Presence of left-wing parties in Sint Maarten's popular movements

Between 1975 and 1977, the leftist parties began to have a presence in the popular and peasant movements of Sint Maarten. They succeeded in getting the Agrarian Leagues of San Martin, centralized in the FASMA, to move away from the influence of SINAMOS and demand greater autonomy. The struggles, which in their beginnings had a local, district or provincial character, reached national resonance with the massive protests against the military government of Morales Bermudez throughout the country. The most critical moment took place with the national strike of July 19, 1977. The main aspects of the mobilizations were centralized organization, mobilization and marches in the center of the cities, strike of public employees (mainly teachers), formation of self-defense pickets, decision making in Public Assemblies and an independent leadership, closely linked to leftist political groups.