The Pacific and The Bomb

(orig: Focus on... The Pacific.)

The 'international community' has gone
into a frenzy of anti-French xenophobia
recently over M. Chirac's decision to go
ahead with 8 more nuclear tests at
Murora Atoll. But behind the noise is a
big stink of hypocrisy...

M. Chirac is the new bogey man of the
international community we are told. The
papers are full every day of the international
condemnations which are coming from the
EU, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
French wine is being poured down the drains
outside hotels and the London Guardian is
running the usual French hate articles (15th
July 1995). Indeed no less than the Japanese
finance minister is leading the way calling for
petitions, demonstrations and campaigns as
'great things to do' and heroically calling on
us to, 'grandly get on board a ship and stand
in the way. As a politician, I promise to take
the lead.' Very kind of him of course and I'm
sure there will be tea and biscuits but Mr
Takemura has missed the point. They all have.
Even those liberal heart throbs Greenpeace
are happily jumping on the anti-French-one-
big-issue-bandwagon. The real issue is the
economic and military reality of the Pacific
region or, dare I say it, colonialism.

France used to carry out her nuclear tests in
the Sahara until those naughty Algerians
welshed on her. It was then that she diverted
her attentions down to Tahiti. But the region
is not just a nuclear playground. Susanna
Ounei, an activist in the Kanaky
independence movement (New Caledonia)
says, 'I am a little surprised that everyone is so
shocked about the French government's
decision to resume nuclear tests at Moruroa
atoll in Tahiti. Pacific islanders know there is
nothing new about French agencies doing
whatever they want, whenever they want. We
never asked the French to colonise our
countries. We never asked them to set up their
nuclear testing facilities. The main issue for
the people of the French colonies of the
Pacific remains independence'(1). Perhaps not
surprisingly also is the fact that the French
State is not too keen on the idea of
independence for its colonies in the region
knowing that for the islands in the region to
develop any degree of autonomy would be
the one sure way of ensuring the French state
can't do an Algerian and welsh in turn on any
climbdown Chancellor Kohl may extract from
them on this issue. The French State
recognises the importance of keeping the
locals in check by means of terror if
necessary. When, in May 1985, a small
demonstration against the visit of a French
nuclear submarine in the region went ahead in
Noumea the French military murdered in cold
blood an 18 year old protester.

THE AUSTRALIAN CONNECTION

The French capitalists know which side their
bread is buttered. The New Caledonia area is
the second largest exporter of nickel in the
world with about 33% of known reserves (the
sea may contain up to three times the mineral
wealth which has been found on land) not to
mention chrome and cobalt which are both
important for military purposes. And when
France wants uranium it's Australia who
obliges. As Ounei puts it, 'Australia is yelling
in front of everybody that the French nuclear
tests must stop, but behind the scenes they are
reinforcing the position of France by selling
them uranium. They are the best ally of and
the warranty for France, as the tests that will
poison the whole Pacific begin in Tahiti.'

Australian military officers also recently
attended French military exercises in the
region as 'observers' in a 'regional conflict
scenario'. She may now be shedding crocodile
tears over M. Chirac's decision but she's at
one with him on the independence issue as
shown by her track record in Bougainville
and her opposition to any form of autonomy
for the people of East Timor.

Australia with US backing - another major
player in the region - takes on the burden of
pursuing 'Western interests' in the region by
hosting US military bases and by her military
alliance with the US through the ANZUS
treaty. The US is of course an old hand in
things military. Here she maintains a
dangerous chemical weapons incinerator on
Johnston atoll in defiance of Pacific opinion.
US nuclear-powered and armed warships
cruise the Pacific. M. Chirac has played into
her hands on this issue as a short article in The
Age recently reveals saying that the US
military are considering the resumption of
nuclear testing in the light of M. Chirac's
move. It was explained by an official that
they have to make sure that they 'will work
properly on the day'. So forget about
deterrence and put it in your diary.

Even when Australia pushed for what was
laughingly called the South Pacific Nuclear-
Free Zone Treaty in 1985 she didn't try to
stop nuclear ship visits, the presence of US
bases in the region or her Uranium exports.
However, even this weak brew could not be
stomached by the UK, US and France who
declined to give their autographs.

THE OLD AMERICAN DISORDER HAS
ARRIVED

Of course the military set-up compliments the
economic exploitation of the region. The
region systematically has its economies prized
open to the usual stories of the 'free' trade and
privatisation rather than dealing with the
needs of the people. Here the Australian
government proudly boasts that Australian
companies have 'enormous influence on the
economies of the Pacific' which is shorthand
for the fact that she exports five times more,
mainly manufactured and processed
foodstuffs, to the region than she imports,
primarily minerals and raw materials.

The French also are in on the game with
7,000,000 square kilometres of the Pacific
inside her exclusive economic zones. Here
there are huge investments in the mining and
tourist industries. France has flooded its
Pacific possessions with migrants from France
to outnumber the local inhabitants. This
policy has been most thorough in Kanaky
(New Caledonia), where the proportion of
indigenous people in the island's population
has declined from 52% in 1951 to 44%
today. In Tahiti, 30,000 Europeans hold
down the best paying jobs, while the more
than 70,000 Maohi people are unemployed or
hold the lowest paying, unskilled jobs. In
Tahiti and Kanaky, there is an apartheid-like
gulf between the rich and poor.

THE LIBERATORS SELL OUT

It's not an unfamiliar story of course. Moves
by the local peoples to try to achieve some
degree of autonomy have largely failed due to
the fact that they went down the wrong route
on this issue. In Kanaky the Kanak Socialist
National Liberation Front (FLNKS) of the
1980s proved about as useful to the people as
it name suggests it would. After a particularly
unpleasant massacre of Kanaks by French
troops in the late 80s the FLNKS signed the
Matignon Accords with the French in 1988
which included various empty promises.
Although some opposed the move from within
the movement many were happy to be
coopted into the French master plan in return
for a few crumbs of power and were drawn
into the administration of FLNKS-run areas.
Since then France has continued to allow the
arrival of immigrants, and new investment has
overwhelmingly favoured the southern
province where Europeans are concentrated.
So much for the 'liberation' movement.

In the final analysis though some form of
independent development must be achieved
by the Pacific islanders if they are to avoid
what is otherwise an inevitable future.
Radicals in the West would do better to enjoy
their French wines (if they can afford them)
and listen carefully to M. Chirac when he
reiterates time and time again that the
international community cannot interfere with
what the French decide to do on their own
territory. Until the people in the Pacific
region manage to start setting up the
structures which may lead to some measure of
independent development they will not shake
off the colonial yoke. However, the future
looks bleak for them to say the least.

(1) Much of the information for this article comes
from Green Left Weekly #188 contactable at
212-979-0471 (USA number) or
nyt@blythe.org

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FREEDOM -Anarchist fortnightly Vol 56 No 15
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