Question 33170 — overseas

Summary

Mr. Serge Letchimy draws the attention of Mr. Keeper of the Seals, Minister of Justice, to the aftermath of the shooting of February 14, 1974 in Chalvet in Martinique. That day, agricultural workers who had been on strike for several weeks were surrounded by mobile gendarmes who opened fire, leaving one dead and several injured, five of whom were officially recognized at the time. Two days later, the body of another striking worker was was discovered by fishermen. This brought the number of deaths that day to two, in a new illustration of the resilience of violence stemming from the colonial state, beyond the hopes born of departmentalization in 1946. This movement and its repression found their origin in a double dynamic, cyclical and structural. In 1974, Martinique was faced with a serious economic crisis due to the increase in prices imported foodstuffs and the resulting significant contraction in purchasing power as well as the increase in unemployment resulting in particular from the crisis in the sugar industry. In this context, the structural inequalities suffered by overseas populations, themselves stemming from the colonial period, were all the more burdensome for workers, particularly agricultural workers, since the minimum wage in force in France was not applied there even though the cost of living was very high there. One of the victims is still alive. These injuries caused serious after-effects which will prevent him from returning to normal professional activity. No more than his comrades who are now deceased, this person has not received compensation for the tragedy and damage suffered. Forty-six years after the events, he asks him if he is considering the establishment of compensation commensurate with the tragedy and its consequences.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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