Category: France

  • Those who learned or vaguely remember what they were taught in school in those deliberately boring hours devoted to the subject called “history” may be forgiven for their confusion at the progressive transformation of core myths from the mid-20th century. Among those are the bundle of fabrications that constitute the history of the “good war”. The 20th century can be called the American Century not only because of US aspirations to global dominion after 1945 but because it was the US propaganda ministry — in privatized USA aka known as “Hollywood”—which has successfully written the history of the two world wars and propagated it like the Bible, also in foreign parts. During the recent commemorations of the June 1944 “Normandy landings”, executed by an amphibious force comprising mainly members of the Anglo-American armed forces, the constellation of honoured guests was instructive in ways that no textbook could be.

    Decades of make-believe have persuaded those susceptible to Western mass media that the Second World War, a designation these hostilities acquired after the capitulations of 1945, was fought by the Anglo-American Empire, the Allies, for democracy and freedom against fascism in Germany and Italy (and as an afterthought in Japan). It has also persuaded millions that this war, in which the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei – NSDAP regime in Germany and the older government of British agent Benito Mussolini’s Partido Nazionale Fascista (the origin of the generic term) were subdued, was ultimately won by the heroic efforts of the largest amphibious assault action in history, the so-called Normandy landings. Never mind for the moment that since the 1960s the purpose of the war has been utterly redefined as the defence of some segment of European Jewry.

    To illustrate how this propaganda has expanded with each year further from the events themselves, there were posters hanging in Porto this year advertising an exhibition to commemorate military action in which Portugal was in no way involved. (How the regime of the Bourbon-Anjou pretender, successors to the Caudillo de Espana por la gracio de Dios and usurper of republican government in Madrid, remember 1944 may be worth comment, too. Veterans of the 250th “Azul” division were most unlikely in attendance.) The head of the Portuguese government of that day, Dr Antonio Salazar Oliveira, carefully avoided any overt participation in the international aggression. Instead he exported grain to feed the Wehrmacht instead of his own compatriots and under pressure of his liege lords in London, leased airfields and harbours in the Azores to the Americans. Perhaps Dr Salazar also understood that the Atlantic Charter also protected him from the ultimate enemy, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

    Each year since the demise of the Soviet Union the government of the Russian Federation, for some twenty years led by President Vladimir Putin, has politely requested, then objected that the commemoration reflect the facts of the 1944 and not the political preferences of those in attendance. If the Normandy commemoration serves to recall the efforts of the forces invading France to defeat the German NSDAP regime, then the French government itself could not claim honours there any more than the representatives of Germany who soon became regular guests. After all half of France was willingly occupied by Germany while the other half, governed from Vichy collaborated. In other words, if taken at their word, the celebrants before the altars on Omaha Beach, could insist that Paris be treated just like Russia would have Kiev treated today. If the war was against fascism in Europe, as the propagandists in the West have proclaimed for decades, then Germany and France both constituted fascist states whose leaders at such a mass must – at the least—repeat acts of contrition, if not ritual surrender. That at least would be consistent with the anniversary memorials. It would be consistent with the “living history” model of historical re-enactment so beloved in Anglo-American “Disney-culture”. In fact, in a generous interpretation of the Second World War it was a great battle against truculent fascism. Obsequious fascists like those in Madrid or Lisbon were conspicuously spared. Then in 1949 both were lovingly absorbed into NATO, a precedent that should not be overlooked.

    Instead not only is France celebrated as an Anglo-American ally—which it was not during that great war (assuming for the purposes of argument the official rationale)—but the ostensible main enemy, evil Germany has been elevated to the status of ally as if it had waged war against itself. In fact, that would conform to the perverse logic by which Koreans invaded Korea in 1950 and Vietnamese invaded Vietnam, while Chinese are poised today to invade China. Already the absurdity and patent insincerity of the commemoration becomes evident. With further interpretative generosity, the Normandy exhibition is a demonstration by its producers that the thousands who died there constitute multiple Christ figures whose “sacrifice” vicariously saved the fascists of France and Germany from damnation. Given the fanaticism with which Latin hypocrisy is practiced in the West, both in and out of church, there are no doubt Faithful to adhere to such a construction. After all the Latin Church has innumerable monuments to its “martyrs” who died fighting communism.

    No Red Army units crossed the Manche to wade onto the coast of cows and Calvados. Confining the celebrations to the memory of battles actually fought by those who actually bore arms there (and their descendants) could legitimately be limited to British and American imperial forces and perhaps the few exile French allowed along for the ride. However the Normandy prostrations, especially after 1989, became a stage for historical revisionism. The Russian Federation rightly objects to this deliberate distortion of the war record and its mass medial – hysterical propagation.

    This year the Russian government complained that after years of ignoring the primary role of the Soviet Union and Red Army in defeating the NSDAP regime, the western allies added insult to injury by receiving the tee shirt-clad Führer in Kiev, whose party and regime openly celebrate Nazi paramilitary and regular armed forces as national heroes. The harbinger of this affront was the ovation given to a Ukrainian Waffen SS veteran in the Canadian House of Commons last year. He was honoured in the House as a courageous legacy fighter against Russia.

    Joseph Stalin insisted that the French (de Gaulle’s French and by implication the French Communists who constituted the bulk of the Résistance) share in acceptance of the capitulation in Karlshorst (Berlin) in May 1945. (Only enormous diplomatic pressure prevented Dwight Eisenhower’s anti-communist armies from accepting a separate surrender by the German High Command a few months earlier.) Then the Soviet Union sincerely or pragmatically lent its Western allies the benefit of a doubt, presuming perhaps that there was still enough of a Left in the West to keep Britain and the US within civilized boundaries.  Since 1989, despite the havoc wreaked upon the dissolving Soviet Union by Western powers, the Russian government has diplomatically avoided stating the obvious in the real revision. Politely speaking the Western “allies” could be accused of foreign policy narcissism as rabid as the narcissism of their popular culture. Having fed on decades of their own mythology they suffer political obesity and hence are incapable of seeing that their story of the Second World War is sociopathic vanity. Hollywood has so permeated their consciousness that they genuinely believe they won the war. The late Ronald Reagan, B-grade film actor that he was, once actually claimed in an interview to have been among US troops that liberated concentration camps in Poland. Aside from the fact that he had never served in combat, the arch anti-communist neither knew nor cared that the Red Army and not the US Army liberated the camps in Poland. His errors (like those of his successors) were dismissed like so many other senile remarks from American gerontocrats, without a wall on which to stand.

    Far more plausible and consistent is another explanation. It is also far more obvious and less tortuous to recognize. Namely after 80 years, the Anglo-American Empire has openly repudiated its own mythology. Finally after nearly a century, the West is admitting that the Second World War was the war of the London-New York- Rome – Tokyo – Paris Axis against the Soviet Union and the Chinese Communist Party. The true allies were the Soviet Union and the nascent People’s Republic. At Normandy this year the successors to Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis—properly the Anti-Comintern Pact powers—and the children of the collaborators in industrial-strength mass murder from the Rhine to the Dnieper join those high commissioners of banks and hedge funds who have sponsored them since 1917 in the comprehensive war against communism and any other form of national and popular development at odds with the British, American and French Empires—and the caste who own them all.

    As they celebrated on the beaches their invasion of France—a last ditch effort to stop the Red Army from reaching the Rhine—they prepare for the next great war against Russia and China, against humanity itself.

    The post Unbecoming American: Judgement at Normandy first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk

    After the surprise announcement of the French National Assembly’s dissolution last Sunday, French Pacific territories are already busy preparing for the forthcoming snap election with varying expectations.

    Following the decision by President Emmanuel Macron, the snap general election will be held on June 30 (first round) and July 7 (second round).

    Unsurprisingly, most of the incumbent MPs for the French Pacific have announced they will run again. Here is a summary of prospects:

    New Caledonia
    In New Caledonia, which has been gripped by ongoing civil unrest since violence broke out on May 13, the incumbents are pro-France Philippe Dunoyer and Nicolas Metzdorf, both affiliated to Macron’s Renaissance party, but also opponents on the local scene, marked by strong divisions within the pro-France camp.

    Hours after the surprise dissolution, they both announced they would run, even though the campaign, locally, was going to be “complicated” with a backdrop of insurrectional roadblocks from the pro-independence movement.

    Dunoyer said it was the “worst time for an election campaign”.

    “It’s almost indecent to call [New] Caledonians to the polls at this time, because this campaign is not the priority at all,” he said.

    “Not to mention the curfew still in place which will make political rallies very complicated.

    “Political campaigns are always contributing to exacerbating tensions. [President Macron’s call for snap elections] just shows he did not care about New Caledonia when he decided this,” he said.

    Dunoyer told NC la 1ère television on Monday he was running again “because for a very long time, I have been advocating for the need of a consensus between pro-independence and anti-independence parties so that we can exit the Nouméa Accord in a climate of peace, respect of each other’s beliefs”.

    On the local scene, Dunoyer belongs to the moderate pro-French Calédonie Ensemble, whereas Metzdorf’s political camp (Les Loyalistes) is perceived as more radical.

    “The radicalism on both parts has led us to a situation of civil war and it is now urgent to put an end to this . . .  by restoring dialogue to reach a consensus and a global agreement,” he said.

    Dunoyer believes “a peaceful way is still possible because many [New] Caledonians aspire to living together”.

    On the pro-independence side, leaders of the FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front) platform have also been swift to indicate they intend to field pro-independence candidates so that “we can increase our political representation” at the [French] national level.

    The FLNKS is holding its convention this Saturday, when the umbrella group is expected to make further announcements regarding its campaign strategy and its nominees.

    French Polynesia
    In French Polynesia, since the previous general elections in 2022, the three seats at the National Assembly were taken — for the first time ever — by members of the pro-independence Tavini Huiraatira, which is also running the local government since the Tahitian general election of May 2023.

    Pro-independence outgoing MP for French Polynesia Steve Chailloux speaking to Polynésie la 1ère on 10 June 2024 – Photo screenshot Polynésie la 1ère
    Pro-independence outgoing MP for French Polynesia Steve Chailloux speaking to Polynésie la 1ère TV on Monday. Image: Polynésie la 1ère TV screenshot/RNZ

    The incumbents are Steve Chailloux, Tematai Legayic and Mereana Reid-Arbelot.

    The Tavini has held several meetings behind closed doors to fine-tune its strategy and designate its three fielded candidates.

    But the snap election is also perceived as an opportunity for the local, pro-France (locally known as “autonomists”) opposition, to return and overcome its current divisions.

    Since Sunday, several meetings have been held at party levels between the components of the pro-France side.

    Former President and Tapura party leader Edouard Fritch told local media that at this stage all parties at least recognised the need to unite, but no agreement had emerged as yet.

    He said his party was intending to field “young” candidates and that the most effective line-up would be that all four pro-French parties unite and win all three constituencies seats for French Polynesia.

    “A search for unity requires a lot of effort and compromises . . .  But a three-party, a two-party platform is no longer a platform; we need all four parties to get together,” Fritch said, adding that his party was ready to “share” and only field its candidate in only one of the three constituencies.

    Pro-France A Here ia Porinetia President Nicole Sanquer told local media “we must find a way of preserving each party’s values”, saying she was not sure the desired “autonomist” platform could emerge.

    Wallis and Futuna
    In Wallis and Futuna, there is only one seat, which was held by Mikaele Seo, affiliated to French President Macron’s Renaissance party.

    He has not indicated as yet whether he intends to run again at the forthcoming French snap general election, although there is a strong likelihood he will.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.


    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.


  • This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Tiger
    In recent footage, two uncontacted Hongana Manyawa men warned bulldozer operators to stay off their territory. © Anon

    One of the most senior politicians in Indonesia has said the government should protect an uncontacted tribe whose territory is being destroyed for the world’s largest nickel mine.

    Senate Leader AA LaNyalla Mahmud Mattalitti, a close ally of President-elect Prabowo, said Hongana Manyawa people should be protected from nickel mining on their land. He urged the government to “immediately intervene to provide protection to the indigenous tribe.”

    Up to 500 uncontacted Hongana Manyawa people live on Halmahera island, about 1,500 miles NW of Jakarta. They refuse interactions with outsiders and rely entirely on their rainforest for survival. Contact with outsiders can kill them through exposure to diseases to which they have no immunity. Their rainforest home sits on huge deposits of nickel and is being torn apart for mining. One of those mines – the largest nickel mine in the world – is run by Weda Bay Nickel, attracted by the global boom in nickel for electric car batteries.

    Tiger
    Eramet’s Weda Bay Nickel mine on the territory of the uncontacted Hongana Manyawa people in Halmahera, Indonesia. © Survival

    Indonesia’s 1945 Constitution specifically recognizes the protection of Indigenous tribes, LaNyalla said. He added that it’s vital to ensure the Hongana Manyawa can be “independent over all matters relating to their livelihoods.” He called on Halmahera’s North Maluku provincial government to revisit their land planning regulations to ensure the Hongana Manyawa would no longer be displaced by mining.

    LaNyalla’s comments were prompted by the viral spread of a video showing uncontacted Hongana Manyawa people forced by the destruction of their rainforest home to beg for food from Weda Bay Nickel miners – the very people responsible for that destruction.

    Tiger
    Uncontacted Hongana Manyawa appear at a Weda Bay Nickel mining camp.

    The uncontacted Hongana Manyawa are becoming effectively forced to beg for food from the same companies destroying their rainforest home.

    The mining operations are run by French company Eramet, which has known about the presence of uncontacted Hongana Manyawa in their concession since 2013, yet continues to mine on their territories regardless.

    This is believed to be the first time the plight of the uncontacted Hongana Manyawa has received the direct attention of the Indonesian central government. LaNyalla’s comments also follow Tesla’s recent announcement that the company is exploring the need for a mining no-go zone to protect the rights and territories of uncontacted Indigenous people in Indonesia. Tesla included the statement in its 2023 Impact Report, issued in May, after Survival International supporters sent more than 20,000 emails to electric vehicle companies, mining companies and the Indonesian government calling for a mining no-go-zone.

    LaNyalla said: “Whatever form it takes, I ask that development does not displace the surrounding communities, especially the indigenous tribe who lives in the interior, where they depend on the forest.” There’s not much time. The recent video reveals the rapid destruction of the Hongana Manyawa’s rainforest home.

    Survival’s Director Caroline Pearce said: “This is an unprecedented announcement and offers a lifeline to the uncontacted Hongana Manyawa. The solution is clear: Their territory must be protected and must be free from mining and other developments. Eramet and other companies must abide by international law and stop mining on these territories, where they clearly have no consent.”

    Survival calls upon local and national governments in Indonesia to urgently demarcate and protect the territory of the uncontacted Hongana Manyawa and establish a no-go zone to protect them against the catastrophic effects of mining and forced contact.

    Pearce said: “Time is ticking for the uncontacted Hongana Manyawa. Their territory must be urgently protected, with a no-go-zone established before it’s too late.”

    Notess:

    1. Out of a total population of approximately 3,000 Hongana Manyawa people, between 300 and 500 are uncontacted, and could be wiped out. Mining destroys their rainforest home, and the mine workers bring diseases for which the uncontacted people have no immunity.

    2. Survival is calling on all electric vehicle companies, including BMW, Volkswagen, and BYD, to commit to not source any materials from uncontacted tribes’ territories and for Tesla to make this their formal policy.

    The post Indonesian Senate Leader: Protect Uncontacted Tribe from Nickel Mining first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • On 3 June, 2024 Ifeoma Chuks wrote about the Marianne Initiative 2025 for human rights defenders

    ©Sarah Steck/ Présidence de la République

    In 2021, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the launch of the Marianne Initiative for human rights defenders, aimed at better supporting them in their fight, both abroad and in France. The Marianne Association for Human Rights Defenders was created to federate the actors involved in our country (State, organisations and associations for the promotion of human rights and reception, local authorities, qualified personalities, etc.) and to carry the initiative’s support pillar in France, for the benefit of about fifteen laureates per year (reception, personalised support, networking, etc.).

    After receiving the first all-female class in 2022 and a mixed class in 2023, the third class was officially launched now.

    Some fifteen men and women from every continent have been welcomed to France for six months as part of the Initiative. The winners benefit from a training program designed to strengthen their skills and commitment in their home country or in France, whether in favour of civil and political rights, women’s rights, minority rights or environmental rights.

    Recipients complete a comprehensive program consisting of:

    • Training in negotiation, leadership, advocacy, physical and digital security, project management, etc. ;
    • Courses from the School of International Affairs of Sciences Po Paris and French language;
    • Contact with French or international personalities involved in human rights and development issues;
    • Meetings with inspiring personalities and potential partner organizations (NGOs, foundations, institutions, etc.);
    • Conferences and cultural activities ;
    • Individual interviews to support the activist project;
    • Visits to international institutions and organizations;
    • Exchanges with members of the program’s alumni network.

    The hosting programme in France provides for accommodation near Paris, the payment of a monthly grant to cover daily needs, a training programme, support, and networking with Human Rights Defenders for a period of 6 months. After the 6 months, participants no longer benefit from the grant, the accommodation and the support provided in the programme. Participation is individual and does not provide for the laureate to be accompanied by their family.

    Class of 2025 runs from January-July 2025. The Application Deadline: 17th June 2024

    Apply here

    Visit Award Webpage for Details

    https://www.afterschoolafrica.com/83981/marianne-initiative-2025-for-human-rights-defenders/

    This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards.

  • Once again, a country in the Global North is plundering the planet for capitalist profit and exacerbating the biodiversity crisis. Now, two environmental campaign groups have launched legal action against the government for flouting EU law. This time, it’s France, over its violation of the EU’s ocean protection policies.

    Notably, the European nation is engaging in a staggering show of brazen hypocrisy as it gears up to host a key ocean summit.

    Marine protected areas: France flouts EU law

    In the Mediterranean, France currently allows highly destructive fishing methods such as bottom trawling in its so-called ‘protected’ marine areas. This is despite a Europe-wide ban.

    In 2006, the EU adopted the Mediterranean Regulation to protect key habitats and fish populations from overexploitation and harm. Specifically, this bans bottom trawling, pelagic trawling, purse seining and dredging in all marine protected areas (MPAs) hosting certain vulnerable habitats.

    Those vulnerable habitats include seagrass meadows such as Posidonia meadows, coral reefs, and maerl beds. The latter are mats of red algae that serve as breeding grounds and nurseries for many marine species.

    Given that marine ecosystems in the Mediterranean are in a catastrophic state, this regulation is of vital importance. Significantly, a 2020 study in the journal One Earth found that EU countries regulated 95% of MPAs no more than adjacent waters.

    Contrary to EU law, France refuses to implement these bans and continues to authorise the most destructive practices. It has been doing so through various decrees and derogations within its so-called ‘protected’ marine areas.

    Given this, campaign group BLOOM and ClientEarth have now launched legal action to take the French government to task on this.

    Shocking hypocrisy

    The legal action comes as France prepares to host the third United Nations Conference on the Oceans in June 2025. Ironically, France will hold this meeting in Nice on the shores of the Mediterranean.

    The nonprofits are demanding that France revises three decrees which authorise bottom trawling in certain French MPAs where it should be banned. The pair have declared that they will not hesitate to take France to court should the administration fail to respond favourably to the request.

    According to Nils Courcy, a legal expert at ClientEarth:

    The simple fact that France is allowing trawlers to fish in protected areas that should be closed to trawling is a scandal. The European legal framework is not being respected. France’s interpretation of it is contrary to the letter and spirit of the law and tramples the major European environmental principles.

    What’s more, France has been jeopardising ocean protection beyond its waters. In April, conservationists accused the French government of hypocrisy over its protest at a series of new MPA regulations announced by the UK.

    Specifically, in January, the UK government declared a trawling ban in 13 MPAs in its territorial and economic waters. French diplomats, backed by the trawling lobby, have argued against the ban – particularly where it applies to the UK’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). These are the stretches of ocean that generally extend 200 nautical miles (370km) from their coastlines. Fishers from France and other nations have had access to these areas.

    France is currently spearheading efforts to force the UK to abandon its ban on trawling in these MPAs. Notably, it has gone so far as to form a coalition of eight European states to block the attempt by the UK to protect them. The coalition is attempting to do so via the post-Brexit Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) between the UK and the EU.

    MPAs: ‘so-called protected areas’

    And while the UK government has announced this ban, ocean campaign groups have said even this move does not go far enough. Executive director of Oceana Hugo Tagholm said in January that:

    the fact that this ban is only for reef and rock only in 13 MPAs still leaves vast swathes of our so-called ‘protected’ areas open to this extremely harmful practice.

    Targeting reef and rock habitat alone doesn’t account for the habitats and wildlife beyond those boundaries and does not support the full recovery of marine ecosystems. Allowing destructive bottom-trawling to continue anywhere in any marine protected area is completely incompatible with allowing ocean life to recover and flourish.

    Moreover, the designations are just the start. Notably, groups have documented destructive trawling vessels fishing in sites with protected status. For instance, Greenpeace previously exposed how supertrawlers – factory ships over 100 metres long – spent nearly 3,000 hours decimating MPAs throughout 2019.

    On top of this, Oceana has since found that in 2023, vessels bottom-trawled in so-called MPAs for more than 33,000 hours.

    In other words, pockets of ocean can hold protected designations, but without accompanying monitoring and enforcement, these sites remain vulnerable to illegal trawling activity. Environmental campaigners have long referred to these as ‘paper parks’ – in short, lines on a map that bare no resemblance to the reality of ocean protection.

    Therefore, France and the coalition’s efforts to water down even this limited level of protection is alarming for upcoming negotiations. Courcy said:

    With a year to go before the United Nations Conference on the Oceans, which France will be hosting in Nice, it is incumbent on France to be consistent and credible on this issue.

    The ‘sham’ of France’s ocean protections

    Given that France is not the only nation allowing bottom trawling in protected areas, a lawsuit could have far-reaching consequences for MPAs across the bloc. As such, a win would set a precedent for protected areas all over the EU.

    BLOOM’s head of advocacy Swann Bommier said that:

    France continues to flout the European regulatory framework with impunity, bowing to the demands of the industrial fishing lobbies. All the Mediterranean’s marine ecosystems are under threat as a result. At a time when the scientific community is sounding the alarm about the state of the oceans, and particularly the Mediterranean, it is urgent that Emmanuel Macron puts an end to the sham of ‘French-style’ protection and brings his actions in line with his rhetoric aimed at making France a ‘great ocean nation’.

    By contrast, Greece is setting an example in terms of safeguarding MPAs. Based on scientific recommendations and the European framework, last April the Greek government announced a ban on bottom trawling in all its marine protected areas by 2030.

