Revolt in New Caledonia against French rule in the Pacific

Marching for independence for New Caledonia on 11 May (Picture FLNKS-Officiel on Facebook)

People in New Caledonia in the Pacific are in revolt against the French colonial state.

Several days of riots have seen anti-French protesters torch vehicles and businesses and loot stores. It’s the territory’s biggest uprising for more than 30 years.

France’s high commissioner Louis Le Franc described the unrest as “insurrectional.” He said some 3,000-4,000 rioters were still “in action” on the streets of the capital Nouméa and another 5,000 in the Greater Nouméa area.

France has proclaimed a state of emergency and send out hundreds of extra cops. Prime minister Gabriel Attal said authorities would push for “the harshest penalties for rioters and looters”. He added that the 12-day state of emergency “will allow us to roll out massive means to restore order.”

Pro-French militias, sanctioned by the state, are carrying out their own repression.

The unrest erupted after lawmakers in Paris voted to change electoral rolls to allow more French residents to vote. Indigenous leaders say the move will dilute the political influence of the native people—who make up around 41 percent of the population—and head off an independence vote.

In mid-April around 55,000 pro-independence supporters and 35,000 pro-France marchers took part in competing protests in Nouméa. These figures are extraordinary in a country of 275,000 people. A vote to break from France in 2020 failed by fewer than 5,000 votes.

Bizarrely France has blamed Azerbaijan—many thousands of miles away—for the revolt. In July 2023 Azerbaijan invited pro-independence participants from the French territories of Martinique, French Guiana, New Caledonia and French Polynesia for a conference titled, “Towards the Complete Elimination of Colonialism”.

In an interview with Revolution Permanente website, journalist and activist Benoît Godin, points out, “All the anti-independence political parties called for a vote for Emmanuel Macron during his re-election in 2022. The ‘loyalists’ and the French state walk hand in hand.

“Their objective is to make the French presence in New Caledonia last as long as possible. The widening of the electorate today is a decisive step. This is an attack on an essential achievement of the struggle of the Kanak people and independence activists.

“It must be understood that the Kanaks will never give up. Each time they had to defend their freedom and fight for the independence of their country, they responded. When it was necessary to vote for independence, they went massively to the polls. And when there is no other option, they take to the streets. But even then they were not heard and now things are breaking.”

New Caledonia has substantial nickel deposits, producing about 6 percent of global nickel output. Futures contracts for nickel, a crucial element in electric vehicle batteries and steelmaking, jumped almost 7 percent on the London Metal Exchange on Friday. Western corporations and China want supplies of the metal.

French imperialism thinks New Caledonia—situated between Australia and Fiji—is more important than ever as the Pacific becomes contested between the friends of the West and China.

Last year, the Australian government—linked to Britain and the US through the Aukus military deal—joined France to abstain on several United Nations decolonisation resolutions.

Every anti-imperialist should back the revolt against France and its allies.

A history of repression and revolt

It’s 17,000 kilometres (11,000 miles) to New Caledonia from Paris. French imperialism grabbed the territory in 1853 and ruled it through deadly repression combined with sending settlers to grab the land from the native Kanak population.

At the end of 1960, a major youth movement rose up against the racism and poverty facing Kanaks.

The French state responded with massive immigration of French and Europeans to the islands.

In 1972, a circular from prime minister Pierre Messmer said, “The French presence in Caledonia can only be threatened, barring world war, by a nationalist demand from the indigenous populations Massive immigration of French citizens should make it possible to avoid this danger, by maintaining or improving the numerical ratio of communities.”

Two days before the French presidential election in 1988, Kanak militants, seized a heavily armed police post on Ouvéa, in the Loyalty Islands, one of New Caledonia’s provinces..

They killed four gendarmes and seized 27 as hostages.

The freedom fighters wanted a real referendum on independence under United Nations supervision. Kanak nationalist leader Jean-Marie Tjibaou said he was dismayed by the attacks but saw its roots in French imperialism. “From the moment they stole our country, they have tried to eliminate everybody who denounces their evil deeds. It has been like that since colonialism began,” he said.

The militants freed some hostages, but the French state cranked up its hate-filled rhetoric.

The minister for territorial affairs, Bernard Pons said guerrilla leader Alphonse Dianou was a “Libyan-trained religious fanatic”.  In fact, he had trained at a Roman Catholic seminary in Fiji.

On 5 May just before the second round of the presidential vote, French forces launched their attack on the Ouvéa cave where the hostages were held and killed 19 Kanaks.

It was a massacre, designed to look “tough” and attract fascist votes. Philippe Legorjus, who was one of the leaders of the French forces involved, said president Francois Mitterrand deliberately ruled out a mediator finding a peaceful solution.

One Kanak nationalist said French leaders “behaved like assassins. I accuse them of murder. They could have avoided the butchery. They preferred to buy votes of Le Pen’s friends with Kanak blood.”