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PACIFIC ISLANDS REPORT Pacific Islands Development Program/East-West Center The Contemporary Pacific Political Reviews Melanesia in Review: Issues and Events, 2006 New Caledonia The approaching French legislative and presidential elections of 2007 amplified political rhetoric and maneuvering in New Caledonia in 2006 over issues such as the freezing of the electorate for future provincial elections,
tensions within the coalitions that had signed the Noumea Accord of 1998, multinational takeovers and environmental protests over mining development, social and economic reforms, emergence as a quasi-autonomous Pacific country in regional affairs, and paralyzing labor strikes, which, at times,
had political overtones. Ongoing situational cooperation between the loyalist Avenir Ensemble (ae) and elements of the pro-independence Front de Libération Nationale Kanak
et Socialiste (flnks), and sometimes even the local branch of the archconservative Front National (fn), enabled the country to continue its progress toward self-governance. But the once-dominant loyalist Rassemblement pour la Calédonie dans la République (rpcr), in league with loyalist voters associations and the fn, became more
militant about protecting universal suffrage and ties with In elections for the French president or legislature, municipal elections, or European Union elections, any French citizen in the country can vote, but the Noumea Accord endorsed restricting the local electorate in provincial
elections and in referendums on independence to long-term residents. The flnks argues that the indigenous Kanak people were deprived of the right to vote for a century by
French colonialism (from 1853 to the early 1950s), even though international law has recognized their right, as the first occupants of the country, to self-determination. They say that in negotiations in 1983 (Nainville-Les-Roches), 1988 (Matignon-Oudinot), and 1998 (Paris-Noumea), Kanak
leaders made concessions to immigrants of long residence (whom they regard as fellow victims of history) by agreeing to work together toward a common destiny, but that the commitment in those agreements to restricting who can determine the future status of the country must be respected. Few
residents object to having the restriction apply to future referendums, and in the provincial elections in 1999 and 2004, a "sliding" electorate (anyone with ten years' residence) has applied. But because the Congress will have the right, according to the Noumea Accord, to propose a
referendum on independence between 2013 and 2018, the flnks has lobbied Paris to restrict [End Page 582] the electorate in the 2009 and 2014 provincial elections to a
"frozen" pool of long-term residents, namely people who were eligible to vote in the 1998 referendum on the accord, and their descendants (nc, 14 Dec 2006). The flnks points to massive French immigration during the 1970s, which marginalized the Kanak and pushed them to revolt
in the 1980s—a demographic threat that is reviving as nickel mining is booming due to the rise in demand for stainless steel in Rock Wamytan of the flnks argues that Kanak martyrs Jean-Marie Tjibaou and Yeiwene Yeiwene sacrificed their
lives over the citizenship concessions they had made to non-Kanak immigrants, when a radical separatist assassinated them on Ouvea in 1989. The provisions of the Noumea Accord were enacted into laws in 1999 by the French National Assembly and Senate, which also approved the frozen electorate
concept. The full Congress of Versailles (combined Assembly and Senate) needed to ratify the latter in order to amend the French national constitution, but it never met, due to many criticisms of the text. In 2003, President Jacques Chirac visited The rpcr, which like the fn relies considerably on French migrant votes, began a campaign in February against the proposal, arguing that the 1988 and 1998 accords had been capitulations by the ruling Socialists in Paris to flnks threats of further violence, a charge that goes back to old loyalist accusations that the Kanak uprising in the 1980s was fueled primarily by misguided promises by the Socialists, then led
by President François Mitterrand. Pierre Frogier, president of the rpcr and deputy to Paris, said he had a petition signed by thousands of loyalist residents who opposed
the frozen electorate as a matter of democratic principle, because its adoption would suggest that "we are no longer in France but in an unidentified political status" (nc, 17 Feb 2006). The flnks, of course, has clearly identified that proposed status, but
loyalists oppose independence. Because the rpcr and many members of the ae are members of the French president's Gaullist [End Page 583] party, the Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (ump), local loyalists were
divided over whether or not to support Chirac's backing of the frozen electorate, and in Paris even a minority of the ump, led by presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy, supported the rpcr. Simon Loueckhote, rpcr senator in The rhetoric became more heated in December, as Marine Le Pen, daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen of the extreme nationalist fn, was invited to a public debate organized in rpcr founder Jacques Lafleur, who had signed the Matignon and Noumea Accords, now says the frozen electorate issue needs more discussion, but [End Page 584] when the rpcr and fn tried to start a debate about it in the Congress in December, the government executive voted nine to three against the discussion. The ae voted with the flnks, and the ae president of Congress, Harold Martin, told the rpcr, "Either those who signed the Accord did not explain everything to you, or you are liars." He pressed his button
