Political

On 18th July 2015, Hugues Martin, the deputy-mayor of Bordeaux, launched the 'Comité de réflexion et de propositions sur la Traite des noirs à Bordeaux' ('Committee for reflecting upon proposals relating to the Black slave trade in Bordeaux') and entrusted its presidency to Denis Tillinac, a journalist and writer.

This conference on reparations for slavery, co-organized by the Association Racines and the Association Guadeloupéenne pour la recherche en histoire du droit et des institutions d’outre-mer (GREHDIOM) under the patronage of the UNESCO, was held on 16-17 of December 2006 at the Cité des Métiers in the Abymes, Guadeloupe. Numerous discussions and debates were had around the question of reparations and the Taubira law.

In 2010, the Mouvement International pour les Réparations (MIR) set up a site whereby the people of Martinique can obtain a national identity card to assert their primary identity as Martinquais and not French. While this card is not legally or internationally recognized, it nonetheless represents a challenge to the imposition of a French national identity upon people living in the Antilles. Applications are made online.

In 2006, a group of environmental and ecological associations brought a court case against State-funded banana producers in the Antilles (dominated by the béké population) for their use of the harmful pesticide, chlordécone, between 1972 and 1993. Despite bans in other countries, such as the USA, the French government authorized the use of this pesticide in Martinique and Guadeloupe.

In 2011, the Mouvement International pour les Réparations (MIR) organised a symposium on reparations in Guadeloupe in collaboration with the Comité International des Peuples Noirs (CIPN) and the association Racines. The aims of the symposium were to identify development strategies based on reparations for peoples of African origin. The symposium came to a number of conclusions affirming that:

On 8th October 2012, a group of associations invested in seeking reparations for slavery were invited to the official residence of the French government, Matignon, with the aim of setting up an interministerial meeting to begin discussions.

In response to the emergence of many high-profile incidents of racial hatred relating to the French Minister for Justice, Christiane Taubira, on 17 July 2014, the association Centre d’Information, Formation, Recherche et Développement pour les Originaires d’Outre-Mer (Cifordom) submitted a petition with over 600 signatures to the French president, François Hollande, in support of a document entitled 'A Genuine Plan to End Racism' ('Un veritable plan pour en finir avec le racism').