A-Infos (en) France, OCL CA #355 - MADAGASCAR - Protesters' Hopes Happen on the Military's Will (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Madagascar, a former French colony in the western Indian Ocean, has once 
again experienced a process of ousting the ruling power. Fueled by the 
global "Gen Z" movement, Malagasy protesters took to the streets in late 
September to protest the living conditions imposed upon them by the 
plundering of resources orchestrated by the business groups at the helm 
of the country. Joined three weeks later by the military's CAPSAT (Corps 
of Administration of Personnel and Administrative and Technical 
Services), the demonstrations led to the flight of Malagasy President 
Andry Rajoelina, and thus to his removal from office.

Rajoelina was first airlifted to Île Sainte-Marie, then repatriated (he 
is also French) to Réunion Island by a French military aircraft. He is 
believed to have then traveled to Dubai, where he owns several 
properties. Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Christian Ntsay and the 
powerful businessman Mamy Ravatomanga also fled to Mauritius. Many 
figures in power are currently facing legal proceedings.

But does this mean victory is assured? It's always gratifying to see 
powerful figures sweating on the tarmac before takeoff, pursued by mobs 
of revolted citizens, but a military takeover never bodes well in this 
situation. We must therefore consider the nature of this intended 
victory. To try to understand what is at stake, I propose a brief 
historical overview since the colonization of the island to identify the 
type of state found in Madagascar and assess what a change of regime 
means for the Malagasy people.

A system of plundering resources established since colonization
Madagascar is a large island (the equivalent of metropolitan France and 
the Benelux countries combined) whose connection with the Western world 
dates back to the 15th century. It was in the 18th century, within the 
framework of the slave trade for the sugar industry, that the island 
became part of the Western imperialist system of the French and British 
empires. In the 19th century, these empires divided the western Indian 
Ocean between them, and France inherited Madagascar. Initially 
established as a "protectorate," the French presence transformed into 
colonization on the eve of the 20th century (1896). Somewhere between an 
exploitative colony and a settler colony, the French administration 
inscribed the new capitalist world in letters of fire and blood. The 
repression of the 1947 uprising remains a vivid memory for the Malagasy 
people.

After a little over half a century of presence, France decolonized 
Madagascar in 1960. The former colonial power opted for economic control 
of the country, thanks to the slave trade structures it had established. 
The 1960s were thus marked by the persistence of the large commercial 
empires inherited from the colonial era, notably the companies La 
Marseillaise, La Lyonnaise, and L'Emyrne, each holding a monopoly over a 
territory and/or a manufactured product for sale to the Malagasy people 
or a raw material for export abroad, such as coffee.

A demonstrator holds a sign reading "Rajoelina, get out!"

In 1972, an unprecedented peasant revolt erupted, coinciding with a 
powerful student movement forged in part by student struggles around the 
world in the late 1960s. President Tsiranana, backed by France, fell. 
The colonial business networks collapsed, and France lost some of its 
influence. In reality, the country's economic structure, which had been 
forged by the colonial state to channel Malagasy goods from land to 
merchant ships, remained intact. It was simply reappropriated by the 
political forces newly in power. This marked the beginning of a cycle of 
power grabs and coups d'état, which has just entered a new phase this 
October 2025. Indeed, since 1975 and Ratsiraka's rise to power, wielding 
the Little Green Book (the Malagasy version of the Little Red Book), the 
state itself has become a fiercely contested resource among Malagasy 
bourgeois groups. Since 1972, we can identify four coups d'état in 
Madagascar (1991, 2002, 2009, 2025).

The IMF's intervention in the 1980s, during the wave of "structural 
adjustments," only reinforced the collusion between political function 
and economic opportunity, as international organizations encouraged the 
ruling power to privatize entire sectors of the Malagasy public sphere. 
The State has become, much like everywhere else, but perhaps even more 
so, an arbiter that plays a role while it judges. The goal, as a 
rent-seeker, is to appropriate international aid but also to control 
trade routes and any other source of financial resources.

