Madagascar: At the Bottom of the Capitalist Abyss
The so-called “red island” has exceptional
potential: colossal natural resources, an extraordinary biological & mineral
diversity, a refined & very composite culture & a young & dynamic
population.. But in this upside-down world, Madagascar
In short, Madagascar
is an island plummeting to the bottom of the capitalist abyss, ranking today as
the poorest country on the planet. Per capita economic growth of the past forty
years has been negative, and more than 92 percent of the population today lives
below the poverty level. The so-called “red island,” nonetheless, has exceptional
potential: colossal natural resources, an extraordinary biological and mineral
diversity, a refined and very composite culture, and a young and dynamic
population.
But in this upside-down world, Madagascar
is poor, due to its wealth!
In effect, in a context of exacerbated international
competition, further intensified as the older world powers are squeezed by
emerging countries, and also because the capitalist mode of production cannot
transform its fossil fuel–based energy system, the access to raw materials has
become, for states as well as for transnational companies, a crucial point of
conflict. As a result, the “great island,” weakened by decades of social and
political crisis, is an unprotected jewel, beset by a crowd of gangsters.
The political swamp into which Madagascar
has been sinking since 2009 is the latest in a long history of suffering and
setbacks inflicted on its population by local elites and foreign powers.
Becoming independent in 1960 after 64 years of French domination (a period
marked by the terrible repression of 1947 and its 89,000 dead), Madagascar
lived through fifteen years of political instability before being pulled into
the orbit of the former eastern bloc in 1975. The local Stalinist regime, led
by Didier Ratsiraka, quickly broke off diplomatic relations with France .
Ratsiraka, a naval officer, then established an economic dirigisme, propped up
by Third Worldist nationalism. Most contracts with foreign multinationals were
terminated. But economic difficulties piled up, and they eventually forced Madagascar
to turn to the IMF and to renegotiate its debt with the Club of Rome in the
mid-1980s.
In 1992, the “socialist” experiment was officially abandoned. The
dictator gave up power a year later. Two years earlier, we might recall, his
troops, using bullets and grenades, had killed several dozen demonstrators in
an enormous crowd demanding his resignation. This was hardly the first
incident: in July 1985, Ratsiraka, using assault tanks and flame throwers, had
razed a Kung-fu temple whose members had stood up to government militias
spreading terror in the capital. .. read more:
