Dear comrades and friends, I am writing to congratulate you as a people for what you got to do in recent months. I do not think only acquired material that you have obtained, during and after the movement, but also to the fact that you have dared to start such a process and you are able to support and defend it to the end.
When you trigger your fight, there was much talk, at home in Puerto Rico, Mr. Obama and his boldness vis-à-vis the hope - the audacity to want to change the world. In the case of Obama, this might appear to be the success of one man - but in fact there was a human machine behind him that was the true guarantee of victory, because they dared to believe and take action. In fact, Obama's victory was built by people who are committed for the first time in their lives in a political movement. Obama has shown us that it was still possible to dream of a people and to dare.
In the case of LKP is especially true. LKPienne victory is the product of its leaders, but also the thousands and thousands of people who dared to leave their homes, the paths demonstrations and barricades and climb the face of police and military forces ... These people have proven to themselves and the world that the strength of a people still exists, it is possible to assemble a population and that solidarity and tenacity are not just words. In a world where we have completely given in to political alienation and cynicism, where we let ourselves believe that there is no alternative, you managed to prove otherwise.
At the time in the world, particularly in the United States, it is now accepting an economic crisis - which is the result of avarice, the search for huge profits and lack of control and even to human face of capitalism, without measure and without borders - you have shown us that this could be different. When the world agrees to live increasingly in precarious and insecure, you have said it was not necessary for workers and middle classes pay for the errors and evils by the most powerful.
There was no such inspiration from the 90s - when the indigenous Zapatistas in Mexico had been in front of the forces of international capitalism and the power had said "Ya Basta! "- No more! This movement had become an inspiration to all who got lost and now many researchers acknowledge as being the origin of the so-called anti-globalization movement.
I find that LKP has the same ability to change the political imagination in the world. In the same way that the Zapatistas came to inspire thousands of activists on the planet and who found themselves in their movement, said "we are all Zapatistas" (todos somos Zapatistas!), The LKP can also be a source of inspiration for a new wave of politics.
Already pwofitasyon the word that seems to be something very special and especially related to the context and the language of Guadeloupe, a quick yet echo, because in the world, we did not take long to understand its meaning. In addition, you got to create a Lyannaj putting aside institutional differences, finding a unique voice and a common way to teach a lesson to the world that is more and more "network" but not necessarily Lyannaj.
As an anthropologist interested in the political movements of the Caribbean, and as a Puerto Rican and Caribbean, I assure you that the world looks at you. All are waiting to see what will become the LKP and what lessons could be learned from you.
During my stay in Guadeloupe in recent weeks I have heard a lot about democracy (and lack thereof), the importance of existing political institutions, and limits must be imposed on mass movements. But I think we should be careful not to let you restrict by these discourses. While you are looking for the path that could take your Lyannaj, [please], do not limit your research and in building your own political model.
Remember that the Caribbean has always been a creative, manufacturing and political invention. We have already so often dreamed of the Caribbean: Haiti, we had the first black republic in the hemisphere, Cuba, was facing the biggest imperialist force in the world and in places such as the French Antilles or Puerto Rico, we dare impose new political formulas beyond what existed in the world system around us.
I urge you to continue to dare to dream, and open the way to Guadeloupe and the Caribbean tomorrow. I assure you that you are watching and we will follow you. In the same way that the Zapatistas lit the flame anti-globalization, I'm sure the LKP will open the way for that, not only of Guadeloupe, but the Caribbean and (why not) the world wine ké new tan.
Kyembé fô, pa lage!
Yarimar Bonilla,
Professor of Anthropology
University of Virginia (USA)
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