A State power that knows only predation

Throughout the development of this outward-looking approach (1), the gap 
has widened between these groups of politicians and the rest of the 
population. Living conditions have deteriorated significantly. 
Madagascar is, in fact, the only country in the world to have 
experienced a downward trajectory in GDP per capita without having 
suffered any major catastrophes or conflicts. The catastrophe for the 
Malagasy people is the plundering by a bourgeois group of everything 
that allows them to live decently. Since 1960, Madagascar has seen 
everything related to population growth collapse: healthcare, education, 
road infrastructure, and so on. Everything is left to neglect and 
self-organization, in increasingly deplorable conditions, particularly 
in rural areas, which represent 80% of the Malagasy population. 
Meanwhile, billionaires are making fortunes selling land to foreign 
groups, creating commercial monopolies, exploiting farmers, digital 
workers, and textile laborers, commodifying all aspects of reproduction, 
and outright stealing "public" money, effectively leaving the vast 
majority of the Malagasy population behind.

The case of JIRAMA is a prime example. As the national electricity 
company in Madagascar, it faces the plundering of its resources by 
successive administrators. Despite enormous hydroelectric potential, the 
only accepted way to generate electricity in Madagascar is to run 
generators and pay exorbitant sums to the oil companies that supply the 
fuel. But by constantly raiding the coffers, the electricity production 
system has suffered. Power outages in Madagascar are constant, but the 
situation reached its peak on the eve of the demonstrations.

The military joined the protesters. In the background, a banner with the 
slogan "Youth, rise up!", the title of a Malagasy anti-colonial anthem.

A struggle barely begun, immediately hijacked.
Deplorable living conditions do not prevent young urbanites of 
Generations Y and Z from being hyper-connected, particularly the 
proletarianized middle classes who still benefit from a certain level of 
education. The case of Malagasy workers has become a common example of 
the exploitation of digital laborers to create the infamous "artificial 
intelligence" (2). It was precisely this social group that managed to 
organize the first demonstrations, with Luffy from One Piece, the 
anti-establishment hero who wore a traditional Malagasy hat for the 
occasion, as their figurehead.

The protesters' demands were initially far from revolutionary. They 
wanted water and electricity, a decent standard of living, access to 
healthcare, and education. The protesters were ignored, and a 
Nepalese-style scenario began to take shape in people's minds. The tone 
hardened, the head of state attempted concessions, dismissed the 
government, but to no avail. The government responded to the demands 
with force, resulting in 22 deaths during the demonstrations. The 
protests continued, demanding the president's downfall. Paradoxically, 
just as the intensity of the demonstrations seemed to be waning, CAPSAT 
intervened and called for mutiny. Things then moved very quickly. The 
president, who had been missing for several days, appeared in a close-up 
video, lamenting a plot to assassinate him. The armed forces allowed the 
protesters, escorted by mutinous soldiers, to access the areas 
surrounding the centers of power. Colonel Michaël Randrianirina posed 
for a photo in the presidential palace. He claimed he wanted to bring 
the concerns of "Gen Z" to the heart of political institutions. In 
reality, "Gen Z" had the struggle literally hijacked, without it having 
been able to transform daily life.

Change everything so that nothing changes? Unfortunately, the scenario 
is already all too familiar. Networks are reforming; the president of 
the National Assembly spent five days in Russia in early November, 
signaling potential future outreach. The ousted president of 2009, 
Ravalomanana, rather close to American interests, also indicated that he 
remained available. In short, no revolution is on the horizon.

What is astonishing is the ease with which a government can fall on the 
"big island." Fortune-making positions are lost as quickly as they are 
acquired. This characteristic testifies to the detached nature of power 
and the divide mentioned at the beginning of this article. The question 
that remains unanswered is how to make the temporary abolition of power 
irreparable? While the "Gen Z" movement has reshuffled the deck and 
delivered a few slaps to the bourgeoisie along the way, it has 
unfortunately failed to ignite the perverse system that forces the 
working class and peasants, in Madagascar and elsewhere, to endure the 
actions of the powerful. Meanwhile, power outages are once again 
occurring in Madagascar.

Mich

Notes
1. A political doctrine that consists of selling off entire sectors of 
the economy-in this case, the Malagasy economy-to foreign powers while 
profiting from it.

2. See the Arte documentary on the AI's foot soldiers from September 
2025: 
https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/126831-000-A/madagascar-les-petites-mains-de-l-ia/

http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4586
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