At least 22 people died after their boat sank off the coast of Madagascar on Saturday 11 March. The boat was packed with 47 people, who were trying to reach the French island territory of Mayotte. Only 23 were saved, while two more people remained missing.Many refugees drown each year in small fishing boats called kwassa-kwassa as they attempt to reach French soil from Madagascar or the Comoros Islands. There are no viable statistics on how many people have lost their lives in attempting such crossings. A French senate report published in the early 2000s estimated that, at that time, around 1,000 people were dying each year.
Marine cemetery
The crossing to Mayotte from Madagascar and the Comoros Islands has been labelled “the world’s largest marine cemetery“, and France has blood on its hands. Rather than providing a safe haven for refugees, the state has ploughed the waters with interceptor boats. It detains and deports those it catches. In 2021 alone, more than 6,500 people were detained trying to enter Mayotte. And in December 2022, French interior minister Gérald Darmanin pledged to step up the fight against illegal migration into the French territory.
Mayotte is exempt from certain French immigration laws, and the border police do not always respect those that do exist. In a report last year, France’s human rights commission condemned the quick deportations in Mayotte, where most migrants don’t even see a lawyer or a judge before expulsion.
The publication reported that seeking asylum on Mayotte is “mission impossible”.
The decolonisation myth
The islands of Mayotte are part of the Comoro archipelago, which were colonised by France in 1912. However, while decolonising from the region in the 1970s, France used underhand tactics to ensure that it didn’t in fact decolonise at all.When the Comoros islanders voted for independence from France in 1974, the colonising state took the results and interpreted them island by island. This way, it knew that it would be able to keep hold of Mayotte, which had voted against independence. The New Humanitarian wrote:
In splitting the Comoros, France violated a UN mandate and an agreement with the Comoros to respect existing boundaries during decolonisation.
Compared to metropolitan France, two to four times more people lived under the income national poverty line in the “old” overseas departments… and this rate increased to five times more in Mayotte. Poverty affects people with no employment or qualifications, young people and single-parent families most of all. Social benefits accounted for household revenue to a much greater degree than in metropolitan France.
Those who have arrived by boat, without official papers, can’t work. They’re left with no access to accommodation, food or water. For people seeking asylum, they’ve had no option but take to the streets in protest at their dire situation.
It is unsurprising that France is using the usual European rhetoric of blaming ‘illegal immigrants’ in order to cover up for its own incompetence and neglect in the region. After all, for as long as it can turn people against each other, it knows its neocolonialism can continue untouched.
Meanwhile, thousands more people will die on perilous crossings from Comoros and Madagascar to Mayotte. To France, these people are just statistics – a convenient enemy to keep out. But these people had hopes for a better life, and France needs to be held accountable for each and every death.
After a three-week period of relative calm, all trade union federations in France called on workers “to bring France to a standstill” on March 7. Key workers’ sectors promised ongoing strikes, reports John Mullen.
Hundreds of thousands of French workers walked off the job Tuesday and marched against the government’s effort, led by neoliberal President Emmanuel Macron, to raise the nation’s retirement age from 62 to 64.
For the sixth time this year, French unions organized strikes and rallies to protest Macron and his legislative allies’ deeply unpopular attack on pension benefits. Police anticipated between 1.1 million and 1.4 million participants at more than 260 demonstrations nationwide. Laurent Berger, secretary-general of the French Democratic Confederation of Labor, estimated, based on initial figures, that Tuesday’s protests were the biggest since mobilizations started in mid-January.
“The strike has begun everywhere,” said Eric Sellini of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), which urged people to “bring France to a halt.”
“If Emmanuel Macron doesn’t want France to come to a standstill and a dark week for the energy industry, it would be better for him to withdraw his reforms.”
Energy workers impeded fuel deliveries, transit workers shut down most services, teacher walkouts prompted the closure of many schools, and garbage collectors’ ongoing work stoppage has led to a build-up of trash. Meanwhile, BBC Newsreported that “there will be calls to extend the strikes to include power generation” in the coming days.
Thirty-eight-year-old activist Sarah Durieux, part of a massive, largely family-friendly crowd in Paris, toldThe Associated Press, “To see so many people today gives me hope.”
“The movement has spread because to defend workers’ rights means defending a social model based on solidarity,” she added.
\u201cUnions in France are holding a nationwide day of strikes and demonstrations for the sixth time this year over controversial plans by Macron to raise the pension age from 62 to 64.\n\nTeachers, gas and electricity workers, rail workers and others on strike.\n\nhttps://t.co/VR5Ysof2hR\u201d
Unionized workers blocked the exits to all eight oil refineries in mainland France on Tuesday, striking fear in Thierry Cotillard, president of Les Mousquetaires retail chain, who warned that “if the refineries are blocked we could run out of petrol by the end of the week.”
It is unclear how long the blockades will last. But Emmanuel Lépine, leader of a trade union representing refinery workers, said last week that the aim is to “bring the French economy to its knees.”
Prior to Tuesday’s actions, labor leader Sébastien Ménesplier declared that “if Emmanuel Macron doesn’t want France to come to a standstill and a dark week for the energy industry, it would be better for him to withdraw his reforms.”
As BBC News noted Tuesday, the campaign so far “has caused little damage to the economy, and the bill is proceeding through parliament.”
The legislation, discussed last month in the National Assembly—where members of the New Ecological and Social People’s Union, a leftist opposition coalition, tried to derail debate by proposing thousands of amendments—is being considered in the Senate this week. A vote on the final version is expected later this month.
“Unions and the left know time is running out before the reform becomes a reality—which is all the more reason for them to up the pressure now,” BBC News observed.
Macron and his supporters have called the proposed changes “essential,” citing projected budget deficits. But union leaders and left-wing lawmakers have stressed that parliament could bolster France’s pension system—without raising the retirement age or increasing the number of years workers must contribute before qualifying for full benefits—by hiking taxes on the wealthy.
“The mobilizations will continue and grow until the government listens to workers.”
“The job of a garbage collector is painful. We usually work very early or late… 365 days per year,” Regis Viecili, a 56-year-old garbage worker, told AP. “We usually have to carry heavy weight or stand up for hours to sweep.”
Trash collectors’ early retirement age would be raised from 57 to 59 if the reform proposal is enacted.
“A lot of garbage workers die before the retirement age,” said Viecili.
A record 1.3 million people took part in mass demonstrations against the legislation on January 31. At subsequent protests, the number of people hitting the streets—while still in the hundreds of thousands—began to decrease.
According to BBC News, “Union leaders now believe rolling strikes are their best hope of success.”
Citing CGT secretary-general Philippe Martinez, AP reported that unionized workers “will decide locally” on Tuesday night whether to engage in open-ended strikes.
A majority of French citizens support the ongoing strikes. According to an opinion poll conducted recently by the French survey group Elabe, two-thirds of the public supports the movement against the government’s planned pension changes in general, 59% back efforts to bring the country “to a standstill,” and 56% support rolling strikes.
Martinez said in an interview Sunday that unions “are moving up a gear.”
“The mobilizations,” he predicted, “will continue and grow until the government listens to workers.”
Xavier Bregail, a 40-year-old train driver in northern Paris, told AP on Tuesday that “the government will step back only if we block the economy.”
“The subject behind this is inflation, soaring food and energy prices,” he added. “I just want to live decently from my work.”
This post was originally published on Common Dreams.
Unions disrupted fuel deliveries and public transport in France on 7 March. They’d kicked off a fresh day of strikes and protests against pension reforms that would push back the retirement age for millions. The call for people to take to the streets saw more than a million people across the country responding.
Blockading the economy
Unions vowed to bring the country to a standstill with strikes over the proposed changes. These include raising the minimum retirement age to 64 from 62 and increasing the number of years people have to make contributions for a full pension. During a rally in Paris, CFDT (French Democratic Confederation of Labour) union chief Laurent Berger said:
The government has to take (resistance) into account when there are so many people in the street, when they’re having so much trouble explaining and passing their reform.
By midday on 7 March, around 39% of workers at state rail operator SNCF (Société nationale des chemins de fer français) had walked off the job, a union source told Agence France-Presse (AFP). That would make it the highest number since this year’s first strike against the pension reform on 19 January. Only one in five regional and high-speed trains were running.
Meanwhile, the Guardiansaid up to 30% of flights were cancelled on 7 and 8 March as air traffic controllers went on strike. Additionally, the CGT (General Confederation of Labour) union said strikers had blocked fuel deliveries from refineries across France. As a result, petrol stations may run short if protests continue.
Despite the disruption, there was public support for the protests. According to a survey by polling company Elabe, 56% of respondents said they supported rolling strikes. 59% also backed the call to bring the country to a standstill.
An anonymous source told AFP that police had expected between 1.1 million and 1.4 million people to hit the streets. The upper limit of that range would mean stronger opposition than during the five previous days of rallies. The biggest day of demonstrations so far brought 1.27 million people to the street on 31 January.
Next moves
The government has argued that changes are crucial to keep France’s pensions system from falling into deep deficit. But unions contest that conclusion and say small increases in contributions could keep it solvent. They also argue that the proposed measures are unfair. The new measures would disproportionately affect low-skilled workers who start their careers early, as well as women.
The bill is now being debated in the upper house of parliament. Two weeks of heated discussion in the lower house previously ended without even reaching a vote on raising the retirement age. President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist government is hoping to push through the reform in parliament with help from the right, without resorting to a controversial mechanism that would bypass a parliamentary vote but risk fuelling more protests.
Workers’ representatives are set to meet in the evening of 7 March to decide on their next moves.
Emmanuel Macron and Rishi Sunak meet on Friday with the UK’s new bill high on the agenda
Emmanuel Macron and Rishi Sunak meet in Paris on Friday for the first bilateral summit between France and Britain since 2018. High on the agenda will be the longstanding row over small boats crossing the Channel, given new impetus by the plan to tackle the issue announced by the UK on Tuesday.
He went outside in the dark to charge his phone, and when the sun came up it was a real eyesore.
“Our own laneway is blocked off. We’ve got tree limbs all the way up and down,” he said.
After clearing the way, he was able to get out and about and have a look around.
Port Vila had been badly knocked about. McGarry came across a mango tree that landed directly on top of a minibus.
“And then the wind lifted the entire tree and dumped it a metre-and-a-half away,” he said.
Fuel was in short supply and a boil water order was in effect, McGarry said.
Many people were at the few hardware stores that were open, trying to buy tools to repair their properties, he said.
Cyclone Kevin and Cyclone Judy as pictured on Earth Nullschool today. Image: Nullschool/RNZ Pacific
On Saturday evening, the Fiji Meteorological Office said the severe tropical storm remained a category five, and was centred in the ocean near Conway Reef.
Tafea province in Vanuatu, which was under a red alert as Kevin tracked south-east, had been given the all clear.
An Australian Air Force reconnaissance flight over Tafea province was reported to have shown some intact settlements and still some greenery.
— Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer (@jeangene_vilmer) March 3, 2023
No casualties had been immediately reported but hundreds of people fled to evacuation centres in the capital Port Vila, where Kevin blasted through as a category four storm.
Foreign aid needed Vanuatu needs support from its international partners.
“There is going to be a significant need — this is not something Vanuatu can do alone, so the assistance of these partners is going to be critical to a speedy and effective response,” McGarry said.
He believed cooperation from donor partners was needed. France has already received a request to send a patrol plane, he said.
“I expect that New Zealand would be putting a P3 in the air before very long. Australia has already committed to sending a rapid assessment team.”
Stephen Meke, tropical cyclone forecaster with the Fiji Meteorological Service, said cyclone response teams and aid workers wanting to help should plan to travel to Vanuatu from Sunday onwards, as the weather system is forecast to lose momentum then.
“Kevin intensified into a category four system,” Meke said. “It was very close to just passing over Tanna. So it’s expected to continue diving southeastwards as a category four, then the weakening from from tomorrow onwards.”
A UNICEF spokesperson said its team was preparing to ship essential emergency supplies from Fiji in addition to emergency supplies already prepositioned in Vanuatu.
“These include tents, tarpaulins, education, and health supplies to support immediate response needs in the aftermath of the two devastating cyclones.”
New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was working with the Vanuatu government and partners to see what help it could offer.
An MFAT spokesperson said New Zealand had first-hand experience of the challenges Vanuatu faced in the coming days and weeks. It had been challenging making contact with people because of damaged communications systems, they said.
Sixty-three New Zealanders are registered on the SafeTravel website as being in Vanuatu.
UNICEF was preparing to ship tents, tarpaulins, education, and health supplies to support immediate response needs on the ground. Image: UNICEF/RNZ Pacific
Parts of Vanuatu have plunged into a six-month-long state of emergency.
Evacuations in Port Vila The Fiji Meteorological Office said Port Vila experienced the full force of Kevin’s winds. Evacuations took place in the capital.
McGarry said he knew of one family that had to escape their property and shelter at a separate home.
“The entire group spent the entire night standing in the middle of the room because the place is just drenched with water.
“So it’s been an uncomfortable night for many, and possibly quite a dangerous one for some.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Port Vila market house. Lots of debris but thankfully not too much structural damage. pic.twitter.com/ZLeSvQbFQm
French trade unions called workers out on a new strike on Thursday 16 February against a bitterly opposed pension reform being debated in parliament. This is the fifth day of action against President Emmanuel Macron’s reform, whose headline measure is raising the legal retirement age from 62 to 64. And the strikes aim to keep up the pressure ahead of a wider mass walkout on 7 March. However, unlike previous strike days, most main line trains and the Paris metro were running normally. This was due to fewer workers participating during school holidays across most of France.
Employees at state-controlled energy giant EDF said they had lowered output by more than 3,000 megawatts, or the equivalent of three nuclear power plants, without affecting supply to end users. On Wednesday, many hydroelectric plants had been disconnected from the grid. Also on Thursday, 30% of flights from Paris’ Orly airport were cancelled.
Police said they were expecting demonstrations by up to 650,000 people nationwide, after counting almost one million on Saturday. Unions, however, said that the weekend figure was more like 2.5 million.
Further marches
Union leaders were planning to join a march in the mid-sized town of Albi, northeast of Toulouse. Laurent Berger, leader of the CFDT union said:
We want to put the spotlight on one of the characteristics of this social movement. There’s a France of workers that wants to show it exists, that there’s more than just the big cities.
Polling shows around 70% of the public reject Macron’s pension reform plans. Meanwhile, a petition opposing them has gathered over one million signatures.
Philippe Martinez, head of the hard-left CGT union, said the plan was to “keep up pressure on MPs” to vote the bill down. Just last month, CGT threatened to cut off energy for billionaires. Martinez said:
It would be good if we cut off their electricity so that they can put themselves, for a few days, in the shoes of … French people who can’t afford to pay their bill.
“Bring France to a halt”
It is unclear whether the lower house will discuss its Article 7 before running out of time on Friday. Article 7 is responsible for the change in pension age. This uncertainty comes after left-wing opponents submitted thousands of amendments to delay debate. MPs have already rejected one of the bill’s articles, designed to press companies to employ more older workers.
Macron himself sought to project confidence Wednesday, telling a cabinet meeting that opposition parties have “totally lost their way” over the pensions fight. Socialist MP Philippe Brun said that there is “a possible majority in the chamber to vote against” the retirement age provision.
The biggest day of action may be still to come, with trade unions promising to “bring France to a halt” on 7 March. Unions are still debating whether to shift to rolling strikes after that date, with Paris metro workers and rubbish collectors already deciding in favour.
Demonstrations in more than 260 towns took place across France on February 11, the fourth day of action to defend pensions, as the Pensions Bill began its four-week debate in the National Assembly, reports John Mullen.
Though it was clear that Burkina Faso was eventually going to follow in the footsteps of Mali and the Central African Republic (CAR), Ouagadougou’s decision to break military ties with France was not as simple as media sound bites want us to believe.
The conventional wisdom is that these countries are walking away from their former colonial master, France, to forge alternative alliances with a new ally, Russia. These convenient analyses are largely shaped by the geopolitical tug-of-war between old and new superpowers: The US and its NATO allies on the one hand, and Russia and China on the other.
Though global rivalry, especially on the resource-rich African continent, is an important component in understanding Burkina Faso’s decision – and earlier, similar decisions by Mali in April, and CAR in December – more attention needs to be paid to the logic of these African countries’ own political discourse.
