15 July 2024
Since May, the French overseas territory of New Caledonia (known by its Indigenous inhabitants as Kanaky) has been rocked by a wave of protests that has paralyzed the South Pacific island group. The explosion of anger has been met with brutal force by French imperialism in an attempt to crack down on efforts by the Indigenous Kanak people to break free from colonial rule and form an independent state.
The recent conflict was sparked by provocative French attempts to dictate voting arrangements on the islands and give a vote to French immigrants (known as Métros or Zoreilles) who have lived in the territory for more than 10 years. This would overturn the current law, which restricts voting rights to native Kanaks and those living on the islands before 1998, established that year in the Nouméa Accord power-sharing agreement between French imperialism and local elites. Signed after violent conflicts between authorities and the pro-independence movement throughout much of the 1980s, the accord prolonged French rule over its strategically important colony under the guise of a decades-long “decolonization process” for the Kanaky people.
The electoral reforms have been suspended, at least for now, but the unrest continues. By proposing to “unfreeze” the voting list, Paris is seeking to upend an essential piece of the compromise deal. Kanaks rightly see France’s political maneuvering as an attempt to tighten control over its colonial possession, strengthen the hand of continental French nationals (and thereby pro-France sentiment) and weaken the influence of those favoring independence.
In April, tens of thousands of Kanaks (an estimated one-fifth of the archipelago’s entire population) took to the streets to protest France’s diktat. In May, as the bill was being discussed in the National Assembly in Paris, rioting and looting broke out in the capital city of Nouméa. The French parliament responded by simply ramming through the constitutional amendment. A day later, President Emmanuel Macron declared a state of emergency in Kanaky and deployed French counterterrorism special forces and gendarmes, who launched a “major operation” to “restore order.” Hundreds of Kanaks have since been injured and arrested by French security personnel. Meanwhile, pro-France “self-defense units” (i.e., armed vigilante militias composed of Métros) have emerged, reportedly terrorizing locals and “hunting down” young Kanaks (Le Monde, 16 May 2024). In late June, 11 people from the group Field Action Coordination Cell (CCAT) were arrested for organizing the protests. CCAT leader Christian Tein and six others have been transferred across the world to jail in mainland France, where they are being held as political prisoners. Release the CCAT prisoners now!
Despite this heavy-handed repression, Paris is claiming to have met its democratic obligations under the Nouméa Accord, which included holding three referendums on independence. The first two took place in 2018 and 2020, with 43 and 46 percent respectively voting “yes.” A third plebiscite, in 2021, was boycotted by the indigenous Kanak population and pro-independence parties, who argued that a fair vote could not take place during the Covid pandemic, resulting in a landslide victory for those rejecting independence. On this basis, Macron has declared the verdict against Kanak independence a fait accompli and has unequivocally ruled out a further referendum. If such a vote were to take place, we would call to vote “yes,” but we demand the immediate and unconditional independence of Kanaky from France now!
Paris is desperately seeking to tighten its grip on its colony, valuable for several reasons. Kanaky houses an important military base, essential for refueling and maintaining French imperialist forces in the Indo-Pacific. The territory is also home to approximately 30 percent of the world’s nickel reserves, a crucial component in the manufacture of stainless steel, electronics and batteries in electric vehicles. However, the nickel industry, which employs a quarter of the island’s population and is dominated by French and Swiss mining companies, has seen production plummet due to high energy costs and increasing competition from Asian rivals. With nickel processing facilities projected to shut down, threatening to raise the number of unemployed by 50 percent, there is much anger towards French imperialist domination.
Resentment over the impact of more than a century-and-a-half of French colonial rule runs deep. Kanaks, now just under half of the population, face significant socio-economic hardships, including comparatively low wages and poor living standards. Nearly one-third live in poverty—more than three times the rate for non-Kanaks. Deep disparities exist in other societal metrics such as education levels, employment and the prison population. All of this has helped fuel rising tensions and set the stage for the recent unrest.
As Leninists, we stand for genuine national independence of all colonies, dependencies and territories of French imperialism scattered throughout Africa, the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and South Pacific. The revolutionary approach towards the colonial and semi-colonial possessions of imperialist powers was clearly spelled out in the “Twenty-One Conditions” for admission to the Third (Communist) International over a century ago:
“Any party wishing to join the Third International must ruthlessly expose the colonial machinations of the imperialists of its ‘own’ country, must support—in deed, not merely in word—every colonial liberation movement, demand the expulsion of its compatriot imperialists from the colonies, inculcate in the hearts of the workers of its own country an attitude of true brotherhood with the working population of the colonies and the oppressed nations, and conduct systematic agitation among the armed forces against all oppression of the colonial peoples.”
—“Terms of Admission into Communist International,” July 1920
Breaking the chains of French imperialist domination over Kanaky will require mobilizing the social power of the working class. The May upheaval showed signs of a burgeoning strike movement among Kanak workers, combined with mass protests, effectively shutting down businesses, airports and schools. Such energy must be channeled in an anti-capitalist, class-struggle direction if it is not simply to dissipate into the dead-end of riotous outbursts that, while understandable, lack a larger political purpose. One important task is building multi-ethnic defense guards—of Kanaks, Oceanians, Europeans and all other components of the working class—centered in the labor movement and community to combat French state and vigilante violence.
Workers in France also have a role to play, in seeking to carry out labor actions in support of Kanak independence and against their “own” imperialists, through mass mobilizations, strikes and refusing to transport any further weapons and troops to the archipelago. In the event of reimposition of the state of emergency in the Pacific territory, the French workers’ movement must mobilize for a general strike against the government, demanding the immediate release of all Kanak political prisoners arrested and the dropping of all charges. Extending labor action to the imperialist heartland would provide the ongoing demonstrations with a powerful ally for the Kanak people’s struggle against colonial subjugation by the French ruling class.
Calling for independence does not mean giving any political support to the petty-bourgeois nationalist groups currently jockeying for influence. This includes President Louis Mapou’s coalition of pro-independence parties in the bourgeois nationalist Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS). Formed in 1984 from a merger of pro-independence parties, the FLNKS is centered around two constituent components: the thoroughly bourgeois Caledonian Union (UC) and the National Union for Independence (UNI), which itself is a left-nationalist bloc comprised of various pro-independence outfits and dominated by the ostensibly socialist Party of Kanak Liberation (Palika). While the UC and UNI have had at times a somewhat contentious political relationship within the FLNKS, they are nonetheless unified around the common goal of Kanak independence.
When it first emerged in the 1980s, the FLNKS pursued guerrilla-style tactics against French forces that brought the territory to the brink of civil war. By the 1990s, with both France and pro-independence militants anxious to end the warfare and seek a compromise, the FLNKS abandoned its strategy of coup de main attacks and instead opted for dialogue with the colonial authorities in return for the promise of greater autonomy. A layer of pro-capitalist Kanak elites that sought a modus vivendi with the French imperialists, whom they saw as “partners” in negotiating independence, was eventually integrated into ruling circles and brought into the governing administration. This led to the power-sharing Nouméa Accord, to which the Kanak establishment have tied their political fortunes for the last quarter century. This same layer is anxious to reign in the current protest movement and instead channel social discontent into the safer confines of negotiated compromise with the Élysée Palace.
On the eve of Macron’s visit to Kanaky in late May to personally oversee suppressing the uprising, the FLNKS promoted the arrival of the président des riches as providing “a new lease of life with a view to resuming a peaceful and serene dialogue between the three political partners of the agreements” (ABC, 23 May 2024). They pushed hard for what they called a “mission of dialogue” (i.e., mediation between independentists, loyalists and French diplomats dispatched from Paris) as the framework for defusing the situation and moving forward with “decolonization.” At the same time, they are under immense pressure from their Kanak base to get Macron to fully withdraw the proposed constitutional law, which they acknowledge poses a “real difficulty” for them in curtailing the ongoing mobilizations.
