The organisation of the it does not see any need for launching premature debates over strategy within the FLNKS.
The USTKE had been more or less in low gear for some time. Although it has a crucial and special role to play in the struggle for independence, it has not been independence movement enters a new stage easy for this union organization to interlock its activities with those of the FLNKS, whose center of gravity remains in the tribes living in the rural areas. The USTKE, on the other hand, is based mainly in Noumea and its environs.
The opposition to the policy of the territorial government headed by Dick
The Socialist Kanak National Liberation Front (FLNKS) has called for an international day of solidarity with the Kanak people's fight for independence on April 20. On this occasion, solidarity actions are to take place in the Pacific region. The FLNKS has called on the trade-union organisations in the area to organise boycotts of French interests. In France itself, the
Association for Information About and Support to, the Kanak People's
Rights (Association Information Et Soutien au Droit du Peuple Kanak —
AISDPK) is also organising a national demonstration in Paris for April
20. Solidarity actions will take place in other European countries.
The following is a report from our correspondent in New Caledonia on the present evolution of the FLNKS.
When the FLNKS was formed in
September 1984, it was only a coalition of various organizations. It included the
Union Caledonienne (UC),
Socialiste Caledonien (PSC), the Union des Populations Melanesiennes (UPM), the Front Uni de Liberation Kanak
(FULK - Kanak National Liberation
United Front), the Union des Syndicats de Travailleurs Kanaks et Exploites
(USTKE- The Federation of Unions of
Exploited Kanak Workers), the Comite de Revendication des Terres de la Cote
Ouest (the Committee for Land Claims on the West Coast) as well as the small,
Groupe des Femmes Kanakes et Exploitees en Lutte (GFDEL - Group of Kanak
Exploited Women in Struggle).
(PALIKA), which was present at the founding congress, decided definitively to join the FLNKS only at the end of Nov-
The FLNKS was organized around the forces leaving the colonial institutions - the Government Council and the Territorial Assembly - in which most of them had participated, and organizing a boycott of the November 1984 territorial elections.
The events that followed the November 18 mobilisation against the elections were to modify somewhat circumstances that marked the founding of the FLNKS.
In particular, they reinforced the unity of the coalition, even though many problems remained, especially with respect to the difficulties of organizing the independence struggle.
with the colonial state had been a great jolt to the consciousness of people.
stimulated a rapid advance of unity among the ranks and the development of a collective awareness of the Kanak national question.
Today, a lot of activists think of them-
International Viewpoint 8 April 1985 selves more as members of the FLNKS than as supporters of one of the organizations that make it up. ation of local FLNKS among the tribes undoubtedly represented an advance for the unity of the Kanak people.
Moreover, the recent months have put to the test the leaderships of the various as well as cohesiveness of their respective movements. activist base of the UC, the largest formation in the independence movement, has undergone a considerable radicalization. The process was strongly marked by the example provided by the UC's general secretary, Eloi Machoro, who inspired the occupation of Thio and was assassinated on January 12, 1985, by the colonial
The UC leadership has had to take account of this evolution.
Parties such as the UPM and the PSC, on the other hand, have found it very difficult to maintain a distinct existence and to continue really to function as
Many of their members say quite definitely that they consider themselves first and foremost members of the FLNKS. The structures of these parties were too weak for them to be able to maintain the cohesiveness of their memberships after the establishment of the
The FULK is in an in-between position in this respect, while the PALIKA is defending its own special character. The latter believes that the unity in which it is involved now is promoting a general radicalization of the population. the UC, it maintains its own party structure and takes great care to preserve the cohesiveness of its supporters within the FLNKS.
an advocate of revolutionary socialist Kanak independence" IKA rejects in its entirety the plan un-
January 7 by government's envoy, Edgard Pisani. But since it thinks that the first priority is to improve the overall relationship of forces,
Ukeiwe and that of the Noumea municipal government headed by Roger Laroque, a member of the Rassemblement pour la Caledonie dans la Republique (RCPR) (1), nonetheless, offers the union an opportunity to relaunch activity in support of its political and economic
The authorities' reactionary policy, for example, was expressed recently in the material benefits accorded to ministers and the decision by the mayor of Noumea to fire city employees who took part in the FLNKS demonstration a few weeks
For Monday, March 25, a municipal workers strike was called jointly by the USTKE and the Union des Syndicats d'Ouvriers et Employes de Nouvelle Caledonie (USOENC - Federation of Industrial and Office Workers Unions of New Caledonia), a union that is not pro-
Strike pickets were organized in front of the municipal offices and workshops, and the strike could spread to the hospitals.
Another problem at the level of the leadership of the FLNKS is relations between the Political Bureau - which is made up of two representatives of each of the components of the Front - and the Provisional Government of Kanaky, presided over by Jean-Marie Tjibaou.
While the ranks of the independence forces have grown in the recent period, with the influx of hundreds of new activists and sympathizers who identify with the FLNKS as such, the Political Bureau of the Front retains its initial form of a coalition of representatives of the various components of the FLNKS. not make it any easier to work out an effective division of labor between the Provisional Government and the Political
This problem was highlighted at the congress of the FLNKS held at Nakety in early February. Such bifurcation of the leadership between the FLNKS Political Bureau and the Provisional Government, in which PALIKA refuses to be represented, could be a source of confusion for a base of militant activists, who have sometimes found it difficult to tell which structure is responsible for what.
It is all the more important to clarify this situation because months the independence movement will face some important tests. party, the Rassemblement Pour la Republique.
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