Martinique’s Autonomy: An Old Idea Facing New Challenges
On August 22, 1971, in Le Morne-Rouge, the anti-colonialist parties of Martinique, united under the Martinique Communist Party (PCM), adopted a document that would leave a lasting mark on the island’s political history: the Convention for Autonomy. By asserting that Martinique, like Guadeloupe, French Guiana, and Réunion, constituted a «national entity» with its own people and interests, this document shattered the illusion of successful assimilation into the French Republic.
Fifty-four years later, the issue of autonomy has not disappeared from the debate—quite the contrary. The Territorial Collectivity of Martinique (CTM) has convened a Congress of Elected Officials for September 25, 2025, to demand genuine legislative authority from Paris. This demand, first articulated in the mid-1970s, is resurfacing at a time when the departmental model seems more out of breath than ever
A Political Legacy That Lives On
The 1971 Convention emerged in the wake of the identity and anticolonial struggles of the time. It drew inspiration from decolonization movements and Third Worldist thought. Its goal was to give Martinique the economic, social, and cultural tools it needed to break free from colonial dependence. While society has changed profoundly since then—with the rise of mass consumption and the Europeanization of lifestyles—the idea of a Martinican people endowed with collective rights remains a recurring ideological foundation.
Worsening Social Divisions
Martinique today is no longer what it was in 1971, but inequalities have widened. One in three residents lives below the poverty line, nearly 70 % of households are not subject to income tax, and 35,000 people receive the RSA. Food prices remain consistently higher than in mainland France, and retirees receive, on average, 14 % less than their counterparts in mainland France. Compounding these economic divides is a severe demographic crisis: rapid aging, population decline, and an exodus of young people. In this context, self-sufficiency is once again emerging for some as a possible solution to a dead end
Limited institutional reforms
Over the past half-century, several milestones have marked the institutional evolution: the decentralization of the 1980s, the creation of the Single Territorial Collectivity in 2015, and the referendums of 2003 and 2010. But these reforms have mainly served to perpetuate illusions. The CTM merged the former councils without truly expanding local authority through the powers granted to it. And this merger has not proven effective in improving the lives of the people of Martinique.
The referendums, for their part, confirmed voters’ distrust of political elites and their fear of the risks associated with Article 74 of the Constitution. Finally, the European status of an outermost region remains too technical to address this lack of autonomy.
A model on its last legs
The social movement of 2009, which had paralyzed the economy and called into question the high cost of living, had already revealed the exhaustion of the departmental model established in 1946. Fifteen years later, the same observations hold true: increased dependence on public funding, a fragile economy, and a fractured society. In this context, autonomy is resurfacing as a matter of democratic and social survival. It does not promise miracles, but it does offer the possibility of adapting policies to local realities.
A political issue of the utmost importance
The convening of the Congress of Elected Officials in September 2025 reflects the sense of urgency felt by a segment of the political class: to usher in a new institutional cycle. Autonomy is no longer merely invoked as a legacy of the activist movement; it has become a demand in the face of the limitations of a model that has run its course.
The Morne-Rouge Convention had proclaimed the existence of a Martinican people. Fifty-four years later, the question is not whether this people exists, but whether it wants—and is able—to take control of its own destiny.
Gérard Dorwling-Carter
