Arunodaya Program To be adopted by an all-island conference - 20 November 2002

Arunodaya Program

To be adopted by an all-island conference of the group in April 2003

Preamble

The Arunodaya Group is a political platform of the Sri Lankan working people engaged in struggle for achieving its noble class mission of building socialism.  Comprising of the advanced detachments of the working people it serves as the core of leadership of the people of all nationalities in Sri Lanka in their struggle against feudal remnants, wage slavery, imperialism and capitalist globalisation.  The strategic aim of the Arunodaya group is to carry out the preliminary work required for building a mass revolutionary socialist party to educate, organise and mobilise the Sri Lankan working people for bringing to power a government of their own which will be instrumental in replacing capitalist mode of production with socialist mode of production.

The Arunodaya Group believes that the capitalist social development will not automatically abolish feudal remnants.  Instead of abolishing feudal remnants, the capitalist class as represented by the United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) has used and will continue to use such remnants for its own benefit.  By dividing and ruling the working people along national, ethnic, religious, linguistic and caste lines, the capitalist class has been able to safeguard the capitalist system.  Therefore, we believe that in Sri Lanka realizing the tasks of the new democratic revolution does not comprise a separate phase of revolution that distinguishes itself from the phase of socialist transformation.

The Arunodaya Group derives its world outlook from the Marxist-Leninist philosophy and bases its program on the progressive social experiences of humanity as summarized in the theory of scientific socialism.  Scientific socialism is the theoretical summation of the experience of the working class in its struggle for power.  It is not a dogma but has to be constantly developed and tested in the light of living experiences of the working-class movement and those engaged in the struggle for equality, fairness and social justice.  We have to think about, learn from and incorporate such experiences into our theory and practice[1].  To develop the correct line of the socialist revolution, the Arunodaya Group will wage a relentless struggle against all forms of class collaboration, reformism, revisionism and totalitarianism.

Upholding and practising proletarian internationalism, the Arunodaya Group opposes imperialism in all its manifestations.  Supporting the struggles of workers, oppressed peoples and nations against the forces of imperialism and reaction, the Arunodaya Group adheres to the principles of independence, non- interference, equality, mutual respect and cooperation in maintaining fraternal relations with all democratic, revolutionary, communist, socialist and workers' organisations.  It cherishes unity with all such organisations in Sri Lanka and abroad.

The Arunodaya Group's style of work comprises of combining theory with practice, maintaining close links with the masses and practising criticism and self-criticism.  In developing its practice, the Arunodaya Group consistently adheres to the policy of seeking objective truth from facts and conducting deep investigation and serious studies.  Cherishing utmost love for the people, membership of the Arunodaya Group will hold high the banner of objective truth and socialism, with courage and determination.

Eventuated by the contradictions of capitalism, socialism becomes the first conscious social transformation in human history.  It is not a conspiracy, or a putsch carried out by a group of saviours in the name of the working people.  Our program therefore needs to commence with analyses of the international situation, capitalism, its contradictions and historical development and the Sri Lankan society.  Based on these analyses, this program will outline the basic tasks and line of action in the struggle for building socialism.

International Situation

Humanity stands at crossroads in an environment of extensive intensification of human misery, destruction and national and international conflicts and wars.  Since the Second World War, capitalist development on a global scale has undergone rapid strides.  Exponents of scientific socialism were not able to foreshadow the rapid changes of capitalism that we have witnessed in recent decades.  Today, the world possesses knowledge and production capability with opportunities of providing all humanity with all their basic needs thus opening vistas for vast advances in their social and cultural development.  However, the economies of the developed capitalist world stagnate with over-produced commodities, while billions of people throughout the world face poverty, homelessness, unemployment and hunger in an unprecedented scale.  Mega mergers and mega acquisitions of world capitalist economy is now saddled with a string of mega bankruptcies that reveal the ugly face of crony capitalism in the citadels of free market economy, with the top hierarchies colluding with business barons to plunder large sections of small and medium investors and the working people.  In the name of ‘free’ trade, tentacles of capitalist globalization spread universally, while the gap between the rich and the poor widens globally and nationally at an alarming rate[2].  Developing countries are heavily dependent on financial institutions controlled by the United States and its allies.  Alternative economic policies that reject their global capitalist agenda have been made to fail by enforcing economic blockades, subversions and regime changes.  The imminent threat of self-destruction from increasing pollution and/or unleashing of weapons of mass destruction looms over the whole of humanity.  While demanding special privileges of immunity from global environmental treaties, criminal courts and prosecution of its citizens from war crimes, the global capitalist cephalopod threatens the countries not in its fold with economic extinction or mass destruction unless they co-operate in safeguarding the global economic and military superiority of the US.

With the end of the Second World War, global capitalism led by the United States began feverish preparations for a Third World War.  Their master plan for launching a nuclear war against the Soviet Union and China repeatedly reached dangerous levels.  However, the development of nuclear weapons by the Soviet Union, and later by China, acted as an essential deterrent against this master plan.  The collapse of the Soviet Union and its allies was internally due to their own socio-economic contradictions and externally due to destabilization measures launched by the imperialist camp through their ‘Star Wars’ programs and stirring up internal national conflicts.  While currently engaged in a process of encircling the People’s Republic of China with strategic US bases, the United States is now threatening the peoples of the world with pre-emptive strikes and portable nuclear weapons.  Unilateral abrogation of bi-lateral and multi-lateral agreements on nuclear arms control and either sidelining the United Nations or pressurizing it to carry out policies and programs favourable only for the continuation and extension of the policy of US world domination have become permanent characteristics of the diplomacy of the US and its main allies.

The collapse of the Soviet Union and its allies in the Eastern Bloc has been a setback in general while at the same time it has provided new lessons and experiences to the world socialist movement.  Similarly, defeats of uprisings in Latin America, in particular, in Nicaragua and El-Salvador, isolation of the People’s Republic of Cuba and the shift of the ANC in South Africa to the right have adverse affects on the socialist movement.  Despite these negative experiences, internationalism of the working and oppressed peoples remains the only avenue that would ensure progress and survival of humanity.  Attempts to build capitalism in Russia and the eastern bloc have ended up with creating stagnating economies with very high crime rates.  The economic and political transformations currently taking place in the People’s Republic of China and the emerging new political forces in the rest of the world need in-depth study and analyses.  Mass mobilizations against poverty, indebtedness and extinction imposed by the capitalist globalisation process and war are living examples of such awakening of working people around the world.  In particular, in developed capitalist countries, awareness of the downside of capitalist globalisation has generated strong protests against it.

Capitalism in the phase of globalisation

Leaders of global capitalism in the early 1980s advocated the road of free trade, free investment, deregulation, and privatization as the best route to global economic growth.  Being wary of the disadvantageous consequences that unfettered markets in a world of unequal nations could generate most developing countries then favoured the national states playing a stronger role in capitalist development.  Yet, due to rapidly rising external debts many developing countries lost control over their economic destiny^[3].  The advanced capitalist countries pressed developing countries into the free-market paradigm^[4].  The International Monetary Fund (IMF) became the global police officer enforcing free market policies and the World Bank (WB) imposed structural reforms through its new policy-oriented structural adjustment loans.  As a result, the decade of the 1990s saw most developing countries liberalizing their trade and investment policies.  The weakening of the socialist camp and the incapability of the opportunistic left allowed this process to gather further momentum.  A large landmass of the world thus fell under the tentacles of capitalist globalisation.

The United States has recently re-emphasized its neo-liberalist agenda by reiterating that the strings attached for providing foreign aid to developing countries are their commitment to free trade, political ‘liberty’ and ‘human rights’ as ambiguously defined by the United States.  The same United States recently imposed tariff against steel imports, violating the free trade principles they themselves preach the rest of the world to follow. The world has witnessed many an example of ‘regime change’ carried out openly or covertly by the United States and its allies through economic blockades, direct military interventions, conspiratorial strategies, coup d’etats and counter-revolutionary measures for the sole purpose of defending their neo-liberalist agenda.  The neo-liberalist forces utilising to their advantage nationalism of peoples whose national aspirations are yet to be realized, spread dissent in any country that is not willing to fall within their fold.  Utilising one of the major shortcomings of the socialist camp, of not genuinely and sufficiently addressing the problems and issues associated with unrealized national aspirations of their own peoples, separatist tendencies were fomented leading to its ultimate destruction.

Neo-liberal forces under the US leadership are now seeking to divide the world between those countries who support its so-called war against terrorism and the rest.  It links all aspects of globalisation with its so-called fight against ‘terrorism’.  Repressive laws are enacted both internationally and locally to suppress dissent and opposition to its imperialistic globalisation agenda.  Possibility of using the strategically important Trincomalee harbour with its oil tank facilities in the north-east of Sri Lanka as a US naval base and the airspace of Sri Lanka for unrestricted access by the US air force have become important in this light.

Effects of globalisation

For ruling classes in backward capitalist countries, which had gone from crisis to crisis, neo-liberalism became a ‘mantra’ for curing all socio-economic ills.  Apologists of "open economy and free trade" advocated that consumers and workers everywhere would gain from liberalization of trade and investment because it will unite all people through economic, technological, cultural and political ties.  On the contrary, global capitalism has debased everything in Sri Lanka to a commodity and every human relationship to a market relationship.  The policies of neo-liberalism implemented throughout the developing world and the instructions of the US-led global financial controllers to all developing countries are very clear.  In summary they are: privatize state assets; do not regulate financial institutions; no controls on capital flows across borders; float currency exchange rates; weaken laws relating to labour rights or environmental standards; cut down welfare spending; cut taxes on private enterprise and the super-rich; no pensions and provident funds to the workers and establish user pay models for all services.

What this analysis indicates is that neo-liberalism means nothing else but opening up the whole world for the monopoly capital of Trans - National Corporations (TNCs), free of any barrier.  When rates of return fluctuate, foreign investment capital should be able to freely move in or out of any developing country at the wish of the US-led global financial controllers.

United Nations studies have pointed out that the implementation of neo-liberalist agenda has mostly accompanied growing inequality.^[5].  This is a direct consequence of the widening power gap between neo-liberalist global institutions and the working people of the world.  This also reflects the ability of the neo-liberalist institutions to threaten and shift operations from one location to another with lower wages and/or environmental standards.  This allows these institutions to bargain down wages and working conditions of working people, further exacerbating income inequality.

On a global scale, markets of developing countries have become open to developed countries but not vice versa.  It was said that capitalist globalisation will strengthen economic development by distributing worldwide the achievements of information revolution, science and technology, advanced production techniques and modern management tools.  However, in reality what we have ended up with is the globalisation of poverty, unemployment, indebtedness, diseases, malnutrition, hunger, militarisation and terror.  Capitalist globalisation has, so far, provided less negative effects in advanced capitalist countries, yet, main opposition to the capitalist globalisation has sprung from the people of advanced capitalist countries.  Anti-globalisation currents in the developing world are still relatively weak.

Capitalism and the threat to human survival

Through direct application of scientific knowledge to production, capitalism promoted the utilisation and control of the forces of nature far more rapidly and extensively than any previous mode of production.  However, as Marx and Engels have pointed out, unless liberated from the control of the capitalist private profit system and subordinated to conscious social planning and regulation, the increasingly powerful forces of production would be turned into increasingly powerful forces of destruction.

The contradictory results of the capitalist development flow from the contradictory combination of partial rationality (subjection of productive activity within each capitalist firm to conscious planning) and overall irrationality (regulation of overall social development and the realization of social needs according to the ``laws of the market'' in its quest for private profit maximisation).  In order to defend the existence of its global system of exploitation, imperialism has amassed huge arsenals of weapons of mass destruction capable of annihilating the entire human race.  In its relentless pursuit of private profit, monopoly capitalism has harnessed the immense creative power of science, technology and industry to mass-produce chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, armaments and other high-risk commodities.  In this pursuit it is destroying the global balance of biological and chemical processes that all life forms depend on for their survival.

War and the threat of nuclear annihilation

Wastage of enormous productive resources on war and war preparations has become a permanent feature of the epoch of imperialism.  Nearly 10% of the value of the world's annual production of goods and services and nearly a third of the world's annual expenditure on scientific research and technological development are devoted to the production of armaments and maintenance of armed forces.

War is a product of the social and economic inequality that characterizes class-based society.  Throughout the history of human civilisation conflicts between exploiting classes or between exploiting and exploited classes over the sources of social wealth (human and natural resources) have led to prolonged and ruthless struggles.  The imperialist ruling classes, in their struggle to divide and redivide the world among themselves, have unleashed wars of historically unparalleled scope and destructiveness.  In the 20th century alone 10 million people perished in the First World War, and 80 million in the Second.  This is apart from the hundreds of ``local'' wars that have caused more than twenty million deaths since the end of the Second World War.  In August 1945, the United States attacked the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with nuclear weapons.  Since then it has been clear that any new world war, which would be a nuclear war, will unleash horrors incomparable to those of the first and second world wars.  Scientific research has confirmed the view that humanity would not survive such a nuclear world war.

Nuclear weapons remaining in the hands of the imperialists pose the danger of such weapons being used once again against the working people.  This will be definitely so if the imperialists are confident that there will be no nuclear retaliation, and if they judge that their gains will outweigh the price they will pay.  While a mass campaign against imperialist militarism can limit its ability to wage war, only a successful struggle for power by the working class in the imperialist countries, above all, the victory of the working class of the United States can disarm the imperialist camp.  Such a successful struggle will free the entire humanity from the threat of war and nuclear annihilation.

The growing ecological crisis

Unchecked emission of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide via the burning of fossil fuels and the burning of forests has caused an ecological crisis.  Predicted are dramatic climatic changes with catastrophic effects on the world's agriculture.  This, combined with increasing ultraviolet radiation due to the depletion of ozone layer in the atmosphere caused by the accumulation of pollutants, would be a recipe for disaster.  Deforestation causing elimination of plant and animal species and soil erosion, poisoning of oceans, rivers and reservoirs with domestic and industrial/agricultural by-products, urban air pollution due to automobile emissions, desertification due to inadvertent agricultural/horticultural irrigation practices, accumulation of toxic substances in soil, water and air and death of temperate forests due to air, water and soil pollution are also making the world increasingly uninhabitable.

Lack of scientific knowledge is not the cause of these problems and the main obstacle to their resolution.  Implementing ecologically sound alternatives does not help profit maximisation efforts and so pollution is not recognized for its devastating effects.  Capitalist development has shown that it is incapable of utilising natural resources in a sustainable manner meeting not only the current social needs but also those of the future generations.  Imperialist exploitation is the fundamental driving force behind the industrial, agricultural and horticultural practices contributing to deforestation, desertification and the use of hazardous industrial processes in the developing world.  Imperialist exploitation and the consequent poverty it create, is also the root cause of the demographic explosion in the developing world.  Having no access to a suitable infrastructure for social protection during illness and old age, the poor has to rely on large families, by necessity.

A radical restructuring of the world's economy is necessary for an effective struggle against pollution and degradation of the world's ecology.  Cancellation of the crushing debt owed by the developing world to imperialist governments and financial institutions becomes an essential step in this process.  Replacement of the present system of international trade based on unequal exchange between the developed and the developing world, with a system that promotes the economic development of the developing world is another essential step.  A thorough-going land reform and a massive, long-term ecologically sustainable industrialization program for eradicating poverty, hunger and mass unemployment are further essential steps.  Large-scale public programs to convert military production to the production of civilian social commodities, replacement of the use of fossil fuels with alternative renewable energy sources, development of public rather than private transport systems and converting industry to environmentally sustainable production processes are other essential steps.

Implementation of the above measures will require subjecting investment decision-making and production planning to overall social regulation and planning.  Transferring ownership of the decisive means of production from the hands of private corporations to the society as a whole is an essential condition for this to happen.  However, such a system of world-wide democratic planning will not be possible as long as the capitalist private profit system with its powerful military apparatuses armed with weapons of mass destruction exists.  The struggle to defend the environment, therefore, has a close connection with the struggle for disarming imperialism.

Arunodaya group believes that only transferring the ownership and control of the decisive productive resources to society as a whole, subordinating production to democratic planning to meet the rational needs of humanity and developing and applying scientific and sustainable methods of overcoming green house gases and other sources of environmental pollution, can stop an ecological calamity.  Having discussed the general international situation, we need to look at the capitalistic development in Sri Lanka.

Capitalism in Sri Lanka - Pre-colonial social formations

All interpretations of the Sri Lankan history attest to the fact that its pre-capitalist mode of production was Asiatic.  The ownership of land by the aristocracy was the predominant basis of Asiatic mode of production.  Violence played a key role in replacing one aristocracy with another where internecine power struggles were common.  Close relatives with claims to the throne killed many of their own kings.  At times mercenaries from South India have assisted in overthrowing one aristocracy with another.  Such power struggles have generally helped South Indian and European invaders to dominate sections and ultimately the whole of the island.  The sons of Vijayabahu VI, after killing their father, began fighting among themselves, which ultimately led to the eldest son, Bhuvanekabahu VII, collaborating with the Portuguese.  This resulted in the annexation of the Kotte kingdom by Philip II of Portugal.  Similarly, the power struggle of the aristocratic rulers of the Kandyan kingdom under the Nayakkar dynasty against the South Indian ruler and his court led to the Dutch control of the eastern and northwestern coastal areas.  The British exploited the power struggle between the Kandyan aristocracy with the dynasty of King Sri Wickrema Rajasinghe and captured the Kingdom of Kandy.  Thus, the whole island came under the dominance of the sovereignty of George III.

The colonial powers craftily used the craving of the Sri Lankan aristocracy for power and wealth, to reinforce their rule over the island.  Under colonialism, many local aristocrats exhibited their loyalty to the colonial rulers by changing their language, religion, customs and even names.  Thus, by showing allegiance to them, they closely identified themselves with the colonialists.  Exterminated were those aristocrats who did not adopt such allegiance.

Transition to Capitalism

Introduction of trade as the major economic activity commenced with the Portugese domination of coastal areas of the island.  Introduction of Portugese names, customs and Catholicism accompanied this introduction.  The Dutch colonial rule that supplanted the Portugese rule reinforced trade as the major economic activity and introduced Calvinism or Protestantism as religion.  Those locals who sought to retain and enhance their power and wealth changed their allegiance to the Dutch.  The Dutch gave their local ruling elite increasing opportunities to enrich and enjoy.

When the British replaced the Dutch as the colonial power, the local ruling elite once more switched its allegiance from the Dutch to the British.  For their loyalties the local ruling elite received from the British, honorary titles signifying their level of colonial allegiance.  The recipients of the titles such as ‘Mudaliyar’ and ‘Muhandiram’ followed up by ‘MBE’s and ‘KBE’s and then ‘Sir’s and ‘Lady’s ‘loyally’ acquired more power and wealth.  Stripped were the wealth and power of those members of the local ruling elite who did not tow the line.  Some were even subjected to exile or extermination.  With the change of the colonial power came expressions of allegiance to the British by changing names, customs and religion.  The Brown Sahibs reached the highest ranks in the colonial administration becoming its most obedient and docile servants.

Capitalism came into being in Sri Lanka not because of a process of natural social development but as a surgical superimposition of capitalist production relations on Asiatic mode of relations.  Disregarding the diversity of the subject population, the British colonialists established a single administration with English as its sole language of administration.  On all peoples of the island was imposed a unitary constitution.  Majority Sinhala Buddhists and Tamil Hindus were the furthest down in the British colonial power structure.  This situation provided the basis for a united struggle of Sinhala and Tamil oppressed people against the British colonialism.

The crisis of the ruling class

The local ruling elite comprising of the emerging corrupt capitalist class who enriched themselves by acquiring commissions and/or bribes was also in the process of acquiring the political leadership.  In 1946 they formed their first political party, the UNP.  The UNP facilitated the continuation of holding power and wealth in the hands of those who were allegiant to the colonialists.  Without discarding their interests and privileges the brown sahibs of the colonial era, irrespective of their linguistic and religious backgrounds, became the ruling elite and bureaucracy of the post-colonial Sri Lanka.

In 1948, due to the unfavorable international balance of forces towards colonialism and even in the absence of strong challenges to their rule from the local population, the British colonialists handed power over to their loyalist local ruling elite.  The first decade since 1948 witnesses the leading members of the ruling elite changing their language from English to Sinhala and religion from Church of England to Buddhism.  While pretending to be champions of Sinhala, in reality, their mother tongue remained English.  To hold onto power and wealth in the face of growing opposition of the working people, segments of the ruling elite started identifying themselves as “Sinhala nationalist”, ''patriotic'' ''anti-imperialist'', ''socialist'' and “democratic-socialist”.  A process of gradual de-democratisation of the state structure was adopted.  The left trade union base in the plantation sector was neutralised by means of the Citizenship Act of 1948 which effectively made Tamils in the plantation sector stateless and the Parliamentary Elections Act of 1949 denied their citizenship and voting rights.

Soon emerged internal power struggles among the brown sahibs.  This situation led to the formation of the SLFP in 1951.  The UNP and the SLFP respectively represented two capitalist political parties signifying the interests of two family clans; the Senanayake/Kotelawela/Jayewardene clan and the Bandaranaike-Obeyesekera-Ratwatte clan.  Even within these family clans, there were coups and counter-coups for each family to acquire the commanding heights of capitalism.  The socio-economic and political crisis was intensifying in the early 1950s.  In spite of petty-bourgeois character and in fighting among its leaders the left continued to expand, in particular, among the urban and plantation working people.  The general strike of 1952 culminated the growing opposition to post-1948 capitalism.  However, with Sinhala nationalists the SLFP formed a coalition that was able to turn the tide of the left around by utilizing the unrealized political aspirations of the Sinhala people who demanded their rightful place in society.  However, this capitalist coalition did not seek to fulfill the unrealized political aspirations of the Tamil people despite their demand for equal rights.  This provided the basis for alienation between the Sinhala and Tamil people and for the militant Tamil nationalist struggle that arose decades later.

On July 7, 1956 the Official Language Act No. 33 of 1956 ("Sinhala Only Act") was passed notwithstanding Section 29 of the Soulbury Constitution of 1946.  Tamils conducted 'Satyagraha' (fasting) on Galle Face Green, when goondas were used to physically attack the fasting Tamils and to strip them naked.  Tamil leaders were physically assaulted by thugs and spat upon.  The LSSP and the CP opposed the Sinhala Only Act demanding parity of status for Sinhala and Tamil with the slogan "One language, two Nations; two languages, one Nation".  In August the annual convention of the Federal Party demanded the restoration of "parity" for the two languages, the cessation of state-sponsored colonization of Tamil areas with Sinhalese settlers and the repeal of the citizenship laws.  In 1957 began the campaign against the introduction of Sinhala only "SRI" number plates.  Following protracted negotiations was signed the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayagam Pact (B-C Pact) which provided for the setting-up of Regional Councils with provision for the amalgamation of two or more regions.  Tamil was to be made a national minority language with provision for Tamil as the language of administration and courts in the North and East.  It pledged that colonization would not be used to convert the Northern and Eastern provinces into Sinhalese majority areas.  In October the "pilgrims" march based on the slogan "Sinhalese only from PointPedro to Dondra head", organised by Mr J.R. Jayawardene, set off in opposition to the B-C Pact.

In April 1958 B-C Pact was abrogated following agitations by the UNP and the Buddhist clergy.  The Federal Party responded by launching a non-violent campaign of civil disobedience.  Anti-Tamil Riots broke out on July 27 and emergency was declared with the banning of the Federal Party and the Jathika Vimukthi Peramuna (not the Janatha Vimunkthi Peramuna).  As a palliative measure, the Tamil Language (Special Provisions) Act No. 28 - "Reasonable use of the Tamil Language" Act was passed in Parliament in August but was prevented from implementation.  This situation provided the basis for the growth of Sinhala and Tamil nationalism.  In the meantime the influence of the American political interests represented by the Jayawardena-Wickremasinha families within the UNP was on the increase while subjugating the influence of the British political interests represented by the Senanayake/Kotelawala families.  To counter the influence of ‘socialist’ threats to the American economic interests the Jayawardena clan was demanding folding up of democratic rights and establishing dictatorial powers.

In 1961 the Federal Party launched civil disobedience movement in February in front of the Jaffna Kachcheri and soon paralyses administration over the North and East.  A symbolic "postal service" was inaugurated in April.  A state of emergency was declared and for the first time the armed forces were sent in to break the Satyagraha.  In 1963 "Sinhala Only" policy was fully implemented while passing of regulations to give effect to the "Reasonable use of the Tamil Language" was delayed in parliament.  In October 1964 Sirima-Sasthri Pact is signed in New Delhi which soon ran into snags over the interpretation over electoral registers. The Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) leader withdrew support to the SLFP government and joins ranks with the opposition UNP.

The Dudley Senanayake-Chelvanayagam Pact was signed in March 1965.  The agreement was binding upon the government to fully implement the Tamil Language (Special Provisions) Act of 1958, set up District Councils and to apply specified principles to colonization schemes in the North and East.  Based on this agreement, the FP joined the UNP Government and Mr M. Tiruchelvam became the Minister for Local Government.  The LSSP and the CP abandoned their stand for parity of Sinhala and Tamil and instead adopted the slogan "Dudleyge bade masala vadai" ( implying Dudley has sold the Sinhala Nation to Tamils).

In January 1966, relevant regulations were introduced in Parliament to give effect to the Tamil Language (Special provision) Act of 1958.  The SLFP and its left partners opposed this move.  In 1968 District Councils Bill introduced in Parliament by Prime Minister Mr Dudley Senanayake. This is seen as a dilution of the Dudley Senanayake - Chelvanayagam Pact of 1965 by the Federal Party.  The Federal Party at its 11th National Convention resolves to function as an independent group in Parliament. Mr Tiruchelvam resigns his cabinet portfolio.

Mid 1960s saw the socio-economic and political crisis in Sri Lanka growing again.  The left leaderships were able to muster their parliamentary influence among the working people.  Being conscious of the growing left influence, the capitalist leadership of the SLFP tactfully destroyed the United Left Front formed by the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), the Communist Party (CP) and the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP).  In 1970 the SLFP-led "United Left Front" coalition swept the polls.  A system of standardisation of university entrance is introduced so that 30% are filled on island-wide merit; 55% by allocation to revenue districts in proportion to their population, and filled within each district on merit; 15% given to districts deemed educationally underprivileged.  The new education policy is alleged to have aimed at ensuring that more rural Sinhala youths secure places in the universities in the privileged fields of medicine, engineering and other science-based degrees. However, in practice, this leads to a drastic drop in Tamil students entering these fields of university study.

The LSSP and the CP who had so far maintained an anti-chauvinist stand drowned themselves in the chauvinist currents by drafting and voting for the 1972 Constitution that deprived the human and democratic rights of non-Sinhala nationalities[6].  The 1972 Republican Constitution was promulgated on 22nd May and "Ceylon" was renamed "Sri Lanka".  The Constitution did away with Section 29 of the 1946 Soulbury Constitution.  For the first time the word "unitary" was brought into the constitution and the right of the courts to pass judgment on the legality of laws was taken away.  The capitalist governments were increasingly falling in line with the demands of world capitalism through the World Bank and the IMF for privatization and liberalization of the Sri Lankan economy.

In 1975 Tamil youth militants shot at a Tamil Congress MP who voted for the 1972 Constitution.  In May the Tamil United Front (TUF) was formed comprising the Federal Party (FP) and the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) and the CWC also joined its ranks later. A set of demands to be incorporated into the Constitution was forwarded to the government.  Mr S. J. V. Chelvanayagam, leader of Federal Party, resigned Kankesanthurai constituency seat in October.  In his resignation speech he placed on record the failings of the 1972 Constitution in addressing Tamil grievances. He also stated his decision to treat re-election as a plebiscite on Tamil Eelam.  The International Association of Tamil Research wanted to hold its International Tamil Conference in Jaffna while the Sri Lankan Government wanted the Conference held in Colombo.  Last day incidents at the International Tamil Conference in Jaffna led to the electrocution of nine Tamils in the gathering and became political rallying point of Tamil youth militancy.

In 1976 Mr Chelvanayagam contested and won the Kankesanthurai by-elections   He interpreted this as a mandate for Tamil Eelam.  In May the Tamil United Front (TUF) was reconstituted as the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF). The Vaddukkodai resolution asserted that the Tamil people and their homeland constitute a Nation and demanded for the separate state of Thamil Eelam.  In the General Elections held UNP swept into power with a four-fifths majority.  The TULF, with 18 seats, became the second largest party in Parliament and its leader became Leader of Opposition.

In August 1977 anti-Tamil riots broke out quickly spreading and engulfing the Up-country, Colombo and its suburbs.  The Second Amendment to the 1972 Republican Constitution was passed on 20th October, ushering in the system of Executive Presidency.  The new Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka was adopted in the National State Assembly.  The Constitution not only did not bring back Section 29 of the 1946 Soulbury Constitution, but also provided for a 2/3 majority in Parliament and a Referendum for any amendment of the Constitution making it next to impossible to make any amendments.

In 1978 a Bill proscribing the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and Similar Organisations is passed on 19th May.  In 1979 the Bill proscribing the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was allowed to lapse and was replaced by the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) which provided wide ranging arbitrary powers to the security forces, signalling a further intensification of the national question.  The State of Emergency, thereafter, became protracted.  In 1981 following a lull in Tamil youth militancy, militant activities against security personnel, bank heists and assassination of informants and Tamil politicians increased.

At the District Development Councils (DDC) elections, Tamil youth protested over the DDC system.  In the run-up to the polls for District Development Councils, security and other personnel engaged in ballot rigging, widespread looting and arson. On June 1,1981, the Jaffna Public Library was burnt down by members of the security forces.  The TULF won the elections held on June 4 with a convincing majority.  A no confidence motion was moved against Mr A. Amirthalingam, the leader of opposition but was defeated.  Widespread complaints emanated from the DDCs in Tamil areas that the Government was not providing adequate funds and the functioning of DDCs in Tamil areas came to a grinding halt.

Having come to power in 1977 the UNP implemented policies of ‘free’ trade thus opening up the whole economy for the multinational robber baron corporations.  The tentacles of capitalist globalisation captured the national economy of the island.  While the economic growth rates recorded highest levels since 1948, the economic policy saw increasing profits taken away from the island and the gap between the rich and the poor drastically worsening.  The fruits of the so-called development were getting concentrated in the hands of a few capitalists local and foreign.  Local agricultural production and manufacturing were devastated.  The 1978 constitution imposed an executive presidential system converting the Parliament into a secondary institution.  The executive presidency created a ‘democratic’ dictatorship non-answerable to the Parliament and the judiciary.  The new Constitution further extended the deprivation of non-Sinhala nationalities of their human and democratic rights.  In the name of safeguarding political stability increasingly repressive legislation were enacted.  Outlawed was the demand for right to self-determination and dispatched was the Special Task Force to the north and east with a Presidential order to annihilate the ascending militancy of the Tamil nationalist movement.  Number plate-less vehicles carrying ‘goni-billa’s roamed the streets of the north east and severed parts of dead bodies commenced appearing in street corners and bushland.  In 1977 and 1979 communal riots against Tamil people occurred.

In 1982 the Government raises the "Naxalite" bogey and detains the leader of the Sri Lanka Mahajana Party (SLMP), Mr Vijaya Kumaranatunge.  Life of parliament was extended till 1989 by the enactment of the 4th Amendment and holding of a national referendum.  Widespread allegations of election rigging made the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) file a law suit challenging the process of the referendum.  The Government through its Sixth Amendment to the Constitution made it an offence to espouse the creation of a separate state.  The TULF was unseated from Parliament making Tamils having no representation in the Parliament.

The Black July of 1983, resulting in the death of many hundreds of Tamil civilians and destruction to property, led to an exodus of refugees to India and the inevitable militarization of the ethnic conflict.  Large-scale efflux of Tamils to other countries also commenced.  In the face of widespread allegations of state-involvement at cabinet level in the riots against Tamils, the government proscribes left wing political parties including the JVP, the CP and the NSSP.  However investigations carried out by the Criminal Investigation Department cleared these parties of any involvement in the July riots, the ban on the CP and the NSSP was lifted however the ban on the JVP continued.  Statistics of the investigation indicated the involvement of pro-government mobs in the riots.  The July 1983 Anti-Tamil riots organized and unleashed by the UNP saw the internationalization of the national question of Sri Lanka.  The martial plan to repress all the anti-systemic forces including the JVP in the south led to the socio-economic and political crisis of the 1980s, which grew worse by the end of the decade due to the JVP insurrection and the Tamil militant struggle.

The President summed up the respective positions of the Sinhalese and Tamils at the Political Parties Conference (PPC) by saying: "Sinhalese say District Councils and no more, whilst the Tamils say Provincial Councils and no less".  At the Thimpu Talks between the Tamil politico-military organisations and the Sri Lankan Government, for the first time, the Tamils wanted four basic principles accepted by the Government of Sri Lanka.  The four principles were that the Tamils are a nation; they have a traditional homeland; their right to self-determination; and their right to equality and citizenship.  The Government refused to accept these principles and the talks failed.

In 1987 the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution gave legal status to the Indo-Lanka Agreement and led to the setting up of Provincial Councils.  Refusing to accept the Agreement, some Sinhala nationalist groups took to the streets, and violence erupted.  India sent Indian Peace Keeping Forces (IPKF) at the 'invitation' of President J R Jayawardena so that the Governmnet could withdraw their security forces from the North and redeploy them in the South to crush the JVP rebellion.  The JVP violence in the South capitalising on the anti-India hysteria, LTTE's military adventurism in the North capitalising on the excesses of the Indian Peace-keeping Force (IPKF), and the violence unleashed by the security forces and armed vigilante groups formed by the governmnet led to anarchy in the country.  In 1990, the North-East Provincial Council, the only Provincial Council for the Tamil areas, which was set up due exclusively upon Tamil agitation, was unceremoniously dissolved by way of two pieces of legislation, due to the agitations of Sinhala and Tamil groups, only a year and a couple of months after it was set up.

The Indian Peace Keeping Forces withdrew and the alliance between President Premadasa and the LTTE leadership collapsed. The LTTE declared "Eelam War 2" and the LTTE emerged as the "sole" vanguard of Tamil Eelam militant movement, with the other Tamil militant organisations becoming absorbed into the parliamentary stream.  The parliamentary select committee processes of arriving at a devolution package got off the ground, while the war was on, but soon got grounded.  The Parliamentary Select Committee chaired by Mr. Mangala Moonesinghe failed to arrive at a consensus.  A "majority decision" was made to advance the 13th Amendment to approximate the scheme of devolution found in the Indian Constitution.  The Parliamentary Select Committee also decided that the Eastern Province should be separate from the Northern Province.

President Wijetunge In 1993 stated that there was no Tamil Problem.  There was only a terrorist problem.   Sri Lanka is the Sinhala land where the Tamils were only "creepers" on the Sinhala tree.  ‘The Tamils had been given a plateful and that nothing more need be given because the Tamil plate could not hold more'.  His question "What are the grievances of the Tamils?" soon became the fashion of the day.

