French
economic group Bolloré attempts to intimidate journalists
who expose abusive practices on its plantations in Cameroon
Targeting the media
This past May 6,
journalist Benoît Collombat and two Radio France Inter directors
were convicted of defamation in a lawsuit filed by Vincent Bolloré,
CEO of the French industrial group Bolloré. The report that
led to the charges featured Cameroonian civil society activists
who spoke out about the company’s labour practices in the
railway, port and plantation sectors, all of which have been privatized
and turned over to Bolloré group subsidiaries. None of the
group’s representatives had been willing to respond to the
accusations of exploitation of workers, collusion with the Cameroonian
regime, deforestation and pollution in time for their statements
to be included in the radio report. The court ordered the defendants
to pay a fine of 1,000 plus one euros to Bolloré in damages.
It specified, however, that its decision was based on the statements
made in the report regarding railway and port operations –
but not the company’s management of its plantations.
This coming July
2, it was supposed to be freelance photographer Isabelle Alexandra
Ricq’s turn to stand trial for defamation. Vincent Bolloré
had filed suit against Ricq and two France Inter directors after
a France Inter interview in which she talked about the problems
she had witnessed on SOCAPALM oil palm plantations and the surrounding
area while working on a photo report (published in Le Monde
Diplomatique and Alternatives internationales,
http://www.isabellericq.fr/socapalm.html). Invited by France
Inter to speak about her experiences, she described the dismal living
conditions of the Bagyeli pygmy ethnic group, the problems of deforestation
and lack of access to land, and the deplorable conditions faced
by plantation workers who, according to Ricq, “call themselves
SOCAPALM’s slaves.” However, two weeks before the trial
was to take place, Bolloré decided to withdraw the charges.
Most likely, he knew he had little chance of winning, and would
also be exposing himself to the serious threat of having his activities
in Cameroon brought into the public spotlight.
Strategy
of intimidation
Could there be
anything more carefully hidden than the production and commercial
operations, networks of influence and repressive actions of large
business groups? As long as criticism was limited to “fringe”
publications, Bolloré saw no need to react. But when public
radio broadcaster France Inter aired certain discordant opinions,
Bolloré decided that it had had enough and it was time to
“attack” back, in order to “set an example,”
because “you can’t play around with the group,”
as Bolloré second-in-command Dominique Lafont declared at
Collombat’s trial. The fact is, Bolloré has become
very conscious of its image. “In Africa, Bolloré is
a civic enterprise. […] Our strategy is aimed at lifting
the continent out of its isolation” through “sustainable
development,” stated Lafont. As for the critical opinions,
he labelled them as “miserablist” and “otherworldly”
– a reference to the anti-globalization protest movement whose
slogan is “Another world is possible.”
It should be noted
that, in France, Bolloré has other means at its disposal
to influence public opinion in its favour. It is the main shareholder
in the advertising giant Havas, the world’s sixth largest
global communications group and leading advertiser in numerous publications.
Bolloré also owns the television network Direct 8 and two
free newspapers, Direct Soir and Direct Matin.
Obviously, the readers of these newspapers will learn absolutely
nothing about the criticisms aimed at Vincent Bolloré’s
business dealings in Africa, his collusion with local regimes, the
quashing of any protests raised on his plantations, or the environmental
destruction linked with the Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline… Instead,
as far as the general public is concerned, the activity of this
industrial group (one of the most diversified on the global market)
is to be summed up behind its most presentable face, that of the
manufacturer of the Bluecar, an electric car to be launched in 2011
– and the group’s main tool to achieve the eco-friendly
“repositioning” of its image.
Who
is Bolloré?
The Bolloré
group is currently one of the world’s top 500 companies, with
an annual turnover of more than seven billion euros. Its global
expansion has been largely concentrated in Africa, where it now
operates in 42 countries. Vincent Bolloré – the 18th
wealthiest man in France in 2009 – has built an empire much
more extensive than the former French colonies. He has gained control
over not only plantations and public services throughout Africa,
but also, above all, the continent’s ports (historically the
group’s main business activity in Africa) and its oil industry.
The Bolloré group has had no qualms about working closely
with dictators like Denis Sassou Nguesso, Omar Bongo or Charles
Taylor. Vincent Bolloré is also a personal friend of French
President Nicolas Sarkozy. After winning the presidential election,
Sarkozy took a vacation on the industrialist’s yacht and declared
that Bolloré “does honour to the French economy.”
By buying up former
colonial companies and taking advantage of the wave of privatizations
spurred by the “structural adjustments” imposed by the
IMF, Bolloré has inevitably become a key player in the economic
structure and political life of many African countries. His control
of strategic sectors and the transfer of part of his African profits
to tax havens like Luxembourg or the Channel Islands provide him
with the financial capital needed to back his stock market dealings
and expansionist strategy.