On January 21, Burkina Faso officially asked France to withdraw its troops from the country within a month. French President Emmanuel Macron seemed perplexed by the request. He answered that he was awaiting clarifications from Burkina Faso’s transitional President, Ibrahim Traore.
Paris’ confusion did not last long, however. “At the current stage, we don’t see how to be more clear than this,” the Burkina Faso government’s spokesperson, Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, speaking on national television, said on January 23.
Ouagadougou’s decision was in reference to 400 French soldiers stationed in the country following a military agreement signed with Paris in 2018. But what were these soldiers doing in Burkina Faso, in the first place?
The agreement between Paris and Ouagadougou was part of a series of agreements signed between France and several African countries to form regional economic and military alliances, with the understanding that France would be helping these countries achieve stability amid threats of various militant groups.
Mali, which suffered a series of military coups and deadly rebellions that threatened to divide the country, was the focal point of the French military redeployment into Africa, resulting in the launch of several major campaigns starting in January 2013 with Operation Serval and, later, Operation Barkhane.
As time passed, the French government claimed one victory after another against various militant groups, always rationalizing its action as part of regional accords signed per the invitation of African countries, which are mostly based in the Sahel region.
Critics often hit back, saying that France, which effectively controls the economies of fourteen African countries by having a major stake in their currencies and national reserves, is not an equal partner in Africa, but a meddler.
The latter claim began acquiring more credibility, as there was no proof that Operations Serval and Barkhane achieved their intended goals, or that any of the countries involved in the French scheme achieved political or economic stability.
Though military coups were a common occurrence in many African countries following the formal end of colonialism on the continent, the new governments in Mali, CAR and Burkina Faso used a different kind of political discourse, which accused the former regimes of treason, while also blaming France for much of these countries’ corruption.
Burkina Faso was not the exception.
On September 30, a military coup in Burkina Faso overthrew the government. Anti-French sentiments were apparent in the language and chants on the streets, and the French flag was repeatedly burned and replaced by the Russian flag.
This is where news analyses often go wrong. When Russian flags were raised in abundance in the streets of Burkina Faso, many assumed that the entire spectacle was an outcome of French-Russian rivalry in that region. Though this geopolitical conflict is real, the behavior of Burkina Faso’s Traore’s government cannot be reduced to political opportunism and military or financial bribery.
Like Mali and CAR – and other African countries – Burkina Faso never had real political margins that would allow it to operate independently from its former colonial masters. These margins did exist, but were almost completely shut down following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The USSR was seen as a trusted ally by various African governments, which used Soviet support to balance out Western influences and pressures on the highly contested continent.
The demise of the USSR meant the end of that balancing act and the full return of Africa to the grip of the western sphere.
The changing global political dynamics resulting from the US/NATO-Russia/China rivalries have, again, opened some of these margins. The countries that dared to be first to cross to the other camp – Mali, CAR, and now Burkina Faso – were the countries that had little to lose as a result of this political gamble. They enjoyed no political stability, little sovereignty and no economic prospects.
This means that the future could also witness more such geopolitical shifts. The nature and speed of these shifts will be largely determined by the outcome of the ongoing global conflict.
Burkina Faso’s decision to order French troops out of the country had something to do with global geopolitics, but only in terms of timing. The actual reason is that the French military presence in the country was of no real benefit to Burkina Faso. Ouagadougou seems to have reached the same conclusion as Bamako and Bangui did in the previous month. Indeed, it was only a matter of time.
In Paris and in 267 other towns around France, there were angry protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s attempt to raise the standard retirement age from 62 to 64, reports John Mullen.
French workers currently live nearly two years longer than their counterparts in member states in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), composed of roughly the world’s most advanced capitalist countries. Further, they retire with full benefits, on average, nearly three years earlier than their counterparts in the OECD. Thanks to a rich history of militant struggle for a shorter workweek, a greater share of national wealth, and social benefits for retirees, workers in France enjoy a higher standard of living and a much longer secure retirement than most workers in other countries.
Of course, a better, longer, more secure life comes at a cost; France devotes much more of its GDP to support retirees than other OECD countries. It should be an obvious truth that it costs more to live longer.
And the people of France want to keep this system and improve it. They believe that spending more national wealth on the people is sensible and just.
With the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, and his corporate backers threatening to raise the retirement age by two years, the opinion polls consistently show that the vast majority of those polled oppose the change.
To bring this opinion to the attention of France’s elites, two million people rallied and marched throughout France on Thursday, January 19; in Paris alone, the march extended for two and a half miles.
Rather than bow down to the demands for austerity and competitiveness made by capital, working people in France are fighting to retain what earlier generations have won. They do not see the fate of the elderly as negotiable.
Instead, the people defend senior benefits as an act of solidarity and not charity.
By delaying retirement benefits for two years and shortening the retirements of French workers, politicians believe that they could save as much as 150 billion dollars per year. Of course, this “savings” will never benefit working people.
However, it is thievery with the stolen national wealth redirected toward shoring up the fortunes of the ruling class.
The day after the massive demonstrations, President Macron announced that his administration planned to increase French spending on the military by 115-120 billion dollars per year over the next six years! So the proposed savings will go into the pockets of the armament industry and further increase the tensions in Europe unleashed by the war in Ukraine.
Since the consolidation of nation-states, rulers have used war and the threat of war to rally support. Not only is the war in Ukraine a reckless step toward regional, if not global, war, but the governing cliques are using it to justify their hold on power. Military spending is exploding across the region. Fear of a mythical Russian march to the sea serves the interest of all of the capitalist powers in the Euro-Atlantic area.
As it was in the twentieth century, war is the answer to the collapse of the traditional parties; war is the distraction from the inability of the center forces to rule effectively; war is the answer given to the masses searching for political alternatives to the misrule of the few.
But if the majority of French voters oppose Macron’s initiative, how did he get reelected? He never hid his agenda from the people. If sixty to eighty percent of the voters oppose his policies, what is the secret of his electoral victory?
Macron’s election was the result of the dilemma presented to voters in nearly all of the so-called “advanced democracies” — those countries organized around mature capitalist economic relations, but governed by a parliamentary system with nominally universal suffrage.
Where these countries exist– especially the US and Europe, but others as well– voters must choose between two ugly options. They can support political parties that have abdicated social welfare for the individualistic, winner-take-all “justice” of the market. Or, on other hand, they can opt for the bogus anti-elitist populism of the refashioned right.
Understandably, many voters have turned against traditional parties that have been won over to “serving” social justice through the mechanism of private firms, NGOs, foundations, and charitable institutions. The US Democratic Party, UK Labour, the German SPD, Italy’s Democrats, etc. have abandoned their traditional posture of partisanship for the working class and surrendered to the philosophy of “a rising tide lifts all boats” — the politics that is dismantling the welfare state safety net.
With the traditional center-left disregarding the working class and with working people slammed by a global shift in wealth distribution, a privatization and dismantling of public infrastructure, and a radical restructuring of employment away from high-paying jobs, voters are looking for alternatives.
Sections of the traditional right– refashioned to attack indifferent elites, construct handy scapegoats, and offer easy, but misdirected solutions– have rushed to fill the political void. Politicians like Trump, Boris Johnson, Orbán, Le Pen, Meloni have opportunistically capitalized upon the vacuum left by the mutation of the center-left parties. Their faux-populism captured much of the forgotten working class, desperate for an alternative, any alternative.
As the traditional center-left lost ground, it raised the alarm of extremism, even fascism. Like the bourgeois parties of the past, the mainstream parties resort to fear-mongering, rather than a critical examination of their trajectory, their departure from their purported advocacy for the masses. Whether it was touting the danger of the ultra-right or trumpeting the emergence of fascism, the center-left sought to rally voters around a united front against Trump, Le Pen, Meloni, et al., a solely defensive strategy that, at best, only forestalled the continuing influence of right-wing populism.
It is in this context, following this cautious, defensive strategy, that Macron won re-election. Against the rise of the right-populist National Rally party and its presidential candidate, Marine le Pen, the traditional French parties– including the center-left and the new left– unconditionally threw their support behind the “safe” alternative. The left neither sought nor received any major concessions from Macron for their votes. While they drew some satisfaction from stopping Le Pen, the left now faces a Macron determined to strip the working class of hard-won gains, ironically, a move that Le Pen does not support.
