Trois Glorieuses (1963)
Trois Glorieuses | |||
---|---|---|---|
Date | August 13-15, 1963 | ||
Location | Congo-Brazzaville | ||
Resulted in | Fulbert Toulou ousted out of power and goes into exile. | ||
Parties | |||
Lead figures | |||
no centralized leadership |
The Trois Glorieuses (Three Glorious Days) was an uprising in
Background
Congo-Brazzaville had become independent in 1960. The rule of the first president,
By mid-1963, the Congolese labour movement had become increasingly vocal.
August 13
Protests began on August 12, consisting of organised workers and unemployed young people who had been drawn to the city by impoverished conditions elsewhere in the country who had become increasingly infuriated by Youlou's corruption, pro-French policies and ultra-conservatism. The rallyists called for raised salaries, and for the release of detained labour activists. Soldiers opened fire on the crowd, killing three trade unionists. The rallies turned into violent riots. Houses were sacked, and a follower of Youlou killed.[5]
Fall of Youlou
As of August 14, Youlou's government remained in place. Youlou's own forces were unwilling to assist him any further, in part due to the reluctance of the French officers to intervene. Consequently, Youlou sought French military intervention to support his government, but the French president, Charles de Gaulle, denied Youlou's request.[5] On August 15, the Congolese military withdrew their support from Youlou and sided with the trade unions and the Congolese Youth Union.[1] Youlou's government collapsed and he was placed under house arrest, before being spirited out of the country by friendly Gendarmerie. Youlou sought asylum in France but his application was rejected which led to him seeking refuge in Spain instead where he later died.[3]
New government
The uprising and the fall of Youlou brought two groups into power: the military and the trade unionists. However, neither group was represented in the provisional government formed on August 15, 1963 (with the Bakongo
Massemba-Débat came to power sustained by a wide coalition of forces, all claiming to be Marxist or nationalist, but whose sole common ground was opposition to Youlou. He struggled to impose control over the country with the creation of a single new party, the Mouvement National de la Révolution (MNR. Within a few weeks, riots and violence at Brazzaville, perpetrated by armed youths and some army officers whose targets were the Lari and Western businessmen, indicated the regime's authority was weak. To restore order and win the support of radical youth and labor leaders, Massemba-Débat forcibly merged them into single organizations called, respectively, the Jeunesse du Mouvement National de la Révolution (JMNR) and the Confédération Syndicale Congolaise (CSC). He made both the JMNR and CSC branches of the MNR, seeking to neuter their power. In so doing, however, he in reality allowed ardent socialists and extremists to effectively absorb and take over the Catholic labor unions, mission schools, and youth groups, and to form paramilitary groups that rapidly became competitive with the armed forces.[citation needed]
Massemba-Débat's government of largely apolitical technocrats in many ways marked a far sharper break with the past than did Youlou's with the colonial administration. Massemba-Débat deliberately set Congo on a new course of closer relations with the Socialist bloc; imposed state control over organized labor and segments of trade, transport, and natural resources. He was careful, however, not to alienate the West, whose flow of technical and financial aid was vital to Congo; or to antagonize private investors by nationalizing existing business enterprises; or to permit the MNR's extremist paramilitary groups to estrange the armed forces.[8]
Legacy
The uprising was named after the
In 1970, a new national anthem, Les Trois Glorieuses, named after the 1963 revolution, was adopted.[9]
References
- ^ ISBN 978-1-58826-249-3.
- ^ Bazenguissa-Ganga 1997, pp. 65, 71.
- ^ a b Decalo, Thompson & Adloff 1996, p. 8.
- ^ Bazenguissa-Ganga 1997, p. 71.
- ^ a b c Bazenguissa-Ganga 1997, p. 72.
- ^ Bazenguissa-Ganga 1997, pp. 85–86.
- ^ a b Bazenguissa-Ganga 1997, pp. 90–91.
- ^ Decalo, Thompson & Adloff 1996, p. 9.
- ^ Bazenguissa-Ganga 1997, p. 161.
Works cited
- Bazenguissa-Ganga, Rémy (1997). Les voies du politique au Congo: essai de sociologie historique [The ways of politics in Congo: essay in historical sociology] (in French). Paris: Karthala. ISBN 978-2-86537-739-8.
- Decalo, Samuel; Thompson, Virginia; Adloff, Richard (1996). The Historical Dictionary of Congo. Scarecrow Press.