Blues In The News: Fiji's Nationwide Protests

Fiji really had the blues yesterday.

But it was all in the best of causes - democracy.

Spearheaded by the Fijian trade unions, Blue Day was a massive silent protest against the military's "interim administration". Blue is the colour of Fiji's flag, and it was chosen as the rallying point for a broadly-based democracy campaign.

Throughout the country, people turned out dressed in blue.

Blue hats and blue posters were distributed, calling for an immediate return to democracy under Fiji's 1997 Constitution. From last Friday onwards, the country's TV screens had repeatedly turned blue, and the words "Fiji's Blue - democracy and the 1997 Constitution" appeared. National newspapers yesterday ran full-page blue advertisements with democracy slogans, while radio networks broadcast messages urging support for the campaign.

Trade unionists nationwide backed the action - including public employees and civil servants, who had been threatened with suspension if they wore blue. The Fiji Trades Union Congress (FTUC) is to lodge an official complaint with the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO) over these threats.

Employers' federations and a wide range of civil organisations are also part of the Fiji's Blue coalition.

The silent Blue Day protest was just the start, the Fiji Trades Union Congress (FTUC) told ICEM UPDATE today. The coalition would "continue our rolling lobby for a speedy return to democracy" for "as long as it takes us".

The crisis in Fiji began this May, when businessman George Speight and his associates staged an armed coup and took hostages in the parliament buildings. Eventually, the hostages were released and the plotters were arrested. But instead of handing power back to the country's elected government, the military imposed their own "interim administration". Many Fijians now regard this as a "coup within a coup".

At the time, Speight presented his own putsch as a blow on behalf of ethnic Fijians, who make up just over half of the population. 44 percent of the country's people are ethnic Indians, many of whom are descendants of labourers shipped out from the subcontinent during the British colonial era.

However, persistent rumours suggest that Speight's real motive was to push through his own bid for a supply contract with a multinational timber company.

 
UNION RIGHTS ATTACKED


New curbs on union rights in Fiji have merely strengthened labour's resolve to back the democracy campaign, says Daniel Urai. He is President of the FTUC and General Secretary of the Fiji Electricity Authority Staff Association, which is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).

"If you want to hold a trade union meeting now, you have to inform the army and the police first," Urai told ICEM UPDATE. "If you try to hold a meeting without their permission, then they can come in and break it up and arrest people. There have already been cases of this."

More restrictions could be on the way. "We expect further decrees soon that could make it virtually impossible for unions to organise new sectors," Urai says. "For instance, they have threatened to ban all solidarity action or secondary action. The military are trying to make out that the unions are sabotaging the economy and the state. But in fact, the interim administration is bringing trade sanctions upon itself by refusing to heed the international community."

The democracy campaign has received strong backing from the ICEM, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and other labour internationals. Last month, FTUC General Secretary Felix Anthony had talks with ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs in Brussels about global union support for the democracy campaign. Anthony is now back in Brussels, lobbying the Joint Parliamentary Assembly of the European Unions and the associated ACP (Africa-Caribbean-Pacific) countries. But, the ICFTU reports, representatives of the military regime are also thought to have arrived in the European capital ...

Meanwhile, the Australian Council of Trade Unions warned on Monday that it may reimpose communications and freight bans on Fiji if the military administration brings in new anti-union measures.

Like Speight, the "interim administration" has tried to portray itself as the ally of ethnic Fijians.

But this is just a smokescreen, Daniel Urai says. "About 20,000 workers are either unemployed or are working on reduced wages as a consequence of the coup. One of the main sectors affected is tourism. Most of the workers who have been hit by this are ethnic Fijians - the very people that the interim administration says it is helping. But in any case, this ethnic issue is not at the forefront of workers' minds. They have other things to worry about."


"SMART SANCTIONS" CALL


For Fiji's workers, things could get worse before they get better, Urai says.

"If the interim administration does not heed the calls of the international community for a return to democracy, then important trading partners like Australia, New Zealand and the US could start closing their markets to Fijian goods," he points out. "In that case, up to 50 percent of the country's workers will lose their jobs."

Not that he is against sanctions, which he sees as "the most effective way to stop such an illegal government from continuing."

But at the present stage, he advocates "smart sanctions" which would hit their real target - the illegal regime. In particular, the unions want other countries to "stop foreign travel by all those behind the coup and interim administration" and to "control the business dealings of all those known to be behind the illegal administration."

For, as Urai emphasises, "some members of the interim government are known to have been behind George Speight and his coup."

Governments everywhere should cease to have dealings with the interim administration, Urai says, and trade unions around the world can help by pressing their governments to take this line.

"The international community has every interest in resolving this situation," he insists. "If the military in Fiji are seen to be getting away with this, it could have a knock-on effect throughout the Pacific islands."

As for the Fijian unions and their allies in Fiji's Blue, their goal is quite clear: "We want the interim administration to be replaced immediately by a national government consisting of all the parties elected to parliament prior to the coup. It would then be up to that national government to organise elections and to consider any amendments to the 1997 Constitution."

And should there be any amendments?

"Not really," Urai replies. "Some people would like our voting system to be changed from first-past-the-post to proportional representation, but that's a side issue at present. The 1997 Constitution covers workers' rights, women's rights, political rights and religious rights very well. So there's really no need to change it."