Evolution d'un grand domaine sucrier a la guadeloupe : rapports sociaux dans le nord grande-terre, aire de la societe anonyme des usines de beauport (1908-1981)
Institution:
Antilles-GuyaneDisciplines:
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Abstract EN:
The estate the saub company had acquired in 1908 covered three centres: beauport, bellevue and cluny both agricultural and industrial activities combined, generated a driving force which in 1929 was to result in the merging with the saub of duval agro-industrial unit. Referring to the saub amounts to referring to the then latifundia-size lands in norhern grande-terre. That company was then to rule over the whole area and it structured everything: between 1908 and 1981, it kept exploiting the productive forces inherited from slavery, which developed a capitalist type of relationship. In the dynamism born from this major controversy over the cane production, it gave an impulse to the setting up of contractual conditions thus imposing the establishment of work on those estate lands submitted to direct cropping. From the years 1917-1918 onwards, sharecropping , a direct source of labour, was to be chosen as the major orientation. Thousands of men and women used as workers at the saub, in fact managed to survive thanks to their multiple activities. In the fields as well as in the factories, farmers and labourers fought daily for higher sugar cane cost and for a rise in their daily wages. The legacy from the slavery system combined with a new capitalist system was to generate mentalities closely connected with the "flow of the caribbean social dynamics": the latter flow was born from a cultural confrontation which so far continues to develop on those "sugar islands". New social classes and categories emerged from these new rural phenomena. But, it was the social division which arose, which is the genuine fruit of the managing practice by the saub. After more than three scores of its presence, culturally, socially and economically, beauport factory, like a fortress built up by the limited-liabilities of bordeaux, appeared as an enclave, as a small block , as a neo-colonial exception to the rule. Social relationship in the twentieth century northern grande-terre reflects the duality which deeply influences the life of the guadeloupean populations as a whole: from colony to "department".
Abstract FR:
Le domaine acquis par la saub en 1908 rassemble trois centres: beauport, bellevue, et clugny. Activites agricoles et industrielles se combinent en un ensemble unique qui absorbera en 1929 l'unite agro-industrielle de duval. Qui dit saub nous renvoit donc a des dimensions latifundiares sur tout le nord grande-terre: c'est la maitresse de la region. Entre 1908 et 1981, cette structure a developpe les rapports sociaux capitalistes dans l'exploitation des forces productives heritees de l'esclavage. Dans la question centrale de la produc, tion canniere elle impulsera des conditions contractuelles qui imposeront le travail sur son faire valoir direct. Le colonat partiaire, comme source essentielle de main d'oeuvre, telle sera la principale orientation mise en pratique dans la gestion des personnels a partir de 1917-18. Des milliers de femmes et d'homme5 employes par la saub doivent leur survie grace a la pluri-acti -vite. Aux champs ou a l'usine les cultivateurs et ouvriers se battent ainsi tous les jours pour de meilleures remunerations de la tonne de canne ou de la journee de travail. L'heritage esclavagiste, combine a l'exploitation capitaliste renovee, generera des mentalites intimement amarrees au "flux de la dynamique sociale caribeenne" ne de la confrontation culturelle qui continue de se developper dans ces iles dites a sucre. Des categories et classes sociales nouvelles emergent de ces ruralites originales. Mais c'est le clivage social qui sera le fruit de la gestion saubienne. Apres trois quart de siecle de presence economique, sociale et culturelle la cite de beauport faconnee par les "anonymes" de bordeaux apparaitra telle une enclave, un ilot, une exceptionalite "neo-coloniale". Les rapports sociaux dans le nord grande-terre au xx e siecle, refletent la dualite qui a marque la vie des populations guadelou peennes en general : de la colonie au departement.