By Adrien Welsh, member of the LJCQ
Since September, demonstrations have occurred one after another in Guadeloupe. On November 15, these mobilizations were strengthened, with the main unions – the General Confederation of Labor of Guadeloupe (CGTG) and the General Union of Workers of Guadeloupe (UGTG) – calling for a general strike. The neighbouring overseas department of Martinique soon followed suit. This popular revolt recalls the one in 2009, which saw fires set to these French departments of the Antilles where blockades have been raised. The only response of the French state was to send in tactical units and to repress these protests with a vengeance.
The trigger of this movement was the imposition by Paris of mandatory vaccination for healthcare workers in Guadeloupe, which is cruelly lacking in medical personnel and infrastructure — there are barely 35 intensive care beds for the whole island. Faced with a medical system whose state of decrepitude would not be considered acceptable in “metropolitan France,” Guadeloupeans refuse to allow many caregivers to lose their jobs for the simple reason that they are not vaccinated.
Nevertheless, this anger runs much deeper. As Felix Firmin, general secretary of the Guadeloupean Communist Party, says, “The basic issue is colonial contempt, the relationship of France with Guadeloupe.” This colonial contempt is indeed everywhere.
The country had been run exclusively as a rentier economy, subordinated to that of France and in the hands of a hegemonic white minority, the Békés. As a result, between 40% and 45% of the population currently lives below the poverty line – a line that is nevertheless lower than in metropolitan France – and 61% of young people aged 25 and under are unemployed, according to official figures.
The media has published a barrage of racist comments, stating to the effect that Guadeloupeans are refusing vaccination because of their alleged “alcoholism” and “voodoo beliefs”. The Minister of Overseas Territories (in reality, colonies) added fuel to the fire by talking about “cultural and religious reticence.” However, it is not difficult to understand that in the face of such a glaring socio-economic situation, the systematic sabotage of any productive economic initiative, and the refusal to recognize the right of Guadeloupeans and Martinicans to exercise their sovereignty as the majority intends (through autonomy), the imposition of such a radical measure by Paris as the layoff of a non-negligible part of the healthcare personnel is a fertile ground to breed popular anger.
How can the government hope to convince people that the mandatory vaccination of healthcare workers is an effective health measure when the same government that imposed it refuses to recognize the link between chlordecone and cancer? Indeed, until 1990, banana farmers (mostly Békés) legally sprayed their plantations with this extremely powerful insecticide, even though France had known about its devastating health impacts since 1969. Banned in 1990, chlordecone continued to be used with impunity and with the complicity of the French authorities for three more years because of the “banana lobby.” Today, 90% of the inhabitants of Guadeloupe and Martinique are affected by it.
If mandatory vaccination was the spark that ignited the fire, the fuse was already well in place. The Guadeloupeans and Martinicans are fighting above all against colonial contempt.
Photo: AFP