Olympic Games in Paris and post-election political instability in France must not obscure the essential
27 July 2024, by
Pendant que les regards étaient tournés vers Paris, deux informations ont rappelé l’ampleur de la crise à La Réunion et la nécessité de s’organiser pour y remédier : environ 180 000 Réunionnais demandeurs d’emploi selon France Travail, et une étude du ministère de l’Agriculture indiquant que 42 % des familles d’agriculteurs vivent sous le seuil de pauvreté.
Post-election political instability in France and the Olympic Games in Paris are taking up most of the news in La Reunion Island. Two essential pieces of information have been relegated to the background this week.
First, there was the result of a study by the statistics department of the Ministry of Agriculture. It indicates that in 2020, 42% of farming families were below the poverty line. The income from agriculture is so low that it forces the spouse to work outside the farm, this study also says.
Then came the publication of official unemployment statistics in La Reunion Island by France Travail. Around 120,000 Reunionese on average were completely unemployed in the second quarter of 2024, and around 180,000 were on average registered with France Travail as job seekers. These numbers have not changed since the demolition of major construction projects by those who put Didier Robert in the presidency of the La Reunion Region in 2010.
The CGPER responded to the study by the Ministry of Agriculture. The union is calling for a complete overhaul of La Reunion agricultural model. The goal is to change by placing the farmer at the center of the model. To do this, he must have sufficient income to live decently from agriculture.
This is a necessity to move towards the objective of food sovereignty in Réunion.
The latest official statistics from France Travail have reminded us of the impasse in which our island finds itself faced with the problem number one: mass unemployment. This phenomenon has existed since the 1970s, with nearly 25% of the working population already in total or partial unemployment in 1975.
This situation is the cause of many daily tragedies. It recalls a consequence: the extent of poverty in La Réunion.
In 2016, the Reunionese Communist Party recalled how La Reunion society works. It is dominated by a neocolonial system that cannot develop the country. Indeed, public transfers from France in the form of aid to businesses, salaries and social benefits are largely spent to buy goods and services from French companies established in Reunion. This public money is therefore transformed into private profits repatriated to France. The opening of La Reunion Island and its development would mark the end of this model that maintains unemployment, the high cost of living, and produces poverty.
In 2018, the Reunionese Communist Party proposed a new tool so that the Reunionese can work on a development project: the territorial conference extended to the active forces.
In the absence of reform, the situation has not improved since. La Reunion’s dependence on imports has accentuated the rise in prices caused by the COVID crisis and the war in Ukraine.
While the focus is on the Olympic Games, temporarily putting aside the post-election political instability in France, it is still the same policy that is being pursued.
The victims of this system are waiting for answers to their concerns. It is up to the Réunionese to organize themselves to be able to respond to them.
M.M.
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