to restore order, and the rpcr walked out, calling it a "sad day for democracy" (nc, 13–14 Dec 2006). The next day, the French National Assembly voted for the frozen electorate, with a majority of the ump in favor along with the Socialists, Communists, and udf, using the arguments that the State had to keep its word and that no one wanted a return to the violence of the 1980s in Some critics of the flnks have called the fluctuating membership of its coalition of pro-independence
parties a Kanak problem, since the indigenous people comprise nearly thirty language groups and over one hundred tribes (or clans) that "naturally" squabble among themselves over leadership and policy. There is some truth in that criticism, as regional and personal rivalries have
caused parties to drop out or join up since its creation in 1984. Today, the two key opponents are the Union Calédonienne (uc), the oldest party in the country, which arose
from Kanak church associations allied with white liberals and leftists and this year celebrated its fiftieth anniversary (nc, 18 Dec 2006), and Palika (Parti de Libération Kanak), which arose out of radical student movements and celebrated its thirtieth anniversary (nc, 13 July 2006). The uc once dominated the flnks in the Tjibaou era, but now Palika does, and under the banner of the National Union for Palika continues to espouse revolutionary socialist Kanak independence, said spokesperson Charles Washetine, as "the only way for a colonized people to regain its dignity," though it also embraces the welfare of non-Kanak
as "victims of capitalist exploitation." Palika has no president and governs itself collectively through a ten-member political bureau, relying on internal self-criticism and democratic centralism to remain both a party of action on the ground and, since the Matignon and Noumea
Accords, of participation in governing institutions (nc, 13 July 2006). The uc under Naouna has mostly separated from the flnks and used boycotts and abstentions to oppose various policies. [End Page 585] It too supports the accords, but it tends to favor "individual initiative" and integration of
Kanak into the economy. In November, Naouna surprised many by proposing free association between Still, a close look at fluctuations in the composition and labels of French metropolitan parties shows that splintering and forming new coalitions is also a very French style of politics, because proportional representation
encourages a multitude of chameleon-like movements. For example, the ruling ump was founded only in 2002 from the Gaullist Rassemblement pour la République, the rpcr's ally in In May, Frogier spoke to the rpcr-ump convention in Boulouparis, reiterating his party's attachment to France, including its desire to adopt the euro as
local currency. He denounced the "socialist and pro-independence reading of the Noumea Accord," voicing his opposition to not only the frozen electorate concept but also the partnership between the Palika-ruled North and a Canadian mining corporation to develop a nickel-processing
plant. He preferred that the French-affiliated Société le Nickel (sln) build that project (even though another Canadian firm was building the rpcr-initiated Goro project in the South). He said the primary rpcr adversary was the pro-independence parties, especially the "communist" regime in the North, but he also denigrated the ae, calling it "irresponsible" and "incompetent" for not recognizing the independence threat and for cooperating with pro-independence parties in [End Page 586] the Congress while excluding the rpcr from power (just as the rpcr previously did to other parties). He
called the Noumea Accord an "act of generosity" on the part of the rpcr, which had a sincere desire to "live together," but it promised a sliding, not
frozen, electorate, which New Caledonians approved in the referendum of 1998. He warned that if the pro-independence parties again "descend into the street" to get their way, "they will find us in front of them!" (Frogier 2006; nc, 22 May 2006). In the Southern Province Assembly, the rpcr and ae did battle over such issues as environmental regulation of the Goro nickel project, and a political pamphlet of obvious rpcr origin circulated with the title "Rotten Future," a play on the ae party label "Future Together" (nc, 16 June 2006). In July, at the ump national convention in Paris, presidential candidate Sarkozy tried to broker a
reconciliation between Frogier and Martin, who was also ump despite his ae affiliation in New Caledonia. A well-publicized photo of the two sitting at a Paris café started a
lively discussion in the country about whether the two leading loyalist parties should unite against the pro-independence parties, as in days of old. Sarkozy said, "You are from the same family, you must reunite the family" (nc, 14 July 2006). For a while, the antagonistic rhetoric died down, and both Martin and Frogier made overtures in the press toward peacemaking, though Didier Leroux, former head of the anti-Lafleur Alliance Party (which was affiliated with the udf) and now an ae leader like Martin, vowed, "I will not be the cuckold of history." He intended to present
himself as ae candidate for deputy to the French Parliament against an rpcr-ump candidate (nc, 26 July 2006). Gomes of the ae, also a former rpcr member, was surprised by the talk of a "sandwich coup" negotiated at the Paris café and said the ae should not allow itself to be manipulated. Martin would likely run against Frogier in the second district in the legislative elections in 2007, and Leroux would run against whoever replaced Lafleur (nc, 11 Aug 2006). In late July, Lafleur announced that he was forming his own new political party, in reality re-forming the Rassemblement pour la Calédonie (rpc), which he had created in 1977 before affiliating it with Chirac's rpr in 1978 and thereby changing the label to rpcr. With his usual
De Gaulle–like aplomb, he claimed that New Caledonia "was turning again to me . . . so that the country is all right." Despite the economic boom in New Caledonia, he argued, there was an emerging social crisis of inequality and a lack of majority leadership in the government, so
his connections with Paris after thirty years as deputy could ensure that the country had the help it needed to keep the peace. He said he was unable to reconcile with Frogier, as Sarkozy had asked, because "I was not adept at the politics of the worst," implying that he would be
less alarmist and polarizing than Frogier, whom he had once designated as his heir. He observed that the loyalists were divided, so it was time that he ended his retirement from politics: "It's not I who need the people, but the people who need me" (nc, 28 Aug 2006; pir , 3 Aug 2006). By
October, his chosen party leader, Simon Loueckhote, the [End Page 587] rpcr senator to Paris, became head of the rpc and claimed that other rpcr leaders were joining him in an effort to
"revive the spirit of 1977," which had a more inclusive vision than the newly militant rpcr (nc, 30 Oct 2006). Lafleur's reentry into politics created
more consternation in the ump, which had to decide whether to embrace Frogier or dump a longtime ally of Chirac. Lafleur said, "If Caledonia does not present a progressive face, France will not help us" (nc, 18 Nov 2006). Meanwhile, the rpcr held its party primary to choose who would run for the two legislative seats in Paris
in 2007. Frogier won massive support for his reelection campaign as deputy of the second district, with 92 percent of over three thousand votes cast, and in the first district candidate race, longtime Lafleur aide Pierre Maresca lost narrowly to Gael Yanno (nc, 16 Oct 2006). Maresca was upset at being accused by a young militant of representing the "old guard" of the party (nc, 25 Sept 2006), and after he lost his chance to represent the party in the elections, he went to Paris to complain to the ump, hoping to get their endorsement anyway, claiming he was the victim of a political maneuver. As a pied noir immigrant from Algeria, Maresca suggested that he could draw the support
of the Oceanian communities in New Caledonia, that is, Wallisians, leading to speculation that there might be three choices for rpcr loyalists in the first district: Yanno, Lafleur, and Maresca (nc, 5 Dec 2006). Bretegnier said that Frogier should have run in the first district instead of favoring Yanno over Maresca, but that dissident rpcr
members of Congress and the Southern Province Assembly had to decide how far to go to show their discontent over a manipulated party primary without causing a major rupture in the loyalist camp (nc, 31 Oct 2006). Frogier finally said he felt completely disengaged from the Noumea Accord because of the frozen electorate issue, and he sided with Sarkozy's wing of the ump who also opposed the new law. His stand won him official support from the ump, along with Yanno, against Lafleur and Maresca (nc, 21–22 Dec 2006). As for the ae, Martin was reelected its president and would lead its campaign for deputy, saying the rpcr
"needed a new defeat" (nc, 2 Oct 2006). He had already been reelected president of the Congress in July,
thanks to support from not only the ae but also the fn, an ex-rpcr dissident, and Nidoish Naisseline's Libération Kanak Socialiste (lks) (nc, 29 July 2006). François Bayrou, head of the udf, stopped off in November after visiting French Polynesia to lend his official support to Leroux, who would take on the divided rpcr in the
first district, and he also praised the ae in general (nc, 3Nov 2006). The ae-led government continued on its reformist path, encouraged by increased French funding for
socioeconomic development (nc, 3 March 2006). It responded positively to a mass street demonstration by ten
thousand people in April against the rising cost of living. The protest was organized by a coalition of labor unions led by Didier Guenant-Jeanson's Union Syndicaliste des Ouvriers et Employés de la Nouvelle-Calédonie (usoenc), which complained about an inflation rate (2.6 percent) that was [End Page 588] the highest since 1993 (nc, 21 April 2006). If that inflation rate seems small by world standards, the already-high cost of living that it adds to (due to massive budgetary transfers from Paris, the
near-monopoly power of certain importers, and bloated salaries paid to French civil servants overseas) has long been a target of criticism. In 2006, the French budget ministry complained that metropolitan retirees who moved overseas specifically to get raises in their pensions (almost double
the normal base salary, thanks to the "hardship pay" earned by French civil servants in New Caledonia) were costing the country 245 million euros, a 70 percent increase since 2000 (pir, 14 Nov 2006; nc, 13 March 2006; tpm, Nov 2006). Over 83 percent of such retirees, half of whom were ex-military, had never served in New Caledonia, whereas in French Reunion in the Indian Ocean, 80 percent were native to the island (nc, 8 Jan 2007). To help the country's workers survive, usoenc demanded diverting 5 francs from the price of every pound of nickel exported to a government relief fund, eliminating taxes on basic foods such as flour and rice, and a variety of other tax relief reforms for lower income inhabitants (nc, 1 March 2006). The rpcr quickly blamed the ae for causing the problem and opposed reforms, but Leroux argued that similar rates of inflation had occurred under the rpcr regime, though recent local tax increases to help pay for self-governance might have to be reconsidered, such as the sales tax (nc, 18 March, 20 April 2006). After a series of roundtable discussions with stakeholders, the government proposed reforms in June to the
Congress: increasing family allowances, raising the minimum wage, lowering food taxes, reviving price controls, freezing rents for a year while new price controls are devised, imposing a surtax on quick resales of real estate to reduce speculation, arranging interest-free loans and reducing
legal costs for first-home buyers, and negotiating with banks to lower their service charges; the nickel-derived subsidy would have to be debated in Congress (nc, 7 June 2006; pir , 9 June 2006). Congress passed most of these measures and also subsidized electricity costs by cutting taxes to
prevent a rate hike (nc, 11 Nov 2006). The ae argued that its social and economic policies were improving life in the country, as unemployment
declined and job offers increased, affordable housing was built, work safety and right-to-employment standards were brought closer to European levels, commercial development in the South was encouraged but also regulated, and the province bought hotels, casinos, and improved infrastructure and
transportation to boost tourism (nc, 1 July, 17 July, 18 Aug, 31 Aug, 3 Oct, 20 Oct, 15 Dec 2006). New Caledonia
Fisheries, based at Koumac in the North, finally turned a profit (nc, 27 Feb 2006), and a government committee met weekly to screen job hiring in an effort to favor local residents over foreigners whenever possible (nc, 22 Nov 2006). French financial grants gave the thirty-three municipalities of the country a 5 percent increase in development aid, for a total of us$78 million, which would be divided among the three provinces, about half going to the more populous [End Page 589] South and half to the North and Islands (nc, 7 July, 25 Aug 2006). France provides us$1.5 billion a year in direct assistance to New Caledonia, and together with the nickel sales and mining boom the local economy is prospering. In December, the Congress voted a 2007 budget of us$1.3 billion, all but one fourth of which would go to the provinces and communes. The budget passed with support of the ae, the uc, and the uni-flnks, while the fn abstained in protest against the frozen electorate, and the rpcr-ump voted against (nc, 23 Dec 2006; pir , 27 Dec 2006). A "Day of Citizenship" at the Mwâ Kâ in Noumea, which was held on 23 September as an alternative to the former commemoration of the French taking possession of New Caledonia on 24 September 1853, was not attended
by the rpcr because Frogier "absolutely did not share the conception of citizenship" as expressed in the frozen electorate. Some other loyalists followed suit, as
did the lks, but the ae, Palika, uc, and other groups attended, voicing support for the recognition of Kanak identity and of other local cultures in the spirit of the Noumea Accord's call to build a common destiny (nc, 21 Sept, 25 Sept 2006). On the cultural front, the government introduced educational standards for localizing history and geography education and for the teaching of Kanak languages in schools in order to promote a sense of citizenship and common
destiny among youth (nc, 13 March, 18 April 2006), and the official minutes of Kanak customary meetings acquired
judicial status (nc, 2 June 2006). The ldh-nc sponsored a public discussion in Noumea on the concept of biological and cultural metissage (blending), which colonial segregation had hindered, and the small community of La Foa celebrated its multicultural heritage (nc, 1 Sept, 2 Oct 2006). Yet the ethnic census that had been planned to measure progress in economic rebalancing among regions was canceled due to lack of French
funding, and tensions continued between Kanak and Wallisians in schools and neighborhoods. A moving film documented the reconciliation among Kanak families who lost members in the 1989 assassination of Tjibaou on Ouvea, but two concerts by singer Francis Cabrel had to be canceled because of
anonymous death threats over his support for the Kanak during the 1988 Ouvea uprising (nc, 18 July, 25 Aug, 30 Aug, 9 Oct, 2 Dec 2006). Progress was made environmentally, as European development funds financed the rehabilitation of mining sites around Thio, the country tightened its protection of local biodiversity, and the
