Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Proletarian Solidarity against the Repression in Cameroon!

PCint | 01.03.2008 11:03 | Repression | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements | Birmingham

After last week in Burkina Faso, it is Cameroon this week that has witnessed demonstrations and strikes against inflation and the high cost of living; and the bestial repression of these movements of protest.

Douala, February 27
Douala, February 27


Since its independence in 1960, this old colony is a country of strategic importance for French imperialism, “one of the pillars of the Franc zone” along with Ivory Coast. France is always the leading foreign investor there, with several hundred companies in all branches of industry, employing several tens of thousands of people; major French groups are present in food processing, construction, the banking industry, oil etc. The privatizations imposed by international financial organizations have largely benefited the tricolour companies.

The “aid” of France in Cameroon is important; it comprises various facets designed to facilitate the smooth running of capitalist companies, including a military component, with the signature of military agreements (partly secret, as usual!) at the time of independence in 1960 and in 1974. It is under the terms of these military agreements that France foiled an attempted coup d'etat in April 1984; the Biya government appealed to France more recently, in 2005, when it felt threatened by the military. An important part of French military cooperation is the training given to the forces of the Cameroonian gendarmerie for the “maintenance of law and order”. The Cameroonian gendarmes showed that they were good pupils through the bloody repression of demonstrations on several occasions: repression of student strikes (2 dead at the end of 2006), peaceful demonstrators (2 dead this autumn at the time of the repression of a peaceful demonstration against the lack of electricity in Abong Mbang), and of demonstrations of motorbike-taxis protesting against extortion by the police, etc.

The increasing impoverishment of the workers and the broad masses of the population has made the situation in the country explosive, while in the meantime price increases accelerate. The generalized discontent with the present government moreover crystallized against the decision of Paul Biya to change the constitution in order to stand again. At the time of the latest elections this summer, hardly more half of registered voters (who represent only a fraction of the electorate: 5 million out of a population of close to triple that) had considered it useful to take part in the masquerade following which the authorities had announced the unavoidable victory of the party already in power. International observers had severely criticized this farce which was ratified unconditionally by the new French government, concerned above all for the “stability” of its networks of imperialist domination. When he arrived on an official visit last October to Paris, Biya could declare, in connection with the policy of France in Africa, that it was characterized by a “real continuity”: a continuity of imperialist plundering and support for local capitalists against their proletarians and the disinherited masses which are left abandoned.

On Saturday, February 23, the prohibition of a meeting of the opposition in Douala, the economic capital of Cameroon, was accompanied by bloody repression and confrontations. A private TV channel that had the misfortune to broadcast a report on this subject was immediately banned by the authorities. At the beginning of week the transportation unions (taxis, motorbike-taxis, primarily) called for the strike to protest against the rise in the price of fuel. Very quickly and spontaneously, apart from any instruction from the trade unions or political parties, the strike overflowed from the owner/operators of taxis to be followed by a large part of the poor population.

With several thousand people against the high cost of living, the demonstrators and strikers establish barricades with their slogans "We are hungry!”, “Lower the price of staple foods”, “No to high cost of living and the reducing to beggary of Cameroonians!”, as well as antigovernment slogans: “Biya must leave!” “Popaul you will be hung along with your constitution”, etc. The forces of capitalist disorder responded by shooting at the demonstrators. The port of Douala, which is the economic heart not only of Cameroon, but also of all the countries of the sub-region, was paralysed.

During the riots, shopping centres were attacked and plundered, various public buildings attacked (the Taxation Center and the sub-prefecture of Douala V were burnt), enterprises belonging to the Biya family, symbols of French presence, etc.

On Wednesday, the demonstrations and riots then extended to the capital Yaoundé where police fired live bullets on the demonstrators who were protesting peacefully against repression while a helicopter undoubtedly piloted by a military co-operator flew over the crowd; as a measure of intimidation the gendarmes attacked the university residence; in Bafoussam, the third city of Cameroon, it was announced that a demonstrator had been killed by the police, and demonstrations also took place in other localities.
Faced with this situation which had developed completely beyond their control; the transportation unions called on this same day, at the end of flash discussions with the government, for a cessation of the strike (without regard for the victims of repression or for those imprisoned): “we want to give the government time to achieve its economic program (by) next June” explained the representative of the CGST...

However, on Thursday morning the more-or-less general strike continued. It should be said that the government regally agreed to lower the price of gasoline, motor oil, and kerosene by... 1%! The government mobilized the army to patrol in the capital, while in a declaration the president stated that "force would remain with the law" and that the strike "had been instrumentalized for political purposes" by politicians opposed to the "normal operation of democratic institutions"; the normal operation of democratic institutions means for the bourgeoisie that the workers must agree to be exploited, to be condemned to misery without revolting, by accepting the gerrymander of the electoral farce.

To date the number of victims in Douala and Yaoundé has probably reached several dozen and the number of those arrested at several hundred.

“We have a privileged caste that lives to the detriment of the majority which suffers” declared a demonstrator. This caste of privileged people, this is a social class: the bourgeois class; that vampire class, which as everywhere grows rich from the sweat and blood of the workers. The solution is not the departure of Biya and his replacement by one of the parties of the bourgeois opposition (all completely absent from the struggles in progress), but the class struggle against this class and the system of which it is the incarnation: Cameroonian capitalism supported by international imperialism, and French imperialism in the first place.

In their vital struggle against misery, oppression and capitalist exploitation, and in the face of the bloody repression of a regime propped up by the French State, the Cameroonian proletarians and masses have a pressing need for the solidarity of the proletarians from here; class solidarity with the proletarians of the countries under the domination of French imperialism which must culminate in the resumption of the revolutionary class struggle against capitalism.

Solidarity with the proletarians and the masses of Cameroon in struggle!
No support for the murderous regime of Biya!
No to all military cooperation with him!
French Imperialism out of Africa!
Long live the international proletarian struggle!

International Communist Party, 28/02/2008
Correspondence: ED. Programme, 3 rue Basse Combalot 69007 Lyon, France.


PCint

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech