Left gains after Sri Lanka's coalition ousted
Priyantha Wickramasinghe (NSSP 1 )
The present government of the United National Front (UNF) was elected in December 2002 on the basis of support from the national minority parties – the Tamil National Alliance, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (Hakim faction) (Hakim is the present leader of the Muslim Congress), Ceylon Workers Congress representing the plantation workers who are of Tamil/Indian origin and the breakaway from the People’s Alliance (PA).
At the core of the new government is the UNP, the party of the comprador bourgeoisie. After seven years in office, the People’s Alliance government under Chandrika was hated by the minority communities.
She was unpopular amongst Tamils because despite promising peace, she continued the war in the North East.
The military occupation of the Jaffna peninsula by the Colombo government made thousands of Tamil people homeless and increased the number of refugees both in Sri Lanka and in the Tamil diaspora of asylum seekers.
In this context it was not surprising that Chandrika’s campaign to isolate the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) from the Tamil community was a total failure.
Towards the end of her seven year regime she also antagonised the Muslim community.
The main issue in the 2001 election was peace. Chandrika carried through her campaign by breeding and building on Sinhala chauvinism. Her severe defeat in the elections was also due to her failures on the economic front.
Since 1998, the capitalist class in Sri Lanka has been increasingly aware of the weakness of their two parties, the PA and the UNP and has therefore adopted a bi-partisan approach to the problems already in 1998.
They really didn’t have any original programme of their own, but wanted to be partners with the WTO, IMF and trans-national corporations. Therefore they pushed for labour market flexibility, reduction of holidays, reforming the labour laws in their own interests.
The ‘left’ in the People’s Alliance coalition, comprising the (one-time Trotskyist) LSSP and the Communist Party, failed miserably in the election, failing even to safeguard their left identity.
By contrast the NSSP and the New Left Front did not fail: they did very well in the rural areas – much better than the chauvinist elements.
In the urban areas we failed to maintain our earlier majorities , but now opportunities have opened up in a massive way for the left.
The NLF has already started its campaign to end the war, and against globalisation. It has practical experience of opposing globalisation through picketing, protest rallies and strikes. It has a history of opposition to globalisation since the 1980 General Strike in Sri Lanka.
As the UNP is the government of the employers, now they want to rush through this programme of liberalisation and deregulation. The trade union movement is waking up from its slumber due to these targeted attacks of liberalisation and labour law reforms.
However, the UNP government is able to disrupt any opposition because of their approach to peace and conciliation with the Tamil community.
On 22 February 2002 the President and the leader of the LTTE signed a memorandum of understanding for de-escalation of the war, and to usher in a long-term cease-fire. This is a preliminary stage to a negotiated political settlement. The chauvinist groups – particularly the JVP are of course still opposed to this.
The employers want a resolution of the war in the North East, but they want to declare war on the working class and to deregulate it into a state of casual contract labour.
Today the threat of globalisation is directed at the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), the Railways and the state banks, and the government is greatly concerned about selling the shares of Sri Lanka Telecom. These are the areas in which the multinational companies can see a boom in their profits. The state is making every effort to privatise these areas by hook or by crook.
In 1986 the employees of the CEB threw the whole island into darkness by taking 4 days strike action against privatisation. The union leaders were threatened by the security forces who threatened to take their families including children into custody and pointed guns at them.
It was the ‘CEB – Protect You’ organisation which gave leadership in this struggle and I was the Joint Secretary. The security forces surrounded the Party HQ to arrest me, but it was in vain.
At this time also the government had to postpone its decision to privatise the state bank as a result of a decision by 8000 bank union delegates for strike action to stop this.
The privatisation of the railways was also postponed because of continuing strike action, picketing and various other forms of militant action.
It is the working class which pays the cost of the floating exchange rate by which their living standards are affected.
The foreign investors heavily exploit the working class through these policies. For example the devalued rupee, which used to be worth $2 is now only worth $0.50.
Now once again the threat of privatisation of banks, railways and CEB is back on the agenda. As a result of this threat the ‘CEB- Protect You’ organisation has started its agitational campaign against these plans.
They do not see any other solution than a general strike. and the organisation is making every effort to go for this by discussing a plan for joint action with the bank and railway unions. Such action would throw the whole country into chaos.
But the question is who is going to take the leadership, because such a struggle would result in a political battle with the traditional leadership of the unions who try to avoid their members taking militant action.
The JVP has a policy of opposing the privatisation of natural resources, but in practice they are engaged in a communal campaign
NSSP members are tirelessly working to make this struggle a success. The NNSP leadership in the CEB and Railways that has come forward to lead this struggle together with the other unions.
1 Nava Sama Samaja Party, Sri Lankan section of the Fourth International