Two years after the popular uprisings that led to particularly violent repression, the situation in Kanaky is worsening. Poverty is on the rise, and public services have virtually disappeared in some areas. While settlers receive aid from the administration, those who suffer most are, of course, the Kanak people. A look back at a territory that remains a French colony today.
Two years after the popular uprisings that led to particularly violent repression, the situation in Kanaky is worsening. Poverty is on the rise, and public services have virtually disappeared in some areas. While settlers receive aid from the administration, those who suffer most are, of course, the Kanak people. A look back at a territory that remains a French colony today[1].Administratively, Kanaky is divided into three provinces: the South, the North, and the Loyalty Islands. In 2025, the country had 264,596 inhabitants. Three-quarters live in the South Province, and half of the Kanak population now resides in Greater Nouméa, where approximately 70% of economic activity is concentrated. Overall, 25% of the population lives below the poverty line. Most of these are Kanaks or Pacific Islanders. Around 10,000 people live in precarious housing in Nouméa and its surrounding area. The standard of living for Kanaks is half that of non-Kanaks. Among them, 30% of young people are unemployed. And only 8% of higher education graduates are Kanak. Furthermore, they face discrimination in education, employment, housing, and leisure activities.
For two years, precariousness and poverty have been worsening.
The pro-independence Kanak Workers' Union (USTKE), which supported the uprising of spring 2024, has been constantly warning about its consequences linked to the colonial management of events. Since May 13, 2024, the date of the Kanak youth uprising, unemployment has risen sharply. The destruction of businesses has had major economic and social consequences, primarily around Nouméa. Seven hundred businesses (shops, industries, services) have been burned down or severely damaged. Thousands of jobs have been lost, and working-class neighborhoods have lost their local shops, schools, health centers, and transportation. In the private sector, more than one in six employees has lost their job.
A large part of Nouméa's Kanak population lives in informal settlements and squats.
Credits: LINDEPENDANT-KNC
Inequalities, already very pronounced, have worsened. Food insecurity is increasing sharply. Food prices (already much higher than in mainland France, as 85% of products are imported) have risen by 6.7% since the beginning of 2024; this is eroding purchasing power and particularly disproportionately impacting the poorest households, who spend 28% of their budget on food. According to the New Caledonia Food Bank, an additional 20,000 people need assistance with food, on top of the 10,000 beneficiaries already identified. At the end of 2024, the USTKE (Union of Trade Unions of Keitas) established a food bank[2]to help workers who have lost their jobs and find themselves, along with their families, in dire straits. It remains a current issue and is the result of the colonial ambitions of the French state and its supporters, who sought to impose a change to the electoral roll, in defiance of the decolonization agreements.
Abandoned Public Services
After May 13, 2024, the bus network was virtually at a standstill, leaving the population practically without public transportation. Some lines were gradually restored, but with very limited schedules and a bus ticket costing 500 CFP (4 euros), an exorbitant expense for a portion of the local population. The May 2024 uprisings also led to the departure of a large number of healthcare workers. This phenomenon particularly affected areas already under strain, especially in the north of the island, where just a few departures were enough to tip the scales in a region that was already a near-medical desert. There are 118 closed beds at the Greater Nouméa Territorial Hospital Center, 70 out of 172 in private clinics, and 40 out of 60 in the North Province's main hospital. More than half of the territory's operating theaters are out of service. Nursing homes and community health centers are under constant strain, and several healthcare facilities have had to close.
Greater Nouméa Territorial Hospital Center. The majority of the population only has access to clinics.
Credits: CHT
On June 5, 2024, the president of the Southern Province, and former Secretary of State, Sonia Backès, declared, addressing "those who burned, looted, and blockaded New Caledonia, and those who continue to do so," that "the province will cut off all the aid they receive." Discriminatory measures targeting Kanaks were thus implemented. Reimbursement for medical assistance was suspended in July 2024, "until further notice," except in certain cases. A ten-year residency requirement in the Southern Province was also established for applying for school or university scholarships and public rental housing[3]; this effectively excludes many young Kanaks. In addition, children are being refused enrollment in school, the cafeteria, or after-school programs. A plan for budgetary, social, and fiscal reforms was adopted in August 2025; It includes a reduction in family allowances, thus exacerbating the difficulties faced by the most vulnerable households.
These various measures have particularly affected the Kanak population. This additional social injustice is a form of collective punishment following the popular uprising of May 2024. Conversely, the precarious state of public finances did not prevent the Southern Province from implementing, as early as December of that same year, a plan aimed at encouraging the return of settlers who left after May 2024, through subsidies for airfare[4]and the allocation of more than 2 billion CFP[5]to very small businesses, under the pretext of supporting these companies, which are mostly run by non-Kanaks.
Christian Mahieux (UCL South-East Suburbs)
Submit
[1]The data in this article comes from work submitted by the USTKE and published by the national collective Solidarité Kanaky, of which UCL is a member. This text was written in mid-June and therefore does not address the provincial elections of the 28th; we will certainly return to this topic in the fall, providing an opportunity to analyze the power dynamics between pro-independence supporters and those who support French New Caledonia, as well as between the various pro-independence movements, and the state of solidarity within France.
[2]From France, everyone can contribute directly; ensuring that activist groups, particularly trade unions, participate is an example of what internationalist solidarity can look like in practice.
[3]On June 10, 2025, the ten-year residency requirement in the South Province was suspended by the judge of the summary proceedings division of the Administrative Court of New Caledonia. Furthermore, on January 29, 2026, the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH) published a report highlighting the "violent, often disproportionate, repression by law enforcement[...]and more specifically against the Kanak people." It indicates that the repressive measures have "particularly affected the Kanak population" and have been perceived "as a social injustice and a punishment for past violence."
[4]Conversely, Kanak prisoners deported to France must rely on public assistance to finance their return home.
[5]Two billion Pacific francs represent approximately 17 million euros.
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Kanaky-La-repression-de-l-Etat-colonial-se-poursuit
_________________________________________
Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten