Anarchism in French Guiana has a short, and
little recorded, history.
The only continental territory in Latin America
to remain a colony into the 21st century,
Guiana has not seen the same political developments
as most other countries in the region.
Still, anarchism has existed to some degree,
mainly through the presence of political prisoners
deported to the colony.
In the modern era, anarchism has had a minor
presence in the Guianan political milieu.
== History ==
Located on the northern Atlantic coast of
South America and inhabited by Amerindians
indigenous peoples, Guiana was first encountered
by Europeans in 1498 when Christopher Colombus
reached it, naming the region the "Land of
Pariahs".
Several attempts to colonize Guiana were made
by European states, all of them failing, until
the late 17th century when France somewhat
successfully colonized the region.
While it switched hands many times during
the next few centuries, it eventually returned
to the French.
The history of French Guiana since colonization
can be said to largely have been defined by
imprisonment, escape, and rebellion.
Many slaves brought from Africa in the region
escaped between the mid-17th century and onwards,
forming independent maroon communities together
with indigenous tribes.
Contemporary communities of escaped slaves
in neighboring Brazil, such as Palmares (1605–1694)
and its leader Zumbi, have sometimes been
upheld by modern anarchists as examples of
early anti-colonialism, decentralization,
and democracy.These communities of free escaped
slaves often waged war against the French
colonial settlements.
Additionally, slave revolts were relatively
frequent.
A prominent was one in 1796, when riots broke
out after plantation owners refused to obey
the abolition of slavery enacted by the French
First Republic.
After the execution of the same man that had
carried out said abolition, Maximilien de
Robespierre, in 1794, 193 Jacobin supporters
- political radicals whose involvement in
the French Revolution and one-time alliance
with the revolutionary sans-culottes had an
immense impact on the later development of
revolutionary and libertarian thought - were
deported to Guiana.
They were the first of many political prisoners
to come.
When in 1797 Jean-Charles Pichegru and others
were sent to the colony as prisoners, they
found that only 54 of the deportees were still
alive, the rest had either succumbed to tropical
diseases or escaped.Another slave revolt came
in 1804, when Napoleon reintroduced slavery
in France's American colonies.
After the French Revolution of 1848, in which
early anarchists like Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
and Joseph Déjacque participated, slavery
was again abolished, leading to a massive
increase in the maroon population.
From the mid-19th century, French Guiana became
one of France's primary penal colonies, seeing
a massive influx of both criminal and political
prisoners over the next century.
One early prisoner was Louis Charles Delescluze,
arrested and deported in 1853, who after his
release in 1859 became associated with the
International Workingmen's Association, later
becoming a prominent leader of the revolutionary
libertarian socialist Paris Commune.
The Communard, who was killed on the barricades,
wrote an account of his imprisonment in Guiana;
De Paris à Cayenne, Journal d'un transporté.Most
political prisoners were placed on the Îles
du Salut, especially the notorious Devil's
Island, which was active as a prison between
1852 and 1953.
It became controversial for its reputation
of harshness and brutality.
Violence between prisoners was common, tropical
diseases were rife, and guards were often
corrupt.
While most prominently known for its connection
to the Dreyfus affair, many French anarchists
were imprisoned on the island as well, during
the late 19th and early 20th century.
Many of them were illegalists, engaging in
propaganda of the deed and individual reclamation.
The most prominent anarchist imprisoned in
French Guiana was the illegalist Clément
Duval (1850–1935), who - unable to work
after being wounded in the Franco-Prussian
War - turned to theft.
Duval, a member of the Panther of Batignolles,
was first sentenced to death for burglary
(and stabbing the policeman arresting him
repeatedly), but later had the sentence commuted
to hard labor on Devil's Island.
He spent the next 14 years in prison, attempting
escape over 20 times.
In April 1901, he succeeded and fled to New
York City, where he lived until the age of
85.
His memoirs were published in 1929, titled
Outrage: An Anarchist Memoir of the Penal
Colony.
In 1894, an anarchist-led prison revolt broke
out on Devil's Island.
The troubles began in September, when a jailer
killed the anarchist Francois Briens.
On 21 October, the jailer was stabbed to death.
In the following manhunt, Achille Charles
Simon - an accomplice of the executed bomber
Ravachol - was shot after being found hiding,
as were the anarchists Marsevin, Lebault and
Jules Leon Leauthier (the later of which had
been sentenced for trying to stab the Serbian
Minister in Paris to death).
In the following chaos, the guards killed
numerous anarchist prisoners, among them Dervaux,
Boesie, Garnier, Benoit Chevenet, Edouard
Aubin Marpaux, Mattei, Maxime Lebeau, Mazarquil,
Henri Pierre Meyrveis, Auguste Alfred Faugoux,
Thiervoz, and Bernard Mamert.
Others died long after, due to the rough conditions
and torture, among them Mamaire and Anthelme
Girier.Other anarchist prisoners in French
Guiana included Marius Jacob, an illegalist
burglar who spent fourteen years in Cayenne
and was one of the inspirations for the author
Maurice Leblanc's character Arsène Lupin,
the Bonnot Gang members Jean De Boe (who after
his escape in 1922 fled to Brussels, becoming
a noted anarcho-syndicalist) and Eugène Dieudonné
(who was pardoned, after escaping prison in
December 1926), and Paul Roussenq, who spent
a whole twenty years in Guiana on charges
of military insubordination, later visiting
the Soviet Union (becoming a firm critic of
it) and being interned by Vichy France.
=== Contemporary ===
French Guiana remains part of France, now
as an overseas department and region, not
a separate territory.
It remains the only territory in continental
Latin America that have not been decolonized
by its associated European power, and has
little autonomy from France itself.
The region's political situation is dominated
by Guianese Socialist Party, in addition to
other left-wing parties like the Democratic
Forces of Guiana, Walwari, and the Decolonization
and Social Emancipation Movement.
In 2004 the French anarcho-communist movement
Alternative libertaire established a local
group in French Guiana.
Alternative Libertaire Guyane is engaged in
primarily anti-colonialism, but also labor
struggles, immigrant rights, housing issues,
and so on.
== References ==