    Feature image via Naval Architecture – YouTube

    By Hannah Sharland

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • France’s Emmanuel Macron can, at times, show himself at odds with the grime and gristle of grounded politics.  Able to pack in various snatches of philosophical reflection in a speech, straddling the highs and lows of a rhetorical display, his political acumen has, at times, deserted him.

    Nothing is more evident of this than his treatment of New Caledonia, a Pacific French territory annexed in 1853 and assuming the title of a non-self-governing territory in 1946.  Through its tense relationship with France and the French settlers, the island territory has been beset by periodic bursts of violence and indigenous indignation.  Pro-independence parties such as L’Union Calédonienne have seen their leaders assassinated over time – Pierre Declerq and Eloi Machoro, for instance, were considered sufficiently threatening to the French status quo and duly done away with.  Kanak pro-independence activists have been butchered in such confrontations as the Hienghène massacre in December 1984, where ten were killed by French loyalists of the Lapetite and Mitride families.

    As for Macron, New Caledonia was always going to feature in efforts to assert French influence in the Indo-Pacific.  In 2018, he visited the territory promising that it would be a vital part of “a broader strategy” in the region, not least to keep pace with China.  Other traditional considerations also feature.  The island is the world’s fourth ranked producer of nickel, critical for electric vehicle batteries.

    In July 2023, Macron declared on a visit to the territory that the process outlined in the Nouméa Accord of 1998 had reached its terminus.  The accords, designed as a way of reaching some common ground between indigenous Kanaks and the descendants of French settlers through rééquilibrage (rebalancing), yielded three referenda on the issue of independence, all coming down in favour of the status quo. In 2018, the independence movement received 43% of the vote.  In 2020, the number had rumbled to 47%.

    The last of the three, the December 2021 referendum, was a contentious one, given its boycott by the Kanak people.  The situation was aided, in large part, by the effects of Covid-19 and its general incapacitation of Kanak voters.  Any mobilisation campaign was thwarted.  A magical majority for independence was thereby avoided.  The return of 97% in favour of continued French rule, despite clearly being a distortion, became the bullying premise for concluding matters.

    The process emboldened the French president, effectively abandoning a consensus in French policy stretching back to the Matignon Accords of 1988.  With the independence movement seemingly put on ice, Macron could press home his advantage through political reforms that would, for instance, unfreeze electoral rolls for May 2024 elections at the provincial and congressional level.  Doing so would enable French nationals to vote in those elections, something they were barred from doing under the Nouméa Accord.  New Caledonian parliamentarians such as Nicolas Metzdorf heartily approve the measure.

    On May 13 riots broke out, claiming up to seven lives.  It has the flavour of an insurrection, one unplanned and uncoordinated by the traditional pro-independence group.  Roadblocks have been erected by the Field Action Coordination Cell (CCAT).  It had been preceded by peaceful protests in response to the deliberations of the French National Assembly regarding a constitutional arrangement that would inflate the territory’s electoral register by roughly 24,500 voters.

    Much of the violence, stimulated by pressing inequalities and propelled by more youthful protestors, have caught the political establishment flatfooted. Even Kanak pro-independence leaders have urged such protestors to resist resorting to violence in favour of political discussions.  The young, it would seem, are stealing the show.

    Macron, for his part, promptly dispatched over 3,000 security officers and made a rushed visit lasting a mere 18 hours, insisting that, “The return of republican order is the priority.”  Various Kanak protestors were far from impressed.  Spokesperson for the pro-independence FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front), Jimmy Naouna, made the sensible point that, “You can’t just keep sending in troops just to quell the protests, because that is just going to lead to more protests.”  To salve the wounds, the president promised to lift the state of emergency imposed on the island to encourage dialogue between the fractious parties.

    Western press outlets have often preferred to ignore the minutiae about the latest revolt, focusing instead on the fate of foreign nationals besieged by the antics of desperate savages.  Some old themes never dissipate.  “We are sheltered in place because it’s largely too dangerous to leave,” Australian Maxwell Winchester told CNN.  “We’ve had barricades, riots … shops looted, burnt to the ground.  Our suburb near us basically has nothing left.”

    Winchester describes a scene of desperation, with evacuations of foreign nationals stalling because of Macron’s arrival for talks.  Food is in short supply, as are medicines.  “Other Australians stranded have had to scrounge coconuts to eat.”

    René Dosière, an important figure behind the Nouméa Accord, defined the position taken by Macron with tart accuracy.  Nostalgia, in some ways even more tenacious and clinging than that of Britain, remains.  The French president had little interest in the territory beyond its standing as “a former colony”.  His was a “desire to have a territory that allows you to say, ‘The sun never sets on the French empire’.”

    For the indigenous Kanak population, the matter of New Caledonia’s fate will have less to do with coconut scrounging and the sun of a stuttering empire than electoral reforms that risk extinguishing the voices of independence.

    The post A Certain French Stubbornness: Violence in New Caledonia first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Three top officers close to Bashar al-Assad are on trial in absentia over the deaths of a student and his father

    Witnesses have told a Paris court how children and elderly people considered enemies of the ruling Syrian regime were tortured in a notorious military prison, at the trial of three high-ranking officers close to the country’s leader, Bashar al-Assad.

    The three are being tried in absentia for crimes against humanity and war crimes in connection with the deaths of two French-Syrian dual nationals, Patrick Dabbagh, a 20-year-old student, and his father, 48.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • French fossil fuel giant TotalEnergies will once again feeling the heat in a court of law.

    On Tuesday 21 May, three nonprofits and individuals filed a criminal complaint against the company and its top shareholders in Paris. Crucially, they are calling to try the company for involuntary manslaughter and other consequences of climate crisis “chaos”.

    The case targets the company’s board, such as its chief executive Patrick Pouyanne, alongside major shareholders that backed its climate strategy. Naturally, this includes key shareholders like US investment firm BlackRock, and Norway’s central bank, Norges Bank.

    On the same day they launched the legal action, a new report has singled out TotalEnergies among eight companies setting the world on a trajectory to climate disaster.

    TotalEnergies ‘deliberately endangering’ lives

    In a statement, the three nonprofits and eight individuals said they accused the group of:

    deliberately endangering the lives of others, involuntary manslaughter, neglecting to address a disaster, and damaging biodiversity

    Specifically, the nonprofits underscored TotalEnergies’s role in delaying action on the climate crisis. They said that:

    TotalEnergies has known the direct link between its activities and climate change for over half a century, since at least 1971… TotalEnergies followed a climate sceptic line in order to waste time, delay decision-making and protect its increasing investments in fossil fuels

    Of course, TotalEnergies has also maintained its climate-wrecking business-as-usual. As the Canary previously reported during its investor day in 2023:

    TotalEnergies’ green energy trajectory pales in comparison to the company’s fossil fuel expansion plans. By 2030, its solar, wind, and low carbon energy – which includes biofuels, biogas, and hydrogen – will make up just 20% of its energy mix.

    Meanwhile, the oil and gas major is intending to develop new fossil fuel projects. Oil Change International has estimated that its expansion plans between 2023 and 2025 alone will generate over 1,600Mt of carbon dioxide over the new project’s lifetime.

    Naturally, the company’s 80/20 fossil fuel/green energy mix will also fail to lower its emissions. Despite the vital need for emissions reductions from all sectors, TotalEnergies’s plans will maintain its output at the same level to 2030.

    Now, a new report has also spelled out how TotalEnergies’s continued polluting operations are wreaking havoc on the climate. Coinciding with the legal case announcement, Oil Change International published its ‘Big Oil Reality Check’ report.

    This analyses the climate pledges and plans of eight international oil and gas companies. Predictably, all of them fall short of keeping to Paris climate goals. Instead of keeping temperatures under 1.5°c above pre-industrial levels, the eight companies will send them soaring over 2.4°c. Moreover, as the report noted, TotalEnergies has:

    explicit goals to increase oil and gas production within the next three years or beyond

    Time to ‘hold those responsible to account’

    The nonprofits filed their complaint at the Paris judicial court three days ahead of TotalEnergies’s annual shareholders meeting. The prosecutor now has three months to decide whether to open a judicial investigation. If it does not go ahead, the plaintiffs can take their case directly before an investigative judge.

    Plaintiffs include “victims or survivors of climate-related disasters” in Australia, Belgium, France, Greece, Pakistan, the Philippines and Zimbabwe.

    One of the plaintiffs in the latest case is Benjamin Van Bunderen Robberechts. The 17-year-old from Belgium whose friend Rosa died in flash floods in Belgium at the age of 15 in 2021. Van Bunderen founded the non-profit Climate Justice for Rosa in her memory. He said that:

    It’s horrible that there are people who value their profits so much more than human lives…I will do everything in my power to fight the climate situation and hold those responsible to account

    Of course, it isn’t the first time nonprofits and individuals have put the French oil giant in the hot seat either. For instance, in June, nonprofits took the company to court to stop TotalEnergies proceeding with fossil fuel projects across the world.

    However, this new case it taking a new and groundbreaking tack. As the nonprofits stated:

    This legal action could set a precedent in the history of climate litigation as it opens the way to holding fossil fuel producers and shareholders responsible before criminal courts for the chaos caused by climate change

    In other words, the case could mark a sea change in holding destructive fossil fuel corporations to account. Put simply, TotalEnergies is risking peoples’ lives through the devastating impacts of the climate crisis with its continued reckless fossil fuel profiteering. Plaintiffs will say enough is finally enough.

    Feature image via TotalEnergies – Youtube

    Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse

    By Hannah Sharland

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Prosecution of three high-ranking Syrian officials to be tried in absentia could pave way for president’s case

    At midnight on 3 November 2013, five Syrian officials dragged arts and humanities student Patrick Dabbagh from his home in the Mezzeh district of Damascus.

    The following day, at the same hour, the same men, including a representative of the Syrian air force’s intelligence unit, returned with a dozen soldiers to arrest the 20-year-old’s father Mazzen.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • The latest violent anti-French protests by New Caledonians seeking independence from France show clearly that it is time France respected the right of self-determination of the Kanak people of New Caledonia.

    The post New Caledonians Demand Complete Independence from France first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • The latest violent anti-French protests by New Caledonians seeking independence from France show clearly that it is time France respected the right of self-determination of the Kanak people of New Caledonia.

    The post New Caledonians Demand Complete Independence from France first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk, and Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist

    The suspected ringleaders of the unrest in New Caledonia have been placed in home detention and the social network TikTok has been banned as French security forces struggle to restore law and order.

    The French territory faced its fourth day of severe rioting and unrest yesterday after protests erupted over proposed constitutional amendments.

    Four people have now been confirmed dead, Charles Wea, a spokesperson for international relations for the president’s office, said.

    The death toll has been revised today to five people after officials confirmed the death of a second police officer. However, RNZ Pacific understands it was an accidental killing which occurred as troops were preparing to leave barracks.

    A newly introduced state of emergency has enabled suspected ringleaders to be placed in home detention, as well as a ban on Tiktok to be put in place.

    French High Commissioner Louis Le Franc said Nouméa remained the “hottest spot” with some 3000-4000 rioters still in action on the streets of the capital Nouméa and another 5000 in the Greater Nouméa area.

    Wea told RNZ Pacific the demonstrators “were very angry when their friends and families had been killed”.

    ‘Shops still closed’
    “Shops are still closed. Many houses have been burnt. The international airport is closed, only military planes are allowed to land from Paris.”

    Reports RNZ Pacific are receiving from the capital paint a dire picture. Shops are running out of food and hospitals are calling for blood donations.


    Enforcing the state of emergency in New Caledonia.  Video: [in French] Caledonia TV

    “This morning [Thursday] a few shops have been opened so people can buy some food to eat,” Wea said.

