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Title: Forms of Freedom Author: Glenn Hall Date: June 2019 Language: en Topics: social ecology, Dual Power, communalism Source: http://social-ecology.org/wp/2019/06/forms-of-freedom-dual-power-in-fiji/ Notes: The following is an edited excerpt from an upcoming article that will be published in Harbinger: A Journal of Social Ecology.
With renewed interest in North America of building dual-power, and
forming strategies to achieve these objectives, it is important to look
around the world at existing modes of resistance and power-building.
This strategy is well known to anyone following efforts of the
Zapatistas, the Self-Administration of Northern Syria (Rojava), Bakur,
and recently the Mapuche people in the Wallmapu region of South America.
These struggles forsake the creation or control of the State as a goal,
and create a dual-power scenario within the states they occupy. This
approach broadly aligns with Murray Bookchin’s political vision of
Communalism, adapted and to specific programs for specific contexts.
Indeed, many of these struggles predate Bookchin or have developed
parallel to his work.
It is in this context that I bring up the iTaukei (E-tow-kay) people of
Fiji, for whom many aspects of the dual-power struggle for autonomy
against the state are built into the foundations of local
self-government. Dual-power in Fiji shows us the importance of
communally-controlled land and taking power from local and municipal
government organs, as well as how these can contribute, even in a latent
context, the weakening of state power that Communalism calls for. In
addition, it shows how these institutions can indeed become the forms of
freedom, and that it is up to people and organizations to give it
content.
First, a brief sketch of the elements of grassroots, confederated direct
democracy found among the iTaukei peoples. Villages throughout Fiji only
have limited penetration by the cash economy and state control—which
leaves the community largely free to direct and decide its own
development. They are confederated by region into larger council bodies.
Issues are raised in a monthly village meeting called a bose va koro,
wherein people take part in the indigenous practice of talanoa (story
telling). Talanoa functions as a sort of unity of work and play—people
discuss the goings-on in the village, air grievances, laugh, joke, and
report from the various councils—all while drinking kava and smoking
cigarettes. In this way, the tedium of the meeting is suffused with
care, humor, and interest. There exist various councils that the
villagers can be a part of, depending on the village itself. These
councils include: crime and mediation, water sanitation, health and
safety, finance and investment, community development, women and youth
groups, church groups, and elder care. This is combined with the iTaukei
concept of living vaka vanua, or with the land. Vanua has multiple
connotations: it can simply mean the land itself, or can be reference to
both the land and the people that inhabit it. In addition, it implies a
style of living—in harmony with the land, with one’s community, and
putting the well-being of both above profit for oneself (Parke, 2014).
The bose va koro have been codified into the government through the
Ministry of iTaukei Affairs, which has a number of other interesting
features, including the National Land Trust Board (NLTB), which keeps
track of lineages and doles out money made from leasing to the clans.
The grassroots meetings connect to a system of district and provincial
meetings comprised of hereditary chiefs to decide the affairs of
villages on the regional, provincial, and national level. While these
councils are currently controlled by chiefly elites, this was not always
the case. There is historical and anthropological evidence to show that
making these positions hereditary and giving them so much control over
these councils is a result of British colonialism (Macnaught, 2016;
Parke, 2014). Before that, the leaders of these councils came about
through support of their people in various ways (valor in war, service
to people, or as a compromise between various factions) and their power
over the rest of the village was in many places negligible. Another
major aspect of this ministry is the communalization of land rights.
Over 80% of the land of Fiji is owned communally by various clans—it is
inalienable and the financial proceeds of leases and other development
projects are distributed to clan members annually through the NLTB. This
has in large part stunted capitalist penetration into the villages of
Fiji and prevented their proletarianization (Norton, 2012). The iTaukei
people can participate in commerce at will, and have land to farm and
live available to them without rent or tax.
In this brief outline, we can see elements of the “forms of freedom”
that Boookchin discussed. The power given to village and municipality,
even in latent form, is worth investigating deeper for Communalists
interested in building dual-power. In the bose va koro, villages have
the potential to shape their development and culture as they see fit,
which leads both to instances of domination and control but also
mutualism and horizontal decision-making. Despite this, looking to
indigenous struggles for autonomy is an important cornerstone of Social
Ecology, and the iTaukei people of Fiji have been grappling with
autonomy for well over a century.
Chodorkoff, Dan. (2014). The Anthropology of Utopia: Essays on Social
Ecology and Community Development. Norway: New Compass Press.
Macnaught, Timothy. (2016). The Fijian Colonial Experience: A Study of
the Neotraditional Order Under British Colonial Rule Prior to World War
II. Acton, A.C.T.: ANU Press.
Norton, Robert. (2012). Race and Politics in Fiji (Second edition. ed.,
Pacific studies series). St Lucia, Australia: University of Queensland
Press.
Parke, Aubrey. (2014). Degei’s Descendants: Spirits, Place and People in
Pre-Cession Fiji. Australia: ANU Press.