In this interesting article for Struggle La Lucha, Sharon Black details the recent uprising of the Kanak people in New Caledonia, a French colony in the South Pacific. The immediate trigger for the uprising was a vote by France’s National Assembly on a constitutional amendment that will introduce significant new hurdles on the path towards New Caledonia’s independence; however the underlying cause is longstanding: “the deep economic divide between the wealthy French population and the Kanak people and the unsolved and bitter question of sovereignty and independence for New Caledonia.”
Sharon notes that, in response to the pro-independence rebellion, “France has deployed an additional thousand troops to its overseas territory of New Caledonia, joining the 1,700 police and military personnel already present. The French gendarmes have meant the death of seven and the arrests of hundreds following a declaration of a state of emergency and the imposition of a curfew.”
Aside from the direct economic importance of New Caledonia – which as the article points out produces one-third of the world’s nickel and holds around 11 percent of the world’s total nickel reserves – the struggle of the Kanak people for independence also has geopolitical significance, given that the archipelago is located “in Australia’s backyard, patrolled by the US military, and in the crosshairs of Western capitalist machinations against China’s Belt and Road initiative.”
French opposition to independence has explicitly been framed in terms of the need to prevent China from gaining a foothold in the region. Visiting the capital Nouméa in 2022, French President Emmanuel Macron warned that independence from France would essentially mean handing sovereignty over to China. “If independence means choosing tomorrow to have a Chinese [naval] base here or to be dependent on other fleets, good luck!”
Sharon further cites right-wing French politician Xavier Bertrand as saying that New Caledonia “either stays French or it will become Chinese.”
In other words, the French ruling class is hoping to hold on to their South Pacific colonies as part of the US-led strategy to encircle China. The Kanak people’s struggle for independence is therefore not only a struggle against French colonialism, but is connected to the broader global struggle against imperialism and for a multipolar world.
In response to a popular uprising led by pro-independence Indigenous Kanak youth, France has deployed an additional thousand troops to its overseas territory of New Caledonia, joining the 1,700 police and military personnel already present. The French gendarmes have meant the death of seven and the arrests of hundreds following a declaration of a state of emergency and the imposition of a curfew.
Roadblocks have shut down key arteries to Nouméa, the capital city, and the airport. Australian and New Zealand tourists have hunkered down, and French settlers in wealthy areas in Nouméa have brandished weapons to protect businesses.
The rebellion has followed weeks of major demonstrations and growing frustrations fed by the French parliament’s arrogant passage of a constitutional amendment that would further liquidate the voting power of the country’s Indigenous population and stall independence.
While the French bourgeoisie may temporarily solve the immediate crisis by force — which remains to be seen — it is a pyrrhic victory.
Crushing the rebellion will not solve the root cause fueling anger: the deep economic divide between the wealthy French population and the Kanak people and the unsolved and bitter question of sovereignty and independence for New Caledonia.
At the time of this writing, May 23, French President Emmanuel Macron and Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu have landed in New Caledonia, and some limited flights have taken out tourists. Macron said he would delay the implementation of the anti-Kanak constitutional amendment (a delay is only temporary) while snarling that French troops would remain “as long as necessary.”
What’s at stake is how long France’s occupation forces remain in the archipelago.
Continue reading Kanak people resist French colonial rule in New Caledonia