Bolloré's
plantations in Cameroon
Cameroon, a former
French colony, continues to be governed by an oligarchy that cares
more about serving its own interests and those of France than the
public interest of its own population (Transparency International
ranked Cameroon as the most corrupt country in sub-Saharan Africa
in 2009). Many Cameroonians view the control of strategic sectors
by large French companies as a form of neo-colonialism. It is not
unusual to see Bolloré group executives swanning about in
public with President Paul Biya, his wife Chantal or top government
officials. For Pius Njawé, director of the newspaper Le
Messager, the Bolloré group’s interference in
the political life of Cameroon is beyond doubt: “It is a sort
of state within a state… a perfect example of so-called Françafrique”
(a pejorative term coined by combining the French names for France
and Africa).
In Cameroon, the
Bolloré group controls vast oil palm and rubber tree plantations,
either directly through SAFACAM (which operates 8,400 hectares of
plantations), or indirectly through SOCFINAL (which administers
31,000 hectares), together with the two families of the Rivaud group
(acquired by Bolloré in 1995): the Fabri and Ribes families.
Bolloré holds close to 40% of the shares in SOCFINAL, one
of the various Rivaud holdings listed on the Luxembourg stock exchange.
One of its subsidiaries, Intercultures, runs SOCAPALM (Société
Camerounaise de Palmeraies), the company implicated in the two lawsuits
mentioned above. Of SOCFINAL’s total annual profits, no less
than 45% come from SOCAPALM. Established through a government programme
in 1963 with the support of the World Bank, SOCAPALM was privatized
in 2000 and taken over by the group.
SOCAPALM has been
a constant source of serious social and environmental problems,
as reported by WRM on numerous occasions (Bulletins 112, 116 and
134 and WRM Series on Tree Plantations No. 13). When it was owned
by the state, it confiscated lands that were historically the property
of local populations without any sort of compensation. Today, it
continues to expand without regard for neighbouring ecosystems,
thus seriously endangering the food sovereignty of those same populations.
In addition, the agrochemical products used on its monoculture plantations
and the waste effluents discharged by its factory in Kienké
have drastically contaminated the area’s waterways. On the
plantations, living and working conditions are abominable: insalubrious
living quarters and shared latrines, lack of regular access to water
and electricity, mostly temporary employment at miserable wages,
etc. Hundreds of workers work six days a week, in some cases from
6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., with no social security coverage or adequate
protection, for approximately 1.6 euros a day, as long as the subcontractors
don’t forget to pay them. This situation has given rise to
numerous strikes and protests, but in 2007, when a resistance movement
against these labour practices emerged, its leader was immediately
arrested by the police, and the authorities let him know that “if
he kept it up he was going to get killed.”
Bolloré's
plantations in other parts of the world
The Bolloré
group, through SOCFINAL, has a number of other rubber tree and oil
palm plantations in Africa and Asia. Many of them give rise to similar
problems with their workers and neighbouring communities. In Liberia,
for example, SOCFINAL owns the country’s largest rubber tree
plantation. In May 2006, the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL)
published a report that described the dire human rights situation
on the plantation: child workers under the age of 14, the massive
use of sub-contracting, the use of carcinogenic products, the quashing
of trade unions, arbitrary dismissals, the maintenance of order
through private militias, and the eviction of peasant farmers obstructing
the expansion of the plantation area.
In Cambodia, the
situation is not much better (see WRM Bulletin No. 142). After several
months of wavering, the government granted a concession for a rubber
tree plantation to SOCFIN KCD, a company in which SOCFINAL holds
majority ownership. In December 2008, tensions rose to such a height
that hundreds of peasant farmers from the Bunong ethnic group joined
together to protest against the company, which had already begun
clearing the forests and fields near their communities. During the
protest, the demonstrators damaged and burned company-owned vehicles.
Following this incident, nearly a thousand families from seven neighbouring
communities declared that the land belonged to them, since they
had been working it for centuries, and that their collective rights,
as indigenous peoples, were protected by the country’s Land
Code. The community members also accused the authorities of taking
the company’s side because of its promises of employment,
hospitals, schools and housing. The conflict has still not been
resolved.
Conclusion
The subject of
the social and environmental impacts of large industrial groups
is becoming ever more untouchable, as demonstrated by a new investigative
report released by Reporters Without Borders, “Deforestation
and Pollution: High-Risk Subjects”. The verdict of the Parisian
court in May 2010 bodes poorly for freedom of the press. It will
discourage journalists – and civil society in general –
from undertaking critical investigations, while encouraging companies
to make increasing use of the legal system to silence any attempt
to expose their frequently scandalous practices. Along with other
large groups like Wilmar and Unilever, Bolloré is now pursuing
the development of agrofuels, supposedly “ecological”
substitutes for petroleum-based fuels. Will we be facing a situation
in which, the more reasons there are to investigate these activities,
the greater the efforts to intimidate those who attempt to do so?
In any event, there is no doubt that these industrial groups will
be anxious to nip any criticisms in the bud and keep them from taking
root.
For further references,
background information and pictures on this case we encourage you
to visit the following special section that WRM has created on its
web site: http://www.wrm.org.uy/countries/Cameroon/Bollore.htm
