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Title: Tahiti Heats Up Author: Anarchist Federation Date: 1995 Language: en Topics: Polynesia, France, nuclear, Organise! Source: Retrieved on May 13, 2013 from https://web.archive.org/web/20130513073956/http://www.afed.org.uk/org/issue40/tahiti_heats_up.html Notes: Published in Organise! Issue 40 — Autumn 1995.
THE FRENCH STATE’S decision to continue with its underground nuclear
tests at the Mururoa atoll ignited a huge powder-keg throughout Oceania,
the chains of small islands, many of which are sill ruled by France.
In New Zealand and Australia, the actions were met by large
“mobilisations”. The establishment politicians were able to hi-jack
these genuine expressions of anger for their own nationalist agendas, to
strengthen their own regional interest in the Pacific against their
rival France.
This was reflected in the nationalist rhetoric employed by the Campaign
for Nuclear Disarmament in Britain, who instead of seeing the culprit as
the French State and militarists, launched a chauvinistic “anti-Frog”
campaign. The French as a people, despite massive mobilisations and
general opposition to the tests, were made culpable.
The widespread rioting in Tahiti was not just anger against the tests.
It was also the result of simmering resentment against the French
colonialists, the 25 per cent unemployment, the widespread alienation.
The traditional way of life of Tahitians, involving a communal use of
the land, was undermined when the French introduced wage labour,
primarily through the nuclear industry which was established 29 years
ago. The insurrection in Tahiti is a result of integration into the
global economy, through the medium of French imperialism. Of course the
French military and economic pressure should be removed, but not for the
benefit of national liberation politicians ready to establish
“independent” states.
Many of those involved in the confrontation were unemployed youth, who
make up a large part of the population. They were forced to live in
wretched conditions in shanty towns close to Papeete airport. The bulk
of land is owned by colonists, forcing many families who farm the land
to send some of their members to seek work in the towns, work which is
scarce and badly paid. The uprising was spontaneous, involving the
creative use of bull-dozers to storm the airport and cut of
reinforcements for the French police thugs. This was followed by looting
of the duty-free shops in a welcome redistribution of wealth.
The leader of the nationalists, Oscar Temaru, called for an end to the
uprising saying that, “I would like to do something...We are trying to
calm the people, but it’s not easy”. His class interests mean that he is
opposed to the resistance, to the destruction and redistribution of
property, and needs to protect himself against allegations from the
French state that he was the ring-leader of the uprising (which of
course he wasn’t).
The way forward is through a healthy cross-pollination between the best
features of traditional society, (the communal land and decentralised
decision making) and the concept of libertarian communism. We know that
all the repressive techniques of the French militarists, including
murder and torture, tried and tested in Indo-China and Algeria, will be
used to crush the Tahitian resistance. But we also know that the revolt
is now widely supported by the Tahitian masses. Organise! salutes the
heroic Tahitians, workers and unemployed, who took on the might of the
French State.
Greenpeace was keen to keep the protest against the test within
“non-violent” limits. They re-affirmed that the way to stop the test was
only through a devotion to non-violence just a day before the Papeete
insurrection! This was because of a number of attacks on French
embassies and businesses. No support for the actions of the masses in
Tahiti was forthcoming from Greenpeace. To do this would mean upsetting
the wealthy benefactors of Greenpeace which gets more than $100 million
dollars a year in donations. Greenpeace is a highly hierarchical
structure, which relies on passivity by its supporters. Actions are
carried out by small groups of Greenpeace activists on behalf of its
supporters. Little effort is made to involve these on an active basis.
If the activists fall out of line, as happened recently with the capture
of several key Greenpeace naval craft by French military, they are
disciplined in typical command structure style.
No attempt was made by Greenpeace to form links with environmental
action groups in Polynesia. As one local activist remarked “Greenpeace
come with their own agenda. They were not particularly interested in
us.” But then Greenpeace is not particularly interested in developing
environmental action on a local and regional level, still less in
linking destruction of the planet and the species that live on it to the
root cause: capitalism itself.