Main industries: Sugar and tourism

GNP per head: US$2,180

Fiji Trade Union Congress has 35 affiliated unions with 42,000 members

Population: 366,000 (Capital Honiara 35,000)

Main industries: 90% of population depend on subsistence agriculture. Main

exports copra, fish, timber

GNP per head: US$800 per head

There are 14 registered unions in the Solomon Islands

George Speight is a corrupt businessman and his rich backers (including some Indian business people) opposed the limited reforms initiated by Chaudhry's Labour Party dominated government. The President of the Fiji-Australia Business Council supported the coup and blamed Chaudhry for "damaging investor confidence". The deposed government removed VAT (GST) from flour, cooking oil, powdered milk and tea. Public enterprises were told to rehire staff and contracting out was curtailed. Chaudhry (an ex-union leader) did enough to enrage the ruling class but left them with the power both militarily and economically to undermine and overthrow his administration.

He came to Australia in April to lobby the federal government to abandon its plans to end the Import Credit Scheme, which was a handout to

Australian bosses to export textiles to Fiji before importing the finished product duty free. It's loss cost Fiji 8,000 workers' jobs.

But this coup was more than just a right wing conspiracy against a moderately reformist Labour government. There was an intertwining of both class and national questions. The Indian population (43%) dominate the main Fijian industry of sugar production. They rent land from indigenous Fijian landowners on long-term leases. Indigenous Fijians have recovered from epidemics introduced by colonialism to reach 51% of population; a figure growing as more and more Indians flee the country.

Indians originally came to Fiji to work on the canefields in 1879 and now predominate (but are not exclusive to) small businesses and are a significant section of big business.

However the political ruling elite has been historically controlled by a traditional indigenous Fijian elite with a base amongst the Fijian rural population. In the cities there is a multi-racial working class with a relatively well organised trade union movement and, since 1985, its own Labour Party. This party's support base is from workers from both sides in the urban areas, as well as Indian sugar cane farmers in Western Fiji.

The old indigenous Fijian elite and sections of business backed Sitiveni Rabuka's military coup of 1987 against the coalition government of Labour and the right-wing Indian party, NFP. They didn't want a class-based party with a reformist programme upsetting the division of labour in power that had existed for years. This arrangement had done nothing for workers and the movement of Fijian and Indian workers into unions and the Labour Party was undermining ethnic division in favour of class solidarity.

The Rabuka government undertook big attacks against workers and state spending. In 1991 it abolished the minimum wage, deregistered some unions and restricted strike action. The coal miners strike against sackings and poor pay and working conditions went on for most of the 1990s.

The big unsolved question in Fiji is land. This is the basis of the racial division. Many of the long-term leases under which the Indians toil the

cane fields are coming to an end in the next few years. The Fijian landowners want these fruitful resources back. The Indians want to stay. Racist right-wing Fijian organisations whip up these tensions and to a lesser degree the Fijian elite and the Council of Chiefs (a relic of British rule) does the same. A genuine socialist government would bring the country's resources into public ownership and on this basis launch a socialist economic plan of production. As unemployment fell, the fear of destitution that drives the fight over land would gradually diminish.

All the moderate Chaudhry government offered was $22,000 compensation packages for Indian farmers. This move only worsened the tension, as Fijian farmers complained they were not receiving any government help to run their farms. It is weakness of a socialist alternative for the workers and poor farmers of both sides that allow nationalists to drive wedges amongst the people. The building of such an alternative is the historic task ahead. The ruling elite doesn't want Chaudhry back, but there are not yet so desperate that they feel the need to rely on the half-mad Speight. The Council of Chiefs will probably move to offer an amnesty to the coup forces, sidetrack Chaudhry and introduce a Fijian Prime Minister. This will nly enrage the Indian population and deepen the divisions. The mass migration of Indians to New Zealand and Australia can be expected. Since the 1987 coup Indian migration has seen Fiji lose 700 teachers, 66% of ist lawyers, 50% of its doctors and 25% of the civil servants.

The future is essentially a race against time. Will the national divisions destroy Fiji before the socialist and class issues get a chance to develop and predominate?

The Solomon Islands were the venue for a battle between the imperialist giants of Japan and the US during World War Two. The battle of Guadalcanal (the main island of the Solomons) swung the Pacific war in the direction of the US.

Imperialism left little else behind bar this legacy. 90% of population depend of subsistence agriculture, in particular coconuts and fishing. All the puny ruling elite can offer imperialism is fishing and forestry licenses. This opens up the ruling class to corruption by foreign governments and multinational companies.

In 1991 the economy had collapsed to the degree that the Council of Trade Unions threatened mass strike action if the Prime Minister of the day didn't resign. In the absence of any other way out, land ownership is key for survival. With a growing population it is inevitable that tribal tensions will ensue.

Many natives of the second largest and most populated island, Malaita, have settled and farmed on Guadalcanal. Last year the tensions between Malaitans and Guadalcanal locals turned violent. A Guadalcanal militia-the Isatatbu Freedom Movement-began killing Malaitan settlers resulting in 10,000 people fleeing the island. In response Malaitan militants formed the Malaita Eagle Force. This group raided a police station on Malaita, stole weapons, and moved to Guadalcanal to take on the IFM. What little foreign investment that remains (mainly an Australian-owned mine) is likely to go soon.

The government is pressurising Australia and New Zealand for military help. So far 10 unarmed policemen have been donated. The Solomon Island government in desperation sought military help from Cuba, and Castro has said yes. The government hopes the threat of Cuban aid will see the US kick Canberra and Wellington into line and tell them to "look after" their backyard. In the world division of imperialist labour, the Pacific is the domain of the mini-imperialist powers of Australia and New Zealand. As an aside, the offer of help exposes the opportunism of the Castro administration. It is not a principled socialist measure to militarily assist a right wing government to ethnically cleanse the main island in their country.

A socialist Australia would offer massive assistance to the Solomon Islands and write off its debts. It is the task of the local trade unions and Solomon Islands Labour Party to build support for a socialist alternative to the corrupt, right wing and tribal-based politics that currently dominate.