Those on the left who embrace the tactic of unconditional unity against the right as an electoral strategy should take a hard, sober look at how it played out in France. Happily, millions of French citizens are rising to the challenge now posed by rallying behind a “lesser of two evils,” a “lesser” that may prove far more destructive of living standards than the “other evil.”
As history all too often proves, giving voters something to vote against can, at best, temporarily retard the advance of the false friends of the people. Decades of fealty to the “lesser evil” myth has only spawned an ever more skeptical, cynical, frustrated electorate, desperate for an alternative. Absent a left that stands for something, voters will continue to consider faux-populism as a legitimate alternative.
Ministers say exceptional security needed but rights groups warn new law could extend police powers permanently
The French government is fast-tracking special legislation for the 2024 Paris Olympics that would allow the use of video surveillance assisted by artificial intelligence (AI) systems.
Ministers have argued that certain exceptional security measures are needed to ensure the smooth running of the events that will attract 13 million spectators, but rights groups have warned France is seeking to use the Games as a pretext to extend police surveillance powers, which could then become permanent.
Dévore Food, the Frech plant-based meat startup founded by conventional meat lovers, has released its first products.
More than two years of development have delivered with Dévore says are meat analogs that offer improved taste, texture, and performance. The first products on offer are Nugs and Strips, which the company says are both more affordable than organic chicken.
A new, responsible way of eating
“We wanted to offer a new responsible way of eating based on clean food, in line with our values,” co-founder Eugénie Le Dressay said in a statement. “Products to be devoured without any complexes, with your eyes closed!”
Le Dressay co-founded Dévore with entrepreneur Vasco Duarte Ribeiro two years ago after assessing their conventional meat consumption.
Dévore Foods is bringing plants to meat-loving France | Courtesy
Despite France’s long history as a meat-eating nation, a growing number of French people have begun reducing their consumption of meat and other animal products. Data from 2021 found nearly half of French citizens have reduced their meat intake in the last three years.
Le Dressay says the made-in-Fance vegetarian meat from Dévore is rich in protein just like conventional meat but low in saturated fat as well as providing a good source of dietary fiber. The co-founder points to the company’s lower environmental footprint, too, which Le Dressay says is “three times less energy-consuming than chicken,” in terms of CO2, water pollution, and land mobilization.
Accessible analogs
“It was important for us to make our products accessible to make life easier for people who want to reduce their meat consumption, whether they are flexitarians, teenagers who have the munchies, or parents who don’t have the time to cook. Cheaper than a free-range chicken and just as generous, our products are good for everyone: tasty and balanced for humans, respectful of animals and sustainable for the planet,” says Ribeiro.
Burger King has embraced vegan bacon from France’s La Vie | Courtesy
Dévore’s launch comes on the heels of a number of plant-based launches in France. Last summer, HappyVore nabbed $36.8 million along with France’s largest vegan meat production facility. Last February, French supermarket chain Carrefour opened what it says was the first vegan butcher counter in the country. And the Natalie Portman-backed La Vie has seen its vegan bacon become a mainstay at Burger King locations across Europe.
The first two Dévore vegan chicken products are now available via the company’s website, in select grocery stores and markets, and through foodservice channels.
Millions of workers and youth in France mobilised on January 19 against the government’s latest attack on pensions. John Mullen explains the background.
The streets of France filled with outraged workers on Thursday as rail employees, teachers, and others walked off the job to protest President Emmanuel Macron’s deeply unpopular plan to overhaul the nation’s pension system by raising the official retirement age from 62 to 64. The union-led demonstrations — which ground significant portions of the country, including many schools and transportation…
A day of strikes and protests kicked off in France on Thursday 19 January. They’re set to disrupt transport and schooling across the country as workers oppose a deeply unpopular pensions overhaul.
The changes presented by president Emmanuel Macron’s government last week would raise the retirement age for most people from 62 to 64, and increase the years of contributions required for a full pension.
France’s trade unions immediately called for a mass mobilisation. This is the first time they have united in such a way since 12 years ago, when the retirement age was hiked to 62 from 60.
Inspiration
Workers in France signalled the start of their resistance with burning torches as they set out in defence of their pensions:
Workers with torches in France to announce tomorrow's general strike to defend pensions pic.twitter.com/SUzyY51EUu
French worker’s militancy is well-known – not least when compared to British workers. However, the UK has seen waves of strikes recently. Many people here seem to have been inspired by the idea of bigger, more coordinated action:
So France has a general strike due to Macron wanting to raise retirement age, from 62 to 64, we need a general strike to get our country back out of the Tory hands, return retirement to 60 for all and decent pay rises for all. #GeneralElectionN0W#GeneralStrike
One commenter suggested the use of some of the militantly disruptive French tactics employed over the years:
We need a #GeneralStrike NOW. Why are Brits so PASSIVE when their govt is so obviously SHAFTING them? . If this was France there'd be cattle on Paris streets, lorries blocking roads, and students revolting.
The British labour movement – distinct from the Labour Party – is in a moment of intense action. Many industries, like nursing and teaching, are currently fighting for better conditions, and some are actually winning against their tight-fisted bosses.
There is still more to do the advance the struggle here in the UK. We could do much worse than look to our French counterparts for examples of passionate protest and mass resistance. After all, at its very best, the workers’ struggle should have no borders
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
President Édouard Fritch of French Polynesia says he wants to boost funds to study journalism in French Polynesia in a bid to help strengthen the media industry quality, reports RNZ Pacific.
According to the local Ministry of Education, the amount given for study grants will vary from US$536 to US$1341 per month, depending on the level of study.
Fritch told La Première television about the “growing threat of false information” and the importance of reliable news outlets.
“Those social media pages escape the realm of news outlets, they shy away from all verification and create confusion and worse, they act as the public’s spokesperson,” he said.
“That is why I think it is a must that the journalism sector must be supported by the country.”
La Première in Tahiti heads the audience share with 36.5 percent. Figures for other territories are: French Guyana 33.4 percent, Mayotte 31.4 percent, New Caledonia 30.2 percent, Gaudeloupe 27.1 percent, Martinique 18.1 percent, and Réunion 14.5 percent.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
The Canary recently reported that those who died on 23 December were “Abdurrahman Kizil, singer and political refugee Mir Perwer, and Emine Kara, a leader of the movement of Kurdish women in France”. Glen Black wrote:
Police arrested Malet after the murders, and charged him on 26 December. Malet told investigators at the time that he had a “pathological” hatred for foreigners and wanted to “murder migrants”. As well as killing Kizil, Perwer, and Kara, Malet wounded a further three people. The suspect had a violent criminal history. At the time of the murders, he had just left detention for attacking a Paris refugee camp with a sabre in 2021.
Thousands attended the funeral in Paris on 3 January, and French police attacked the mourners.
The attack comes ten years after Turkish intelligence agent Ömer Güney assassinated Sakine Cansız (Sara), Fidan Doğan (Rojbîn), and Leyla Şaylemez (Ronahî) in a similar attack in Paris. Kurdish freedom movement news agency ANF Firat wrote that there has been no justice for Sara, Rojbîn and Leyla in the ten years since. According to ANF:
justice remains far and so does truth
London demonstrators demand action
The Kurdish People’s Democratic Assembly of Britain (NADEK) held a demonstration outside the French embassy in London on 9 January, where they remembered both massacres.
People tweeted news from the demonstration:
Members of the Kurdish community in London protested outside the French Embassy today to demand the French government open 'secret files' that will shed light on the Turkish state's involvement in the assassinations of three Kurdish women activists in Paris on 9/10 January 2013. pic.twitter.com/Qpl4NvPbbW
Ten years on, there has been no justice for Sakine, Fidan and Leyla or any of the thousands of other women assassinated, raped, tortured and murdered by the Turkish state. We demand the UK, France, the European Union and international organizations take action to hold Turkey to account and to bring the real murderers to justice.
The group demanded that:
The UK, France, EU and the international community must launch a proper and thorough investigation into the chain of command which led to these deaths.
“the second triple murder in 10 years”
On the same day in Cardiff, around 40 demonstrators gathered to remember those who died in the attacks.
