WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE FRANCE - news journal UPDATE - (en) France, UCL AL #352 - International, Anticolonialism: French Guiana under tension (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Since the social movement of 2017, French Guiana has fallen off the news

radar. However, the situation is far from having improved, while Gérald
Darmanin suggested extending to French Guiana the suspension of the
right of the soil applied to Mayotte. ---- Emmanuel Macron visited
French Guiana on March 25 and 26, a quick stop on the road to Brazil
that was accompanied by a security cordon of Cayenne. He came to discuss
issues of gold mining, security, agricultural development and his
ambitions for the Kourou space site that he wants to open to private
takeoffs.

French Guiana, a former penal colony and former slave territory that
marginalized indigenous populations, has a high poverty rate[1]. The
commercial fabric is owned by large Békée families from Martinique (the
Bernard Hayot and Fabre-Domergue groups or the Dormoy family)[2]. The
raw materials and construction industries are dominated by French
multinationals (such as Bouygues, Eiffage, Vinci, Bolloré or
Auplata)[3]. The territory is still of interest to France for gold
mining and, as for all the other overseas departments, for the exclusive
economic zone (EEZ) and the potential wealth it can offer (fishing, oil,
rare earths, etc.).

In Cayenne too, a Palestine procession was present at the feminist
demonstration of March 8, 2024.
NICOLAS PASADENA
But the central asset is the Guiana Space Center (CSG) in Kourou,
eminently strategic for the European Union and for France, because it
contributes to making it the world leader in the commercial satellite
market. The CSG has caused the "Dutch disease" in Guiana, leading to an
increase in exports of natural resources to the detriment of local
economic activity. The latter has consequences. Today, French Guiana is
the scene of the "war on drugs" and its practices: reinforced controls
at Cayenne airport, gendarmerie checkpoint at the exit of Saint-Laurent
du Maroni and practices of racial profiling in a context of exasperation
of the population.

A few weeks before the visit of the President of the Republic, the
Minister of the Interior had expressed the ambition to see French Guiana
adopt the same reform of the nationality code as the one he wishes to
establish in Mayotte. The threat of further aggravating a tense
situation by a decline in the law and a reinforced security network
testifies to the State's desire to maintain colonial control over the
territory. The Overseas Territories are becoming powder kegs, as
evidenced by the events in Mayotte this year, the revolts in Kanaky and
the mobilizations of recent years in Réunion and the Antilles. The
political class's open contempt only heralds new social crises that the
labor and metropolitan movement must support.

Nicolas Pasadena (UCL Montreuil)

Read the related article: Interview with Fabien Canavy (MDES): "the
French state applies the doctrine of organized chaos"

Validate

[1]According to studies conducted in 2019, the poverty rate (less than
EUR1,020 per month) in Guyana was 29% compared to 14.5% in metropolitan
France. Source: Overseas Issuing Institute.

[2]These groups are respectively involved in mass distribution and the
automobile, hotel and spirits industries.

[3]Saïd Bouamama, Planter du blanc, chronique du (néo)colonialisme
français, Syllepse, 2019.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Anticolonialisme-La-Guyane-sous-tensions
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