Gabon
Solidarity with the people of Gabon
The Bongo clan, which took control of the country and ruled for 42 years, is once again imposing itself on the Gabonese people. This has been decided by the members of the clan, the military hierarchy, the business owners, not to forget Total, Bolloré, Rougier, Eramet, Bouygues as well as Veolia, BNP, Credit Lyonnais and Axa. In total, these are some of the 150 French companies that control the key sectors of oil, wood, trade, etc.
The elections were marred by many irregularities. Ali Bongo had the financial means and the State apparatus to ‘wage a campaign’. The three days before the announcement of the results served to settle differences within the clan, to allocate juicy posts and to prepare themselves to deal with the demonstrations that would take place proclamation in case Ali Bongo was proclaimed the winner, so great is the anger against this regime and so deep is the desire for change. The fact that most opponents who campaigned did not represent a real rupture does not at all change this desire.
If the demonstrators attacked ‘French interests’, it is because nothing can be decided without the endorsement of the French economic and political leaders.
Several hundred French soldiers equipped with air and land transport have been deployed to defend the right to loot and to protect the regime of Ali Bongo. In 1990, it was the French military that suppressed in blood the revolt of the Gabonese youth, who believed that the time had come for more democracy. French troops are ready to shoot, as they did in November 2004 in Abidjan.
We join with the protests and denunciations that have taken place in France against these rigged elections intended to maintain in power the Bongo clan, the pillar of ‘French Africa’. We denounce the cynicism of the Sarkozy government which claimed to be ‘neutral’ but which, through the statements of Kouchner and Joyandet, gives the political and military support of French imperialism to this coup.
We denounce Bolloré, Bouygues, Total and company, which want to continue to enrich themselves on the backs of the Gabonese people, as well as the peoples of the other French neo-colonies.
We express our solidarity with the Gabonese people, the youth, the workers of the towns and countryside, who are standing up against arbitrariness and reaction.
We call for broadening the denunciation in France and internationally of this coup, supported by French imperialism.
Paris, September 4, 2009
Communist Party of the Workers of France
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