    RNZ Pacific former news editor Walter Zweifel, who has been covering the French Pacific territory for over three decades, said New Caledonia had not seen unrest like this since the 1980s.

    The number of guns circulating in the community was a major problem as people continued to carry firearms despite a government ban, he said.

    “There are so many firearms in circulation, attempts to limit the number of weapons have been made over the years unsuccessfully.

    “We are talking about roughly 100,000 arms or rifles in circulation in New Caledonia with a population of less than 300,000.”

    French armed forces started to arrive in Nouméa yesterday
    French armed forces started to arrive in Nouméa yesterday in the wake of the rioting. Image: NC la 1ère screenshot APR

    More details about fatalities
    One of the four people earlier reported dead was a French gendarme, who was reported to have been shot in the head.

    “The other three are all Melanesians,” Le Franc said.

    One was a 36-year-old Kanak man, another a 20-year-old man and the third was a 17-year-old girl.

    The deaths occurred during a clash with one of the newly formed “civil defence” groups, who were carrying guns, Le Franc said.

    “Those who have committed these crimes are assassins. They are individuals who have used firearms.

    “Maintaining law and order is a matter for professionals, police and gendarmes.”

    Le Franc added: “We will look for them and we will find them anyway, so I’m calling them to surrender right now . .. so that justice can take its course.”

    ‘Mafia-like, violent organisation’
    French Home Affairs and Overseas minister Gérald Darmanin told public TV channel France 2 he had placed 10 leaders of the CCAT (an organisation linked to the pro-independence FLNKS movement and who Darmanin believed to be the main organiser of the riots) under home detention.

    “This is a Mafia-like body which I do not amalgamate with political pro-independence parties . . . [CCAT] is a group that claims itself to be pro-independence and commits looting, murders and violence,” he said.

    Similar measures would be taken against other presumed leaders over the course of the day [Thursday French time].

    “I have numerous elements which show this is a Mafia-like, violent organisation that loots stores and shoots real bullets at [French] gendarmes, sets businesses on fire and attacks even pro-independence institutions,” Darmanin told France 2.

    Massive reinforcements were to arrive shortly and the French state would “totally regain control”, he said.

    The number of police and gendarmes on the ground would rise from 1700 to 2700 by Friday night.

    Darmanin also said he would request that all legitimate political party leaders across the local spectrum be placed under the protection of police or special intervention group members.

    Pointing fingers
    Earlier on Thursday, speaking in Nouméa, Le Franc targeted the CCAT, saying there was no communication between the French State and CCAT, but that “we are currently trying to locate them”.

    “This is a group of hooligans who wish to kill police, gendarmes. This has nothing to do with FLNKS political formations which are perfectly legitimate.

    “But this CCAT structure is no longer relevant. Those who are at the helm of this cell are all responsible. They will have to answer to the courts,” he said.

    Burnt out cars in New Caledonia during civil unrest.
    Burnt out cars in New Caledonia during the civil unrest. Image: Twitter/@ncla1ere

    However, CCAT has said it had called for calm.

    Wea said the CCAT “did not tell the people to steal or break”.

    The problem was that the French government “did not want to listen”, he said.

    “The FLNKS has said for months not to go through with this bill.

    France ‘not recognising responsibility’
    “It is easy to say the CCAT are responsible, but the French government does not want to recognise their responsibility.”

    Wea said he was hopeful for a peaceful resolution.

    The FLNKS had always said that the next discussion with the French government would need to be around the continued management and organisation of the country for the next five years, he said.

    The FLNKS also wanted to talk about the process of decolonisation.

    “It is important to note that the [Pacific Islands Forum] and also the Melanesian Spearhead Group have always supported the independence of New Caledonia because independence is in the agenda of the United Nation.”

    The Melanesian Spearhead Group and Vanuatu’s Prime Minister Charlot Salwai called on the French government to withdraw or annul the proposed constitutional amendments that sparked the civil unrest.

    French President Emmanuel Macron said from Paris, where a meeting of a national defence council was now taking place every day, that he wished to hold a video conference with all of New Caledonia’s political leaders in order to assess the current situation.

    Another looted supermarket in Nouméa’s Kenu-In neighbourhood.
    A looted supermarket in Nouméa’s Kenu-In neighbourhood. Image: NC la 1ère TV/RNZ

    But Wea said the problem was that “the French government don’t want to listen”.

    “You cannot stop the Kanak people claiming freedom in their own country.”

    He said concerns were mounting that Kanak people would “become a minority in their own country”.

    That was why it was so important that the controversial constitutional amendments did not go any further, he said.

    Economic impact
    In the face of massive damage caused to the local economy, Southern Province President Sonia Backès has pleaded with French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal for a “special reconstruction fund” to be set up for New Caledonia’s businesses.

    “The local Chamber of Commerce estimates that initial damage to our economy amounts to some 150 million euros [NZ$267 million],” she wrote.

    All commercial flights in and out of Nouméa-La Tontouta International Airport remain cancelled.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.


    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • New York, May 15, 2024 — Tunisian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release journalists Sonia Dahmani, Borhen Bssais, and Mourad Zghidi, drop all charges against them, and stop preventing reporters from doing their jobs, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.

    Between May 11 and 13, Tunisian police arrested and released two additional journalists amid a new wave of arrests targeting several civil society figures, political activists, and the media.

    “Tunisian police’s arrest of five journalists in one week is a clear indication of how President Kais Saied’s government is determined to undermine press freedom and independent journalism,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna. “Tunisian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release journalists Sonia Dahmani, Borhen Bssais, and Mourad Zghidi, drop all charges against them, and cease harassing reporters doing their job.”

    On Saturday, May 11, masked police officers raided the bar association headquarters in the capital, Tunis, and arrested Dahmani, a lawyer and political affairs commentator for local independent radio station IFM and television channel Carthage Plus, according to news reports and a local journalist following the case, who spoke with CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.

    A court on Monday transferred Dahmani to prison on charges of spreading false news that undermines public safety and inciting hate speech. Dahmani’s arrest comes after she did not respond to a May 10 summons for questioning regarding her May 8 comments on Carthage Plus, where she criticized Tunisia’s living conditions and discussed immigration issues.

    Police stopped French broadcaster France 24’s live coverage of the raid and Dahmani’s arrest by forcibly removing the camera from the tripod and arresting their camera operator, Hamdi Tlili, then breaking his camera, according to a report by France 24 and the local journalist who spoke with CPJ. Tlili was released later that day; he is not currently facing charges but can be summoned for questioning.

    Separately, on May 11, in Tunis, police arrested Bssais and Zghidi, both IFM radio journalists who present a morning show, “L’emmission Impossible,” where they provide political commentary on current political affairs, according to a report by Reuters news agency and the local journalist.  On Wednesday, a Tunis court ordered the journalists’ detention on charges of “publishing news that includes personal data and false news aimed at defamation” until their trial, which is expected at the end of the month.

    The journalists’ lawyers told France 24 that Zghidi’s arrest stems from his social media posts in solidarity with the imprisoned journalist Mohamed Boughaleb, and Bssais’ arrest was in connection to his television and radio commentary critical of President Saied.

    Police arrested Boughaleb, a reporter with Carthage Plus and local independent radio station Cap FM, in Tunis, over social media posts on March 22; on April 17, a Tunis court sentenced him to six months in prison on defamation charges.

    In another incident on Monday, police arrested freelance photojournalist Yassin Mahjoub, who was covering the arrest of lawyer Mehdi Zargouba during a second police raid of the bar association headquarters. Police deleted all of Mahjoub’s pictures and released him without charge the same day.

    On Tuesday, the European Union issued a statement expressing concern over the recent wave of arrests of civil society figures and journalists in Tunisia.

    CPJ’s email to the Tunisian Ministry of Interior did not receive a response.


    This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Once again, the violence of colonial ‘fortress’ Europe is on full display as the UK ramps up its racist refugee policies. Meanwhile, across the Channel, a new report has exposed France’s abusive migrant detention regime.

    Rwanda plan: Tories set their immoral scheme in motion

    The UK government has begun its appalling assault on migrants living across the country.

    On Monday 29 April, the Home Office launched a spate of detentions. As the Guardian reported:

    Detainees will be immediately transferred to detention centres, which have already been prepared for the operation, and held until they are put on planes to Rwanda. Some will be put on the first flight due to take off this summer.

    Now, the government has confirmed that it has detained a number of these migrants ready for deportation.

    A Supreme Court ruling last year that ruled that sending migrants to Rwanda in this way would be illegal because it:

    would expose them to a real risk of ill-treatment

    Moreover, numerous rights groups, the UN Refugee Agency, and the UN’s human rights office have slammed the government’s scheme. In February, UN human rights chief Volker Türk issued a scathing statement on the plan, saying that:

    It is deeply concerning to carve out one group of people, or people in one particular situation, from the equal protection of the law – this is antithetical to even-handed justice, available and accessible to all, without discrimination.

    Immigration tyrannising migrants

    Naturally however, this hasn’t stopped the racist Tory government from ramming it through parliament. On 22 April the House of Commons passed the abhorrent new law which greenlights the Tory’s flagship asylum policy.

    So, following this, a new Home Office document has now revealed that the government plans to deport 5,700 migrants to Rwanda this year.

    Specifically, it detailed that Rwanda has “in principle” agreed to accept 5,700 migrants already in the UK.

    Under the government’s new plans, it can deem asylum claims inadmissible for migrants who arrived in the UK between January 2022 and June last year.

    So of course, it has already started its foul campaign tyrannising migrants.

    Calling it “another major milestone” in the Rwanda plan, the ministry released photographs and a video of immigration enforcement officers detaining several migrants at different residences.

    Violence in France’s detention centres

    Meanwhile, across the Channel, the violent racist architecture of colonial borderisation has also been in full swing.

    A new report by migrant rights groups including SOS Solidarity and France Terre d’Asile (“France Land of Asylum”) has revealed that migrant detention in France is also on the rise. Worse still, the report documented a rise in violence towards migrants inside these detention facilities.

    Specifically, it found that France had incarcerated more undocumented migrants in detention centres in 2023 than in 2022.

    French authorities held 46,955 migrants in the detention centres across the country and in overseas territories in 2023. This was compared to 43,565 the previous year.

    In mainland France, the large majority were men, 5% were women and 87 individuals were children accompanied by their parents. More than 120 said they were under-18 but French authorities had declared them to be adults. Most migrants were Algerian, Tunisian and Moroccan, in that order.

    On average detention centres held them 28.5 days out of a maximum allowed of 90 days. Notably, this was a week longer than the previous year. Given this, the report noted how the incarceration had impacted the mental health of the detainees. Detention had sometimes led to suicide attempts, self-mutilation, tensions and violent incidents with people working with them.

    Crucially, the report noted:

    Never have our associations witnessed so many violent acts as in 2023

    While some detainees sometimes clashed with others held with them, the report also identified police violence towards migrants.

    For example, at one centre in the Paris region, more than 40 migrants officially complained of:

    physical violence, threats or insults of racist or homophobic character, (and) sexual assaults

    Notably, this violence was specifically from police inside the facility.

    Trash ‘deterrent’ and ‘detention’ rhetoric

    Predictably, both colonial governments have bandied about bullsh*t about ‘detention’ and ‘deterrent’.

    The Tories xenophobia-fueled argument is that the threat of being deported to Rwanda will deter tens of thousands of annual cross-Channel arrivals.