Congress voted unanimously to support having six zones in the country's coral reef classified by unesco as World Heritage sites (nc, 17 Feb, 14 June, 28 Aug, 18Dec 2006). On the regional level, two main events stand out: the second France-Oceania summit in Paris, and the Pacific Forum's granting of associate member status to New Caledonia. Using the carrot of aid money, the Chirac government has
pushed for better relations between France and the neighbors of its Pacific territories; so in June, sixteen heads of state flew to Paris at French expense to partake of his diplomacy. The Noumea daily Les Nouvelles-Calédoniennes called it [End Page 590] a "climatic
warming" as participants were entertained by Kanak dancers at the newly opened Quai Branly Museum, which is entirely devoted to displaying indigenous cultures. Chirac declared, "The past is one thing, but the future is hand in hand cooperation." Sir Michael Somare of Papua New
Guinea, perhaps looking for leverage against Australian influence in the Forum, announced, "France has changed its attitude. It now treats the peoples of the Pacific Islands honestly." Yet when Oscar Temaru, still president of French Polynesia before his fall from power in December,
expressed regret that the principle of self-determination was absent from the final conference declaration, Gomes said he was out of order, and the ae President of New
Caledonia Marie-Noelle Themereau said, "Instead of making ideological outbursts, it is preferable to deal with basic issues." Chirac stressed that France was also a conduit for aid money from the European Union, a frequently heard argument, though the EU has already helped Pacific
countries without France. Paul Neaoutyine, Palika president of the Northern Province, supported integrating the French Pacific into the region, while Frogier saw it as "a recognition of France's place in the Pacific. To see in such a majestic place the gathering of Pacific region leaders
is a very powerful symbol" (nc, 28 June 2006; pir , 29 March, 15 June 2006). In Port Moresby in October, the Pacific Forum leaders, no doubt with the
taste of Beaujolais and brie still on their lips, endorsed New Caledonia and French Polynesia as associate members, while Wallis and Futuna became an observer. Somare said, "This relationship is on a progressive path. This time, there is a real commitment to help us" (pir, 26 Oct 2006). New Caledonia strengthened its diplomatic ties with Australia and Vanuatu (pir, 22
June, 30 Aug 2006), while New Zealand television broadcast videos of the 1985 trial of French bombers of the Greenpeace antinuclear protest vessel Rainbow Warrior, which showed agents Mafart and Prieur confessing to murder (nc, 16 Aug 2006). The mining industry of New Caledonia felt the impact of globalization in corporate finance, as huge foreign companies responded to the rapidly rising world price of nickel by competing to buy controlling interest in inco and Falconbridge, two Canadian firms that had been scheduled to build local nickel processing plants. In October 2005 it even looked as if inco, slated to develop the Goro project in the South, would buy Falconbridge, with which the Northern Province's Société Minerale Sud Pacifique (smsp) had already negotiated 51 percent ownership of the Koniambo project. But an antitrust investigation by the United States (because both inco and Falconbridge listed their stocks on Wall Street), complications over French State funding, and a threat to turn the Koniambo project over to the sln if the Bercy Accord deadline of finalizing the deal by the end of 2005 was not met, led the smsp to ask Falconbridge to finance the
whole project, while the smsp would repay its share with royalties. Then Teck Cominco of Vancouver offered to take over inco, with which the Southern Province had negotiated very low royalties (only 10 percent for the province and the country) for [End Page 591] Goro, while Xstrata of Switzerland offered to
buy Falconbridge (nc, 26 May 2006). Next, US-based Phelps Dodge offered to buy both inco and Falconbridge in an increasingly complex bidding war that fluctuated with stock and nickel prices, but inco pulled out of the Falconbridge takeover bid by July, leaving the latter to Xstrata. When Grupo Mexico offered to buy Phelps Dodge, the spokesperson for the Koniambo project said, "It's difficult to comment about things that happen
above our heads" (nc, 16 Aug 2006). By August, Xstrata confirmed its purchase of Falconbridge and assured the workers that no layoffs were planned (nc, 17 Aug 2006). Teck Cominco and Phelps Dodge still showed interest in inco, while Xstrata, the British firm Rio Tinto and the Brazilian firm Companhia Vale do Rio Doce ((cvrd) considered combining their capital to buy out rival Anglo American and divide up the spoils (nc, 23 Aug 2006). By November, (cvrd of Brazil had confirmed its purchase of inco. Because the price of a ton of nickel had risen from us$6,000 in 2001
to about us$30,000, Xstrata paid us$17 billion for
Falconbridge, and (cvrd paid almost us$16 billion
for inco (pir, 7 Nov 2006). But would the new owners respect previous agreements with New Caledonia, when they had operations all over the world to reevaluate? In September, Neaoutyine met with Mick Davis of Xstrata, who assured him that the Koniambo