A vigil was held in Cardiff city centre, and then the demonstrators moved to a statue of Lloyd George. The group explained why in a press release:
Lloyd George, the Welsh prime minister of Britain was responsible for the partition of Kurdistan 100 years ago. The partition of Kurdistan, meant that in Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran Kurds are being massacred to this day.
Jill Davies from Kurdish Solidarity Cymru said:
Kurds are being forcibly assimilated, murdered and tortured, this is happening not only in the middle east but also in Europe. This triple murder is not the first time for this to happen. France failed to protect its Kurdish born citizens that came to France to flee violence
Wales is not innocent either, a Welsh prime minister was behind the partition of Kurdistan, and to this day we have statues of him in Cardiff and Caernarfon. There is even a Lloyd George museum that fails to mention his role in the partition that had lead to war that lasts to this day. There are 40 million Kurdish people worldwide, they are the largest nation without a state in terms of population.
‘Violence is following us here’
Baris Rubar, a member of the Kurdish community in Wales said:
We flee from our countries so that we can live in safety, only to have the violence follow us here. The European governments have a responsibility to protect its citizens. This is the second triple murder in 10 years in Paris of Kurdish activists. We believe there is something sinister going on and that the Turkish state should be investigated for these assassinations.
Kurdish organisations have vowed to keep on organising until they get justice for those killed in the two Paris massacres. They deserve support and solidarity in their struggle.
Featured image via Kurdish Solidarity Cymru (with permission)
A large march took place in Paris, on January 7, to demand justice for three Kurdish female activists assassinated by a Turkish gunman in that city 10 years ago. Peter Boyle spoke to Kurdish solidarity activist and writer Sarah Glynn who participated in the march.
Kurdish people from across Europe travelled to the suburbs of Paris, France, on 3 January for the funeral of three Kurds murdered in a racist attack. Gunman William Malet killed two men and one woman on 23 December, in a attack on the Ahmet Kaya community centre in Paris’ 10th district.
His victims were Abdurrahman Kizil, singer and political refugee Mir Perwer, and Emine Kara, a leader of the movement of Kurdish women in France.
Organisers chartered buses to bring people from across France and some neighbouring countries to the ceremony in Villiers-le-Bel, north of Paris, local sources said. Tears and cries of “Martyrs live forever!” greeted the coffins, wrapped in the flags of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Kurdish-controlled Rojava territory in northern Syria.
The huge crowd followed the funeral on giant screens erected in a car park. The screens showed coffins surrounded by wreaths beneath a portrait of imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.
Police arrested Malet after the murders, and charged him on 26 December. Malet told investigators at the time that he had a “pathological” hatred for foreigners and wanted to “murder migrants”. As well as killing Kizil, Perwer, and Kara, Malet wounded a further three people. The suspect had a violent criminal history. At the time of the murders, he had just left detention for attacking a Paris refugee camp with a sabre in 2021.
A history of Turkish persecution
Many Kurds in France’s 150,000-strong community refuse to believe Malet acted alone. They called his actions a “terrorist” attack, and pointed the finger at Turkey.
Ten years ago, men believed to have ties with Turkey’s secret services shot dead three Kurds connected to the PKK. The murders took place in Paris’s 10th District. Coincidentally, their funerals were held in almost exactly the same spot as those of Kizil, Perwer, and Kara. More recently, the now-banned Turkish ultra-nationalist group Grey Wolves was blamed for an attack in Lyon. Members of the group beat men at the city’s Kurdish cultural centre in April 2022.
Celik, a local who attended the 3 January funeral, said:
We feel like they’re doing everything they can to crush us, whether it’s here or in Turkey.
Malet’s murders led to confrontations between Kurdish people and French police in the streets of the capital.
A chance to pay respects
The Democratic Council of Kurds in France (CDKF) said the 3 January ceremony was an:
opportunity for those who wish to pay their final respects… before the bodies are repatriated to their native soil [for burial]
CDKF activists will lead a march on 4 January in tribute to the December victims. The route will include the street where the shootings took place.
On 7 January, a “grand march” of the Kurdish community will set off from Paris’s Gare du Nord rail hub. Organisers had originally planned to mark the 10th anniversary of the 2013 shootings, but will now mark the most recent murders.
Thousands attend the funeral of the martyrs of #Paris terrorist attack
The Democratic Kurdish Council in France called for participation in a march to be held in the French capital on January 7. pic.twitter.com/MhgrE7LJhh
With murders, contract killings, ambushes, war zone deaths and fatal injuries, a staggering total of 1668 journalists have been killed worldwide in connection with their work in the last two decades (2003-2022), according to the tallies by the Paris-based global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) based on its annual round-ups.
This gives an average of more than 80 journalists killed every year. The total killed since 2000 is 1787.
RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said:
“Behind the figures, there are the faces, personalities, talent and commitment of those who have paid with their lives for their information gathering, their search for the truth and their passion for journalism.
In each of its annual round-ups, RSF has continued to document the unjustifiable violence that has specifically targeted media workers.
This year’s end is an appropriate time to pay tribute to them and to appeal for full respect for the safety of journalists wherever they work and bear witness to the world’s realities.
Darkest years The annual death tolls peaked in 2012 and 2013 with 144 and 142 journalists killed, respectively. These peaks, due in large measure to the war in Syria, were followed by a gradual fall and then historically low figures from 2019 onwards.
Sadly, the number of journalists killed in connection with their work in 2022 — 58 according to RSF’s Press Freedom Barometer on December 28 — was the highest in the past four years and was 13.7 percent higher than in 2021, when 51 journalists were killed.
15 most dangerous countries During the past two decades, 80 percent of the media fatalities have occurred in 15 countries. The two countries with the highest death tolls are Iraq and Syria, with a combined total of 578 journalists killed in the past 20 years, or more than a third of the worldwide total.
They are followed by Afghanistan, Yemen and Palestine. Africa has not been spared, with Somalia coming next.
With 47.4 percent of the journalists killed in 2022, America is nowadays clearly the world’s most dangerous continent for the media, which justifies the implementation of specific protection policies.
Asia also has many countries on this tragic list, including the Philippines, with more than 100 journalists killed since the start of 2003, Pakistan with 93, and India with 58.
Women journalists also victims Finally, while many more male journalists (more than 95 percent) have been killed in war zones or in other circumstances than their female counterparts, the latter have not been spared.
A total of 81 women journalists have been killed in the past 20 years — 4.86 percent of the total media fatalities.
Since 2012, 52 have been killed, in many cases after investigating women’s rights. Some years have seen spikes in the number of women journalists killed, and some of the spikes have been particularly alarming.
In 2017, ten women journalists were killed (as against 64 male journalists) — a record 13.5 percent of that year’s total media fatalities.
Pacific Media Watch collaborates with Reporters Without Borders.
With the defeat of Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, many of us hoped that the European far right would suffer a similar decline. In office, Trump had endorsed the post-fascist French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, sent U.S. diplomats to the U.K. to intercede on behalf of the jailed racist and far right activist Tommy Robinson, and inspired the growth outside the U.S.
French Polynesia’s pro-independence leader Oscar Temaru has accused the environment minister of defamation over seabed mining.
Last week, Environment Minister Heremoana Maamaatuaiahutapu claimed Temaru’s party Tavini Huiraatira did not support an assembly vote on a seabed mining moratorium because Temaru had signed a mining contract with China when he was president.
Temaru denied this, saying it had never been a policy of Tavini Huiraatira party to “sell off the country or its soul”.
The moratorium called for a block on any activity until more is known as there had to be evaluations to understand the risks seabed mining posed to the environment.
Temaru said his party did not support the assembly’s moratorium text because it did not tie mining rights to decolonisation.
The Tavini wants the moratorium linked to a 2016 UN resolution which urges the administering power to guarantee the permanent sovereignty of the people of French Polynesia over its natural resources, including marine resources and submarine minerals.
While Temaru’s party wants to formalise recognition of the property rights of French Polynesia, France considers the exclusive economic zone of French Polynesia to be a French national asset.
Huge economic zone
French Polynesia’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is more than 4.7 million sq km and accounts for almost half of the water surface under French jurisdiction.
Temaru said the UN process called on France to respect the territory’s right to sovereignty over all resources, including those at sea.