    Of course, this isn’t what the official statistics show. Instead, arrivals have increased by more than a quarter in the first third of the year compared to the same period in 2023.

    Similarly, France has held up its detention scheme as a major pillar of its deportation plans.

    However, the nonprofit report found that of those held in detention centres, it had expelled 15% fewer detainees from the country last year compared to 2022, despite an increase in deportations overall.

    Ultimately, it’s all bluster and demonstrates the dangerous end point of scapegoat politics. People seeking safety from persecution, poverty, and violence should be welcomed into our communities. Instead, vile governments continue their immoral, racist colonial project without a shred of conscience.

    Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse

    Feature image via Wikimedia/Youtube/the Canary

    By Hannah Sharland

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Pacific Media Watch

    Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders.

    According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were working on stories linked to the environment.

    Twenty four were murdered in Latin America and Asia — including the Pacific, which makes these two regions the most dangerous ones for environmental reporters.

    From restrictions on access to information and gag suits to physical attacks, the work of environmental journalists and their safety are increasingly threatened.

    RSF has denounced the obstacles to the right to information about ecological and climate issues and calls on all countries to recognise the vital nature of the work of environmental journalists, and to guarantee their safety.

    Nearly half of the journalists killed in India in the past 10 years — 13 of 28 — were working on environmental stories that often also involved corruption and organised crime, especially the so-called “sand mafia,” which illegally excavates millions of tons of this precious resource for the construction industry.

    Amazon deforestation
    Journalists covering the challenges of deforestation in the Amazon are also constantly subjected to threats and harassment that prevent them from working freely.

    The scale of the problem was highlighted in 2022 by the murder of Dom Phillips, a British reporter specialised in environmental issues.

    “Regarding the environmental and climate challenges we face, the freedom to cover these issues is essential,” said RSF’s editorial director Anne Bocandé.

    “RSF’s staff battles tirelessly to prevent economic and political interests from obstructing the right to information. Your generosity makes this fight possible.”

    Pacific Media Watch collaborates with Reporters Without Borders.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • The leader of the left-wing MPs’ coalition in the French parliament was summoned for questioning by police on Tuesday 23 April. It was over an investigation into suspected justification of “terrorism” over comments on 7 October attack by Hamas on Israel.

    In reality, the politician was stating the truth: that the Hamas attack came off the back of decades of Israeli colonialism and occupation-based apartheid.

    Panot: telling the truth about Israel

    Mathilde Panot heads the lower house of parliament faction of the France Unbowed (LFI) party, which has been repeatedly accused by opponents of failing to clearly condemn the attack by Hamas.

    The LFI – which is now France’s strongest political force on the left – has in turn lashed out at what it sees as an erosion of free speech and accused Israel of committing “genocide” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

    Panot said it was the first time in modern French history that a head of a parliamentary faction “was summoned on such serious grounds”:

    I am warning about this serious exploitation of justice aimed at suppressing political expression.

    On 7 October, the French LFI group in parliament published a text which sparked controversy because it described the Hamas attack as “an armed offensive by Palestinian forces” that occurred “in a context of intensification of the Israeli occupation policy” in the Palestinian territories.

    Of course, this context is correct.

    Manufacturing consent for genocide

    However, as the Canary previously wrote, the West has been manufacturing consent for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. For example, it has pushed the notions that:

    • Hamas’s attack was unprovoked – despite decades of Israeli apartheid, killings of Palestinians, and war crimes against them.
    • The far-right Israeli government is the victim and a ‘good guy’ in this – when it is an openly racist, authoritarian colonial occupier.
    • Israel’s actions in Gaza and the Occupied Territories are permissible – when it is clear it has repeatedly broken international law in recent days.

    However, Western colonialists were never going to manufacture anything other than consent for hatred of Palestinians – and for Israel’s killing of them.

    The LFI’s firebrand figurehead and former presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon described the summons an “unprecedented event in the history of our democracy”, accusing the authorities of “protecting a genocide”.

    Last week, two conferences by Melenchon on the situation in the Middle East were cancelled in Lille, first at the university then in a private room.

    This is against the backdrop of the US now sending $13bn more in military aid to Israel. That’s despite its forces killing at least 34,183 people in Gaza, most of them women and children.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist

    A pro-independence activist in New Caledonia is warning France to immediately halt its planned constitution amendments or face “war”.

    The call for a u-turn follows proposed constitutional changes to voting rights which could push the number of eligible anti-independence voters up.

    Pacific Independence Movement (le Mouvement des Océaniens indépendantistes) spokesperson Arnaud Chollet-Léakava was one of the thousands who took to the streets in Nouméa in protest last Saturday.

    He told RNZ Pacific that tensions were high.

    “We are here to tell them we must not make this mistake,” Chollet-Léakava said.

    “Step by step, I think there will be war.”

    A nearby counter-protest in Nouméa also had a large turnout.

    People there wore the French flag, a contrast to the sea of blue, red, green and yellow representing the Kanak flag at the pro-independence rally.

    Solange Ponija was one of thousands at the pro-independence rally in Nouméa.

    She said the constitutional change — if pushed through — would tip the balance of voting power onto the French side, she said.

    An estimated 20,000 wave of anti-independence supporters with French flags gathered on Nouméa's Baie de la Moselle on Saturday 13 April 2024.
    Anti-independence supporters with French flags gathered on Nouméa’s Baie de la Moselle last Saturday. Image: RRB/RNZ

    Dog wears Kanak flag at pro-independence rally April 2024.
    A dog wearing a Kanak flag at the pro-independence rally last Saturday. Image: RNZ Pacific/Lydia Lewis

    She feared the indigenous people of New Caledonia — the Kanak people — would lose in their fight for independence:

    “They want to make us a minority . . .  it will make us a minority!

    “The law will make the Kanaky people a minority because it will open the electoral body to other people who are not Kanaky and who will give their opinion on the accession of Caledonia to full sovereignty,” Ponija said.

    Security was high, with more than 100 additional security forces sent from France for the April protest and counter-protest.
    Security was high last weekened with more than 100 additional security forces sent from France for the protest and counter-protest. Image: RNZ Pacific/Lydia Lewis

    ‘Heading towards a civil war’
    A French man who has lived in New Caledonia for two decades said independence or not, he just wanted peace.

    The man — who wanted to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution — said he moved to New Caledonia knowing he would be living on colonised land.

    Having experienced violence in 2019, the man begged both sides to be amicable.

    “[It’s] very complicated and very serious because if the law is not withdrawn and passed. We are clearly heading towards a civil war,” he said.

    “We hope for peace and we hope that we find a common agreement for both parties.

    “People want peace and we don’t want to move towards war.”

    The constitutional bill was endorsed by the French Senate on April 2.

    The next stage is for the bill to be debated, which has been set down for May 13.

    Then both the Senate and the National Assembly will gather in June to give the final stamp of approval.

    This would allow any citizen who has lived in New Caledonia for at least 10 years to cast their vote at local elections.

    New Caledonia pro-independence rally in April 2024.
    The Kanaky New Caledonia pro-independence rally last Saturday. Image: RNZ Pacific/Lydia Lewis

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.


    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • It crackles like a Geiger counter in a uranium mine: in 2023, Emmanuel Macron announced plans for six additional EPR [European Pressurized Reactor] nuclear power plants. Hang on, no, perhaps fourteen in the long term.

    In reviving nuclear in the name of the struggle against global warming, the European Union has followed suit. Japan is promising new developments on the nuclear front. The US is experimenting with miniature reactors. China is building with gusto … All these ‘ionizing’ projects seem to indicate that fission-based nuclear power is in full swing.

    In fact, it is to the contrary. A report of experts published in December 2023, the World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2023 [549 p!], using data supplied by the International Atomic Energy Agency and national states, provides the evidence. The part of electricity generation due to nuclear power is the lowest in 30 years (9.2 percent), compared to near double that figure in the 1990s.

    Over twenty years, the cost of a nuclear kilowatt hour has increased slightly, whereas the cost of solar and wind has plummeted (‘melted’), these days coming in at roughly half that of nuclear. In 2022, the report highlights, €35 billion has been invested in nuclear globally, compared to … €455 billion in renewables.

    France is still trying to recover from an annus horribilis in 2022. In addition to higher costs associated with the war in Ukraine, reactor shutdowns have multiplied. In August 2023, 60 % of France’s 56 reactors were dysfunctional. During 2023, production has augmented, but it has stayed at the level of … 1995.

    Showcases of French savoir-faire, the EPR reactors are not ‘making sparks’, accumulating shutdowns, delays (twelve years for Flamanville, on the English Channel, and thirteen years for Olkiluoto, in Finland) as well as cost blowouts (the bill multiplied by 1.7 [for now] at Hinkley Point, in Great Britain, by 3 at Olkiluoto and by 6 at Flamanville!).

    During this time, plutonium (for which every gram is of fearsome toxicity), an essential fuel for these ‘toys’, piles up. The accumulated stock for France has reached an unprecedented level of 92 tonnes.

    Small problem: how can EDF [Électricité de France], which has acquired a debt of €65 billion, finance the announced projects? This question doesn’t stop Brussels from supporting them – in spite of the industrial disaster on course. No matter that, for several years, within the EU, renewable energy (hydraulic, wind and solar) has generated the most electricity, ahead of nuclear, followed by gas and coal.

    South Korea was formerly one of the principal international competitors of EDF for conquering foreign markets. These days South Korea shows itself more reluctant, especially after a calamitous 2022. Kepco, the national electrician, has lost more than €22 billion, adding to a debt of €131 billion – a record. Nuclear contributes 29.6 % to production, currently less than coal. But the promises – within ten years coal’s contribution is supposed to be cut in half and that of renewables tripled. As for nuclear, it will grow by … 5 %.

    Japan only starts to pick up with the atom after the closure of several reactors following Fukushima. To the subsequent shortage of electricity add the financial dimension of the catastrophe: in 2021, the government estimated it at more than €200 billion. Thirteen years after the event, the Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, wants to rekindle nuclear (‘accelerate the particles’) but furnishes no details on new reactors.

    Last year, production in Japan was at its lowest level (equivalent to that of the 1970s), and only 6 % of electricity was of nuclear origin. In spite of announcements, distrust persists, especially since the discovery of misrepresentations (modification of results of chemical analyses, falsification of measures of resistance of materials) of Japan Steel Works, manufacturer of components for reactors, selling them worldwide and notably to France.

    China is the country most committed to the atom. Of 58 reactors currently under construction globally, 23 (40 %) are in the Middle Kingdom. However, if nuclear trots, renewables gallop flat out. Nuclear represents 5 % of electricity, whereas wind and solar furnish 15 %, progressing more quickly than coal, which remains far and away the main ‘source of the juice’. Another vexation: Beijing exports little of its savoir-faire. This is because the US, among others, have blacklisted Chinese enterprises, accused them of having siphoned American technology for its military ambitions. Slanderous!

    The United States remains the champion of nuclear energy but its brainpower has not kept pace (‘their neutrons are not very quick’). In 2022, the contribution of nuclear to electricity generation has fallen to 18.2 % – the lowest rate since 1987 – less than coal and renewables, the latter passed for the first time to pole position. American reactors are on average the oldest in the world (42 years), and only two reactors have been brought into service in the last twenty-five years.

    And what a debut! The AP1000 (variation of the EPR) of Vogtle (Georgia) began operation in March 2023, eight years later than planned and at an estimated cost of €28.5 billion — more than double the initial estimate. [The French business newspaper] Les Echos (25/1/22) has cheekily described the feat as a local ‘Flamanville’. This financial debacle has much contributed to the failure of Westinghouse, a giant of nuclear reactor manufacturing. The event has also provoked the shutdown of the construction site (nine years of work) and of two other AP1000s in South Carolina. Living fossils!

    As a consequence, the US is paying more attention to mini reactors, or SMR [small modular reactors]. Save that NuScale, the champion of the type, last November, cancelled a vast construction program of six of these miniatures, for which the budget had almost tripled …

    Russia is the veritable world champion of the ‘civil atom’. That said, however, it produces only 20 % of the country’s electricity. Rosatom, the Russian EDF, foreshadows a small increase to 25 %, but in … 2045. It is overseas where business is booming. Russia, a nation at war, is building reactors in countries as peaceful as Iran, Egypt, India and Türkiye. Without forgetting China, one of Russia’s best customers.

    Russia’s commercial secret? Its discounted prices, its turnkey packages and, above all, its control of the indispensable enriched uranium. Russia furnishes much of the latter to Europe but also to the US, 31 % of its supplies coming from Russia. All this while imposing sanctions on Putin’s country, which toys with the nuclear threat, going so far as to bomb the vicinity of Ukraine’s nuclear reactor at Zaporizhzhia [Why would Russia bomb a nuclear power plant that it has been in control of since 2022? Also: “Jeffrey Sachs: Biden Needs to Tell Ukraine to Stop Bombing the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant or Face Real Armageddon” — DV ed] – the largest such in Europe.

    Business is business.

    • This article appeared in the French weekly Le Canard enchaîné, 24 January 2024, under the title “Partout dans le monde, l‘énergie nucléaire coûte un pognon de dingue!” It has been translated by Evan Jones and is reproduced with permission.

     

    The post Nuclear Energy Everywhere Costs an Arm and a Leg first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • ANALYSIS: By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific

    The French Senate has endorsed a Constitutional review project bearing significant modifications to the local electoral rules for New Caledonia, but with amendments.

    The text passed on Tuesday with 233 votes in favour and 99 against.

    It aims at modifying the conditions for French citizens to access a special list of voters for the elections in New Caledonia’s three provinces and the Congress.

    Since 2007 the electoral roll for those local elections was “frozen”, allowing only people residing in New Caledonia before 1998.

    However, the French government and its Home Affairs and Overseas Minister Gérald Darmanin introduced earlier this year a new text for a “sliding” electoral roll allowing citizens who had been residing in New Caledonia for an uninterrupted 10 years to be on the local roll.

    The move has been strongly contested by pro-independence parties in New Caledonia, who fear the new rules (which would grant the local vote to up to 25,000 extra voters) will threaten the French Pacific terrotory’s political balance.

    During heated debates last week and Tuesday for the vote, Senators sometimes traded robust words, with the left-wing parties (including Socialists and Communists) rallying in support of New Caledonia’s pro-independence parties and accusing Darmanin of “forcing the text through”.

    New Caledonia’s pro-independence umbrella, the FLNKS, last week officially demanded that the French government withdraw its Constitutional amendment and that instead a high-level mediatory mission be sent to New Caledonia.

    Parallel to the Parliamentary moves, New Caledonia’s politicians, both pro and against independence, have been asked to meet for comprehensive talks in order to draw up a new agreement that would replace the now-defunct Nouméa Accord, signed in 1998.

    Nouméa Accord
    One of the Accord’s prescriptions was that three consecutive referendums on New Caledonia’s self-determination be held.

    All three ballots took place in 2018 and 2021 and three times independence was defeated, albeit in narrow votes in the first two referendums.

    However, even though the FLNKS contested the result of the third referendum (boycotted by the independence parties because of the covid pandemic), French President Emmanuel Macron said in July 2023 that he now considered New Caledonia wanted to remain French.

    The next step in the Nouméa Accord was for political stakeholders to engage in “inclusive” talks to examine the “situation thus generated”.

    The French government’s current moves are said to be a pragmatic response to those sometimes elusive guidelines.

    The provincial elections, which were originally scheduled to take place in May, have now been postponed to December 15 “at the latest”.

    But in the Constitutional review project, even though the sole subject is the change in access to local elections roll of voters, there are also references to the date of those elections.

    This includes that even if a local, bipartisan, inclusive agreement was found and duly recognised between now and December 15, the Constitutional amendment would become irrelevant. Priority would be given to a local New Caledonian agreement to serve as the base for a new Constitutional amendment.

    Give more time’
    During debates since last week, the Senate’s Law Committee managed to introduce new amendments, sometimes rectifying the initial government text.

    For instance, if the awaited accord to succeed the Nouméa pact came through, there would be a call for a new election date.

    Originally, this would have been achieved by way of a government decree which, the government said, would be the fastest way.

    Now the Senate has changed that to a Parliamentary process (also including New Caledonia’s Congress) which could take much more time to set in place.

    The general idea, the Senate’s Law Committee said, was to “give more time” for the expected political agreement to happen “without applying excessive stress” to the whole process.

    There was consensus on the need to “unfreeze” the local electoral roll (the measure was initially temporary and transitional under the Nouméa Accord) because it denied some 12,000 citizens (even if some of those, indigenous Kanaks or non-Kanaks, were born in New Caledonia) the right to vote.

    It was feared that if those elections were held under the “frozen” rule, they would probably be declared invalid and unconstitutional.

    Critics of the amendment, including New Caledonia’s first pro-independence Senator Robert Xowie, also said that the manner in which it was “forced” — more than its substance — was a major flaw and that the French State should keep an “impartial” posture, consistent with the spirit of the Nouméa Accord.

    New Caledonia’s first pro-independence Senator Robert Xowie
    New Caledonia’s first pro-independence Senator Robert Xowie speaks before the French Senate Tuesday . . . . “The point of no return has not been reached yet.” Image: Sénat.fr/screenshot

    ‘Don’t inflame’ call
    “The point of no return has not been reached yet. We can still avoid lighting that spark which could inflame the whole situation”, Xowie told the Senate.

    He also called on the French Prime Minister’s office, once directly in charge of New Caledonia’s matters, to return to steer these issues.

    The 10-year uninterrupted residency condition was described by the government as “a reasonable compromise”, Darmanin’s delegate Minister for Overseas Marie Guévenoux told the Senate.

    While apologising for Darmanin’s absence, she said the new self-imposed calendar challenges due to the change of implementation process would be hard to meet.

    She said there were provisions in the initial draft that would have allowed the government to react more quickly by way of decree in suspending the provincial elections — and even postponing them as far as “November 2025”.

    French delegate minister for overseas Marie Guévenoux speaks before the French Senate on 2 April 2024 - Photo screenshot Sénat.fr
    French delegate Minister for Overseas Marie Guévenoux speaks to the French Senate on Tuesday . . . calendar challenges would be hard to meet. Image: Sénat.fr/screenshot

    Waiting for a local, inclusive political agreement
    After the Senate’s endorsement of the modified amendment, the text is, however, far from the end of its legislative journey: it is now due for debate before the National Assembly on May 13.

    If it passes again, its legislative journey is not finished yet as it has to be endorsed sometime in June 2024 by the French Congress, which is a gathering of both the Senate and National Assembly by a required three-fifths majority.

    Tensions high back in Nouméa
    During debates on Tuesday, Senators often alluded to the recent radicalisation from both the pro-independence and pro-French parties.

    Last week, the two antagonist groups held two opposing demonstrations and marches at the same time, both in downtown Nouméa, only a few hundred meters away from each other.

    Thousands, on each side, have held banners and flags opposing the electoral changes on one side and supporting them on the other side.

    There was also a clear escalation in the tone of speeches held, notably by the French  “loyalists”.

    Part of their protest last Thursday was also to denounce a series of government-imposed taxes, including one on fuel (which has since been withdrawn after a series of blockades) and the other on electricity (to avoid bankruptcy for local power company Enercal)

    Last month, “loyalists” members walked out of New Caledonia’s “collegial” government, saying they regarded their pro-independence party colleagues as “illegitimate”.

    On the local scene, over the past few months, New Caledonia has been facing the very real effects of an economic crisis for its crucial nickel industry.

    One of the three nickel mining plants has been temporarily shut down and the other two are facing a similarly bleak future, putting at risk thousands of jobs.

    Paris has put on the table a rescue plan worth over 200 million euros to bail out New Caledonia’s nickel industry, provided it engages in stringent reforms to lower its production costs, but the signing, initially scheduled to take place by the end of March, has still not happened.

    Later this week, New Caledonia’s congress is due to meet specifically on the matter to authorise President Louis Mapou to do so.

    One strong opponent to the amendment’s vote this week, Mélanie Vogel (Greens and Solidarity caucus) warned the House she believed if the amendment was forced through “we are getting ready to break the conditions that made a return to civil peace possible”.

    She and others from all sides of the House also supported the idea of some kind of a delegation to foster the conclusion of talks for the much-expected successor agreement to the Nouméa Accord.

    During the first half of the 1980s, New Caledonia was the scene of a civil war between pro and anti-independence sides which only ended after the signing of the Matignon-Oudinot Accords in 1988.

    The Nouméa Accord followed in 1998.

    “We’re all waiting for this inclusive agreement to arrive, but for the time being, it’s not there. So this (constitutional amendment), for now, is the least bad solution,” Senator Philippe Bonnecarrère (Centrist Union) told the House.

    “So this (constitutional amendment), for now, is the least bad solution.”

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Voters understand that a left unity pact provides the only path to victory on the national level.

    This post was originally published on Dissent MagazineDissent Magazine.

  • By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk

    The signing of a “nickel pact” to salvage New Caledonia’s embattled industry has not been signed by the end of March, as initially announced by French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire.

    Le Maire had hinted at the date of March 25 last week, but New Caledonia’s territorial government President Louis Mapou wants to have his Congress endorse the pact before he signs anything.

    The Congress is scheduled to put the French pact (worth hundreds of millions of euro) to the debate this Wednesday.

    The pact is supposed to bail out New Caledonia’s nickel industry players from a grave crisis, caused by the current state of the world nickel prices and the market dominance of Indonesia which produces much cheaper nickel in large quantities.

    The proposed aid agreement, however, has strings attached: in return, New Caledonia’s nickel industry must undertake a far-reaching reform plan to increase its attraction and decrease its production costs.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.


    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • The news editor of regional daily La Provence in France has been suspended after a front-page headline critical of President Emmanuel Macron was published – causing outrage across the newsroom.

    Macron: drug dealers are better than him?

    Macron recently launched a major operation against drug trafficking in the southern port city of Marseille and elsewhere. He said that gangland battles that last year left dozens dead had made life a misery for residents.

    Following Macron’s Marseille visit, La Provence Daily published a front page on Thursday 21 March showing two people, presumably drug dealers, watching a police patrol. The accompanying headline said “He’s gone, but we’re still here”:

    On the basis of the front page, La Provence‘s news editor Aurelien Viers was suspended for failing to follow its “values and editorial line”, according to the paper’s managing editor Gabriel d’Harcourt.

    In an article To Our Readers published Friday 22 March, d’Harcourt said that the front-page quote and picture:

    could lead people to believe that we agree to give drug dealers a voice so they can mock the public authority.

    Hang on La Provence

    However, in an article inside La Provence, the front-page quote was actually attributed to a resident of a poor Marseille neighbourhood, named only as Brahim. They said that the city:

    found the means necessary to protect the president during his visit. He’s gone, but we’re still here, in the same hell.

