International Socialists

Fiji coup

The Fiji Coup which began on May 20th, like the first led by army boss Sitiveni Rabuka in 1987, is not simply about race. The New Zealand media has represented the coup as centrally involving ethnic conflict between indigenous Fijians and Indian Fijians. What they don't tell us is that the ruling class in Fiji, of which the Great Council of Chiefs is an integral part, hated the Labour dominated Coalition Government led by Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudry. It cut power bills, reduced GST on food, and was planning a tax increase for the rich.

The coup is fundamentally about capitalism, colonisation, class and corruption in which, above all else, racism has been used by local and international capitalists to divide and rule the Fijian working class. As Gordon Campbell points out, "'Indian dominated government', 'Fiji for Fijians.' - These have always been the phoney war cries of Fijian politics that have been used, in 1987 and again now, to whip up racial passions as a smokescreen, while the old business and political elites make their moves behind the scenes to retake power." (Listener, June 3)

In order to understand Fijian politics it is necessary to understand the role that Indian indentured labour played in the process of colonisation. As David Robie observes, "Events in New Zealand had a profound effect on the way Fiji was administered as a crown colony. After watching a prolonged guerilla war in New Zealand against a Mäori population of only 58,000, the Colonial Office ruled out taking land by a war of conquest against a Fijian population of 200,000." Hence indigenous Fijians retain ownership of more than 83 percent of the land.

Colonisation took a very different path in Fiji than in Aotearoa. Fiji emerged as a sugar colony in which indentured Indian labourers were brought to Fiji to work on the sugar plantations (the first shipment of 464 indentured labourers was in 1879). This form of colonisation resulted in an ethnically segregated society, 49% Indian, 51% Fijian, in which the descendants of Indian labourers and indigenous Fijians live in ethnically segregated communities.

Throughout Fiji's history, the ruling class has been able to use the resulting ethnic divisions to undermine working class unity. Despite the extreme exploitation, low wages and dire poverty endured by the working class majorities of both ethnic groups, it has been very hard sustaining a united labour movement.

The Fiji Labour Party emerged in response to a government freeze on wages in 1985. It adopted a social democratic manifesto outlining a reform programme, and had the support of the trade union movement. Crucially it brought Fijian and Indian workers together in the one party, and consequently was viewed as a major threat by the ruling class, the Chiefs and the army faction led by Rabuka.

When Labour was elected to power in April 1987, the ruling class responded with the first coup in May. The recent coup has essentially repeated the pattern of the earlier one. Then, as now, the only force that is ultimately capable of restoring democracy is the working class - Fijian and Indian - organised in trade unions. It is vital that Fijian workers continue to mobilise to defeat George Speight and his thugs, the racism of the Taukei movement, and the big business backers of these right wing racists.

And it is equally crucial that trade unions in Australia and New Zealand continue to provide support for their fellow workers in Fiji. Despite the bleating of employers in New Zealand, the union bans on trade with Fiji have been, and are, highly effective in putting pressure on the corrupt and racist regime that has taken power. Above all else, working class unity and struggle against racism, against capitalism, against corruption, and against this regime - is the only way forward for Fijian workers.

Steel workers strike

More than 1000 workers at the Glenbrook steel mill in Auckland struck for a week after rejecting a 5 per cent pay rise.

The strike has raised fears among employers that it is the beginning of a winter of discontent in the workplace. Alasdair Thompson, head of the Auckland Employers and Manufacturers Association, said that the strike was a backward step that signalled the "re-unionisation of New Zealand." We say - let's bloody hope so! Unfortunately, the reality is that most workers remain reluctant to take action.

Engineers' Union Auckland regional secretary Mike Sweeney said 87 per cent of members had voted to strike. The strike was solid and forced the employer to offer 3 per cent in the coming year, and 2 percent the year after. But much more could have been achieved if the Engineers' Union had been prepared to push for a serious wage rise rather than hurrying to end the strike and broker a cosy deal with management.

As it is, the settlement will do little more than keep up with the rate of inflation, officially forecast to be 3% this year, and higher than 2% next year. If we are ever going to get better pay and conditions, it will only come about if we join together with other rank and file members of our unions and push our officials to do better than the Glenbrook deal.

Otago University vice chancellor sacks 55 cleaners

Those who think that the election of a Labour/Alliance government is all that is required to defend workers' interests might like to ponder the plight of 55 cleaners at the University of Otago. These workers, who are predominantly women, low paid, and yet despite the poor pay have provided many years of service to the university - have been given the boot by Otago's hated VC Graeme Fogelberg. (Vice chancellors are effectively the chief executives of the universities).

He has decided to contract out cleaning services at Otago, despite the fact that the Service and Food Workers' Union devised a scheme that would have substantially reduced cleaning costs in the university. While Fogelberg claims that contracting out will save more than $100,000, this is no more than would have been saved by the union scheme. It is a decision driven by his fervent anti unionism.

As pointed out by many other members of staff, the VC could save the university much more than $100,000 if he and his two Deputy VCs flew Economy Class rather than First Class on their many jaunts around the world.

Members of the International Socialists supported a rally on May 26 to defend the cleaners with poster advertising and by producing the only placards that were present. But we would have liked to see the union do more than invite Labour/Alliance/Green MPs to speak to a passive crowd. There was no attempt to march around the Registry, nor was there any talk of industrial action.

What this highlights is that under this Government workers still face the same policies, employer militancy, and (regardless of the new Employment Relations Act) the same kind of broadly anti union industrial legislation. And so now, as much as ever, workers will not be able to defend their interests, let alone advance them, unless they push their unions to take concerted industrial action in support of their claims.

This is an argument that we all need to make in our workplaces - to convince our workmates of the need to fight for real improvements now. If we simply passively wait for this Government to improve things, we will be waiting a very long time!

Steven Wallace shooting

In the early hours of a Sunday morning, on April 30, a police officer shot Steven Wallace, aged 23, four times, killing him - supposedly in "self defence."

The media portrayed the shooting as unfortunate but necessary. Indeed, more often than not the media portrays the police as friendly and fair guardians of law and order - the protectors of our physical safety, property rights, and civil liberties. But there is no more than a tiny element of truth in this. In reality the key function that the police perform in capitalist society is protecting the wealth and power of the rich and powerful.

And far from treating everyone the same, the police regularly and routinely discriminate against Mäori and Pacific Island peoples. The shooting of Steven Wallace in Waitara is just the most recent example of this. The cops would have been much more reluctant to gun down a man who was not carrying a firearm if he had been white.

Steven's family have received donations and calls of support from around the country since they announced plans for a private investigation. The family wants changes made to the law and police procedure to prevent further needless police killings, according to his uncle and family spokesman, Terry Wallace.

A trust fund has been set up to help with legal costs and other expenses incurred by his family in their fight for justice. We urge readers of Socialist Review to donate. Donations can be posted to the Steven Wallace Independent Inquiry Fund, PO Box 22, Waitara. Any funds not required will be given to a Memorial Trophy Scholarship for young people in Waitara.

Facts about corporate piggies

(Published Monday, April 17 2000 in the Baltimore Sun)

It's getting harder to tell CEO (heads of big corporations) paycheques from lottery payouts. Except that CEOs expect to win big even when the company loses.

When Coca Cola CEO Douglas Ivester announced his retirement, Bloomberg compensation analyst Graef Crystal observed, "Here is a man who is resigning after a two year tenure as CEO that produced a return for shareholders of a negative 7.3 percent. For that, he is walking away with stock, options and other goodies worth at least $120 million." Meanwhile, as the AFL-CIO Executive PayWatch reports, Coca Cola is laying off thousands of workers and facing a lawsuit alleging the company discriminated against black employees in promotions, pay and performance evaluations.

Many CEOs make more in a year than their employees will make in a lifetime. Last year, the average CEO of a major corporation earned $12.4 million, including salary, bonus and other compensation such as exercised stock options, according to Business Week's latest survey of executive pay. That's $34,000 a day including Saturdays and Sundays.

While average workers are still digging their way out after years of falling real wages, CEOs are soaring to heights once reserved for a handful of robber barons.

In 1980, CEOs made 42 times the pay of average factory workers. In 1990, they made 85 times as much.

By 1999, CEOs made 475 times as much as workers. How big a gap will we tolerate?

The top CEOs earned as much as small countries last year. Computer Associates CEO Charles Wang led the gravy train with $655 million. Next were Tyco International CEO L. Dennis Kozlowski with $170 million, Charles Schwab CEO David Pottruck with $128 million, Cisco CEO John Chambers with $122 million and America Online CEO Steve Case with $117 million.

Many CEOs have amassed future fortunes in stock options not yet exercised. Yahoo CEO Timothy Koogle leads with $2.3 billion in unexercised stock options, followed by America Online's Steve Case with $1.3 billion and Barry Diller of USA Networks with $1 billion.

CEOs aren't shy about claiming all the credit for company success to justify taking a big chunk of the rewards. Mr. Kozlowski, Tyco CEO, told Business Week, "While I gained $139 million [in stock options], I created about $37 billion in wealth for our shareholders." Thousands of Tyco employees in 80 countries didn't have anything to do with creating that wealth apparently. Mr Kozlowski himself designs and services Tyco's fire safety and electronic security systems and must be very busy building the company's global undersea fibre optic communications network.