Customary Paths Toward Denuclearization and Decolonization: Mā‘ohi and Kanak Activists Passing Through lo Larzac

Abstract

ABSTRACT Networks of opposition to French nuclear testing were nourished by transnational solidarities. By the end of the 1970s, links between Kanak and Mā‘ohi expanded through trans-Pacific organizations such as the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific (NFIP) movement. They also grew beyond the shores of Oceania with the active participation of Occitan activists from lo Larzac in southern France. This agricultural plateau, already home to a decade-long fight against militarization, became a transnational hub for anti-nuclear activists. In the early 1980s, a ‘Pape‘ete–Noumea–Larzac’ network emerged through lawyers Jean-Jacques de Félice and François Roux who brought their clients together in networks of solidarity. As brokers, they helped transform lo Larzac into a hub which linked anti-nuclear and anti-colonial struggles. This article examines the roots of rural resistance by focusing on how the links forged by transnational actors, including churches and non-violence groups, helped nourish an Oceania–Larzac activist network.