    D’Harcourt said his paper’s coverage of the visit had been “very good”, except for the front page:

    where you get the impression that we’re spokespeople for the dealers… [the front page was] contrary to our roles and the role we want to play in Marseille and the surrounding region.

    Let’s be real: it is highly unlikely that anyone who read La Provence‘s front page thought that it was endorsing drug dealers over Macron.

    “Scandalised”

    SNJ, the main union at La Provence, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the paper’s journalists were “scandalised” by Viers’s suspension.

    A general staff assembly would decide on any protest action, it said. By 5pm on 22 March, La Provence‘s website said:

    Due to a social movement by the Editorial Team, we would like to inform you of the non-publication of today’s newspaper.

    That is, it appears staff walked out.

    On X, people were calling the situation out for what it seemed to be:

    La Provence, published in Marseille, has a daily circulation of around 70,000. It is owned by CMA CGM Medias, which belongs to Rodolphe Saade, a Franco-Lebanese billionaire businessman. Saade, who has other high-profile media interests, this week announced that he would also buy Altice Media, which owns broadcasters BFMTV and RMC.

    Sacré bleu!

    Asked during an Altice staff meeting whether he would seek to censor unfavourable news about his media interests, Saade replied:

    I wouldn’t like it, and I would let that be known… [But] I wouldn’t interfere.

    Take what you will from that.

    Additional reporting via Agence France-Presse

    Featured image via Know Your Meme – screengrab

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • French regulators said on Wednesday 20 March they were fining Google €250m for breaching commitments on paying media companies for reproducing their content online and for using their material for its AI chatbot – without telling them.

    Google: pay up, say journalists – and the regulator agrees

    Google had made commitments in 2022 to negotiate fairly with news organisations in France. This was a year after the Competition Authority hit the US technology giant with a €500m fine over the long-running dispute.

    Organisations representing French magazines and newspapers – as well as Agence France-Presse (AFP) – had lodged a case with the regulator in 2019.

    Under its commitments, the US tech giant has to provide news groups with a transparent offer of payment within three months of receiving a copyright complaint. However, the regulator said on 20 March it was imposing the new fine on Google for “failing to respect commitments made in 2022” and not negotiating in “good faith” with news publishers.

    US tech giant says ‘blah, blah, blah’

    The regulator said Google also used content from press agencies to train its AI platform Bard (now known as Gemini), without notifying them or the authority. It also failed to provide publishers and news agencies a technical solution allowing them to object to the use of their content. The French regulator said this ended up “hindering” their ability to negotiate remuneration.

    It said Google had agreed to “not dispute the facts” as part of the settlement process. The US tech giant also proposed “a series of corrective measures” in response to the failings identified by the authority.

    In a statement, Google said the fine was disproportionate and did not:

    sufficiently take into account the efforts we have made to answer and resolve the concerns raised – in an environment where it’s very hard to set a course because we can’t predict which way the wind will blow next.

    We’ve settled because it’s time to move on.

    Google: plagiarising across Europe

    The EU created in 2019 a form of copyright called “neighbouring rights” that allows print media to demand compensation for using their content.

    France has been a test case for the rules. After initial resistance Google and Facebook both agreed to pay some French media for articles shown in web searches.

    Other EU countries have also challenged Google over news content.

    Spain’s competition watchdog launched an investigation into Google last year for alleged anti-competitive practices affecting news agencies and press publications.

    But in 2022, Germany’s antitrust regulator shelved an investigation into Google’s News Showcase service, after the tech giant made “important adjustments” to ease competition concerns.

    Additional reporting via Agence France-Presse

    Featured image via Google – screengrab

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Greek call centre workers went on strike on Wednesday 13 March – joining colleagues in France as well. It was over pay, conditions, and crucially the racist and discriminatory treatment of migrant workers in Greece’s call centres.

    Greek call centre workers on strike

    With a massive new strike, workers in call centre companies in Greece demanded wage increases, collective contracts, and an end to the slave trade practices with the “special purpose visa” for migrant workers in call centres, where thousands of migrants work alongside Greek colleagues:

    Migrant workers in Greek call centres are paid less than their counterparts – prompting angry placards at the strikes:

    A placard that reads "same responsibilities same salary"

    In fact, after the official foundation of two new trade unions representing workers from the companies Teleperformance and Webhelp, the strikers yesterday were even more determined in the battle they are fighting, overcoming the threats and blackmails escalated by the employers:

    A placard that reads "you fucked with the wrong numbers"

    It is significant that many of them were striking even though they are under performance “evaluation”, i.e. “hostage” status by the employer. Also, young workers who had not taken the step in the two previous strikes also took part, sending a message to the employers that their struggle is not being defused, but is instead escalating.

    “Enough is enough” was typically heard over and over again:

    Strike

    It came with one voice from Greek and migrant workers, both in the rallies outside the companies’ offices in Athens and outside the parliament:

    a group of striking Greek call centre workers waving flags and holding banners

    Enough is enough

    There, the Greek call centre strikers all met up –  responding to the joint strike call of the sectoral Telecommunications Information Technology Trade Union (SETIP) of Attica and the newly established Teleperformance (SETEP) and Webhelp (WUW) trade unions:

    Ferhat Tum, president of the Greek call centre workers’ union of Teleperformance, said:

    We fought another battle despite the employers’ blackmail to stop the strike. Today we gave them another answer. Let them come now to discuss the Collective Contract.

    While at the same time with their colleagues in Greece, the workers of Teleperformance and Webhelp in France went on strike:

    They were joined by the workers from Majorel, with a fight that gave a new and important impetus to the struggles of the sector.

    Featured image and additional images via PAME International 

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Greek call centre workers went on strike on Wednesday 13 March – joining colleagues in France as well. It was over pay, conditions, and crucially the racist and discriminatory treatment of migrant workers in Greece’s call centres.

    Greek call centre workers on strike

    With a massive new strike, workers in call centre companies in Greece demanded wage increases, collective contracts, and an end to the slave trade practices with the “special purpose visa” for migrant workers in call centres, where thousands of migrants work alongside Greek colleagues:

    Migrant workers in Greek call centres are paid less than their counterparts – prompting angry placards at the strikes:

    A placard that reads "same responsibilities same salary"

    In fact, after the official foundation of two new trade unions representing workers from the companies Teleperformance and Webhelp, the strikers yesterday were even more determined in the battle they are fighting, overcoming the threats and blackmails escalated by the employers:

    A placard that reads "you fucked with the wrong numbers"

    It is significant that many of them were striking even though they are under performance “evaluation”, i.e. “hostage” status by the employer. Also, young workers who had not taken the step in the two previous strikes also took part, sending a message to the employers that their struggle is not being defused, but is instead escalating.

    “Enough is enough” was typically heard over and over again:

    Strike

    It came with one voice from Greek and migrant workers, both in the rallies outside the companies’ offices in Athens and outside the parliament:

    a group of striking Greek call centre workers waving flags and holding banners

    Enough is enough

    There, the Greek call centre strikers all met up –  responding to the joint strike call of the sectoral Telecommunications Information Technology Trade Union (SETIP) of Attica and the newly established Teleperformance (SETEP) and Webhelp (WUW) trade unions:

    Ferhat Tum, president of the Greek call centre workers’ union of Teleperformance, said:

    We fought another battle despite the employers’ blackmail to stop the strike. Today we gave them another answer. Let them come now to discuss the Collective Contract.

    While at the same time with their colleagues in Greece, the workers of Teleperformance and Webhelp in France went on strike:

    They were joined by the workers from Majorel, with a fight that gave a new and important impetus to the struggles of the sector.

    Featured image and additional images via PAME International 

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.


  • U.S. and Ukrainian armies attend the opening ceremony of the “RAPID TRIDENT-2021” military exercises.

    President Biden began his State of the Union speech with an impassioned warning that failing to pass his $61 billion dollar weapons package for Ukraine “will put Ukraine at risk, Europe at risk, the free world at risk.” But even if the president’s request were suddenly passed, it would only prolong, and dangerously escalate, the brutal war that is destroying Ukraine.

    The assumption of the U.S. political elite that Biden had a viable plan to defeat Russia and restore Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders has proven to be one more triumphalist American dream that has turned into a nightmare. Ukraine has joined North Korea, Vietnam, Somalia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Haiti, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and now Gaza, as another shattered monument to America’s military madness.

    This could have been one of the shortest wars in history, if President Biden had just supported a peace and neutrality agreement negotiated in Turkey in March and April 2022 that already had champagne corks popping in Kyiv, according to Ukrainian negotiator Oleksiy Arestovych. Instead, the U.S. and NATO chose to prolong and escalate the war as a means to try to defeat and weaken Russia.

    Two days before Biden’s State of the Union speech, Secretary of State Blinken announced the early retirement of Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, one of the officials most responsible for a decade of disastrous U.S. policy toward Ukraine.

    Two weeks before the announcement of Nuland’s retirement at the age of 62, she acknowledged in a talk at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) that the war in Ukraine had degenerated into a war of attrition that she compared to the First World War, and she admitted that the Biden administration had no Plan B for Ukraine if Congress doesn’t cough up $61 billion for more weapons.

    We don’t know whether Nuland was forced out, or perhaps quit in protest over a policy that she fought for and lost. Either way, her ride into the sunset opens the door for others to fashion a badly needed Plan B for Ukraine.

    The imperative must be to chart a path back from this hopeless but ever-escalating war of attrition to the negotiating table that the U.S. and Britain upended in April 2022 – or at least to new negotiations on the basis that President Zelenskyy defined on March 27, 2022, when he told his people, “Our goal is obvious: peace and the restoration of normal life in our native state as soon as possible.”

    Instead, on February 26, in a very worrying sign of where NATO’s current policy is leading, French President Emmanuel Macron revealed that European leaders meeting in Paris discussed sending larger numbers of Western ground troops to Ukraine.

    Macron pointed out that NATO members have steadily increased their support to levels unthinkable when the war began. He highlighted the example of Germany, which offered Ukraine only helmets and sleeping bags at the outset of the conflict and is now saying Ukraine needs more missiles and tanks. “The people that said “never ever” today were the same ones who said never ever planes, never ever long-range missiles, never ever trucks. They said all that two years ago,” Macron recalled. “We have to be humble and realize that we (have) always been six to eight months late.”

    Macron implied that, as the war escalates, NATO countries may eventually have to deploy their own forces to Ukraine, and he argued that they should do so sooner rather than later if they want to recover the initiative in the war.

      The mere suggestion of Western troops fighting in Ukraine elicited an outcry both within France–from extreme right National Rally to leftist La France Insoumise–and from other NATO countries. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz insisted that participants in the meeting were “unanimous” in their opposition to deploying troops. Russian officials warned that such a step would mean war between Russia and NATO.

    But as Poland’s president and prime minister headed to Washington for a White House meeting on February 12, Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski told the Polish parliament that sending NATO troops into Ukraine “is not unthinkable.”

    Macron’s intention may have been precisely to bring this debate out into the open and put an end to the secrecy surrounding the undeclared policy of gradual escalation toward full-scale war with Russia that the West has pursued for two years.

    Macron failed to mention publicly that, under current policy, NATO forces are already deeply involved in the war. Among many lies that President Biden told in his State of the Union speech, he insisted that “there are no American soldiers at war in Ukraine.”

    However, the trove of Pentagon documents leaked in March 2023 included an assessment that there were already at least 97 NATO special forces troops operating in Ukraine, including 50 British, 14 Americans and 15 French. Admiral John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, has also acknowledged a “small U.S. military presence” based in the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv to try to keep track of thousands of tons of U.S. weapons as they arrive in Ukraine.

