europe.
Of course, the Antilles do not have the economic importance of New
Caledonia (Nickel: 3rd world production), and the strategic and military
base for French imperialism, alongside American imperialism and its
allies ( Australia, United Kingdom...) to try to block Chinese
expansionism, declared enemy of Washington in the region.
Thus, Antilles (curfew), Comoros (cleaning operation), New Caledonia
(return to order in the republic), euphemistically called "ultramarine
departments and territories" have become the showcase for maintaining
order and the authority of the republic. As in the heyday of the
colonies, to structural and identity problems, the French state only
knows how to respond, of course, by sending additional gendarmes, police
officers and elite units. No doubt test measures, training, before
application in mainland France against any future social disorder.
In his work "The Decolonized Antilles", Daniel Guérin (1) had glimpsed
the problems posed to these Archipelagos. These islands separated and
then shaped by the colonizers, English, French, Dutch etc. The author
underlines: "History has superimposed on the obstacle of the sea,
artificial barriers: political, linguistic, customs, monetary... Another
cause of poverty is the absurd system of production and exchange to
which these islands are subject and more particularly those of an
umbilical cord chained to a distant metropolis.
14 05 2024 From Caen.
Note
Daniel Guérin, 1904-1988. Revolutionary activist, then libertarian
communist. Activist at ORA, UTCL (today UCL). Theorizes Libertarian
Marxism...
http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4191
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