Presentation - A contextualisation

For almost fifty years, the Corsican national movement has been fighting for its rights in the face of a French state that applies the most reactionary laws in Europe on the rights of national minorities present within their territory. However, within the Corsican territorial collectivity set up since 2015, the Corsican people carried in 2021, for the second time, a large majority of parties of the national movement.

Even minimal demands such as autonomy, bilingualism, the rapprochement of political prisoners, carried by the national movement have been systematically rejected by the French governments. In recent years, Macron’s government has closed the door to any discussion.

The Corsican people have neither control over their soil nor their economy and do not have political sovereignty. As with other stateless nations, the struggle for social emancipation and the end of capitalist exploitation is coupled in Corsica with the demands for national emancipation.

For more than a week, Corsican youth, who did not experience the years of the FLNC’s clandestine struggle, have taken to the streets of the island’s main cities to proclaim their anger after the attempted assassination of independence activist Yvan Colonna in the prison where he is incarcerated. Imprisoned in France since 2003, Yvan Colonna was sentenced to life, without evidence, for the murder of Claude Erignac, prefect of Corsica, in 1998. . For the past eight days, the French police have been carrying out a fierce repression against young people who are demonstrating.

This assassination attempt against Yvan Colonna could not have taken place if, as French law permitted, he had been released after 19 years in prison. In addition, he suffered the particularly vexatious status of “particularly reported detainee” (DPS) and was forbidden to be brought closer to Corsica, near his family. The French state has been practicing state revenge for years, refusing all these demands, as well as those made by two other nationalist activists, detained and convicted in the same case.
Since this assassination attempt against Yvan Colonna, who is still in critical condition, thousands of Corsicans have been demonstrating. A new large demonstration is planned in Corte on March 13.

Release and amnesty of Corsican political prisoners

Right to self-determination and political sovereignty

Léon Crémieux

To express your solidarity with the popular mobilization and the demands of the Corsican people, send your messages to our comrades of A Manca (organization of the IVth International, with observer status, in Corsica): contact a-manca.org

A Manca’s Letter

Comrades

While all the media attention is focused on the war in Ukraine, which we can understand, we see a blackout on the political situation in Corsica, including the serious events that are currently taking place there.

The line of the Hollande and Macron governments on the Corsican national question boils down to a negation of the democratic fact and an attempt at liquidation by the deterioration of the situation, and this since 2015.

For 7 years, the majority leadership of the National Movement of reformist and/or liberal essence has met with systematic refusals on all issues (Statute of Autonomy, Corsican Language, Political Prisoners). Even the 70% of the vote won in the last territorial elections does not change anything.

The attempt to assassinate political prisoner Yvan Colonna, in circumstances that throw trouble, has reactivated the mass struggle in Corsica. This is a popular mobilization unprecedented for 40 years. This mobilization, which goes beyond the framework of political organizations, was initially reflected on March 6 by a demonstration of more than 10,000 people in Corte ( in the center of Corsica), a figure that the media are trying to minimize. An extraordinary repression fell on this demonstration. One of our sympathizers of Kurdish origin, an active member of the Corsica-Rojava committee, was hit by 3 simultaneous Flashball shots causing serious injuries and fractures (as indicated by the emergency doctor who took care of him).

Since Monday, March 7, every day the youth mobilizes spontaneously in the Corsican cities and the clashes are more and more violent. The youth have become autonomous and have appropriated this movement of revolt as a catalyst for all the ills from which they suffer (lowest wages, weight of tourism and the residential economy out of the name, high unemployment rate, poor housing, negation of the right to self-determination, etc ...). She faces boundless repression (Ex: A 14-year-old schoolgirl was the victim of a flashball shot in the throat yesterday). The number of wounded further radicalizes the reaction of the youth who no longer listen to the instructions of moderation on the part of the state and the reformist directions. We have seen in Bastia an increased involvement of young women, even very young girls in urban struggles, which had never been seen and must be related to the emergence of a very important feminist youth movement in Corsica for 3 years.

There is therefore in this resistance movement of Corsican youth a class dimension and a feminist dimension, a movement that is supported by the indigenous population. Again tonight, all Corsican cities experienced several hours of clashes. A demonstration will take place next Sunday.

Investi.es sometimes for some of us for 40 years in the national liberation struggle of the Corsican people we share the analysis that such a pre-insurrectional climate had not been seen since 1980. The difference is that this generation that clashes with the state apparatus prefers mass direct action to clandestine armed struggle. The political situation is serious enough that all internationalist militant.es are also interested in what is happening in Corsica and show their solidarity.

A Manca (Corsica)