
Issue No 54		19 May 2000

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News

STOP PRESS: AK-47s used in coup against union-aligned Fiji Labour Government

By Andrew Casey

The international trade union movement has acted quickly to protest a coup against the Fiji Labour Government.

Fiji's trade union movement has played an important role in the struggle for democracy in that country.

The union-aligned Labour Prime Minister of Fiji, Mahendra Chaudry, and members of his Cabinet are being held in Parliament House by armed men with AK-47s.

Mr Chaudry,who was the leader of the Fijian TUC, and before that the Secretary of the largest union in the country, the Fiji Public Service Association, has been threatened by right-wing racist elements talking 'coup' for the last six weeks.

Apart from Prime Minister Chaudry about a third of the Fiji Labour Cabinet were former union officials - and many Labour Party backbenchers held senior union posts at the same time as being MPs.

( A good website for up-to-date information about what is happening in Fiji can be found at www.fijilive.com)

Mr Noriyuki Suzuki, the General-Secretary of the Asia Pacific section of the International Confederation of Trade Unions - known as the Asia Pacific Regional Organisation (APRO)- has expressed grave concern for Fiji*s Labour Prime Minister.

Mr Suzuki said the coup issue has special significance for the union movement.

" The APRO affiliate in Fiji, the Fiji TUC, was a major force in the struggle for, and eventual restoration of, democracy in Fiji following the military coups in 1987.

" In the face of sometimes considerable pressure, the FTUC has maintained its stand of a united Fiji, ensuring that the Fiji labour movement cuts across race and works in the best interest of all people living in that country," Mr Suzuki said.

( Union activists can send messages of solidarity to the National Secretary of the Fiji Trade Union Congress, Mr Felix Anthony, at the following e-mail address: [email protected])

The coup participants today stormed Fiji*s Parliament House, where shots were fired, after a march through the capital, Suva, by about 5000 demonstrators.

The Fiji Labour Government has been in power for just one year. The only previous Labour government was tossed out in 1987 *. also by a coup.

In each case the main rallying call of the coup leaders was to claim that the Labour Government was dominated by Indians.

The Indian community, brought to Fiji by British colonialists mainly as indentured labourers for sugar plantations, now form nearly half the population of this island nation.

Earlier this week the Health Minister in Mr Chaudry's Government claimed that the right-wing Opposition and a former member of the Fiji intelligence service were linked to plans by members of the Fiji Nurses Union to hold a national strike.

The Nurses Union - with 1300 members around the country - is one of the strongest unions in this small Pacific Island state.

The grievances of the Nurses, who went on strike last Friday, were arbitrated in urgent weekend talks and resolved by Monday morning.

Since the end of last year the Fiji Nurses Union has been in an on-again, off-again industrial dispute with the Labour Government.

The coup has happened just as Fiji has come out of a two year economic recession, according to the Asian Development Bank.

The swing out of the recession has been in good part due to the extraordinary growth of Fiji*s textile industry which employs 19,000 people - mainly Fijian Indians - toiling for between $A 1.00 and $A1.50 an hour.

The Fijian textile industry has become the second biggest export earner - after tourism - for this Pacific island nation.

The growth of this textile industry has been largely subsidised by the collapse of Australia*s textile industry and special free trade export facilitation arrangements provided by the Australian government.

However these arrangements have recently been declared illegal by the WTO. This could see the unravelling of this new growth manufacturing industry in Fiji.

The man named as "interim PM" of Fiji, as a result of today's coup, is Ratu Timoci Silatolu, a former president of the Telecom Employees Association.

Ironically the man he replaced as leader of the Telecom union, Meli Bogileka, was a cabinet member in the Chaudry Labour Government that has just been ousted by a coup.

   For all the latest on the Fiji coup visit Labourstart

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  Issue 54 contents

Interview: South of the Border
Victorian Trades Hall chief Leigh Hubbard on life under Bracks, militant unionism and why more people march in Melbourne.

Politics: Jeff Shaw's Second Wave
The full text of the NSW Industrial Relations Minister's speech to Labor Council announcing the Carr Government's IR reform agenda.

Unions: Reith's Laws: Just Say NO
The ACTU has called on Labor and the Democrats to reject Workplace Relations Minister Peter Reith's anti-industry bargaining Workplace Relations 2000 Bill out right.

History: A Breed Of Their Own
Labour historian Greg Patmore explains what makes his fraternity tick - and why they're still going strong and making history.

International: Sony's Asian Showdown
The Japanese electronic giant Sony is threatening to shutdown production facilities in Indonesia - where a prolonged strike has cost it US$200milliom - and move to next door Malaysia where electronic workers are banned from forming a union.

Human Rights: Good Guys, Bad Guys
Everywhere we look -in our newspapers, on the television, in reports by business leaders, academics and politicians - advocacy of human rights seems to be on a collision course with governmental and business interests.

Review: New Workers, New Challenges
A new wave of thought is arguing that working life is changing - but this doesn't necessarily deal unions out the action.

Satire: Rain Man Withdraws Endorsement of Qantas
After the third major safety incident in the space of a year, Qantas has lost the confidence of the most famous public supporter of its once unblemished safety record, the autistic star of Rain Man, Raymond.

» Carr Moves on Casuals

» Democrats Wavering on Reith Bill

» Exit Visas for Child Care Workers

» GST Pay Claims to Target Allowances

» Tide Turns On Competitive Tendering

» Joy Takes Message To The World

» Mines Out as Rio Tinto Torps Talks

» Political Economy for Activists, 2000

» Unions March for Reconciliation

» STOP PRESS: AK-47s used in coup against union-aligned Fiji Labour Government