[The following interview, and its accompanying introduction, are taken from the February 18 issue of Inprecor, a fortnightly magazine published in Paris under the auspices of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International. The translation from French is by Intercontinental Press.J
As a result of the trip to France in late January by Jean-Marie Tjibaou, president of the Provisional Government of Kanaky, anticolonialist activities in solidarity with the struggle of the Kanak people moved to a higher stage. At present the struggle of the Kanak people is polarizing political forces in France. In addition, a large current of sympathy is beginning to take shape, rooting itself in the anticolonialist sentiments of many working-class and democratic activists.
The Association for Information and Support for the Rights of the Kanak People provides a united framework through which these sentiments can be expressed. The association organized a solidarity meeting that brought together more than 5,000 people in Paris on January 29. Surpassing all expectations, this meeting, the likes of which has not been seen in Paris for many years, testifies to the interest in the cause of the Kanak people.
As is noted in the Feb. 1, 1985, issue of Rouge — the weekly organ of the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR), French section of the Fourth International - "the Kanak people's cause is beginning to mobilize or remobilize a whole layer of workers and young people who no longer accept the government's policy or the arrogance of the right wing and the fascists. " Many meetings in solidarity with the Kanak people are, in fact, attacked by fascist groupings.
The breadth of the mobilization in France was also seen in the first meeting of the solidarity committees that have already been set up in more than a dozen cities.
The scope of the mobilization also owes something to the pro-unity character of the Association, which rejects any political exclusionism and appeals to all anticolonialists.
Our comrades from the Socialist Revolution Group (GRS), the Antilles section of the Fourth International [based in the French-controlled Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique], have also carried out numerous solidarity activities. They published a special issue of their magazine Tranchées ("Trenches") devoted to New Caledonia, entitled "The Truth About the Struggle of the Kanak People." The GRS has also participated in all the meetings held to try to set up united frameworks for solidarity work in Guadeloupe and in Martinique.
On January 14 that kind of support committee was set up in Fort-de-France, Martinique. It has the support of a large number of unaffiliated anticolonialist individuals and anticolonialist organizations like the GRS, the Vanguard Youth (JAG — youth organization of the GRS), and the Martinique Communist Party (PCM). A demonstration was organized January 18....
We are publishing below the interview Jean- Marie Tjibaou granted Rouge, which was published in its February 1 issue:
[The interview was conducted by Raphaël Duffleaux in Paris on January 30.]
Question. Your stay in Paris is coming to an end. What assessment would you make of it?
Answer. I would make a very, very positive assessment of it. But I must say that the pace of work brings to mind the pace of those people who used to be chained to boats to force them to row without stopping.
During this stay, I tried to do my best, and I think that from the vantage point of the struggle of the Kanak people a lot of progress was made. At the same time there was also growth in the level of consciousness of all the organizations that gave us suppon.
Q. What have been the reactions of the different political formations you met with?
A. I was received by the leaders of the Communist Party and the Socialist Party. These two big organizations reaffirmed their anticolonialism, although the effective support leaves a little to be desired.
Q. Did you get concrete commitments?
A. We welcomed with pleasure the call to the Parisian meeting by the CGT [General Confederation of Labor — the federation led by the CP]. The meeting with its leaders was a very gratifying and even surprising contact, because I had only known [CGT leader] Henri Krasucki through the media.
Also from the FEN (National Teachers Federation). The contacts with the FEN were all the more interesting because in New Caledonia itself, the SNIPEGC (the FEN-affiliate] has not been very open to the demands of the Kanak people. That makes their support here all the more important.
I must also thank the LCR, which, in liaison with the Association for Information and Support for the Rights of the Kanak People, has done a great deal of work. Your printing plant put out posters honoring Eloi Machoro and other posters with the flag of Kanaky.
I thank your members who organized a little party in our honor in your headquarters, which was a very warm and pleasant occasion.
We appreciated the strength of your support. The contacts that Alain Krivine made during his trip [to New Caledonia] aided us a great deal in concretizing the relations with your organization and all those here who support liberation struggles and the Kanak people. All this made it possible to have more authentic contact, because it was directly on the spot, and 1 must tip my hat to this special relationship.
We should also cite the contacts with other organizations such as the MRAP (Movement Against Racism, Anti-semitism, and for Peace); the League for the Rights of Man; Justice and Peace; the French Democratic Labor Federation (CFDT); the Protestant church in France.
I was not able to meet with leaders of the Catholic church, as I had hoped.
I also had an interview with Pierre Mauroy [a leader of the SP and former premier of France], who gave us his personal support.
But perhaps the most important thing was the meeting last Saturday with all the committees that have been set up around the country on the initiative of people who may never have seen a Kanak in their whole lives.
All this is moving, gratifying, and I think we are both part of the same movement of sympathy for a cause that must serve the Kanak people and must also serve to raise progressive consciousness in France.
Q. You are returning to Kanaky today. Based on the lessons you draw from this stay, how do you view the next stage of the struggle?
A. Yesterday people began to raise the idea of an action on a national scale in New Caledonia, and even internationally, around April 20, after Easter.
This remains to be determined on the spot with the local committees. This could concretize and broaden what happened yesterday with the meeting. It was truly an extraordinary meeting that warmed our hearts, as well as all those who prepared it. It warmed the hearts of all the militants fighting for something better, all of us.
Last night's meeting was a decisive action. This type of action carried out in France is very important for us, especially before the vote on self-determination, to have the Caledonians take a decisive position. Not for or against France, but for residing, for working in New Caledonia, for living free with the Kanaks.
The support in France will even be a great help as a counterweight to the RPCR [Rally for Caledonia in the Republic, the New Caledonia equivalent of the rightist Rally for the Republic led by Paris mayor Jacques Chirac], which, through the national mobilization of the opposition, explains that to be in favor of the freedom of the Kanak people means being against France.
The sympathy movement here is a movement for the grandeur of your people and it can help those in New Caledonia who are hesitant, who are afraid to take a position for the freedom of the Kanak people without being against their country of origin.