Paris plans to move ahead with the tests despite widespread public opposition from Tahiti to Japan to France itself. Some 50,000 people in Fiji have already signed a petition to the French government declaring: "The Pacific and its people have been the testing ground for the nuclear powers since 1945. Fifty years after the bombing of Hiroshima it is time to stop."
The reference to Washington's dropping of the atomic bomb on Japanese cities is apt, since every imperialist power has built up and used military might in brutal wars to dominate parts of the globe and maintain their system of exploitation and oppression known as capitalism.
The large protests in recent weeks in Tahiti and other colonies and semicolonies across the Pacific deserve the support and solidarity of workers, farmers, and young people the world over. The demands of these protests combine with the aspirations for national self-determination, independence, and economic and social development in these countries.
At the same time, the imperialist rulers in Australia and New Zealand have seized on opposition to nuclear testing as an opportunity to mount a nationalist campaign against their rivals in Paris. Canberra and Wellington are whipping up antiFrench sentiments to advance their own interests against workers, peasants, and youth across the Pacific. Their actions have nothing to do with the campaign against the dangers of nuclear radiation, threat of imperialist wars, or colonial domination.
Workers and youth in Australia and New Zealand who are opposed to nuclear weapons can strike a blow against the wealthy rulers in each country by combating the nationalist campaign. This is the only way to chart an internationalist course that unites workers and youth in opposition to the commercial and foreign policy goals of the imperialist governments.
By targeting the capitalist rulers at home as the main enemy - be it Canberra, Wellington, Paris, or Washing ton - the working class will be in the best position to lead a revolutionary struggle to replace the capitalist governments in "our own" countries, establish workers and farmers governments, and advance the worldwide fight for socialism. This is the only effective answer to nuclear testing and other crimes the capitalist system perpetrates on working people around the globe.
Workers, farmers, and youth should join together in protesting the resumption of French nuclear testing; at the same time we must vigorously oppose every attempt by capitalist rulers to whip up national chauvinism.