Macron is more than willing to offload responsibility for quelling social unrest onto the FLNKS. Desirous of re-establishing stable control over its colonial possession, Paris is also deeply concerned to avoid fueling wider unrest in the region and the negative public image associated with French forces brutally suppressing an indigenous uprising. While Macron refused to withdraw the bill, he nonetheless postponed its final passage and lifted the state of emergency measures to allow the “mission of dialogue” to take place in the hopes of a negotiated settlement.
These delicate negotiations have now been complicated by the political turmoil in France itself. Following the heavy defeat of Macron’s allies in the European parliamentary elections, the French president dissolved the Assemblée Nationale in the hope of shoring up support in fresh elections. Yet those elections ended in a hung parliament and a fractious political scene, leaving unclear the ultimate fate of the proposed constitutional amendment (which still lacked a final vote). New Caledonia is permitted two seats in the Assemblée Nationale, and for the first time in nearly four decades, a pro-independence candidate has taken one of them. Son of the prominent independence leader Jean-Marie Tjibaou, who was assassinated in 1989, Emmanuel Tjibaou is hoping to “restore the conditions” for negotiation.
The current arrangement restricting electoral participation for newcomers to Kanaky serves to divide inhabitants along ethnic-national lines, pitting Kanak against fellow Pacific Island and European immigrant workers. Seeking to maintain control over its colony, Paris has attempted to exploit this breach of bourgeois-democratic norms by promoting an alternative—cynically presented as embodying the “progressive” values of “universal republicanism”—that is merely a thinly disguised power grab for French imperialism. While the amendment should be scrapped, its removal is insufficient—the entire edifice of colonial rule, inherently anti-democratic, must be brought down, with the people of an independent Kanaky left to decide their own system of government.
Our anti-imperialist advocacy of independence for Kanaky is unconditional—we do not require its inhabitants to opt for socialism in order to exercise their right to self-determination. We believe that workers should be prepared not only to defend petty-bourgeois and bourgeois nationalists against French colonial repression but to fight alongside any who find themselves in military conflict with imperialism. That being said, bourgeois nationalism has proven itself to be a dead-end—not only is it incapable of advancing the interests of the masses, it inevitably leads to capitulation before the colonial masters. Independence would help create the conditions in which working-class Kanaks shed their illusions in nationalism and the pro-independence bourgeois elites.
Indeed, an independent capitalist Kanaky cannot address the myriad issues facing working-class Kanaks (e.g., employment, cost of living, wages, education). It would undoubtedly be an impoverished and extremely weak South Pacific neocolony that would either continue to be dominated by French imperialism in various ways—economically and militarily—or else fall under the influence of other imperialist powers such as Australia, New Zealand or the United States. Complete freedom from imperialist oppression for the Kanak people can only be achieved under proletarian leadership guided by a class-struggle perspective of smashing capitalism and establishing workers’ power throughout the entire region. Only a workers’ republic of Kanaky within a socialist federation of East Asia and the Pacific can create a framework in which the aspirations for genuine independence and the needs of the masses are met.
To achieve victory, the working class of Kanaky requires a political party committed to a revolutionary proletarian seizure of power. Such a party would jealously guard its independence not only from the political forces of French imperialism but also the pro-capitalist representatives of the Kanak elite, including the supposedly “socialist” elements around Mapou’s Palika and the FLNKS. In preparation for the unavoidable clash with the French bourgeoisie, as well as the privileged Kanak ruling layers, a Bolshevik party would strive to establish grassroots support among Kanaky’s working class and marginalized communities and challenge the political stranglehold of the FLNKS. It would do so not simply by championing Kanak independence and other democratic demands such as land reform but by advancing a transitional program to meet workers’ needs through the seizure of industry and the imposition of economic planning under proletarian authority.
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