Rock Haocas, of the USTKE (Union of Kanak and Exploited Workers) from Kanaky-New Caledonia, spoke at this year’s Keep Left on the movement for independence from France. Below is a section of his speech.
New Caledonia is an island in the Melanesian arc including Vanuatu, the Solomons, Fiji and Papua. It’s located 1000 kilometres east of Brisbane and more than 18,000 kilometres from Paris.
All these islands have more than 4000 years of history and a civilisation with their own language and tradition.
New Caledonia became a French colony on 24 September 1853—a prison colony and a settlement colony. The clash of civilisations was brutal.
The first contact with Europeans profoundly destroyed Kanak society, with the destruction of customary chiefdoms, the impact of imported religion, the spoliation and privatisation of land, displacement of the population and the ravages of alcohol and disease.
The Kanak almost disappeared, dropping from more than 300,000 people to less than 30,000 people in the early 1920s.
The Kanaks were confined to native reserves and excluded from employment. Until 1946 Indigenous Kanaks were denied access to school and the right to vote.
Some of the first Kanak who went to study in France were active participants in the May 1968 movement. They returned to demand independence.
With the nickel boom, in 1972 the French Prime Minister encouraged the arrival of more people from France and other colonies in the Pacific islands in order to reduce the Kanak demand for independence to a minority. This led to the emergence of several pro-independence parties, with the creation of the Nationalist Front in 1979.
The secretary of the pro-independence party Union Calédonienne, Pierre Declercq, defined a Kanak as neither a race nor an ethnic group, and said the constitution of [a Kanak society means] a multiracial, united and fraternal people. The right to difference will be respected.
New Caledonia has been on the UN list of non-self-governing territories to be decolonised since 1986. During the period of violence between 1984 and 1988, more than 90 people were killed and eventually a new agreement was signed, the Matignon Accords. The pro-independence groups accepted a referendum on independence under this agreement in 1998.
In 1998, independence activists and French loyalists negotiated a new agreement, the Noumea Accord, known as the Decolonisation Agreement, which included the creation of a nickel plant in the [northern independence movement-run] province, and a new local parliament. USTKE supported the creation of this plant in the name of the social and geographical re-balancing.
It has stuck to this basic demand and after 20 years has drawn up a negative assessment of this agreement in growing social inequality between the local population, particularly disadvantaging the Black and Oceanian population.
[The Noumea Accord also set out a plan for three referenda to be held on independence from 2018.] In 2021, the state validated the third referendum provided for under the Noumea Accord, which we consider illegitimate due to the boycott of the Kanak people, who requested its postponement due to COVID.
Nickel industry
The reason we are colonised is because we have resources like nickel. The country is rich in mineral resources, making French the world’s third largest nickel producer. New Caledonia holds a quarter of the world’s nickel reserves.
The French have interests in New Caledonia due to our resources and our position in the Pacific. The country’s position in the Pacific Ocean, with Indo-Pacific access makes it like an aircraft carrier, allowing France to say it’s the only European country that has connections with the Pacific.
The problem is we cannot develop the nickel industry ourselves. We have three nickel manufacturers today, previously there was only one, the French owned one. The nickel industry made the city of Noumea, the only large city in Kanaky.
During the Noumea Accord, we called for more industry in the north of the country to rebalance for the Kanak people. Most of the Kanak people live outside Noumea, although 70 per cent of the total population lives there.
It is difficult for people to live in Noumea who are unemployed and, as a result, 90 per cent of prisoners are Kanak people. So according to this 1998 agreement, they agreed to put another nickel processing plant in the north of the country.
But the mining companies built a third processing plant at a mine in the south. So there are three nickel manufacturers, one in the north and two in the south. That is not rebalancing. At this time the processing plant in the north at Koniambo has closed.
So now there are one and a half companies that function, the French-owned one and the other one in the south. Many people in the north, which is managed by Kanak Independentists, have no job.
The political and social situation post-referendum has been uncertain. In the beginning of 2021, the state revised the electoral rules for the local election [allowing another 25,000 recently-arrived settlers, mostly from France, to vote. This threatened to make it impossible to win any future vote on independence and reduce further the weight of the Indigenous Kanak in the local parliament.]
The insurrection of May 2024 was the result. The revolt of May 2024 by Kanak youth revealed the failure of the political agreements such as the Noumea Accord.
The outcome of this is that 14 people died, including 12 young Kanaks. Several dozen Kanaks were arrested as political prisoners, including seven now awaiting trial in France, including the president of the FLNKS [the independence front, the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front].
Demonstrations were forbidden until last week and it’s still difficult to go out to protest with large numbers of people with our Kanak flag.
New Caledonia’s economy has collapsed.
The Kanak have always fought injustice and extended the right to everyone to construct our common destiny together. Royalists, as we call the pro-France people in our country, have sought to preserve their economic interests with the support of France.
To circumvent international law France sought to impose an agreement, manufacturing a local majority in its favour.
Today, in this highly unstable political and social context, we need talks.
Dialogue began two months ago with the French government, the pro-independence side and non-independence side holding talks. The French government seems to be trying to reconcile the unreconcilable between the parties involved by striking a balance between the two positions.
The pro-independence movement will meet to take stock of this exchange and will set the terms and conditions for a new local dialogue with the Minister.
Last year we had elections for the French assembly. There were two candidates, one pro-independence, the other against.
The pro-independence candidate got 10,000 votes more, with everybody in the country able to vote.
The independence question is not the only issue, people want change. They think that the democratic system from France does not work in our country.
Kanak people are less than 40 per cent of the population. And the pro-independence candidate winning by 10,000 votes shows that many people in our country who are not Kanak want to be represented by Independentists. So that gives us some hope that we can win the vote for independence.
We must be able to put an end to colonial control. History has shown this, whether in Kanaky or in other countries, like in Palestine or in West Papua.
The Kanak people will never give up to their dream of independence. Peace requires independence constructed by all through negotiation. International support of the Kanak people’s struggle is vital.
Fighting for Kanak and exploited workers
The USTKE, the Kanak and Exploited Workers Union, was created in 1981. It has as its motto: tribe and factory, same struggle. Kanak workers and the exploited combine the struggle for social liberation with the struggle for national liberation.
The main demands of the USTKE are: rebalancing through training, integration and promotion of Kanak workers in all sectors, and development through demanding the means of production and workers’ rights.
The union fight is every day because every day you have to put bread on your table. You know what the people need because you have meetings and you go to talk to the boss every day. Some of our politicians, when they get a seat, they forget the people. As a union we talk about how people live, how they find their relationship with the government. And we talk about how imperialism impacts workers’ lives.
The young people know that they are the victims of colonisation. Even if they go to school because they want to have a job, they do not succeed. They find that even their brothers like me who to France to study and come back, have difficulties to get a job. So they say why bother to go to school?
We have a local government that is pro-France that manages the society. All the businesses are controlled by pro-France settlers. There are no businesses owned by Kanak people. So it’s difficult for Kanak people to get jobs.
When the USTKE sees that there is a job that local people can take, and they bring people from France to take this job, we go on strike.
Rock Haocas is the co-ordinator of external affairs of the USTKE (Union of Kanak and Exploited Workers)
