Bulletin No46 mai 2024 The government set fire to the powder in New Caledonia by passing the vote in the National Assembly on the modification of the electorate for the provincial elections, the rapporteur of which is none other than the deputy anti-independence New Caledonian Nicolas Metzdorf (Renaissance of Macron) he is involved and took the opportunity to spread his anti-Kanak speech triggering the revolt movement.
Tuesday, May 21, President Emmanuel Macron announced that he was going to New Caledonia to “set up a mission” there , even though he continues to add fuel to the fire, as soon as he arrives he gives the same speech.
* Validity of the third referendum on the independence of New Caledonia which he brought forward to December 2021, in the middle of a period of Covid and Kanak mourning 1 , the Prime Minister at the time, Edouard Philippe had promised that the referendum would not would not take place before August 2022. This referendum was boycotted by the independence movements!
*Macron declared that Caledonia had decided to remain French (with less than 44% of participants in the middle of covid) and that “France was more beautiful with New Caledonia” , a real negation of the right to independence claimed by the Kanak people.
In a few hours in the National Assembly, the Macron government destroyed any independence process in Kanaky New Caledonia.
He had been warned. The CCAT (Field Action Coordination Unit) for example brought together 60,000 people in the streets last April, without any clashes. Anger remained strong among the Kanak population, mobilized for months against the thaw of the electoral body.
This catastrophic policy led to several deaths, the victims of the colonial state are once again the Kanaks, as was already the case in the 1980s.
A revolt on the part of a population refusing this constitutional bill which would expand the electorate for provincial elections. The reform would add around 25,000 voters, in defiance of what was decided during the Nouméa agreement. The State's word was not respected, which precipitated the explosion we are witnessing. Anti-independence activists cannot stand the fact that the Kanaks are finally, after 40 years, at the head of local authorities. If the electoral body changed, this would bring non-independence supporters back en masse to Congress and to the government which is its emanation.
He does not take any steps towards the separatists.
More and more voices are being raised in mainland France to say that the bill must be postponed and allow time for discussion, others are demanding the withdrawal of the constitutional law wherever the Versailles Congress is not convened. and that time is given to local political forces to discuss. But no one asks the real question of independence, the inalienable right of colonized peoples.
All activity is at a standstill. Caledonia was already in great difficulty following Covid and the fall in the price of nickel, this represents a quarter of private jobs in the archipelago 2 and the economic difficulties mainly hit the Kanaks: 20% of them are unemployed compared to 12% on average in the archipelago and less than 3% of them are executives, or three times less than non-Kanaks. Kanak youth are left behind: largely excluded from work and from part of their access to studies. The French state has always marginalized them in their own country so that they cannot have a majority in elections.
Macron in Kanaky to legitimize the repression and continue the force
He comes to Nouméa with the determination to quell the revolt by all means. The government declared a state of emergency, sent law enforcement en masse, ordered a “firm, rapid and systemic criminal response” , banned the use of the TikTok application: a completely colonial attitude. The State continues its colonial repression, 29 independence activists under house arrest. A speech to criminalize the separatists and the Kanak youth hammered out in recent days, Darmanin explaining that the young people at the heart of the revolts this week were "delinquents" and that there was "no political revolt" in progress, just a violence “used politically by the CCAT” .
The government is maneuvering and seeking to impose a return to order. 600 additional personnel in addition to the “1,050 gendarmerie, police and civil security reinforcements” already sent. The massive dispatch of repressive forces, including the army, reminds us of the darkest hours of New Caledonia in 1988. Darmanin considering “ lowering 5G to 2G for all social networks ” in order to prevent communications. It was not the CCAT which trained the young people to rebel in Caledonia, contrary to what the government claims. Nor is it China or Azerbaijan who are at the helm of the revolt. The government is looking for scapegoats in all directions to remove responsibility from the French colonial state.
The armed anti-independence militias are today marching hand in hand with the police against the Kanaks. An offensive carried out hand in hand with Caldoche militias already responsible for the death of at least two young Kanaks.
Macron's trip aims to put pressure on the separatists for a return to the negotiating table, while continuing the passage by force.
The government does not intend to make any concessions to the independence movement.
The reform on the “unfreezing” of the electoral body having already been voted on, the government does not intend to give it up even if it is not certain of succeeding in obtaining the 60% of votes necessary for the Congress in Versailles to have a definitive vote constitutional reform
The French State is ready to do anything to maintain the colonial control of the State over Kanaky with batons and arrests with the strategic objective of taking advantage of the nickel-rich soils of the territory but above all of preserving the strategic position that he offers to French imperialism in the Indo-Pacific region.
It is fundamental to build a broad mobilization in Kanaky and mainland France.
Let us build a great movement of solidarity with the Kanak people, which draws on the mobilizations and combativeness of Kanak youth, in solidarity with the Palestinian people. The fight for the independence of Kanaky has already been expressed in the streets, in Paris and Toulouse. A demonstration will take place in Paris on Saturday May 25 at 4:30 p.m. by the Solidarité Kanaky collective. There is an urgent need to continue this fight against repression, for the withdrawal of the law on the unfreezing of the electorate, for the right to self-determination of Kanaky and the fight for the full independence of Kanaky -New Caledonia.