    But many more U.S. forces, whether inside or outside Ukraine, are involved in planning Ukrainian military operations; providing satellite intelligence; and play essential roles in the targeting of U.S. weapons. A Ukrainian official told the Washington Post that Ukrainian forces hardly ever fire HIMARS rockets without precise targeting data provided by U.S. forces in Europe.

    All these U.S. and NATO forces are most definitely “at war in Ukraine.” To be at war in a country with only small numbers of “boots on the ground” has been a hallmark of 21st Century U.S. war-making, as any Navy pilot on an aircraft-carrier or drone operator in Nevada can attest. It is precisely this doctrine of “limited” and proxy war that is at risk of spinning out of control in Ukraine, unleashing the World War III that President Biden has vowed to avoid.

    The United States and NATO have tried to keep the escalation of the war under control by deliberate, incremental escalation of the types of weapons they provide and cautious, covert expansion of their own involvement. This has been compared to “boiling a frog,” turning up the heat gradually to avoid any sudden move that might cross a Russian “red line” and trigger a full-scale war between NATO and Russia. But as NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned in December 2022, “If things go wrong, they can go horribly wrong.”

    We have long been puzzled by these glaring contradictions at the heart of U.S. and NATO policy. On one hand, we believe President Biden when he says he does not want to start World War III. On the other hand, that is what his policy of incremental escalation is inexorably leading towards.

    U.S. preparations for war with Russia are already at odds with the existential imperative of containing the conflict. In November 2022, the Reed-Inhofe Amendment to the FY2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) invoked wartime emergency powers to authorize an extraordinary shopping-list of weapons like the ones sent to Ukraine, and approved billion-dollar, multi-year no-bid contracts with weapons manufacturers to buy 10 to 20 times the quantities of weapons that the United States had actually shipped to Ukraine.

    Retired Marine Colonel Mark Cancian, the former chief of the Force Structure and Investment Division in the Office of Management and Budget, explained, “This isn’t replacing what we’ve given [Ukraine]. It’s building stockpiles for a major ground war [with Russia] in the future.”

    So the United States is preparing to fight a major ground war with Russia, but the weapons to fight that war will take years to produce, and, with or without them, that could quickly escalate into a nuclear war. Nuland’s early retirement could be the result of Biden and his foreign policy team finally starting to come to grips with the existential dangers of the aggressive policies she championed.

    Meanwhile, Russia’s escalation from its original limited “Special Military Operation” to its current commitment of 7% of its GDP to the war and weapons production has outpaced the West’s escalations, not just in weapons production but in manpower and actual military capability.

    One could say that Russia is winning the war, but that depends what its real war goals are. There is a yawning gulf between the rhetoric from Biden and other Western leaders about Russian ambitions to invade other countries in Europe and what Russia was ready to settle for at the talks in Turkey in 2022, when it agreed to withdraw to its pre-war positions in return for a simple commitment to Ukrainian neutrality.

    Despite Ukraine’s extremely weak position after its failed 2023 offensive and its costly defense and loss of Avdiivka, Russian forces are not racing toward Kyiv, or even Kharkiv, Odesa or the natural boundary of the Dnipro River.

    Reuters Moscow Bureau reported that Russia spent months trying to open new negotiations with the United States in late 2023, but that, in January 2024, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan slammed that door shut with a flat refusal to negotiate over Ukraine.

    The only way to find out what Russia really wants, or what it will settle for, is to return to the negotiating table. All sides have demonized each other and staked out maximalist positions, but that is what nations at war do in order to justify the sacrifices they demand of their people and their rejection of diplomatic alternatives.

    Serious diplomatic negotiations are now essential to get down to the nitty-gritty of what it will take to bring peace to Ukraine. We are sure there are wiser heads within the U.S., French and other NATO governments who are saying this too, behind closed doors, and that may be precisely why Nuland is out and why Macron is talking so openly about where the current policy is heading. We fervently hope that is the case, and that Biden’s Plan B will lead back to the negotiating table, and then forward to peace in Ukraine.

    The post Are We Stumbling into World War III in Ukraine? first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Haiti is in the headlines again and, as usual, the headlines on Haiti are mostly negative. They are also largely false. Haiti, they tell us, is overrun by “gang violence.” Haiti is “a failed state,” standing on the verge of “anarchy” and teetering on the edge of “collapse.” Haiti, they tell us, can only be stabilized and saved through foreign military invasion and occupation. We have seen these stories before. We know their purpose. They serve to cover up the true origins of the “crisis” in Haiti while justifying foreign military intervention and setting up an attack on Haiti’s sovereignty.

    What is the reality behind the headlines? The reality is that the crisis in Haiti is a crisis of imperialism. Those countries calling for military intervention – the US, France, Canada – have created the conditions making military intervention appear necessary and inevitable. The same countries calling for intervention are the same countries that will benefit from intervention, not the Haitian people. And for twenty years, those countries that cast Haiti as a failed state actively worked to destroy Haiti’s government while imposing foreign colonial rule.

    On Haiti, the position of the Black Alliance for Peace has been consistent and clear. We reject the sensationalist headlines in the Western media with their racist assumptions that Haiti is ungovernable, and the Haitian people cannot govern themselves. We support the efforts of the Haitian people to assert their sovereignty and reclaim their country. We denounce the ongoing imperialist onslaught on Haiti and demand the removal of Haiti’s foreign, colonial rulers.

    What’s Going on in Haiti?

    • The crisis in Haiti is a crisis of imperialism – but what does this mean? It means that the failure of governance in Haiti is not something internal to Haiti, but it is a result of the concerted effort on the part of the west to gut the Haitian state and destroy popular democracy in Haiti.
    • Haiti is currently under occupation by the US/UN and Core Group, a self-appointed cabal of foreign entities who effectively rule this country.
    • The occupation of Haiti began in 2004 with the US/France/Canada-sponsored coup d’état against Haiti’s democratically elected president. The coup d’etat was approved by the UN Security Council. It established an occupying military force (euphemistically called a “peacekeeping” mission), with the acronym MINUSTAH. Though the MINUSTAH mission officially ended in 2017, the UN office in Haiti was reconstituted as BIHUH. BINUH, along with the Core Group, continues to have a powerful role in Haitian affairs.
    • Over the past four years, the Haitian masses have mobilized and protested against an illegal government, imperial meddling, the removal of fuel subsidies leading to rising costs of living, and insecurity by elite-funded armed groups. However, these protests have been snuffed out by the US-installed puppet government.
    • Since 2021, attempts to control Haiti by the US have intensified. In that year, Haiti’s president, Jovenel Moïse was assassinated and Ariel Henry was installed by the US and UN Core Group as the de facto prime minister. In the wake of the assassination of Moïse and the installation of Henry, the U.S. has sought to build a coalition of foreign states willing to send military forces to occupy Haiti, and to deal with Haiti’s ostensible “gang” problem.
    • The armed groups (the so-called “gangs”) mainly in the capital city of Haiti should be understood as “paramilitary” forces, as they are made up of former (and current) Haitian police and military elements.  These paramilitary forces are known to work for some of Haiti’s elite, including, some say, Ariel Henry (Haiti’s former de facto prime minister). It should also be noted that Haiti does not manufacture guns; the guns and ammunition come primarily from the US and the Dominican Republic; and the US has consistently rejected calls for an arms embargo.
    • Moreover, as Haitian organizations have demonstrated, it is the UN and Core Group occupation that has enabled the “gangsterization” of the country. When we speak of “gangs,” we must recognize that the real and most powerful gangs in the country are the US, the Core Group, and the illegal UN office in Haiti – all of whom helped to create the current crisis.
    • Most recently, Ariel Henry traveled to Kenya to sign an agreement with Kenya prime minister William Ruto authorizing the deployment of 1,000 Kenyan police officers as the head of a multinational military force whose ostensible purpose was to combat Haiti’s gang violence. But the US strategy for Haiti appears to have collapsed as Henry has been unable to return to Haiti and there is renewed challenge to the constitutionality of that deployment.
    • The US is now scrambling for control, seeking to force Henry’s resignation while looking for a new puppet to serve as a figurehead for foreign rule of Haiti. While Haiti currently does not have a government, it has not descended into chaos or anarchy. The paramilitaries, it seems, are waiting for their orders to act, while the US strategy for Haiti is in crisis.

    Why Haiti?

    For BAP, the historic struggles of the Haitian people to combat slavery, colonialism, and imperialism have been crucial to the struggles of African people throughout the globe. The attacks on Black sovereignty in Haiti are replicated in the attacks on Black people throughout the Americas. Today, Haiti is  important for U.S. geopolitical and economic viability. Haiti is in a key location in the Caribbean for US military and security strategy in the region, especially in light of the coming US confrontation with China and in the context of the strategic implementation of the Global Fragilities Act. Haiti’s economic importance stems from what western corporations perceive as a vast pool of cheap labor, and its unexploited land and mineral wealth.

    BAP’S Position on the Current Situation in Haiti

    • BAP, as with many Haitian and other organizations, have consistently argued against a renewed foreign military intervention.
    • We have persistently demanded the end of the foreign occupation of Haiti. This includes the dissolution of the Core Group, the UN office in Haiti (BINHU), and the end of the constant meddling of the US, along with its junior partners, CARICOM, and Brazil’s Lula.
    • We have denounced the governments of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) (with the exception of Venezuela and Cuba), for supporting US plans for armed intervention in Haiti and the denial of Haitian sovereignty.
    • We have denounced CARICOM leaders, and especially Barbados Prime Minister, Mia Mottley, for not only supporting US planned armed intervention in Haiti and offering their police and soldiers for the mission, but for also following US and Core Group dictates on the way forward in Haiti. Haiti’s solutions should come from Haitian people through broad consensus. CARICOM leaders cannot claim to be helping Haiti when they are acting as neo-colonial stooges of the US and the Core Group.
    • We have denounced the role of Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, for not only continuing Brazil’s role in the Core Group, but for also leading the charge, along with the criminal US government, for foreign armed military invasion of Haiti. We remind everyone that it was Lula’s government that led the military wing of the 2004 violent UN occupation of Haiti. Brazil’s soldiers led the mission for 13 years (until 2017).
    • In solidarity with Haitian groups, we have denounced the UN approved, US-funded, Kenyan-led foreign armed invasion and occupation of Haiti. We are adamant that a U.S./UN-led armed foreign intervention in Haiti is not only illegitimate, but illegal. We support Haitian people and civil society organizations who have been consistent in their opposition to foreign armed military intervention – and who have argued that the problems of Haiti are a direct result of the persistent and long-term meddling of the United States, the United Nations, and the Core Group.
    • We demand US accountability for flooding Haiti with military grade weapons. We demand that the US enforce the UN-stated arms embargo against the Haitian and U.S. elite who import guns into the country.
    • We will continue to support our comrades as they fight for a free and sovereign Haiti.

    Long live Haiti! 

    • First published in The Black Alliance for Peace

    The post What’s Going on in Haiti? first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • An interview with Collectif Golem, a left-wing Jewish group in France fighting antisemitism and the far right.

    This post was originally published on Dissent MagazineDissent Magazine.

  • On Monday evening, France became the first country in the world to explicitly guarantee the right to an abortion within its constitution. Lawmakers were summoned by President Emmanuel Macron to the Palace of Versailles, the former royal palace that is oftentimes used for the passage of monumental laws instead of the Palais Bourbon in Paris, where the National Assembly usually meets.

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.