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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 ----------------- FREEDOM -Anarchist fortnightly Vol 56 No 15 84b, Whitechapel High St., London, E1 7QX