The demonstrators have called for the release of hostages being held by Speight's forces at the Parliament in the capital city of Suva, restoration of the Chaudhry government, and a return to the 1997 constitution. Protest leaders have tied these demands to appeals to the Australian government and the "international community" to intervene immediately and impose trade and other sanctions. This perspective has been welcomed by many but not all attending the actions.

"Please stop tinkering about. Go ahead and put the sanctions on," demanded Noor Dean, a lawyer and former Member of Parliament (MP) in the 1987 Labour-led government of Timoci Bavadra, before several hundred protesters outside Parliament in Canberra May 31.

Protest organizers met with Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and later with Labor opposition leader Kim Beazley  
 
Support for military intervention
Some 600 people protested May 24 in front of the Sydney office of Prime Minister John Howard. Another 300 rallied in Mt. Druitt and 1,000 in Liverpool, both Sydney suburbs, May 27. Protests also took place in Melbourne. Union officials and MPs from the opposition Australian Labor Party and Australian Democrats have been prominent throughout. All have pointed to a similar campaign for Australian military intervention in East Timor in 1999 as a model.

Protesters at the Sydney and Canberra rallies welcomed Steve Baivou, a Fijian of indigenous descent, who spoke condemning the coup, the military takeover, and the Great Council of Chiefs. Answering Speight's rightist demagogy, Baivou told the Canberra demonstrators, "Speight doesn't represent the interests of indigenous Fijians. This is not a fight of Indian against Fijian. Speight must have a strong backing at the highest level [to have gained so much political ground]. Indians are being made scapegoats to the benefit of a tiny few." Baivou also stated, "It's time to persuade the Australian government to end the rhetoric and take action."

The conservative government of John Howard has focused since May 19 on the need for "democracy" and "stability" rather than a return of the Chaudhry government. The Australian government has announced a list of possible diplomatic, aid, trade, sporting and other sanctions if Speight and his supporters are given places in a new government.

Giving implicit support to the largely Australian-trained Fijian military, Downer told Parliament May 31, "It is important to remember that this military takeover has been in response to an extreme situation. The Fiji authorities have been under immense pressure and have been forced to take drastic action under great duress."

Meanwhile, top union officials here have tied in union-organized bans on cargo, airline flights, and mail service--in response to appeals by the Fiji Trades Union Congress (FTUC)--with calls for a tourist boycott and for Canberra to intervene. On May 21 Sharan Burrow, president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), urged Howard to give whatever assistance might be required to support the "pro-democratic movement."

"That may mean assistance from police or peacekeepers. The civilized world can't sit back," Burrow implored May 29.

By May 31 hundreds of containers carrying goods bound to or from Fiji were piled up on wharves in Australia. Two days earlier the ACTU announced it planned to extend bans into banking, universities, and sports. About 150 passengers were delayed at Sydney airport May 29, as airline workers held up an Air Pacific flight, eventually loading baggage but not mail or freight. Other flights have not been delayed, on humanitarian grounds. Officials of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, the International Transport Workers Federation, and unions in other countries have announced similar actions.

In the immediate aftermath of the May 29 military takeover, leaders of the FTUC appealed for an international "peacekeeping" force to protect people from mobs and military forces supporting the overthrow of the Chaudhry government.  
 
'Intervention is no good'
Not all working people support the calls for trade and other sanctions by the Australian government, much less military intervention. Sydney wharfie and Maritime Union member Joe Rossiter, much of whose extended family lives in Fiji, told the Militant June 2, "I disagree with what Speight has done and the way he's done it, but intervention is no good. It's better for local people to solve things. They can work it out themselves."

Rossiter slammed the "hypocrisy" of "Howard and the developed countries," saying, "City people will always remember that wages went down to 5 cents an hour after the 1987 coups when foreign big business moved in to take advantage." Look at Iraq, Rossiter noted. "The people will suffer, not the rulers," from trade sanctions. Rossiter worried that Fijians "could turn on a peacekeeping force." At the same time, he explained that "indigenous Fijians want to maintain their connection with the land," because indigenous peoples were losing land all over the world.

The Canberra protesters welcomed comments from Anil Singh describing how his ancestors were brought from India to work in Fiji as virtual slaves cutting cane for Australian sugar giant CSR. "Now it's payback time," he said, demanding that Canberra extend visas for thousands of Fijians who fear returning home and that the doors be opened to all those who want to leave Fiji, as well as immediate and comprehensive sanctions.

Staff layoffs are expected in tourist hotels, and other businesses have told workers to accept pay cuts of 50 percent. The garment industry, much of it Australian-owned, employs some 18,000 people and will be deeply affected by sanctions. Shortages of some food supplies and other goods are being reported in Suva.

After the Canberra rally, small knots of protesters discussed a wide range of views. Some expressed their fears that ordinary people in Fiji would suffer from sanctions. Others said the 1997 constitution was not democratic, even if it had replaced the discriminatory 1990 document. Some were deeply pessimistic about the restoration of the elected government.

Another expressed the view that professionals and others might be able to leave, but cane farmers and workers had no resources to do so. That class view was summed up in one protester's sign: "The fight for democracy has just begun."

Ron Poulsen, a leader of the Communist League and a member of the Maritime Union, told the Militant, "The labor movement has no more reason to tie itself to the government and the bosses on this issue than on any other.

"Given the brutal history of Australian intervention in Fiji and the fact that it remains a neocolony of Canberra" he continued, "the labor movement here should be campaigning to tell the truth about the struggle of working people in Fiji against exploitation by imperialist and local capital and the chiefly system, not pretending Canberra can do something that's not in its interests.

"No matter what the 'humanitarian' mask, Australian and other intervention will only benefit the exploiters, not the fight for political space to organize or the struggle to restore the democratically elected Chaudhry government. What Canberra should do is extend visas of Fijians in Australia, open the doors to all who are fleeing persecution, cancel Fiji's debt to Australian banks, and cut military ties now," Poulsen said.

Doug Cooper is a member of the Maritime Union of Australia. Linda Harris is a member of the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia.  
 
 
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