project would be built under the same arrangements the smsp had already made with Falconbridge. That same day, Neaoutyine met with Ku-Taek Lee of South Korea's Posco, a metallurgical firm that agreed to process the nickel ore produced by the smsp's five other mining sites in the North, the profits of which would help develop both the North and Islands Provinces. In addition to diversifying the North's portfolio, which acquired 51 percent ownership of a new Korean processing plant
at Gwangyang, the Posco deal would also extend the smsp's long-term resources by reducing the nickel content of the ore provided to the Posco plant to just over 2 percent (nc, 15 Sept 2006). In December, the Northern Province Assembly voted a us$340 million budget for 2007, after a lively
debate about independence between Neaoutyine and France Debien of the rpcr. Debien asked whether the nickel mining alone could provide for local needs when France was still
providing massive financial assistance. Neaoutyine replied that France was obligated to support the country in the Noumea Accord, but also said, "There is obviously a country, and a people, that was colonized. It's a duty to remember that imposes itself, and thus a need to prepare the
means to decolonize and build a citizenship" (nc, 20 Dec 2006). The rpcr argued for months that the sln should take over the Koniambo project
to keep the plant in "national" hands. Frogier claimed the North had wasted French funds for economic rebalancing and done nothing for its people but force them to migrate to the South for work (nc, 21 Aug, 5 Sept, 14 Oct 2006). In December, New Caledonia increased its shares in the sln to 34 percent by exchanging
some of its shares of Eramet, the parent holding company (nc, 1 Dec 2006). The Goro project in the South is [End Page 592] another story, because of the low royalties promised and objections to environmental pollution and the use of foreign construction workers. In fact, protests have shut down
the project more than once since 2002. In early 2006, 1,600 workers, 90 percent of whom were local, were employed by Goro Nickel, though it said that lack of specialized local training in certain fields necessitated hiring hundreds of Filipinos. inco promised to be very careful about pollution issues, and the Southern Province said it would be vigilant (nc, 3 March 2006). In April, however, Raphael Mapou's Rhéébù Nùù (Eye of the Country) again besieged the work site. It protested against pollution, demanded that royalties be paid directly to
local chiefs, put up blockades, and used inco machines to dig deep ditches. Four trucks of French gendarmes arrived, made arrests in a hail of stones, clubs, and Molotov cocktails, and soon liberated the site, but the next day Rhéébù Nùù was back with banners
along the access roads and demands for discussions. Local residents who relied on Goro for jobs staged counterprotests and marched into Noumea. In the trial of a Rhéébù Nùù protester who burned a company vehicle, the prosecutor argued, "The Northern plant will pollute just as much
and so far no one has protested. The real question is to know what degree of pollution the residents are ready to accept. Will the mud of Koniambo be less red because the factory will be Kanak?" The defense attorney replied, "We know that the construction permit was granted by the
Southern Province against the advice of its own Environmental Office. . . . The real instigators of this violence are the leaders of inco and the Southern Province" (nc, 3–6 April 2006). During sporadic negotiations, Goro Nickel told many of its employees to stop working for security reasons, while it still paid them, and it assessed the damage to the site at us$10 million. Wamytan of the Customary Senate and also Caugern (Comité autochtone pour la gestion des ressources naturelles) represented Rhéébù Nùù in the talks, but Mapou did not show up (nc, 7–8 April 2006; rnzi, 7 April 2006). While Frogier called on Sarkozy for military and police reinforcements, the flnks tried to negotiate between Rhéébù Nùù
and pro-Goro chiefs. The sln proposed it should develop a new processing plant at Prony, next to Goro, and 600 pro-Goro protesters marched again into Noumea (nc, 12–13 April 2006). The police broke up Rhéébù Nùù picket sites and set up barricades to protect access to Goro, allowing work on the Prony electrical plant to resume, but Rhéébù Nùù, supported by Caugern, local
environmentalists and the pro-independence Union Syndicaliste des Travailleurs Kanak et Employés (ustke) organized an anti-Goro march of 1,200 in Noumea (nc, 19–21 April, 24 April 2006). Gomes of the Southern Province announced that a third environmental impact study would
begin, this time focusing on potential effluents of chrome and manganese, which Rhéébù Nùù argued would exceed EU standards (nc, 25 April, 28 April 2006). The study would take time, but Mapou went to court on charges of armed conspiracy and traffic blockage, while he sued and was countersued by Gomes and the [End Page 593] head of Goro Nickel. Supporters of Rhéébù Nùù still blocked the transport of workers to
Goro by ferry and sabotaged the Goro water supply (nc, 10–12 May, 23 May 2006). The ae government warned against the damage Rhéébù Nùù was doing to the image of New Caledonia in the
eyes of outside investors as well as to local development (nc, 25 May 2006), while the flnks denounced
the "opportunist" tactics of Rhéébù Nùù and backed "the industrial projects in progress" (kol, 2 June 2006). But in June, 2,500 protesters marched against Goro Nickel in Noumea with French antiglobalization activist José Bové participating (nc, 6 June 2006). Soon after, a local administrative court voided Goro Nickel's permit to develop the site because estimated pollution by manganese effluents would be one hundred times
the acceptable EU norm. The court thus legitimized Rhéébù Nùù concerns, though it required more government investigation, not a construction shutdown (nc, 15 June 2006; pir , 15 June 2006). While judicial proceedings against Rhéébù Nùù continued, its supporters renewed protests
against the "illegality" of Goro Nickel, which offered a pact to the citizens of the South, promising to recruit more local workers and businesses, pay for training, strengthen its pollution controls, and participate in a broadly based oversight committee (nc, 5 July, 14 July 2006). Still unsatisfied, Rhéébù Nùù and Caugern called for a month of mobilization to promote discussions, but they refrained from calling for a shutdown (nc, 26 Aug 2006). Meanwhile, inco was taken over by (cvrd of Brazil, which claimed to "have a good relationship with indigenous communities" because it was from the
Southern Hemisphere, even though in October, 200 armed Brazilian Indians seized a company mining town and took 600 hostages to demand development aid (nc, 15 Aug, 16 Nov 2006; iht 13 Dec 2006). In October, the new environmental study warned of pollution by effluent processing acids,
cobalt, chrome, and manganese, so a Paris court ordered Goro to halt construction of its waste storage site (nc, 22–23 Nov 2006; pir , 21 Nov 2006). Other disruptions came from labor unions whose concerns also became political and affected the mining industry. ustke, the largest and most pro-independence union in the country (a former member of the flnks, in fact), conducted
high-impact strikes in the cause of protecting local hiring and businesses from outside competition. Besides shutting down most schools on the east coast of Grande Terre for a month in March and repeatedly disrupting Noumea's city buses to protect its members (nc, 11 March, 3 April, 12 July 2006), ustke blockaded the rfo (Réseau Français d'Outremer) television station over Rock Haocas, whose case had already caused ustke to shut down rfo for most of three months in 2004. In that year, Haocas returned from technical training in France but was hired by rfo for a lower-paying job because it had no post that fit his qualifications, thus making him the focus of a local hiring dispute. Courts in 2005 had twice convicted Haocas of violent
behavior toward a coworker during that strike, so rfo wanted to fire him this year, but ustke objected to the court conviction and the firing, [End Page 594] demanding that Haocas be transferred to another job (nc, 14 Feb, 22 March 2006). Of 150 employees at rfo, only 12 participated in the ustke blockade, so it used a tactic of intermittent work stoppages, sometimes allowing the other employees to work and other times preventing them from having access to rfo, even interrupting work part way through the day, so the employer could not feasibly put workers on paid leave. rfo refused to renegotiate with
ustke, so non-striking workers became exasperated, as did the rest of the population, with the unpredictable tv broadcasts (nc, 29 March, 15 April, 29 April 2006). The ldh-nc and flnks, among others, denounced the strike, which went on for six months despite court action that imposed daily fines on the
union (nc, 1 June, 18–19 July, 10 Aug 2006). Finally, in November, rfo agreed to transfer Haocas to France and help him find a job in another television enterprise (nc, 10 Nov 2006). ustke also blocked the main seaport for five weeks in May and June, to protest what it called invasions of the New Caledonia market by large foreign companies, such as the Mediterranean Shipping Company (msc) and Maersk, without negotiating
proper agreements with local stevedore companies like Manutrans, which happens to be owned by the former president of ustke (nc, 20 May 2006). ustke erected a wall of layered containers around the port but eventually let other vessels unload while preventing the msc and Maersk ships from doing so. Rival labor unions protested
the stoppage and tried to force their way in, and the flnks again denounced ustke for the strike. Finally, one hundred fifty French police liberated the port in a swift but violent battle, only to have ustke protest outside the police station, demanding the release of those arrested and threatening a general strike (nc, 24 May, 1 June, 3 June, 9–10 June 2006; pir , 9 June 2006). ustke and the two shipping companies reached understandings in late June and July to "recognize the particularities of New
Caledonia" so that local companies do not get squeezed out of the market. Labor minister Gerald Cortot suggested that instead of having shipping lines make separate contracts with local stevedore companies, the latter should work together to share the market (nc, 24 June, 11 July 2006; pir , 23 July
2006). ustke closed out its year with judicial proceedings against its members and leaders, while ustke President Gerard Jodar vowed that the union would become a political party (nc, 29 Nov, 7 Dec 2006). Sylvain Nea has developed quite a reputation, and court record, for labor strikes that interfere with daily activities in New Caledonia, especially since he was expelled from usoenc and struggled to establish his own Conféderation Syndicale des Travailleurs de la Nouvelle-Calédonie (cstnc), which has became the fifth-largest union in the country (nc, 22 July 2006). A seven-and-a-half-month blockade of the Surf Novotel Hotel in Noumea was so catastrophic for the owners that it went bankrupt in January 2006. In the accord finally reached in
April, outside investors pulled out and the local owner, the Northern Province, had to convert half of the rooms into apartments. [End Page 595] The main thing that cstnc gained was official recognition, while its ten fired members remained unemployed (nc, 22 March, 26 April 2006). The cstnc also struck against the sln for three months in late 2005, and in April 2006, the union won its case in court, when the administrative tribunal in Noumea agreed that the sln had unfairly fired two cstnc members for blocking access to a dangerous electrical installation at the Doniambo nickel processing plant (nc, 22 April, 19 May 2006). The cstnc struck again in 2006 by shutting down the sln medical center for seven weeks over the transfer of a female worker to another local facility; it also argued that Nea's former branch of usoenc, soenc Nickel, should no longer be on the administrative council of the center, since cstnc had a majority of members in the sln
upcountry (outside Doniambo). Police liberated the medical center in July, but other blockages persisted, so that neither medical care nor reimbursements were available to sln workers, and when non-striking employees tried to go back to work, they were ordered away. An accord was reached in August, when the transfer was delayed for two months pending further negotiations (nc, 30 March, 29 July, 8 Aug, 10 Aug, 19 Aug 2006). The next month, Nea declared a general strike on political issues, which he used as a pretext for blockading the sln again, among many other sites. The cstnc demanded the immediate beginning of construction on the Northern nickel processing plant, the expulsion of Filipino workers from Goro, new taxes on the rich and on capital exports, a 50 percent
reduction in gasoline prices, and the reduction of prices for other necessities such as rice. Despite rumors, Nea insisted that the rpcr was not behind his strike trying to undermine the ae government, though he did demand that the ae government resign and called for new elections (nc, 21 Sept, 27 Sept 2006). Ironically, his 1,500 strikers shut down many of the local gasoline stations, as well as bakeries, while Goro withdrew most of its workers from the construction site, except for the 550 Filipinos, who had no place else to go (nc, 28 Sept 2006). ustke also condemned the hiring of Filipinos, claiming to have seen them doing many unskilled or semiskilled jobs that local workers could be hired to do, and not just specialized technical tasks (nc, 22 Sept 2006). It was also revealed that the Filipinos were paid the minimum wage for New Caledonia, us$1000 a month, minus 30 percent for room and board, and they were of course not unionized (nc, 30 Oct 2006). The ae government argued that its reforms were already lowering the cost of living in New Caledonia, and it sued Nea for costing local businesses millions of francs with his strikes, disrupting local life with so many different demands, putting two
thousand Caledonians out of work at Goro, and preaching racial hatred (nc, 29 Sept 2006). The cstnc organized
processions in Noumea by large mineral trucks and tractors and shut down the upcountry sln mines that provided Doniambo with ore to process, which stirred up antistrike
protests. As the strike dragged on, even some cstnc members began to defect because they weren't being paid, until a few illegally diverted sln funds [End Page 596]
to them (nc, 6–7 Oct, 12 Oct, 24 Oct 2006). After a month-long blockade, the police liberated Doniambo, but only two of its four ore sources upcountry were functioning. The rpcr and ae traded barbs over alleged political plotting behind the strike, while the cstnc adopted ustke's tactic
of on-again, off-again picketing and blockages (nc, 14 Dec, 17 Oct, 20 Oct 2006). The cstnc even shut down the local newspaper temporarily for what it considered unfair reporting (pir, 7 Nov 2006), while repeated negotiations stalled. Nea went to court for his appeal of a conviction from the previous year of blockades that had condemned him to three months in prison. The
judge upheld the conviction and sentence, but told Nea that he could appeal to a higher court, and that there would likely be a "more or less generous" amnesty granted after the 2007 presidential elections for union-related offenses. By mid-November, Nea was softening his general
strike demands, was arrested for diverting sln funds and, with two associates, was fined us$20,000, and soon was offering to resign from the sln (but not his union) if the company did not fire nine of his union members. After three months of striking and often-paralyzing rush hour traffic jams, the Filipinos were still
working for Goro, the ae was still in power, and nearly every organization in
References
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iht, International Herald Tribune. Daily.
kol, Kanaky Online. http://fr.groups.yahoo.com/group/kanaky
nc, Les Nouvelles-Calédoniennes. Daily.
pir, Pacific Islands Report. http://pidp.eastwestcenter.org/pireport
rnzi, Radio New Zealand International. http://www.rnzi.com
tpm, Tahiti-Pacifique Magazine. Monthly. David Chappell is associate professor of |
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