In the middle of this Pacific Islander Asian month, I want to talk about Kanaky, whose colonized name is New Caledonia. It is part of the Pacific Islands and in the area often referred to as Melanesia. It is also a colony of France.
Why does the French Empire currently maintain territorial control over Kanaky? Kanaky has one of the highest nickel reserves in the world. 10% of the world’s nickel. The same nickel that is used in industrial equipment and batteries that keep colonies afloat.
In typical colonizer fashion, over the past 200 years or so France systematically reduced the population of Kanak (the Kanak people have been fighting to increase to a majority and also to be counted), cordoned off Indigenous people to reservations, and did not give access to those mining resources.
Indigenous Kanaks currently make up 41% of the population of Kanaky. Europeans make up about 24%.
There has always been a strong independence movement, which has always been thwarted and suppressed by Empire.
Part of that ongoing fight for self-determination and independence has been the struggle for voting rights and mining rights to return political, economic and natural resources to Kanaky.
Controlling of voting and elections is something colonizers have done since the beginning of their existence. Colonizers have done did it to the Indigenous people of Turtle Island, they did it to Koreans after the war to hold control over southern Korea, in Haiti, in Palestine, Guinea, Togo, and in Laos. The US alone has interfered in over 80 elections around the world to bend political power in its favor.
In the past few decades, there have been 3 referendums for independence in Kanaky, one of which was boycotted by the Indigenous Kanaks because of the ongoing manipulation of the votes and election by the French Empire.
On Tuesday, the French Empire, from its guilded seats in Europe, changed the laws of Kanaky all the way in the Pacific Islands to expand the voting reach for settler colonizers and foreigners living in Kanaky. This only gives even more voting power to the French Empire.
This led to protests and uprisings by the Indigenous communities, and in response, the French Empire declared a state of emergency for at least 12 days, of course, sent more police. 4 people including 3 Indigenous people were unalived during the police crackdown.
What else did the French Empire do? It fascistly banned Tiktok. So what am I doing? I’m telling as many people as I can about it.
A settler colonizer will always be a settler colonizer. End Empire, Empire Out.
Independence for Kanaky. Power to the people.
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