He said under French law, the state could claim French Polynesia’s resources if they were declared of strategic value.
Paris believes it has the rights to the territory’s seabed and continental shelves, which are thought to be rich in rare earths.
Three years ago, France submitted a claim to extend the continental shelves in French Polynesia by almost a quarter of a million sq km.
The submission had been made in New York at the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in the presence of Maamaatuaiahutapu.
Obligations to indigenous
In 2019, a lawyer of the group Blue Ocean Law Julian Aguon said that while France had designs to exploit seabed resources it also had fiduciary obligations as by law the indigenous people had permanent sovereignty over natural resources.
He said France was a party to both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, which were binding treaties.
Aguon said a precedent was set by the International Court of Justice when it ruled in favour of Nauru which challenged Australia for breaching trusteeship obligations over phosphate mining.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
On November 30, the French baguette was formally added to the United Nations’ Intangible Cultural Heritage list. The bureaucrats had finally gotten hold of a glorified bread stick, adding it to their spreadsheet list of cultural items worthy of preservation. A delighted French President took the moment to gloat at the French Embassy in Washington. “In these few centimetres passed from hand to hand lies the spirit of French know-how,” stated a glowing Emmanuel Macron.
The list, for which UNESCO is responsible for observing, includes some 678 traditions from 140 countries. The Slovenians have beekeeping, for instance; Tunisia has harissa; Zambia can call upon the significance of the Kalela dance. Such traditions can span several countries: the listing of states for the Lipizzan horse breeding tradition reads like an inventory of the lost Austro-Hungarian empire, echoing Joseph Roth’s Radetzkymarsch.
The baguette, one of France’s grandest gastronative examples, is celebrated as a labour-intensive product marked by patience. Lengthy periods of fermentation are required, including wheat of appropriate quality, leaving a distinct gold crispness. Fats are eschewed, as are any improvers or additives, which are prohibited by the decree of September 13, 1993. The characteristic cuts with 14 facets act like ceremonial scars. It is also the hallmark of the traditional boulangeries, which are struggling, notably in rural areas, to survive.
“Many have tried to make it; they just made something industrial which has no taste,” the grinning Macron exclaimed. “And this ‘French touch’ we have in our baguette is the one we have in other sectors: It’s this additional know-how, this extra soul. So, congratulations to our baguette for today.”
Macron’s dig at the industrialised, quickly made baguette is well-founded, and it was appropriate for him to be doing it in the land of mass-industrialised food practices. But the baguette has become, in time, a French imperial marker with local variations. The Vietnamese famously have their Bánh mì, which has become an international food presence across the global diaspora, though modifications in terms of part substitution of rice flour for wheat flour take place. The influence in western and northern Africa is also clear. The streets of Dakar are marked by baguette stands.
As food is as much a political statement as a culturally boisterous one, political figures expressed their delight at the baguette’s listing. Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak tweeted about the ubiquity of the baguette in terms of French habits: “morning, noon and evening, the baguette is part of the daily life of the French”. The listing was “a great recognition for our artisans and the unifying places that are our bakeries.”
Another important figure in promoting the baguette’s case for UNESCO recognition, Dominique Anract, called the announcement “good news in a complicated environment.” As president of the National Federation of French Bakeries and Patisseries, Anract almost struck a wistful note about old habits. “When a baby cuts his teeth, his parents give him a stump of baguette to chew off.”
Much of this belies the fact that the French, as serious as they are about eating bread, consume less of it and are facing changing lifestyles and the hollowing out of its evocative rural villages. Since 1950, the consumption of bread has fallen by a startling two-thirds. But modern food politics demands modern laws; and a recent promulgation demands the use of certain percentages regarding the use of wheat. Eventually, much is at stake for the continued making and consumption of this thin bread morsel.
For an individual such as Steven Kaplan, a Brooklyn-born historian who has spent almost all his academic life focused on bread, the UNESCO addition could only cause displeasure. The ecstasy of French politicians about the baguette belies the fact that such a listing will simply serve to encourage inferior alternatives. Under the generic term of “baguette de pain”, as opposed to “baguette de tradition”, the white flour baguette, “which is generally of very mediocre quality” is legitimised. “For me, who has long campaigned for artisanal savoir-faire, this is an appalling regression.”
Whenever a committee meets, politics will arise. The decision making of UNESCO is no exception. Was there a reason why Ukrainian borscht soup needed to make the list? Yes, according to committee members, because of Russia’s warring efforts in Ukraine. A gastronomic threat had been identified, with UNESCO claiming that “armed conflict has threatened the viability” of the dish, as “people not only cannot cook or grow local vegetables for borscht, but also cannot gather [to make the dish] … undermining the social and cultural well-being of communities.”
Borscht brings its own brand of culinary politics, and charting countries which consume this soup is to revisit dead empires and their shadows: Imperial Russia, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Igor Bednyakov, chef at the Moscow restaurant Bochka, advises that the Cossacks cooked up the stew during the siege of Azov in 1637, a fascinating twist to the tale that has done little to neutralise Ukrainian-Russian debates on the issue.
Ukrainian food nativists, for one, point to earlier dates and the addition of beetroot, while the Russian Federation’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is adamant that borscht is a “symbol of traditional cuisine” and a “timeless classic” of Russian origin. Not only do they want to steal our territory, comes the Ukrainian retort, but they want to appropriate our dishes. Be that as it may, empires may perish but the dishes linger, their origins of necessity lost.
The UNESCO listing of borscht was merely another front in the battle between Kyiv and Moscow. “Victory in the war for borscht is ours!” exclaimed Ukrainian Minister for Culture Oleksandr Tkachenko. Food, as the late Anthony Bourdain reminded us, really is politics.
Gérard Araud was not mincing his words. As France’s former ambassador to Washington, he had seen enough. At a November 14 panel hosted by the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft titled “Is America Ready for a Multipolar Word?”, Araud decried the “economic warfare” being waged by the United States against China, expressing the view that Europe was concerned by the evident “containment policy” being pursued.
Araud is very much the diplomat establishment figure, having also served as French representative to the United Nations from 2009 to 2014. But despite his pedigree, he was most keen to fire off a few salvos against such concepts as the “rules-based order” so treasured by the Anglosphere and the “West” more broadly defined. “To be frank, I’ve always been extremely sceptical about this idea of a ‘rules-based order’.” Both he and the French in general loved the United Nations, “but the Americans not too much”.
With unerring frankness, he also noted that the UN and broader international hierarchy was dominated by the US-European bloc. The undersecretaries to the organisation reflected that fact, as did the stewardship of the World Bank and the IMF. “So that’s the first element: this order is our order.”
The second element was historical: the balance of power as it was in the war-ruined world of 1945. “Really people forget that, if China and Russia are obliged to oppose [with] their veto, it is because frankly the Security Council is most of the time, 95% of the time, has a Western-oriented majority.”
French President Emmanuel Macron has adopted elements of Araud’s thinking, notably regarding the problems and limits of US domination, while still reasserting the value of France’s own global imprint. Such actions and sombre strategizing are taking place in the shadow of the West’s decline. In a recent closed-door meeting with his top diplomats, Macron remarked that “the international order is being upended in a whole new way. It is a transformation of the international order. I must admit that Western hegemony may be coming to an end”.
This theme of decline in Macron’s is an ongoing Spenglerian motif. It surfaced at the end of the G-7 summit in 2019, where he reflected on the decline of Western dominance while pondering the finance-obsessed nature of the global market economy. This was pretty rich coming from a banker, though he was certainly right on the issue of greater multipolarity.
To his diplomats, Macron paddled in the waters of history, reflecting on French power in the 18th century, the Industrial Revolution led by Britain in the 19th century, and the brute dominance of the United States from the 20th century. With typically Gallic, broad stroke synthesis, he suggested that “France is culture, England is industry, and America is war.”
Then came the finger pointing, sharply directed at the biggest of culprits and the underminers of the West. “Within Western countries, many wrong choices the United States has made in the face of crises have deeply shaken our hegemony.” It was not something that began with the Trump administration; previous US presidents “made other wrong choices long before Trump, Clinton’s China policy, Bush’s war policy, Obama’s world financial crisis, and quantitative easing policy.”
To this swipe at Washington could be added the role of emerging powers, which were underestimated by the West “not just two years ago, but as early as ten or twenty years ago.” He admitted that “China and Russia have achieved great success over the years under different leadership styles.”
Despite such rueful admissions about decline, Macron is still keen to pursue a form of geopolitical balancing, notably in the Indo-Pacific. This is code for the pursuing French interests in a region that is increasingly looking like exploding into a folly-driven conflict between the Chinese and US camps. But Paris is hardly going to miss out pushing the credentials of its defence industry, which took a bruising with the scuppering of the Attack Class submarine deal with the Australian government in September last year.
In February, Macron convinced Jakarta to ink a deal worth $8.1 billion for 42 Rafale fighter jets produced by Dassault Aviation. Two diesel-electric Scorpène-class attack submarines produced by the Naval Group have also been added to the mix, along with ammunition, making the arrangements with Jakarta some of the most lucrative for France in Southeast Asia.
On his current visit to Washington, Macron is facing those old problems of US power. While Australia was designated assassin in killing off the submarine contract, the ammunition came from Washington as part of the AUKUS security pact, a spear pointing at China in the Indo-Pacific. President Joe Biden has merely described the handling of the whole matter as “clumsy”.
Then come such issues as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which gives advantageous climate subsidies to US companies over their European counterparts, and how the Ukraine War is to be addressed. Biden has no inclination to speak to Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin, content to let the war rage as long as it bleeds Russia; Macron has been more than willing to keep the lines open, acknowledging that diplomacy, however frail, must at least be drip-fed.
In his own reflections on what could be done regarding the US-Western parochialism of the rules-based order, Araud made the obvious point. Any genuine international system purporting to be undergirded by rules had to integrate “all the major stakeholders into managing of the world, you know, really bringing in the Chinese, the Indians, and really other countries, and trying to build with them, on an equal basis, the world of tomorrow.” What a daring idea, and one that is bound to avoid a global conflict. For that reason, it won’t be embraced.
Salah Hamouri expected to be deported after decision on grounds of ‘breach of allegiance’ to state
Israel has stripped a prominent Palestinian-French human rights lawyer of his Jerusalem residency and is expected to deport him to France, a legal first that sets a dangerous precedent for other Palestinians with dual nationality in the contested city.
Salah Hamouri, 37, had his Jerusalem residency revoked in October 2021 on the grounds of a “breach of allegiance” to the Israeli state, based on secret evidence. Israel alleges he is a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which is designated as a terrorist organisation by Israel’s western allies.
On the 61st anniversary of the first raising of West Papua’s symbol of independence — 1 December 1961 — the Morning Star flag:
We, the Indigenous caucus of the movement for self-determination, decolonisation, nuclear justice, and demilitarisation of the Pacific, call for coordinated action for key campaigns that impact the human rights, sovereignty, wellbeing and prosperity of Pacific peoples across our region.
As guardians of our Wansolwara (Tok Pisin term meaning “One Salt Water,” or “One Ocean, One People”), we are united in seeking the protection, genuine security and vitality for the spiritual, cultural and economic base for our lives, and we will defend it at all costs. We affirm the kōrero of the late Father Walter Lini, “No one is free, until everyone is free!”
We thank the mana whenua of Ōtepoti, Te Ao o Rongomaraeroa, the National Centre for Peace and Conflict and Kā Rakahau o Te Ao Tūroa Centre for Sustainability at the University of Otago for their hospitality in welcoming us as their Pacific whānau to their unceded and sovereign lands of Aotearoa.
We acknowledge the genealogy of resistance we share with community activists who laid the mat in our shared struggles in the 1970s and 1980s. Our gathering comes 40 years after the first Te Hui Oranga o Te Moana Nui a Kiwa, hosted by the Pacific Peoples Anti Nuclear Action Committee (PPANAC) at Tātai Hono in Tamaki Makaurau.
Self-determination and decolonisation
We remain steadfast in our continuing solidarity with our sisters and brothers in West Papua, who are surviving from and resisting against the Indonesian genocidal regime, injustice and oppression. We bear witness for millions of West Papuans murdered by this brutal occupation. We will not be silent until the right to self-determination of West Papua is fully achieved.
We urge our Forum leaders to follow through with Indonesia to finalise the visit from the UN Commissioner for Human Rights to West Papua, as agreed in the Leaders Communiqué 2019 resolution.
We are united in reaffirming the inalienable right of all Indigenous peoples to self-determination and demand the sovereignty of West Papua, Kanaky, Mā’ohi Nui, Bougainville, Hawai’i, Guåhan, the Northern Mariana Islands, Rapa Nui, Aotearoa, and First Nations of the lands now called Australia.
Of priority, we call on the French government to implement the United Nations self-governing protocols in Mā’ohi Nui and Kanaky. We urge France to comply with the resolution set forth on May 17th, 2013 which declared French Polynesia to be a non-self-governing territory, and the successive resolutions from 2013 to 2022. The “empty seat policy” that the administering power has been practising since 2013 and attempts to remove Mā’ohi Nui from the list of countries to be decolonised have to stop. We call on France to immediately resume its participation in the work of the C-24 and the 4th Commission of the United Nations.
Members of the Indigenous Caucus of the Nuclear Connections Across Oceania Conference. Image: Sina Brown-Davis/APR
Nuclear justice
We grieve for the survivors and victims who lost their lives to the nuclear violence caused by over 315 nuclear weapons detonated in Marshall Islands, Australia, Kiribati, Johnston Atoll and Mā’ohi Nui by the United States, United Kingdom/Australia and France. The legacy and ongoing nuclear violence in our region is unfinished business and calls for recognition, reconciliation and reparations to be made by nuclear colonisers are long overdue.
We call for the United States, United Kingdom/Australia and France to deliver fair and just
compensation to Indigenous civilians, workers and servicemen for the health and environmental harms, including intergenerational trauma caused by nuclear testing programs (and subsequent illegal medical experiments in the Marshall Islands). The compensation schemes currently in place in all states constitute a grave political failure of these aforementioned nuclear testing states and serve to deceive the world that they are recognising their responsibility to address the nuclear legacy. We call for the United States, United Kingdom/Australia, and France to establish or otherwise significantly improve
accessible healthcare systems and develop and fund cancer facilities within the Marshall Islands, Kiribati/Australia and Mā’ohi Nui respectively, where alarming rates of cancers, birth defects and other related diseases continue to claim lives and cause socio-economic distress to those affected. The descendants of the thousands of dead and the thousands of sick are still waiting for real justice to be put in place with the supervision of the international community.
We demand that the French government take full responsibility for the racist genocidal health effects of nuclear testing on generations of Mā’ohi and provide full transparency, rapid assessment and urgent action for nuclear contamination risks. While the President of France boasts on the international stage of his major environmental and ecological transition projects, in the territory of Mā’ohi Nui, the French government’s instructions are to definitively “turn the page of nuclear history.” This is a white-washing and colonial gas-lighting attitude towards the citizens and now the mokopuna of Mā’ohi Nui. It is
imperative for France to produce the long-awaited report on the environmental, economic and sanitary consequences of its 193 nuclear tests conducted between 1966 and 1996.
We proclaim our commitment to the abolition of nuclear weapons and call all states of the Pacific region who have not done so to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), namely Australia, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands. We urge Pacific nations along with the world’s governments to contribute to the international trust fund for victims of nuclear weapons implemented by the TPNW. We urge Aotearoa/New Zealand and other states who have ratified the TPNW to follow through on their commitment to nuclear survivors, and to create a world free from the threat and harm of nuclear weapons through the universalisation of the TPNW. There can be no peace without justice.
We oppose the despicable proposal of Japan and the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to dump 1.3 million tonnes of radioactive wastewater next year in 2023, and support in solidarity with the citizens of Japan, East Asian states and Micronesian states who sit on the frontlines of this crisis. This is an act of trans-boundary harm upon the Pacific. We call on the New Zealand government and others to stay true to its commitment to a Nuclear Free Pacific and bring a case under the international tribunal for the Law of the Sea against the proposed radioactive release from TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi planned from 2023 to 2053.
