Peasant struggles in Mali: from defending cotton producers’ interests to becoming part of the Malian power structures

Abstract

This article describes how the organisation and representation of cotton growers in Mali developed from the mid 1970s to the current day, from the setting up of Village Associations through to the privatisation of the cotton industry. The research focused most closely on the relationships between the growers’ organisations and the state-owned cotton company, as well as on the different struggles throughout this period. It can be seen that at the same time as peasant participation was increasing, a ‘cotton elite’ also emerged. Far from reshaping the power structures operating in the cotton sector, this elite appropriated them.

Keywords:

• Mali
• cotton
• peasants
• privatisation
• unions

Notes

This article was translated for ROAPE from the original French text by Clare Smedley. Email: [email protected]

The Malian Company for the Development of Textiles (CMDT) belonged 60% to the Malian state and 40% to the French Company for the Development of Textiles (CFDT), the latter then concerned only with cotton cultivation. CFDT became Dagris, and then, following its privatisation under turbulent conditions in 2007, Géocoton. Its shares in CMDT have continued to fall in value as the business recapitalised, and have been reduced to a minimal percentage.

Fertilisers, biocides, and others.

Contrary to the belief of many, setting up a union was not formally banned under the law during the First and Second Republics, but did require authorisation to be obtained. Accordingly, the people behind SPCK tried to set up their union in the late 1980s and even went to court to pursue their right in late 1989 (Interview, Djanguina Tounkara, SPCK Secretary-General, April 2007).

Comité de coordination des AV et tons: ton, a Bambara term generally translated as ‘association’ or ‘organisation’, refers to a type of customary association in Mali that was reintroduced in the 1970s and 1980s.

The conflict in 1991 was sparked off by changes in the system for managing agricultural inputs, and resulted in a big rally of cotton producers in Cincina in 1991. This is considered to be the founding moment of the future SYCOV. It constituted a further victory for the producers, as the problem over agricultural inputs was resolved.

Between 1993 and 1998, SYCOV's main funders were the French Development Fund and International Solidarity's French Committee (to a total of 75% of the funding, with only 0.5% coming from their own funds). The World Bank funded a consultant to help SYCOV to negotiate a central contract on the purchase price of a kilogram of cotton (Docking 2002, pp. 6–8). The leaders of three of the cotton producers’ unions confirmed to the researchers that they had not received regular foreign funding for several years.

SYPAMO formed following a split in SPCK during the discontent that followed the leadership clashes.

Djanguina Tounkara, Secretary-General of SPCK, April 2007.

The cotton industry comprised many businesses, including CMDT, Huicoma, which processed cottonseed into oil, soap and animal feed, the Société malienne de produits chimiques (SMPC) (the Malian Chemicals Company), which supplied fertiliser, and a textiles company that had already been privatised. Subsequently SMPC went into voluntary liquidation, while Huicoma was privatised in 2005, and collapsed after being bought out by Tomota, who broke up the company. The future of the company remains very uncertain. The Huicoma workers have been occupying the Bamako labour exchange since November 2009, demanding the renationalisation of their business, the rehiring of those made redundant and the payment of salary arrears.

Before this, the Association des organisations professionnelles paysannes (AOPP) (the Association of Peasants’ Professional Organisations) had begun a reconciliation process among the union officials and set up the ‘group of 38’, which brought together the members of SYCOV, SYVAC, SPCK and SYPAMO.

For example, ‘CMDT's unpaid agricultural inputs: the false game played by the chair of APCAM’ (Dicko 2007).

The issue of the number of levels in the umbrella structure delayed the process by several months, and the unions, who wanted to increase the number of posts, eventually succeeded in ensuring a committee at sector level, which had not originally been planned.

This was asserted in interviews during the research, and reported in the press (Les Echos 2007).

In 2004, 25% of cotton growers were farming an average area of six hectares, 55% farming three hectares and 20% farming one and a half hectares (Bélières 2009, p. 4). Another differentiating factor was access to agricultural tools (Nubukpo and Keïta 2005).

At the time of their advancement, Yaya Traoré and Bakary Togola both had a poor command of French, which perhaps in part explained why they had been supported by CMDT. The fact of being well educated, including in French, was clearly an important factor of social differentiation among the cotton producers and their representatives.