Madagascar:
Explosion of Anger

Oct 13, 2025

This article is translated from the October 3 issue #2983 of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle), the paper of the Trotskyist group of that name active in France.

In the island nation of Madagascar off the coast of East Africa, young people have been demonstrating en masse since September 25 to protest nonstop water and electricity cuts and the proposed privatization of these utilities. At least 22 youths were killed by the police and around another 100 injured as of October 1.

In an attempt to stem this growing and radicalizing movement, President Andry Rajoelina announced on September 29 that he was dismissing his entire cabinet including his prime minister. He blamed them for the worsening situation. But this maneuver was not enough. Protestors called to continue the fight. The following day, thousands took to the center of the capital. Several unions announced their support for the demonstrators.

The situation is catastrophic. Water and electricity power cuts last 12 hours a day. Families set out long lines of containers to refill at public wells. A family member must go retrieve them when there is water. Electricity presents the same ordeal not only for residents, but also for anyone who needs electricity for work, whether to operate a small food stall or to work in I.T.

The current movement of young people who identify as Gen Z on social media was preceded last July by a strike by employees of Jirama, the entity that manages the country’s water and electricity. The trigger was the announcement of the transformation of this state-owned enterprise into a private company. The strikers took advantage of their movement to address residents of working-class neighborhoods, explaining that this measure would further aggravate the situation and hand over water and electricity to the vultures of the private sector. Their action paved the way for the current movement.

When repression and threats of prosecution had no effect, the president finally declared: “There will be no privatization of this company as long as I am president.” However, there were good reasons to doubt this promise, and things did not stop there. In September, it was the turn of students at the University of Antananarivo in the capital to mobilize. Most of them have no other prospect than unemployment and also suffer from the dilapidated state of public services and water and electricity cuts, starting at their campus. They called on the population to mobilize against privatization and added a political component to their demands: respect for freedoms and the fight against the corruption that is plaguing the country. The government’s response was fierce repression.

This hasn’t slowed down the protests. Quite the contrary. Some elected officials from working-class communities are also participating in organizing the movement. When word spread that the president was returning to Madagascar after traveling to the United States since September 24, protesters gathered in communities surrounding the capital’s airport to give him the welcome he deserved. No flights were able to land there that day!

Madagascar is a former French possession where the colonial army continuously exercised the worst repression. Today it is one of the five poorest countries in the world, according to the World Bank. While basic services are inaccessible to the majority of the population, a tiny minority of local politicians and capitalists lead a gilded existence amidst an ocean of misery. Imperialist corporations exploit the rank and file workers of the I.T. and textile industries through this thin layer of privileged people. But now such plundering is sparking a wave of revolts all over the world—yesterday in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, today in Madagascar….