Demilitarisation
We condemn the geopolitical order forced upon our nations by imperial powers, who claim to be our friends, yet treat our islands as collateral damage and use financial blackmail to bully us into submission. We demand that the United States remove and remediate all military bases, infrastructure, debris and nuclear and chemical waste from the Pacific. Of priority is the US-owned nuclear waste storage site of Runit Dome on Enewetak Atoll which threatens nuclear contamination of the ocean and marine-life, on which our lives depend. Furthermore, we call for all remaining American UXOs (unexploded ordnances) from World War II in the Solomon Islands, which cause the preventable deaths of more than 20 people every year to be removed immediately!
We support in solidarity with Kānaka Maoli and demand the immediate end to the biennial RIMPAC (Rim of the Pacific) exercises hosted in Honolulu, Hawai’i. We urge all the present participating militaries of RIMPAC to withdraw their participation in the desecration and plunder of Indigenous lands and seas. We support in solidarity with the Marianas and demand an end to munitions testing in the Northern Marianas and the development of new military bases. We rebuke the AUKUS trilateral military pact and the militarisation of unceded Aboriginal lands of the northern arc of Australia and are outraged at Australia’s plans to permit further military bases, six nuclear-capable B52s and eight nuclear-powered submarines to use our Pacific Ocean as a military playground and nuclear highway.
We call on all those committed to ending militarism in the Pacific to gather and organise in Hawai’i between 6-16 June 2024, during the Festival of the Pacific and bring these issues to the forefront to renew our regional solidarity and form a new coalition to build power to oppose all forms of military exercises (RIMPAC also returns in July -August 2024) and instead promote the genuine security of clean water, safe housing, healthcare and generative economies, rather than those of extraction and perpetual readiness for war.
We view colonial powers and their militaries to be the biggest contributors to the climate crisis, the continued extractive mining of our lands and seabeds and the exploitation of our resources. These exacerbate and are exacerbated by unjust structures of colonialism, militarism and geopolitical abuse. This environmental destruction shifts the costs to Pacific and Indigenous communities who are responsible for less than 1 percent of global climate emissions.
As Pacific peoples deeply familiar with the destruction of nuclear imperialism, we strongly disapprove of the new propaganda of nuclear industry lobbyists, attempting to sell nuclear power as the best solution for climate change. Similarly, we oppose the Deep Sea Mining (DSM) industry lobbyists that promote DSM as necessary for green technologies. We call for a Fossil Fuel Non-proliferation Treaty to be implemented by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and for safe and equitable transition to better energy solutions. We reject any military solution for the climate crisis!
We recognise the urgent need for a regional coordinator to be instituted to strategise collective grassroots movements for self-determination, decolonisation, nuclear justice and demilitarisation.
Our existence is our resistance.
We, the guardians of our Wansolwara, are determined to carry on the legacy and vision for a Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific.
Germany latest to end peacekeeping mission as operations prove unable to stop Islamic extremist insurgency
Thousands of international troops are withdrawing from Mali amid surging violence, growing Russian influence and an acute humanitarian crisis.
On Wednesday Germany became the latest country to end its participation in the UN peacekeeping mission in the unstable west African country. Earlier this week, British officials said that 300 British soldiers sent in 2020 to join the United Nations force would be returning earlier than planned.
It has been a year in which the far-right threat across Europe has been getting ever worse, writes John Mullen. Marine Le Pen’s party in France has had a series of successes and is hoping to build further in coming months. Determined opposition will be crucial.
The European Union’s Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell is not particularly perceived by the EU’s political elite or mainstream media as a rightwing ideologue or warmonger. But seen through a different, non-western prism, it is hard not to mistake him for one.
Borrell’s recent comments that “Europe is a garden” and that “the rest of the world is a jungle” were duly condemned as ‘racist’ by many politicians around the world, but mostly in the Global South. Borrell’s remarks, however, must also be viewed as an expression of superiority, not only of Borell personally, but of Europe’s ruling classes as a whole.
Particularly interesting about the EU top diplomat’s words are these inaccurate depictions of Europe and its relationship with the rest of the world: “We have built a garden”, “everything works” and “the jungle could invade the garden”.
Without delving too deep into what is obviously an entrenched superiority complex, Borell speaks as if an advocate of the so-called ‘Replacement Theory’, a racist notion advocated by the West’s – Europe especially – rightwing intellectuals, which sees refugees, migrants and non-Europeans as parasites aiming to destroy the continent’s supposedly perfect demographic, religious and social harmony.
If stretched further into a historical dimension, one also feels compelled to remind the EU leadership of the central role that European colonialism, economical exploitation, political meddling and outright military intervention have played in turning much of the world into a supposed ‘jungle’. Would Libya, for example, have been reduced to the status of a failed state if the West did not wage a major war starting in March 2011?
The imagined ‘jungle’ aside, Europe’s past and present reality strongly negates Borell’s ethnocentric view. Sadly, Europe is the birthplace of the most horrible pages of history, from colonialism and slavery to the nationalistic, fascist and nihilistic movements that defined most of the last three centuries.
Despite the desperate attempt to rewrite or ignore history in favor of a more amiable narrative focused on great splendors, technological advancement and civilizational triumph, Europe’s true nature continues to smolder underneath the ashes, ready to resurface whenever the geopolitical and socioeconomic factors take a wrong turn. The Syrian and Libyan refugee crisis, the Covid pandemic and, more recently, the Russia-Ukraine war are all examples of the proverbial wrong turn.
In fact, Borrell’s words, aimed to reassure Europe of its moral superiority, are but a foolhardy effort meant to conceal one of the most dramatic crises that Europe has experienced in nearly a century. The impact of this crisis on every aspect of European life cannot be overstated.
In an editorial published last September on the European Environment Agency (EEA) website, Hans Bruyninckx described the “state of multiple crises” that characterizes the European continent at the moment. “It seems as if we have been living through one crisis after another — a pandemic, extreme heatwaves and drought due to climate change, inflation, war and an energy crisis,” he wrote.
Instead of taking responsibility for this impending catastrophe, Europe’s ruling elites choose a different, though predictable route: blame others, especially the inhabitants of the non-European ‘jungle’.
Naturally, ordinary people throughout Europe who are already experiencing this harrowing reality hardly feel reassured by Borrell’s proclamation that “everything works”.
The risk of the resurgence of the far-right movements in Europe is now a real possibility. This danger was relatively mitigated by the setback of the extremist ‘Alternative for Germany’ and the victory of the Social Democrats in last year’s elections. Germany, however, is not the exception, as the European far-right is now back, virtually everywhere, and with a vengeance.
In France, Marine Le Pen’s far-right party gained a record 41% of the total vote (over 13 million) in April. True, Emmanuel Macron managed to hold off the advance of Le Pen’s National Rally, but his coalition has lost its parliamentary majority, and his leadership has been significantly weakened. Currently, the country is rocked by massive rallies and strikes, all protesting the soaring prices and deepening inflation.
Sweden is another example of the determined rise of the far-right. A right-wing coalition, which won the general elections last September, now dominates the country’s parliament. On October 17, it elected a new prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, whose government was made possible because of the support of the Sweden Democrats, a party with neo-Nazi roots and a harsh anti-immigration agenda. SD was crucial in determining the victory of the coalition and it is now suited to play the role of the kingmaker in critical decisions.
In Italy, too, the situation is dire. A future government is expected to bring together Giorgia Meloni – the leader of Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) – former right-wing Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s party, Forza Italia, and the extremist Matteo Salvini’s La Lega. Meloni’s party is rooted in the post-fascist tradition of the Italian Social Movement, which was formed in the aftermath of World War II by fascist politicians after their party was officially outlawed by the country’s progressive 1948 Constitution.
The shifting political grounds in Germany, France, Italy and Sweden have little to do with the ‘jungle’, and everything with the illusory European ‘garden.’ Europe’s extremism is a by-product of exclusively European historical experiences, ideologies and class struggles. Blaming Asians, Arabs or Africans for Europe’s “state of multiple crises” is not only self-deluding, indeed spiritless, but also obstructive to any healthy process of change.
Europe cannot fix its problems by blaming others, and the European ‘garden’, if it ever existed, is actually being ravaged by Europe’s own ruling elites – rich, detached and utterly dishonest.
• Romana Rubeo, an Italian journalist, contributed to this article.
Kevin s’approche de Port-Vila 
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