Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front

The Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (French: Front de Libération Nationale Kanak et Socialiste, FLNKS) is a militant pro-independence alliance of political parties in New Caledonia. It was founded in 1984 at a congress of various political parties. Its supporters are mostly from the Kanak indigenous population but also includes supporters from other ethnic communities.

History

This is composed of the Caledonian Union (UC) (a center-left formerly multi-ethnic party dating back to the early postwar period) on the one hand and the Nationalist Unions for Independence (UNI) on the other. The UNI includes Melanesian Progressive Union (a political movement based on the island's west coast and mainly around the village of Poya, where its founder, the late Edmond Nekiriai hails from), the Oceanian Democratic Rally (a Polynesian (Wallisian-and-Futunian) based party) and the Party of Kanak Liberation (PALIKA), a more radical party founded by left-leaning students that came back from France after the May 1968 riots. Both the UC and UNI are of approximately equal size, and with varying rhetoric. However, all support the independence of New Caledonia. The party boycotted the 1987 independence referendum.