Marrying culture and democracy

French Polynesia Marrying culture and democracy

The ocean is not a barrier Hirohiti Tefaarere, secretary-general of Ta hiti’s A Tia I Mua: (10,000 members) WE are trying to marry culture with modern democracy.

You must remember the ocean is not a barrier it is a means of communication. Our ances tors conquered the Pacific in canoes. The peoples of the Pacific jumped from the era of the canoe to the era of computers and space shuttles in one generation.

No other community has had to do that. Somewhere inside I feel still ill at ease with our problems back home the social and economic problems ahead.

When we formed Tia Mua seven and a half years ago we sought democracy for our people. At first we used the CFDT [socialist union in metropolitan France] as our model. We also pursued bilateral contacts with other unions abroad like the mineworkers union in Germany, hospitality workers in Belgium, an Israeli union, and the Australian Council of Trade Unions. And to maintain our links with French culture we built a relation ship with the Kanak and Exploited Workers’ Union [USTKE] and OSOENC in New Caledonia.

In seven years we went from nowhere

to become the first ranked union in Ta hiti. Last year at Brisbane we ap proached SPOCTUS to sup port our campaign against the nuclear bomb nuclear testing is such an important issue for us. It is so destructive of our social struc ture and the environ ment. We have often demonstrated pub licly on Moruroa Atoll against the tests. There have been frequent strikes on the atoll. It shows that we Tahitians are mature. We demand a “popular consulta tion” of Tahitians about nuclear testing - not a national referendum [which by law includes all French citizens in metropolitan France]. The motto of our union is “Land, education

and a job”. All our action hinges on these three rights.

For us the labour movement in the South Pacific is confronted with three vital issues the environment and the European trade bloc that comes into force on January 1, 1993. We’re not ready! Let us look each other in the eye.

We are not ready.

My mother used to tell me, “Hiro, your name was never sullied by any of your ancestors.” I look at the mirror and ask am I worthy of my name. Hirohiti means the “greatest god of warriors”. It also means “god of thieves”, Tefaarere means “flowing river valley” and the name of our union means “honest and forward”. For us these words have some impact, which is why I understand our Maori cousins. Unions are a recent invention, but the people of the Pacific go back 2000 or 3000 years.

I stress our cultural values . . . Speak about productivity and gross national product and it doesn’t mean anything to me. But speak of the land, food, fishing, agriculture and then I understand. Pacific unions need support in setting up our credit unions, health cooperatives, and legal and accounting cooperatives. □

Pictures: David Robie

Tefaarere: ill at ease with problems at home