Conscious Choice: Chirac Goes Fission for Votes

September 1995 | News of the Earth

Chirac Goes Fission for Votes

by Mark Long

The French decision to resume nuclear testing on the South Pacific atoll of Moruroa offers a case study of what is wrong with the functioning democracies of the industrial West. It is also a human rights and environmental travesty.

The election of Jacques Chirac to the French Presidency on May seventh marked the end of the long Mitterrand era and the ascendancy of an undefined conservative rule. Yet, the early decision by the new President to cancel a Mitterrand-imposed moratorium on nuclear testing provides more than a little hint of the direction that Chirac intends to travel.

It is a tenet of contemporary social theory that the problems and institutions of the late-modern period have forced a shift in power in the institutions of western democratic governments. That is, systems that were parliamentary-based now tend to be executive-centered. The increasing concentration of capital and the internationalization of markets, along with the growth of the national security states, has fueled the rise of the powerful executive, often referred to as the Imperial President. When republics collectively look for direction in these complex and disorienting times, a univocal response from the executive branch offers much more comfort than the multi-vocal response from legislative branches. The Imperial President, consequently, must at least appear to be in control of the disparate forces of history that seem to be spinning out of control. Yet the contrast between the appearance of control and an actual inability to shape events is an important factor in the rise of one- term Presidents and chief executives who labor under heavy negative public opinion ratings.

Imperial Presidents are particularly vulnerable when coming to power with fragile to non-existent mandates, as was the case with Chirac, who was stunned in the first round of voting in the recent French elections, receiving only 21% of the vote and placing second behind the Socialist candidate Lionel Jospin, who was projected to run a distant third at best. Chirac won comfortably in the runoffs but, nonetheless, assumed the reins of power with the knowledge of his weak political base within a fractured French electorate. Daniel Singer, writing in The Nation (May 29, 1995), argued that because of the contradictory nature of his two campaigns, the first to defeat Edouard Balladur and Le Pen on his right flank and the other to top Jospin on his left, the new President would "have to do something fast about the high expectations raised by his populist platform."

What better method for erasing the collective memory of the contentious election and signaling the end of fourteen years of Socialist rule than to assert French power on the international stage with a macabre, post-modern fireworks display in the South Pacific? This vehicle for flexing French military muscle could serve the dual purpose of puffing nationalists chests at home while simultaneously enhancing Chirac’s standing with the nativist "France for the French" right wing.

The decision to ignore the needs and concerns of the native populations of French Polynesia dovetails nicely with the dark history of French imperial rule in Algeria. (A history that still haunts subway riders in Paris.) The initial tests in the development of the French nuclear arsenal were carried out in Algeria at a time when Algerian rebels were fighting a war for independence. There is, then, a haunting echo in Chirac’s response when asked why France does not conduct its tests on French soil. Moruroa is French soil, he protested. This imperial echo can also be heard in National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen’s response to international criticism of the decision to resume testing: "France has not surrendered with its hands and feet bound to the dictates of foreign governments or the threats of the anti-military lobby." Chirac is using this "get tough" posture toward the dark complexioned natives of the South Pacific as a way of tossing red meat to the Le Pen camp without having to make difficult policy decisions at home on the explosive issue of immigration.

Environmentally, the French tests at Moruroa are a disaster for the region. There have already been 167 tests in the area since the 1960s, over 40 of which were atmospheric. There is ample evidence of significant leakage of radioisotopes into the water and atmosphere in the testing area, as indicated by the presence of high levels of cesium-134 and plutonium-239 as well as vastly increased incidence of ciguatera (a sickness caused by eating poisoned fish). There was also a greatly increased level of atmospheric radiation in the whole South Pacific region during the period of heavy French testing in the late sixties and early seventies.

Furthermore, according to a study by the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and The Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, "Radioactive Heaven and Earth: the health and environmental effects of nuclear weapons testing in, on and above the earth" (New York: Apex Press, 1991), Moruroa is less than an ideal storage site for nuclear wastes. "Natural barriers play the most important role in the confinement of nuclear waste. Consequently, a planned storage site should meet very strict criteria including exclusion of water, lack of natural fractures or fissures, and a high absorption of radionucleides. According to these criteria, Moruroa is a very poor choice: the geological structure of Moruroa is water-saturated; there are natural fractures as well as a veritable network of fissures due to the explosions. These fissures affect the volcanic layer. Moreover, the absorption coefficient for the basalt of Moruroa as estimated by the French authorities is very low."

Chirac calculated without reckoning with the scope and intensity of the international reaction. The decision to begin testing has met with universal condemnation. Every government in Europe (with the notable exception of John Major’s conservative regime in Britain) as well as most governments around the globe have issued statements challenging the resumption of tests. Also, the leading international human rights and environmental organizations have taken up the challenge of changing Chirac’s mind. There have been demonstrations in front of French embassies and consulates around the world (including demonstrations in France itself). Finally, a grass-roots campaign to boycott French goods, beginning in the "downwind" nations of the South Pacific, seems to be catching on internationally. Given the domestic nature of Chirac’s concerns it seems unlikely that a boycott of French goods will change his mind and interrupt the tests. Yet one can hope that the boycott will inflict enough pain on French export markets that Chirac’s political gamble will come back to haunt him at home in the long run.

In the short run Greenpeace has taken the lead in challenging the French decision on the ground. Ironically, the Rainbow Warrior II was in New Zealand for the tenth anniversary of the French bombing of the original Rainbow Warrior. The RWII headed for Moruroa where it was rammed by a French war ship and stormed by tear-gas-throwing troops. Coincidentally, and significantly, Col. Jean-Claude Lesqeur, the leader of the government terrorist cell that blew up the original Rainbow Warrior in a New Zealand harbor (killing a photojournalist), has just been promoted and is to receive France’s second highest honor, the Grand Office of the Legion D’Honeur. According to Greenpeace’s Michael Szabo in New Zealand this promotion, "coming ten years after France bombed the Rainbow Warrior and on the eve of the resumption of French nuclear testing, . . . is a cynical political move signaling that France is still prepared to use force to prevent protests against its nuclear testing programme."

At a time when the cold war is winding down and the world is engaged in negotiations of a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty there can be little doubt that these tests are designed for internal consumption and illustrate the need to peruse vigorous and far-reaching nuclear disarmament. As has been the case all along, these poisonous weapons of mass destruction are designed more to address the (Freudian) insecurities and political needs of leaders in the nuclear nations than any serious national security concerns. And, while the spooks in the west are busy wringing their hands over the need to keep the national security apparatus intact to counter the possibility of nuclear terrorism, a respected member of the "Western democracies" clique is practicing just such a policy in the South Pacific. Join the boycott of French goods and give the French consulate a call to let them know of your displeasure. Perhaps the Chicago environmental community should plan a little party of our own in front of the French consulate in the event that Chirac is not persuaded to change his mind.

Local (Northern Illinois)
• While this item may stretch the "local" category a bit I suspect there are many for whom the following information has a highly local impact. Congressman Jim Oberstar (D-MN) has introduced legislation (HR1310) that would completely motorize Voyageurs National Park and is preparing to introduce companion legislation that would motorize the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, both located in northern Minnesota. Sen. Rod Grams (R-MN) has begun a hearing process whose intention is to de-list Voyageurs from National Park status and to open the BWCA to motorized traffic. Urge Senator Frank Murkowski (R-AK), who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to hold additional public hearings in the twin cities as promised. Also, write to any of the above and request that your letter be entered into the public record.

National
• With finger in the air, (mis)reading the political winds, President Clinton has tossed all ethical considerations overboard and steered the ship of state sharply to the right. Clinton caved in to pressure from the logging industry and the Gingrich congress and signed the rescissions bill which he vetoed the first time around. The new bill did little to change the offensive environmental riders that caused Clinton to veto the bill in the first place. This is hardly a good indication of the state of Clinton’s backbone or conscience with respect to the legislative showdowns expected in the future. Specifically, the "logging without laws" rider mandates that the National Forest Service salvage log billions of board feet of timber in the coming year with no regard for the environmental impact of the harvest. With the signing of the rescissions bill President Clinton has, once and for all, forfeited any rights to the support of the environmental community. While those who consider themselves environmentalists may not be single issue voters, there is no environmental justification, in my mind, to pull a lever in the voting booth for Clinton come 1996. His decision to change his position on this bill was, without a doubt, a significant thumbing of the Presidential nose at the environmental community and at any claim to ethical leadership. But, of course, those who have read these pages before are not surprised by said thumbing.

• Exxon has created a toll-free number to connect people to Congress in order to push their anti-regulatory agenda. There is a recorded message telling the caller of the need to do away with "ineffectual federal regulation" and the billions that we "waste" on it every year. Of course, once you are in touch with your congressperson you can give them whatever message you want. So, call Congress and give them an ear full and let Exxon pay for the call, 800-444-1555. They limit calls to three from each phone. After you have used your three give Congress a ring from any public phone. If nothing else Exxon has to pay for each call.

• The Senate voted to overturn a moratorium passed last year which prohibits companies from taking title to public lands on which they have staked a mining claim. In July enough Republicans joined with Democrats in the House to sustain the moratorium. The existing nineteenth century mining laws allow corporations to obtain these lands for as little as $2.50 an acre. Let Exxon pay for your call to the Senate to protest this obscene anti-environmental corporate subsidy (800-444-1555).

• The Senate recently voted overwhelmingly to approve the FY 1996 Interior Appropriations bill which guts many of the Forest Service’s programs, with the glaring exception of the timber budget which has actually been increased by $30 million over last year. Once again there is no mistaking that the mission of the Forest Service is to run the world’s largest tree farm. The ghost of Gifford Pinchot just cannot be exorcised from that agency. Can we expect Presidential firmness in the face of this environmental travesty? The rescissions bill indicates that he has already had his spine surgically removed.

International
• The Canadian-owned Omai gold mine in Guyana was closed when cyanide spilled from a retaining pond into the Essequibo River which is used by local populations for drinking water, bathing, and as an important source for fish. The 600-mile river is considered one of the country’s most important natural resources. This was the second spill of cyanide from the mine this year. Coincidentally, the IMF, through its subsidiary the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), has recently offered insurance to trans-national mining firms to cover potential losses from environmental disasters and political upheaval. This insurance amounts to corporate subsidy designed to shelter these firms from the consequences of their actions. Or, viewed more cynically, a subsidy designed to maintain the cheap price tag on life in the non-industrial world.

Recommend this page to a friend

Top Ten pages recommended to friends: