S Thavaratnam, chairman of the Jaffna District Fishermen's Cooperative Society Unions Federation, played a significant role in unionising fishermen in northern Sri Lanka, starting in the mid-1970s. At that time, small unions were established in every fishing village across the Northern Province. As the civil war took hold, however, communication across villages became difficult and the federation was disrupted, and the unions in the Jaffna District functioned as a smaller federation. Thavaratnam became the president of that federation in 1995. He recently spoke with Himal contributing editor Ahilan Kadirgamar, and explained the impact of the civil war on the fishing industry, the problem of South Indian trawlers encroaching on Sri Lankan waters, and the need for more advanced boats. Translated from the Tamil.
Tell us a bit about the tradition of fishing in northern Sri Lanka.
I grew up in a village called Mylitty, in northern Jaffna, which was famous for its fishing industry. Prior to the war, five to six large vehicles of fish were sent daily to the south from my village. A fishing harbour, the only one in northern Jaffna, was built in Mylitty in the late 1970s. Even now, if the High Security Zone [in the northern part of Jaffna] is lifted, I am confident that we can resume the great fishing tradition of my village.
How were your fishing unions established?
Our unionising efforts in 1970s were preceded by a fishermen's cooperative started in the mid-1950s for northern fisherfolk to export sea products. The leaders of this cooperative gave us a good foundation for organisational work. By the 1980s, our organisation, the Jaffna Federation, had won two international awards for its work. We have 117 sangams [small unions] at the village level, which are divided into nine unions, one in each of the nine divisions of Jaffna District. One representative from each of the nine unions is part of the Jaffna Federation, and we take decisions collectively. Following the 2004 tsunami, through our village-level unions we provided data to NGOs about the losses incurred; we have since remained a source of information about these villages for both the government and donors. Although we were able to address losses relating to employment after the tsunami and other natural disasters, we have not been able to address issues of resettlement and shelter.
In 2003 and 2004, we engaged the government on the need to lift restrictions on fishing due to the curfew and High Security Zones. When there was no response, we mobilised our village unions to block the Jaffna district secretariat for 13 days. This was a non-violent protest and the people of Jaffna supported us – even government employees at the secretariat were sympathetic. To express solidarity with our struggle, fisherfolk in the south of the country, particularly in Negombo, staged a protest. Government officials finally called us for negotiations, and some of our demands were met. Due to our mobilisation efforts, I believe the government now takes our demands seriously.