Independence for Africans in New Caledonia!

[Moorbey]

Independence for Africans in New Caledonia!
Defeat French colonialism!
Luwezi Kinshasa
Published Aug 13, 2009

The African Socialist International (ASI) under the leadership of Chairman Omali Yeshitela is calling on African revolutionaries and progressive forces and all freedom loving peoples of the world to unite with the just struggles of African people on the Pacific island of New Caledonia. Africans are fighting for self-determination and repossession of their land, occupied by French colonial settlers.

The island of New Caledonia has been occupied by French imperialism since 1853. In 1871, 7,000 members of the Paris Commune were exiled to New Caledonia after the defeat of this two-month takeover of Paris in the 19th century. Karl Marx, V.I. Lenin and others have written extensively on the Paris Commune as the precursor to a socialist government.

However, the Paris Commune never denounced the enslavement of African people and colonial genocide being imposed on the majority of the world by European and U.S. imperialist powers. The commune demanded white workers’ rights at the expense of African and colonized peoples around the world.

After the exile of the members of the commune to New Caledonia they became the new colonial rulers of the indigenous African people on the island. Today, it is the descendants of the commune who are being struggled against by the Africans of New Caledonia.

The African Socialist International firmly condemns the colonial violence imposed on African people by the French National Police Intervention Group (GIPN), a brutal French counterinsurgent force unleashed against the Kanak independence movement, led by African people on the island.

The independence movement was attacked by the French military forces after the movement protested the visit of Madame Penchard, the French Secretary of Overseas (meaning colonial) Territories, to Noumea, the capital of New Caledonia.

Independence forces were using the visit as an occasion to demand the release of all political prisoners, especially those arrested on May 28, 2009 and given jail sentences on June 29.

The African Socialist International is demanding the immediate release of all members and leaders of the Kanak Socialist Party, the Free United Action Union (SLUA), The Caledonian Union and all other organizations involved in defense of Kanak political prisoners, particularly militant trade unionists.

We are demanding the unconditional and immediate release of Gerard Jodar, leader of USTKE (Trade Union of Exploited and Kanak Workers). Along with five comrades, Jodar has been jailed since June 29 by the French imperialist government.

These comrades were brutally arrested when police attacked their protest with tear gas as they were demonstrating against the firing of their comrades by Air Caledonia. Jodar and others took refuge inside an airplane, where they were arrested and charged by the colonial police for obstructing the circulation of the plane.

As African Internationalists, we believe that the role of any oppressed people is to fight and defeat the oppressors by any means necessary.

The African Socialist International’s mission is to unite all anti-imperialist and revolutionary fronts of African people’s struggles around the world into a single, worldwide revolutionary, capable of releasing the power of the one-billion-strong black people around the world.

The African Socialist International has the objective of uniting the African nation under a socialist United States of Africa. This will be the most dynamic social movement the world has ever seen, a movement capable of bringing European and U.S. imperialism to its knees.

All power to the people!

Self-determination the highest expression of democracy!

---------- Post added at 06:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:58 PM ----------

Uhuru! I agree with the call to release all political prisoners and long live the fight of the people of Caledonia for freedom and self-determination. Hands off frenchy!