To Lieutenant de Vaisseau Bayle:
Sir, We have received your indictment of Tropiques.
“Racists”, “sectarians”, “revolutionaries”, “ingrates and traitors to the country”, “poisoners of souls”, none of these epithets really repulses us. “Poisoners of Souls”, like Racine… “Ingrates and traitors to our good Country”, like Zola… “Revolutionaries”, like the Hugo of “Châtiments”. “Sectarians”, passionately, like Rimbaud and Lautréamont. Racists, yes. Of the racism of Toussaint Louverture, of Claude McKay and Langston Hughes against that of Drumont and Hitler. As to the rest of it, don’t expect for us to plead our case, nor vain recriminations, nor discussion. We do not speak the same language.
Signed: Aimé Césaire, Suzanne Césaire, Georges Gratiant, Aristide Maugée, René Ménil, Lucie Thesée.
Tropiques, vol. 1, ed. by Aime Cesaire
Post-war period
On Liberation in 1945, Gratiant supported assimilation with France, a view common to communists of the time, and took an active part in making it succeed. In 1946 he was elected the first President of the General Council of the new Department of Martinique, and served in the position until 1947.
In 1948, during the "Affair of the Basse-Pointe 16", Gratiant was one of the lawyers defending the sixteen farm workers charged with the murder of a white creole administrator on the Leyritz estate in Basse-Pointe. At the trial in Bordeaux in 1951, his plea contributed greatly to the acquittal of the farm workers. [7]
On 21-22 September 1957, Gratiant helped to found the P.C.M. (Martinican Communist Party) together with René Ménil, Léopold Bissol and Victor Lamon. The P.C.M's slogan was "autonomy for Martinique". On 14 February 1960, the P.C.M. adopted a new draft status for Martinique, proposing an autonomous territory federated to the French Republic. The powers of the territory would be exercised by a Legislative Assembly and a Council of Government. [8]
On the 24th March 1961, during the strike of the agricultural workers of Le Lamentin, gendarmes shot at the crowd, causing the death of three workers. At their funeral, Gratiant gave the poetic speech "Discours sur les trois tombes": "Whoever wants bread will get lead, in the name of the law, in the name of force, in the name of France, in the name of the force of the law that comes from France." [9] [10] This speech provoked the anger of the Minister of the Armed Forces, Pierre Messmer, who took Gratiant to court. He was given a suspended sentence and fined, but appealed and finally won his case. [11] The loss of life is memorialised on a plaque at rue Hardy de Saint-Omer near the place that it occurred, in Le Lamentin. [12]
Georges Gratiant spent his life fighting against injustice through his work as a lawyer, often at his own risk. He was actively anti-colonial, notably during the O.J.A.M. affair and during the strike of 1974. [13] [14]
Retirement from politics
In 1989 Gratiant, after having been mayor of Le Lamentin for thirty years, the commune having become the second largest city in Martinique, announced that he would not stand for re-election and supports the candidacy of his first deputy Pierre Samot. [15]
After gradually withdrawing from politics, Gratiant died on 20 June, 1992 at the age of 85.
Memorials
In his honour, the Place d'Armes stadium in Le Lamentin, the second largest stadium in Martinique, was named the Georges Gratiant stadium in 1993, the year after his death.
An avenue in Le Lamentin is named after him, as is a street in Fort-de-France. [16]
List of offices
- 1945 - 1956 : First Deputy Mayor of Fort-de-France
- 1945 - 1961 : General Councillor of Fort-de-France
- 1946 - 1947 : President of the General Council of Martinique
- 1959 - 1989 : Mayor of Le Lamentin
- 1970 - 1985 : General Councillor of the canton of Le Lamentin
- 1983 - 1990 : Regional Councillor of Martinique
- 1985 - 1988 : General Councillor of the canton of Le Lamentin-3-Est
See also
- Georges Gratiant, un avocat dans le siècle. Georges Mauvois - K Editions 3 - December 2008.
