The ethnic war between the Sinhala majority SriLankan government and the Tamil Minority Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) resumed on 19 April 1995. The death toll in the first month of fighting has exceeded 500, including many civilians. SOCIALIST OUTLOOK spoke to a •leader of the Nava Sama Samaja Party, Vickramabahu Karunarathne, about the background to the renewal of the twelve year old conflict and current political events in Sri Lanka. The interview took place in London on 14 June 1995. What is the impact of the IMF/World Bank policies on Sri Lanka? The peasants in the rural areas are being turned into human dust. They lose their land, ecology, traditions, culture, history and everything. Even the workers who get jobs find them at a low skilled, low pay level.
They have lost their trade union rights. In the Free Trade Zones, women workers drawn from the rural areas exhaust themselves for two to three years trying to save some money and return to their villages in order to marry.
The struggle of the LTTE and the Jamatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) are linked to this. These youth come from the same rural petty-bourgeois background. They have been robbed of everything. They have nowhere to turn.
They are fighting for their motherland, dignity and existence. Of course they have different slogans: one says they want Tamil liberation, the other says they want Sinhala liberation.
We have had a number of wars both in the Tamil and Sinhala areas . Two hundred thousand have died. There has been a terrible brutalisation of society. 60,000 have 'disappeared' in the south. These are the fruits of 'development'. Very few have benefitted. This is a system that can't survive. We are told that poor countries have no alternative to this misery.
The only alternative is a global one. It is an alternative where multi-national companies, the Bretton Woods institutions and banks and financial institutions don't have free rein over the world. In Sri Lanka a revolutionary government would have to take over imports and exports and foreign exchange and the banking system.
Our first task is national liberation and democracy: the tasks which have been left undone Internationalistitute ForReseachAnd Education ENOUGH! by the bourgeois revolution. This is what permanent revolution is all about.
Secondly, we have to mobilise people on a democratic basis. Real democracy has to be achieved. We have to change the electoral system from regional electorates to social electorates such as work-places, universities, barracks, villages, professions - including housewives.
We must fight for a universal franchise and a plural system. Parties should be able to put their views and fight, but representatives of the social groups should be elected and then from this college of people we could select national leaders.
So from representing property, land, areas, minerals, resources, we move to representation of social relations. That is what we mean by the soviet system. Under such a system the working people will be better represented.
Women's liberation is central to this transformation of society. Women's liberation is not a matter for women alone. Women are the real producers and the majority of day to day affairs should be in their hands. Women's liberation is therefore tied up with socialist revolution. Similarly, socialism is not possible unless the environmental crisis is resolved.
Likewise the national question. This is not an issue which can be solved overnight. It hinges on the plurality and diversity of humanity. A national identity represents a cultural, linguistic history. Thus even in socialist societies the issue of self-determination is raised -you can't have homogeneity. Finally there must be extensive agrarian reforms so that the tiller is entitled to the land, the fisherfolk to the boat, and so on. Fourth International and asked our opinion on what needs to be done. In India the workers parties are powerful, but they don't want to take power because they don't have the right programme. Why has war restarted?
The Peoples Alliance (PA) government came to power [in the August 1994 elections] giving the impression that it would elaborate proposals for autonomy for the Tamil speaking people.
There was mass pressure for such a package. Even the LTTE was drawn into a peace process. However, after six months of waiting and various discussions with the LTTE, the PA failed to produce any proposals. The LTTE was merely waiting for popular entusiasm to subside to resume fighting. What kind of movement is the LTTE?
The LTTE is a national liberation organisation with bourgeois leanings. It is not a demoSERGUEI 91. cratic party or one that has real mass support. It has eliminated all opposition to it, including the NSSP, in the Tamil areas.
Our leader and founder, Annamalai, was brutally murdered by them in spite of the fact that he was one of the greatest fighters for the liberation of Tamil speakers.
Whatever our criticisms, it has given self respect to Tamil people. The SriLankan government and bourgeois parties in the south are prepared to negotiate with the Tamil speaking people because of the strength of the LTTE. It therefore has a dual character. It is opposed to any movement in its areas it does not control. At the same time it is fighting the oppressive On the other hand we believe the SLFP to be a bourgeois party; a party that will carry out World Bank dictates when it comes to power. It has become a reformist party without reforms and a populist party without a populist programme!
By joining with them in this coalition the Left parties have made a major blunder far worse than they did in 1964. In 1964 at least certain left reforms were possible. The 1970 popular front government carried out nationalisation of 70 per cent of the economy including expropriation of multi-national companies.
We predicted this government would soon adopt the programme of the UNP once in government. This is exactly what has happened. Many of our former critics now accept that we were justified in not joining the Peoples Alliance.
Of course in areas where we didn't stand our own candidates in the August Parlamentary election, we called on the masses to vote for the PA and to give preference to left candidates on the PA slate.
In the November Presidential election we gave critical support.
While explaining to the people the weaknesses of their programme it was important to recognise that the mass movement to topple the UNP would be very valuable, and to encourage it. The people who have lost faith in the government are fighting. Workers want to march into factories and take them over.
They want the right to form trade unions and change the running of their work-place. This struggle is continuing. In the student movement there is increased activity. In the rural areas, the peasantry is fighting against austerity measures of the International Monetary Fund. The final stroke was the resumption of the war.
A polarisation is occuring within the PA. Before long certain sections may break away from the PA. We expect a left current to emerge from the PA. At its base people are already breaking away and joining us.
Some of the SLFP backbenchers could be part of this new current. The combination of this break-off, with the NSSP and the JVP and some sections of the Tamil liberation movement which stand for democracy and autonomy, could form a new political alternative. This could happen within the next few years. What is the strength of the left in the PA and what debates are they having?
The Left, including the Lanka Sama Samaja Party and the Communist Party, is very weak. Presently the PA programme is very conservative. There is no talk of socialism any more.
The Left is weakened by divisions. And the PA leaders have not achieved what they expected. Those running the PA were with the UNP till the last moment, and crossed over to the PA because they realised the UNP was no longer the instrument to defend the rights of the bourgeoisie. They have done a beautiful takeover job. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (Peoples Liberation Front) has been regrouping. What do you make of its current trajectory?
The JVP has now shed its racist section. It has sought our assistance in fighting the Janatha Mithuro "Friends of the People" fundamentalists. We have formed à common front to fight racism and the growing theat of fascist organisations.
There are various struggles taking place against the IMF/World Bank diktats, among workers and in the student movement. The Nava Sama Samaja Party is trying to unite them and form a left alternative to this government.