Related Research Articles
Martinique is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. A part of the French West Indies (Antilles), Martinique is an overseas department and region and a single territorial collectivity of the French Republic. It is a part of the European Union as an outermost region within the special territories of members of the European Economic Area, and an associate member of the CARICOM, but is not part of the Schengen Area or the European Union Customs Union. The currency in use is the euro.
Martinique is a small Caribbean island that is an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It has a land area of 1,128 km2 (436 sq mi) and a population of 376,480 inhabitants as of January 2016. One of the Windward Islands, it is directly north of Saint Lucia, northwest of Barbados and south of Dominica. Martinique is also an Outermost Region (OMR) of the European Union and a special territory of the European Union; the currency in use is the euro. Virtually the entire population speaks both French and Martinican Creole.
Aimé Fernand David Césaire was a Francophone Martinican poet, author, and politician. He was "one of the founders of the Négritude movement in Francophone literature" and coined the word négritude in French. He founded the Parti progressiste martiniquais in 1958, and served in the French National Assembly from 1945 to 1993 and as President of the Regional Council of Martinique from 1983 to 1988. He was also the Mayor of Fort au France for 56 years, from 1945 - 2001.
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References
- ↑ Reynal, Guillaume de (2021-04-26). "GRATIANT Georges". CONTRUIRE NOTRE VIVRE-ENSEMBLE (in French). Archived from the original on 2021-08-26. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
- ↑ "Georges Gratiant : Martinique A nu". martiniqueannu.com. Archived from the original on 2020-08-13. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
- ↑ "GRATIANT Georges, Félix", Le Maitron (in French), Paris: Maitron/Editions de l'Atelier, 2021-05-04, archived from the original on 2021-03-21, retrieved 2022-04-02
- ↑ Stromberg Childers, Kristen (3 December 2019). "Aimé Césaire's Notebook of a Return to the Native Land". Fiction and Film for Scholars of France. Archived from the original on 2021-04-10. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
- ↑ ivetteromero (2015-08-11). "Suzanne Roussi (aka Suzanne Césaire): Centennial of a Pioneer". Repeating Islands. Archived from the original on 2021-02-24. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
- ↑ Kelley, By: Robin DG; Features (2020-03-05). "From the Archive | A Poetics of Anticolonialism". New Frame. Archived from the original on 2021-01-19. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
- ↑ Brown, Daniel (2009-04-29). "RFI - Murder trial which put colonialism in the dock". www1.rfi.fr. Archived from the original on 2009-05-06. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
- ↑ "Parti Communiste Martiniquais (PCM) — France Politique". archive.wikiwix.com. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
- ↑ arapaho (2018-03-24). "Histoire : la fusillade du Lamentin, un souvenir vivace". Le Guide touristique de la Martinique (in French). Archived from the original on 2018-06-27. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
- ↑ Gratiant, Georges (1991). "Sur trois tombes" : discours-poème (in French). Le Lamentin [Martinique]: Bibliotheque Municipale du Lamentin.; Office Municipal de la Culture du Lamentin. OCLC 61731673.
- ↑ "GRATIANT Georges, Félix", Le Maitron (in French), Paris: Maitron/Editions de l'Atelier, 2021-05-04, archived from the original on 2021-03-21, retrieved 2022-04-02
- ↑ "Guide du Lamentin by Line LUBIN - Issuu". issuu.com. 28 April 2008. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
- ↑ Bonilla, Yarimar (2015). Non-sovereign futures : French Caribbean politics in the wake of disenchantment. Chicago. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-226-28378-4. OCLC 898910975.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ↑ "Le drame de février 1974 marque encore les esprits". Martinique la 1ère (in French). 15 February 2013. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
- ↑ "Pierre Samot : Martinique A nu". martiniqueannu.com. Archived from the original on 2020-08-06. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
- ↑ "Guide du Lamentin by Line LUBIN - Issuu". issuu.com. 28 April 2008. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
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Georges Gratiant | |
|---|---|
| President of the General Council of Martinique | |
| In office 1946–1947 |