In 1994, pledging peoples a more humane economic policy and a negotiated solution to the national question, the Peoples Alliance under the leadership of the capitalist SLFP again captured power.  The Peoples Alliance was able to capture both the majority power in the Parliament and the executive Presidency.  A ceasefire led to another round of talks with the LTTE.  In April talks collapsed and "Eelam War 3" broke out.  The Government commenced the "war for peace" military campaign.  The launching of “war for peace” without changes in the economic policy of liberalization and privatization, brought devastative effects upon the economy.  Demands of the capitalist globalisation agenda did not obtain any restriction under the PA regime.  The ferocious war made the whole system increasingly and blatantly corrupt.  The capitalist system itself was embroiled in an inescapable crisis.  The calls of the capitalist class for negotiations with the Tamil militant movements commenced to emanate.

For the first time since the 13th Amendment of 1987, in 1995, the government came out with a constitutional reforms package and a detailed scheme of devolution.  The fragile base for an 'economic take-off' was being fast consumed by the "war economy".  In December the government forces recaptured Jaffna and about 600 people have "disappeared" immediately afterwards.  In May the government's principal executive on ethnic matters, stated that "a political dialogue for peace on a resolution of the Tamil Problem can only be on the Government's terms and within its own strategies".  In July LTTE captured the Sri lanka's Mullativu base in the East.   The statement of Dr. Walpola Sri Rahula Thero, Vice Chancellor of the Kelaniya University, summarizes Sinhala extreme nationalist attitude at this time.  "Sri Lanka is a Buddhist Sinhala Country.  It is not a multi-national or multi- religious state.”  “The solution has to be the solution of the majority of the people."  In 1997 total censorship on war news was imposed.  A convicted Sri lanka Army Corporal of Krishanthi Kumarasawmy murder case revealed a mass grave of about 500 youth in Chemmuni Jaffna allegedly made to "disappear" by the security forces when they captured Jaffna.

In the December 2001 general elections, the United National Front gained majority power within the Parliament while the Peoples Alliance continues to hold the Executive Presidency.  Readied are the pro-globalisation policies for implementation on the economic front while discussions for a negotiated settlement to the national question are proceeding between the leadership of the government and the LTTE.  The power struggle between the SLFP and the United National Front (UNF) seems to continue upward.  The increasing American influence attempts to restrict the Tamil nationalist militant struggle within the capitalist globalisation framework.  Though comprising of many groups the UNF has a single focus of advancing capitalist development by satisfying the whims and fancies of the forces of capitalist globalisation.  Having not deviated from the policy of satisfying the demands of capitalist globalisation the PA is getting entrenched in an increasingly chauvinistic approach towards the national question.  Internal power struggles within the PA are apparent, with the Bandaranaike/Ratwatte family clan trying to safeguard their hold without allowing southern capitalist families to take over the leadership.  Commodity prices and the cost of living are on the rise on an unprecedented scale.  The socio-economic crisis is deepening engulfing all oppressed sectors of the society.

Effects of neo-liberalist capitalist development

1977 - 1994

Sri Lankan capitalist state commenced its first loan assistance deals with the World Bank after the Korean War, in the 1950s.  Mid 1950s to late 1977 saw gradual consolidation and expansion of state capitalism^[7].  Many state industries set up with the assistance of the socialist countries became the industrial base of state capitalism.  In parallel became endemic corruption, red tape, scarcity of commodities and black markets.  Provision of official language status to Sinhala only, special status to Buddhism only and introduction of standardisation of university entrance, political cronyism, nepotism, chit system (instead of merit) for recruiting employees and other discriminatory practices took place during the same period.  In fact, this period when socialism had become a detested word provided an ideal situation for introducing neo-liberalist agenda.

Introducing neo-liberalism required curtailing peoples’ democratic rights.  The UNP government in 1977 laid foundation for open economy and trade liberalization with the promise of delivering economic prosperity and higher living standards through the establishment of “Dharmista” (fair, just and tolerant) society.  Sri Lanka has enjoyed for the past 25 years the ‘fruits’ of open economy based on neo-liberalism.  The gap between the rich and the poor has widened significantly.  The WB and IMF have taken over almost total financial control of the country.  Superimposition of capitalism on the island’s economy, especially after the introduction of neo-liberalist structural reforms in 1977, has replaced the collective value system based on the Asiatic mode of production with the individualistic value system of ‘competition’ amongst each other solely for income generation and consumption.

In 1978, the government replaced the existing constitution with another unitary form of constitution, further entrenching discriminatory practices and paving the way for executive presidency.  The Parliament became a secondary institution.  The pro-government trade union confederation (the Jathika Sevaka Sangamaya - JSS) was made the most powerful trade union.  Labour laws of the rest of the country did not apply to the newly established two special economic zones (free trade zones).  Investments in free trade zones provided extraordinary tax concessions and benefits to multi-national investors.  With the establishment of Board of Investment (BOI) the whole island fell into the clutches of neo-liberalism.

Sri Lankan Rupee, floated against the US Dollar became devalued by 46%.  Complete politicisation of all government institutions began^[8].  Introduction of repressive legislation (eg. Prevention of Terrorism Act and Freedom from Responsibility Act) and the creation of right-wing para-military forces were supposed to establish the security and stability of the open economy.  To establish infrastructure required for foreign investments massive borrowings were made.  For example, by transforming the Mahaweli scheme, a 30-year plan for agricultural development, into an electricity supply scheme the scheme was completed within 6 years with massive loan assistance.  With the increase of land ownership ceiling to 100 acres, there were large-scale sales of state plantation lands and privatisation of state enterprises at marginal prices^[9].  An economy based on tourism, foreign employment and garment industry out staged the plantation economy, the major foreign exchange revenue source of the 1950s.  By early 1990s neo-liberalism had firmly established its roots in Sri Lanka.

1994-2002

The PA government of 1994, which pledged a “humane” but free economy, continued along the same path until December 2001.  Between 1994 and year 2000 were privatized 41 enterprises including SL Telecom and Air Lanka.  As a result, the private sector component of industry has grown to 94% while the state sector has diminished to 6%.  During the year 2000, diesel price increased was 108%, following IMF instructions to float the fuel price.  Cost of Living Index went up from 2829.2 in April 2001 to 2912.7 by June 2001.  During the same period rate of inflation went up from 10.3% to 11.5%.  As a result, whatever the local industrial and agricultural production that remained heavily suffered.  About 350 businesses had to close down in the year 2000 alone.  The Sri Lankan government signed a loan agreement for USD 253m with the IMF to keep up foreign exchange reserve levels and in turn agreed to re-structure and privatise banking, postal, electricity, water distribution, railway and insurance services.  In addition, to be implemented were a user-pay system for education, health and water and a sale of the irrigation system, agricultural land and rain forests.

The PA government having come to power with a pledge to end the war through negotiated settlement with the LTTE to the problems of the Tamil people ultimately pursued a strategy of “war for peace” which became a total failure.  Combined with the heavy military expenditure incurred and unprecedented corruption in the political-military bureaucracy brought the country to economic collapse.  The current UNF government, elected last December, on a platform of a negotiated settlement has declared a mutual ceasefire with the LTTE, commenced negotiation with international mediation and implemented a resettlement and developmental programme for the areas devastated by the war.  However, the results of the negotiations are yet to be seen, especially when the government is confronted with the nationalist political forces resisting any form of decentralization of power.

The UNF government has pledged to continue along the path of capitalist globalisation.  In its year 2002 budget, the new government has pledged to liberalise importation and distribution of petroleum thus inviting multinational petroleum companies to re-invest in Sri Lanka.  Introduction of Value Added Tax (VAT) incorporating GST and National Security Levy (NSL) would lead to price increases of all essential commodities.  Almost all hydroelectric power generation projects are to be privatised and with it perhaps associated catchment reservoirs.  Such privatisation may also lead to water "management" as recommended by the IMF.  The budget has increased the tax burden on the working people and the unemployed while providing tax concessions to the business community.

The situation with regard to agriculture is even worse.  The WB has advised that the production of rice is inefficient and consumes more water.  Instead of rice production, it has recommended introduction of export cash crops that need less water^[10].  This process has converted peasants in several districts into slaves of the TNCs.  To counter strong opposition of the peasants, the TNCs are planning to fully appropriate land and water reservoirs.  And in pipeline is a user pay system for consumption of water.  State owned agricultural research institutions have been privatised.  The process of liberalisation of agriculture will be complete with the monopolisation of land, potable water, propagation seeds, agro-research and agro-chemicals industry.  Central Bank reports indicate drastic reductions in agricultural production.  American and Japanese companies have already usurped patent rights for several local plant varieties.

Neglected are the peasant community in Sri Lanka, which constitutes 72 percent of the population.  Price of rice has risen to Rs 35 per kilo but for the same kilo of rice a farmer gets Rs 3.50 only.  Nearly 80 per cent of the peasants are recipients of the Poverty Alleviation Program.  Since the introduction of the free economy in the 70s, major foreign exchange earnings have been from the garment industry making value-added products and the labour market in the Middle East for housemaids.  On the positive side, free trade has increased the participation of female labour force in wage-labour.  However, rather than improving the socio-economic status of women this phenomenon has relegated them to low-paid employment.  In general, after leaving for the Middle-Eastern countries as housemaids many rural women have faced sexual harassment and violence.  There is no doubt about the tremendous contributions to the economy made by the garment industry workers and housemaids in the Middle East wage slavering under very difficult working conditions.  These garment factories could be closed down at any time when the capital investments are withdrawn to a country with better exploitative arrangements.  And the labour market in the Middle East could shrink due to the turbulent situation in the Midddle-East.

Neo-liberalist capitalism created an unsustainable but substantially imaginary wealth through speculation.  The grip of the IMF, the WB and the WTO over the developing countries has tightened more than ever.  By manipulating currency exchange rates open economy has made it impossible for local business to compete with the TNCs.  Sri Lanka's currency is been annually devalued, with the explanation that focal new export industries need support through the realignment of currency exchange rate.  The U.S. dollar, which had an exchange rate of Rs 3.50 in 1950, now has an exchange rate close to Rs100.00.  Business in Sri Lanka began to sputter and slip and needed more loans.  Obviously paying interest on loans needs more borrowing^[11].

Implementation of neo-liberal policies in Sri Lanka has aggravated major problems such as poverty, unemployment, hunger, suicide, disease and lack of medical facilities; increased illiteracy levels, lack of appropriate educational and training facilities, exploitation of children through child labour, prostitution; consumption of drugs and alcohol, money laundering; caused the lack of drinking water, the scarcity of housing, power and communications facilities; and precipitated the intensification of the national question.   Liberalisation policies also have negatively affected the aspirations of all peoples for sustainable development.  These policies have caused merciless destruction of the environment, nature and the social fabric, for example, war, deforestation, soil and sea erosion, and pollution of water and the atmosphere; extinction of local flora and fauna  including traditional plants and medicinal herbs; and plagues such as malaria, dengue fever and AIDS.

The over-emphasis placed on exports oriented economy has translated, in practice, into deforestation, overfishing, depletion of precious stones and artefacts and excessive use of agrochemicals.  The long-term cost of this devastation is not considered when discussing success stories of capitalist liberalisation.  It will be left to the future generations to deal with soil and sea erosion, depleted fishing banks, and increasingly unproductive soil due to accelerated plunder of Sri Lanka's natural resources.

Capitalism in its neo-liberal phase has more than demonstrated its incapability of solving basic problems of the people.  In its aggressive path for profit maximisation, capitalism has dehumanised the global civilisation and continues to destroy the ecological balance.  The information revolution and other scientific and technological achievements sufficient for providing decent living standards for the entire world population have been used to strengthen the grip of capitalism over the developing world.  The consequence of the neo-liberal offensive has been a ferocious intensification of the exploitation of working people in Sri Lanka.  Unemployment rate and the gap between the rich and the poor have been on the increase.  The ordinary people are subject to growing unemployment, social alienation, deprivation and rapidly declining living standards.

The terror attacks on the USA on September 11 2001 and the terror war launched by the US led imperialistic forces has far-reaching implications for Sri Lanka.  While US imperialism is seeking to utilise the situation to further strengthen its neo-liberalist agenda, right wing chauvinist forces in Sri Lanka have attempted to use it to suppress dissent against family bandyism, nepotism, war, corruption and wastage.  Neo-liberal forces are capitalising on this situation imposing conditions to intensify their exploitation which would further erode the sovereignty, independence and unity of Sri Lanka.

The crisis of the working class movement

Crisis of the old left

During the days of colonialism, the petit bourgeois left groups held the leadership of the working class movement of Sri Lanka.  Being reformist in nature the movement mostly refrained themselves to the parliamentary and trade union form of struggle.  The animosity between the leaderships of the left had a devastating effect on the working class movement.  Even in 1947, to defeat the LSSP, the CP supported the UNP at the general election.  One of the major flawed characteristics that could be observed is the willingness of these leaderships to unite under bourgeois leaderships but their resistance to form unity within their own ranks.  In the 1960s, all trade unions united under the banner of the Joint Trades Union Federation put forward 21 demands to the then crisis-ridden government.  The leftist political formations had established the United Left Front.  This provided tremendous courage and political determination to all left activists and their symapthisers.  However, at the most decisive hour in the working class history of Sri Lanka, the petit bourgeois leaderships joined the capitalist government actively and openly collaborating in the repression of the working-class struggle.

The subjective and objective socio-economic conditions were pointing towards a pre-revolutionary situation.  The petty-bourgeois left leadership left the working class in the lurch and formed united fronts under bourgeois leaderships when the economic crisis was worsening and the ruling capitalist class was finding incapable of ruling in their usual way.  Having understood the threat to their interests, the ruling capitalist class instantly bought the leftist petit bourgeois leadership over.  The leaderships of the LSSP and the CP joined hands with the SLFP while the MEP joined hands with the UNP.  This treachery helped the capitalist class to establish their leadership over the working class, the peasantry and the nationalist movement.

This historic betrayal marked a turning point in Sri Lankan left politics.  Many members of these left formations interested in progressing the left movement commenced forming a new organization of the left, the JVP.  It was ironical that the main enemy of this new left turned out to be the old left.  Seeing the new left as its grave-digger the leadership of the old left decided to wipe out the new left at the earliest possible opportunity.  The CP (Moscow wing) and the LSSP initiated slandering the JVP as CIA agents while the CP (Peking wing) initiated slandering the JVP as KGB agents.  The JVP through its own mass campaigns exposed the real nature of this slandering campaign.  By effectively covering up the real CIA agents this campaign provided opportunity and protection for them to carry out their own agendas.  Having failed in this slander campaign, the leaderships of the LSSP and the CP launched a covert terror campaign for destroying the JVP.  Used were the state machinery and vigilante groups to repress the democratic and human rights of the JVP members to engage in their political activities.

By fighting back against the brutal white repression of 1971, the JVP was defending their basic democratic and human rights.  The bourgeois state with the assistance of the old left leadership massacred thousands and incarcerated close to 60,000 people.  While in prison the JVP fought back, by reorganizing themselves and critically examining its policy framework.  By maintaining a completely closed economy for the working people but remaining completely open for their own families the SLFP-LSSP-CP coalition also created a sordid state of the economy.  In 1977, the capitalist UNP came to power making use of this sordid state of affairs and publicly and repeatedly expressed their gratitude to the capitalist SLFP, LSSP and CP coalition.  After 1977, the hatred and jealousy against the JVP of the old left paved way for the weakening of the working-class movement and destroying organized trade union activities and taking over the leadership of the working class by the JSS.

The old left did everything to undermine the process of rebuilding the JVP.  Their main enemy should have been the UNP and the US led globalisation process, however, they continued to see the JVP as their main enemy.  When the UNP launched its own campaign of repression against the JVP in 1983, the old left kept silent in public.  However, in statements to the Police and the CID they attempted to incriminate the JVP leadership with 1983 July riots, which were actually instigated by the UNP government itself.  The old left leadership also agreed with the UNP leadership to the continuation of the proscription of the JVP.

Crisis of the new left

In 1968 the historical betrayal of the old left planted the seeds of a new left.  This new left, which was originally known as the ‘movement’ and later dubbed by the capitalist class as ‘Che Guevara’ movement grew swiftly among many who had suffered under the capitalist rule.  In spite of the massive repressive measures unleashed by the capitalist governments, it became stronger within the student and youth movement.  Its initial work commenced with the working class movement but met stiff resistance of the old trade union strongholds in urban areas.  Gradually the JVP was becoming a force within the peasantry.  The ‘movement’ was strongly anti-collaborationist.  Party activists were dedicated and committed to the cause of socialism.  For the first time in the Sri Lankan history the message of socialism was spreading on an island-wide scale.  In 1970 the movement was named the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP).  With these positive characteristics also associated were the shortcomings that led to the disastrous consequences at later stages.

The movement was semi-proletarian in class character.  Therefore, with time, oscillations between right wing tendencies and left adventurist tendencies became noticeable.  The plantation working class was considered a force that could be ‘used’ for counter-revolutionary purposes by the Indian and Sri Lankan capitalist class as class struggle intensifies.  With regard to the role played by different social strata in the socialist revolution, even the agricultural proletariat such as chena workers was considered in a better light than plantation working class.  Starting from this premise, however, the JVP commenced carrying out political work among the plantation workers.  By the end of 1970 there were small pockets of plantation workers agreeing with the political program of the JVP.

Due to the influence of Sinhala nationalism that crept into the left movement in the early 1960s the old left did not place much emphasis on educating their cadre on this issue.  Rather left ranks were The JVP was totally ignorant about the discrimination carried out against the Tamil-speaking people.  Therefore, the JVP did not discuss any of the issues related to language, religion, discrimination, nationality, nation, federalism and right to self-determination.  On the one hand, almost all party activists originated from the rural south of Sri Lanka; they were not conscious of the issues relating to the Tamil peoples.  On the other hand, this situation is a reflection of the lack of awareness generated by the old left among its cadre about such issues.  Being semi Maoist in political thinking the JVP concentrated more on external factors such as ‘Indian expansionism’ advocated by Mao-Tse Tung.

The JVP had an over-simplified view on the method of socialist revolution.  Instead of the working people armed with class-consciousness generated by the deep social contradictions they experience, moving forward to capture state power, the JVP was acting as a substitute on behalf of the working class.  The JVP was more or less acquiring the status of a ‘saviour’ of the working people.  Therefore, the struggle of the JVP took the form of a conspiracy, without the participation of the majority of the working people.  The modes of struggle used by the Latin America revolutionaries became more popular within the JVP.  Many believed that the gunshots when fired against the repression of the capitalist class would awaken the working masses.  Over-assessment of its strength became a frequent shortcoming.  On the ideological front, the JVP believed that the revolution would commence when the capitalist class commences its repression against the JVP.  Following this ideological stance the JVP commenced arming itself whenever the state apparatus unleashed its repression against the JVP.  This ideological conviction was so prevalent that the attempts of several leaders to prevent an insurrection in April 1971 abysmally failed.  Thus within the ranks of the JVP prevailed left-adventurist tendencies.

After 1972 having self-critically looked at its activities the JVP decided not to conduct the political class on Indian Expansionism any more.  After studying the national question using the limited facilities available in prison, the JVP formulated new policies on the national question, in particular, with regard to language, religion and right to self-determination of the Tamil-speaking people.  However, with the launch of massive propaganda campaign after the release of its leaders in November 1977, the JVP commenced oscillating rightwards.  The JVP did not differentiate between quality and quantity.  The sole effort was to expand and expand quickly as possible.  Diverted were all resources of the organization to this effect.  Over-assessment of its numerical strength did not materialize at the 1982 presidential elections.  A strong wave of depression undulated within the leadership and the rank and file membership of the JVP, which was overcome within a couple of months.  On several pretexts, the JVP did not favour discussions or joint action with other progressive left groups and formations.  The united campaign of the left launched in 1980, did not move far because of opposition within the JVP.  Objected to were discussions with left leaning Tamil militant groups on the pretext of state repression against the JVP.

Since the less than satisfactory result of the 1982 presidential election, the JVP leadership limited its interest on the national question, stopped advocating its recognition of the right to self-determination and braced to take up a Sinhala Buddhist nationalist position.  In July 1983 by hatching a conspiracy, the capitalist class proscribed the JVP and drove it underground.  Instead of attempting to carry out political activities in the open among the working people, the JVP stayed away from such activities.  While the old left kept silent on the continued ban, several civilian organizations and breakaway left parties and groups demanded lifting its proscription.  Using the 1987 Indo-Lanka accord as a pretext the JVP raised anti-Indian sloganeering among the working people.  By joining hands with right wing and chauvinist forces the JVP launched violence even against ordinary people who purchased commodities of Indian origin.  Reinforcing its policy of isolationism the JVP carried out physical assaults against other left groups.  Instead of appealing to people to express their will by voting at the provincial council elections against the repressive regime the JVP used violence to prevent people from casting their votes.  Thus, the JVP election strategy overlapped with the election strategy of the repressive regime.  At the end of 1980s violence was used against working people forcing them to go on strike and boycotts.  The indications are that the JVP again based itself on conspiratorial methods.  The capitalist class was able to drown those who opposed the system in rivers of blood.

Having oscillated to adventurism at the end of 1980s the JVP has commenced oscillating back to traversing right wing route since 1990s.  This time with a major shift towards class collaboration with the bourgeois leadership of the PA, thus taking the same old route traversed by the old left in the 1960s.  The JVP agitates claiming that Sri Lanka's territorial integrity, unitary state, national independence and sovereignty are in grave danger.  They want to defeat separatism and stop division of the country militarily and ideologically.  They oppose negotiations with separatist organisations unless they drop the demand for separation and become unarmed, politically equivalent to a complete surrender.

Worst is their statement that there was and is no ethnic problem in Sri Lanka!  With regard to the national question they have joined hands with the politics of Sinhala chauvinist groups such as Sinhala Urumaya.  Condemnation of terror by the JVP is one-sided.  While condemning the terror campaigns conducted by the LTTE, they praise the terror campaigns conducted by the security forces as patriotic.  They emphasise that there are favourable conditions worldwide to eradicate terrorism.  What is implied is that Sri Lankan government should invite US-led terror coalition to eradicate the LTTE.

The JVP denies the democratic right of peoples to self-determination as obsolete and no more applicable to the world of today.  To justify their position the JVP leadership has even resorted to falsifying the political positions taken by Lenin and the vast experiences of the socialist camp and the real-life experiences of the peoples struggling against national oppression.  They have turned a blind eye towards the constitutional expressions of right to self-determination by the peoples who have successfully achieved national liberation against their oppressors.  Rejecting "right to self-determination" as an invalid principle for the world today, they claim that after the 1917 Russian revolution, even Lenin discarded this concept.  Looking at the Soviet Constitutions during the time of Lenin and afterwards is more than sufficient to remind and convince any serious political activist that the right of self-determination was and is a living principle practised universally.  What currently happens in the world objectively supports the assertion that right to self-determination is alive and well.  Rejection of the democratic right to self-determination is strongly compatible with the agenda of Neo-liberalism and National Socialism.  The JVP claims that they reject any racism or communalism and promote equality and democracy to all peoples, but in reality, the JVP opposes any decentralisation of power.  Even a cursory look at the history of the socialist camp would discard such bogus and baseless views.

This position coincides exactly with the position of the US led globalisation agenda because they do not anymore accept national sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of peoples.  The US rejects the peoples right to self-determination.  The JVP, which opposed neo-liberalist agenda in August 2001, has apparently adopted a new policy at its October 2001 party congress.  Its policy is as follows: "We shall adhere to a foreign policy aimed at creating and developing of globalisation and a new world order that ensures social justice, equality, democracy and environment protection."  This policy has to be understood in the broader context of the JVP policy platform which states that the JVP shall absorb what is best from the East, West and North, South and discard the garbage.  Accordingly, we shall learn good deeds from China, India, United States of America, Malaysia and Europe.  We shall learn from China about economic reforms and about how China became the world fastest growing economy by increasing investments nationally and internationally.  From the United States, we will learn how the rule of law and accountability can be applied to investments so that corruption can be eliminated.  We shall learn from India and the United States America, how the elected representatives be responsible and accountable to the people.”  I do not think anyone needs further elaboration.

The JVP has moved away from Marxism-Leninism though it does not say so in public.  Instead of demanding the capitalist state to grant rights of the working people, at least for exposing the incapability of the capitalist regimes to do so, the JVP tells people to wait until their ‘saviour’ acquires power.  It does not wish to make a self-critical appraisal of its past and is competing with the old left to cover up the responsibility of the capitalist regimes for the current political situation but also the real current state of affairs.  In reality, the JVP has become an appendage and a broker for keeping in and bringing back the capitalist regimes to power.  Their activities are strengthening the hand of counter-revolution and imperialism.  When coupled with their policy assertions it is safe to conclude that the JVP has altogether moved away from the left policy platform.

There is a strong vacuum in the left leadership.  There are many left groups and formations which have no common program or purpose of providing leadership to the working class.  External petty-ideological issues and internal personal animosities and rivalries appear to be the driving forces behind their isolationist approaches.  There is an urgent need to critically examine why these groups and formations cannot and have not moved forward.  Such examination would provide lessons and experiences for any future progressive political work among the working people.  Indeed, it is very unfortunate that while many positive aspects prevail among the working class movement for building a conscious left political movement against the forces of counter-revolution while the leaderships of the left formations stagnate or move backwards.  We must take leadership and take swift action to build the working class movement.

The Urgent Task of Today

Neo-liberalist globalisation has become the main challenge and threat to the socialist movement and the sovereignty of small nations like Sri Lanka.  This makes it necessary to continuously develop dynamic, living alternative systems to existing global neo-liberalist system.  The dominant progressive forces of the working people need to determine the direction of change to take, ie, towards socialist globalisation, which will control foreign capital investments for the benefit of people, define alternate processes that are sustainable economically, socially and ecologically and lead to a social system embodying the characteristics of peoples' control, participation and co-operative ownership.

Neo-liberalist agenda is making social protests and rebellions criminal offences that can be tried with anti-terrorism laws.  At the same time, for contemporary economic and political requirements, it is preparing plans and designs for exploiting valuable natural and human resources of Sri Lanka.  There are valuable assets such as marine resources, forests, water and Trincomalee harbour with its oil tank facilities.  However, if invited to militarily interfere in the domestic conflict, neo-liberalists will have easy access to these resources.  Isn’t this the situation the JVP has been inviting for?  Who are helping neo-liberalist forces in these circumstances?  They are the warmongers of Sinhala chauvinism, including the JVP, who invite US military interference and oppose a fair and just solution to the national question of Sri Lanka based upon the recognition of peoples’ right to determine their own political destiny, thus allowing all peoples to live in dignity and peace.

The dominant Tamil nationalist militant movement, the LTTE, not only did not have political program with a socialist outlook but also shows all symptoms of embracing the capitalist globalisation agenda led by the US.  This agenda will be driven by the expatriate power brokers of the LTTE overwhelming majority of which would have vested interests in such a framework and would be more than willing to move along this retrogressive path.  With the endorsement of the US, the WB and the IMF, the establishment of a framework addressing the national aspirations of the Tamil people seems an imminent reality while at the same time such a framework would guarantee the protection of the interests of capitalist globalisation agenda.  Since such a newly crafted political agenda does not satisfy the expectations of the rank and file cadres of the LTTE and the Tamil working people, contradictions within its ranks could emerge.  Such developments would assist in expanding the Sri Lankan socialist movement though the socialist elements within the Tamil nationalist struggle have become much weaker today.  Furthermore emerging and visible are the signs of radicalisation of Muslim youth in the Eastern province.  Contradictions between the Muslim bourgeois leaderships and the Muslim youth and working people are quite apparent.  And ironically this situation is quite similar to the situation of the 1970s that gave rise to the Tamil militant youth movement.

The urgent task of the left today is to initiate a process to include diverse progressive views into a coherent strategy and a minimum program of social change.  The left forces need to adopt a less dogmatic, less sectarian approach with more tolerance towards and critical assimilation of new social thinking and developments.  Sri Lankan left needs to unite all those who are adversely affected by the neo-liberal agenda under one banner, i.e., ‘people before profits’.  Given the mistrust that exists between diverse formations it would be impossible, in practice, to bring all those formations under one umbrella.  The left in the south needs to establish political links with progressive formations and individuals in the north and east and to develop international collaboration with anti-globalisation forces in the rest of the world.  This may initially take the form of a loose alliance that could be strengthened by taking confidence building measures among the elements of the alliance.

The Arunodaya Group believes that the urgent task of the Sri Lankan left is to build an extensive island-wide mass movement based on a broad political agenda that would focus on issues immediately affecting the working people such as corruption, capitalist globalisation, individual and collective human and democratic rights and environmental issues.

Sri Lankan Polity

The local capitalist class in alliance with local landlords and multinational conglomerates leads the state of the Sri Lankan society, with its predominantly capitalistic mode of production and feudal remnants.  Compared to many other developing countries, the affairs of' the Sri Lankan state are, in general, conducted within a constitutional and parliamentary-democratic framework.  However, democratic and human rights are consecutively subject to constant erosion due to the executive presidential system and the plethora of repressive legislation providing immunity of responsibility for violation of rights by politicians and their parasitic elements in the state and non-state sectors.  The integrity of the institutions, the sanctity of the constitution, the inviolability of democratic rights are all reduced to empty phrases and the essential reactionary and autocratic character of the Sri Lankan state comes out into the open without any ambiguity, at the slightest provocation of any popular unrest.  Grassroots democracy remains largely absent and is suppressed under the deadweight of bureaucracy and capitalistic and feudalistic forces.  Moreover, parliamentary democracy remains fragile as much as our political independence.

Sri Lanka is a land of several nationalities and a multitude of ethno-linguistic groupings.  The process of evolution of a Sri Lankan identity suffered heavily due to feudalistic influences, major bureaucratic and chauvinistic distortions, large-scale regional disparities, and cultural-economic discriminations.  There was no economic and cultural interaction between peoples and there was no real concrete national unity forged in the course of anti-colonial freedom movement and anti-imperialist and democratic struggles and even during the post colonial period.  Therefore, in the pluralistic mosaic of our society huge gaps are apparent.  Various nationalities are locked in serious contradictions with the over-centralised capitalist Sri Lankan State, which have hitherto attempted to address such contradictions only through adopting and implementing heavy-handed repressive measures and expressing itself through strong centrifugal frameworks.

Sri Lanka is also a land of many religions and the majority Buddhist community is further divided along caste lines.  Instead of maintaining a strictly secular position and acting as a powerful deterrent against the forces of communal disharmony and caste oppression, the ruling classes at various levels use the state as an instrument of not only class rule but also national, communal, religious and caste domination.  The phenomena of chauvinism, communalism, and casteism, prevalent at different layers of Sri Lankan polity, are not simply relics of the bygone Asiatic mode of production, but very much part and parcel of 'modern' Sri Lanka.  The ruling classes and their parties utilise these instruments in a calculated way to weaken and disrupt the growing democratic unity and awakening of the working people.  In its aggressive form, chauvinism, casteism and communalism, majority communalism in particular, poses a fascist threat to the very existence of democracy and cultural pluralism in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan Society

Despite economic liberalisation and privatisation, industrial structure provided by free trade zones, a swelling service sector, modern farming practices and increasing integration with the process of capitalist globalisation, Sri Lanka remains in the ranks of the backward, underdeveloped or developing capitalist countries of the world.  The gap between the rich and the poor has widened.  Working people increasingly finding it difficult to survive with what they are been paid for their labour. Unemployment is on the rise.  Deep penetration of finance capital in Sri Lanka and its wide-ranging economic, political and social links have provided a fertile ground for the spread of decadent bourgeois culture dominated by cronyism, bribery and corruption.  Burden of the war launched against the Tamil militancy is placed on the shoulders of the working people.  Feudal remnants such as family bandyism, land bondage relationships, national, religious and caste oppression continues to inhibit even the liberal capitalistic development of Sri Lanka.

Nature of local capital in Sri Lanka is complex.  It comprises mainly of finance capital of multinational corporations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.  This capital is pro-imperialist in origin, dependent on capitalist globalisation in nature and monopoly-bureaucratic in appearance and operation.  It often presents a complex admixture of private management, state finance and foreign technology.  Sri Lanka is a heavy technology importer despite its population being of high literacy and technical skills.  Quite naturally, such acute dependence on finance capital including an alarming indebtedness to imperialist-dominated commercial, technological, and multilateral lending agencies takes a heavy toll of our political independence.  Blatant interference of imperialist and hegemonist powers in our domestic affairs and policy matters is very common.  Our sovereignty is continuously subject to erosion by the spreading tentacles of globalisation, which seeks to continue to keep the island on a neo-colonial status.

Means of employment and livelihood of about 70 percent of people of Sri Lanka is agriculture.  Dry zone comprises 60% of the total land area of the island.  The population density in the island varies widely from about 2700 per square kilometer in Colombo to about 50 in Moneragala.  The major obstacle for agriculture in the dry zone remains to be land ownership and supply of water for irrigation.  Development and populisation of the dry zone remains a significant issue of the agricultural reform process.  The solution to this problem will depend largely on development of mechanisms to transfer to the dry zones the surplus population on a voluntary basis and water from the rest of the island on a sustainable technological basis.

Therefore, the Arunodaya Group characterizes the class nature of the Sri Lankan society as predominantly capitalistic but with feudal remnants.

Stage of Revolution

Sri Lankan society is marked by four major contradictions - the contradiction between imperialism and Sri Lankan nation, between finance capital and the Sri Lankan working people, the working class in particular, the contradiction among various sections of the ruling classes and the contradiction between feudal remnants and the peoples.  While these contradictions are separately identifiable, imperialism, finance capital and feudal remnants in reality they are aligned with and dependent on each other.  This alliance can be overthrown only if the contradiction between imperialism, finance capital and feudal remnants and the working and oppressed people of Sri Lanka is resolved.

This determines the stage of our revolution, socialist revolution with agrarian reform as one of its major characteristics.  Though the primary aim of the socialist revolution will be to abolish all bondages of wage slavery and imperialism, the issue of abolition of feudal remnants and the concomitant autocratic and bureaucratic distortions in the polity will necessarily follow because of the socialist tasks the socialist state will need to be implemented.  Feudal remnants can be only abolished as a result of resolving this fundamental contradiction between capital and labour.

The Arunodaya Group concludes that the socialist transformation of the relations of production is the preliminary task of the working and oppressed people of Sri Lanka.  A major task of the Sri Lankan socialist revolution will be the reform of agriculture.  Establishment of grass roots democracy and consistent safeguarding of democratic and human rights of working people should be a major characteristic of the Sri Lankan socialist state.  The fundamental law of the state should guarantee democratic and human rights of oppressed people.  Establishment of essential and sufficient administrative mechanisms for ensuring equality of opportunity, fairness, social justice and equity of access within an anti-discriminatory constitutional framework should be a critical and major characteristic of the socialist state.

Working Class Leadership

The socialist revolution can consummate only under the leadership of the working class, the most consistent revolutionary class and the most organised and advanced detachment of the people of Sri Lanka.  To establish its leadership over the socialist revolution, it is imperative for the working class to unite itself and emerge as an independent political force, organise revolutionary peasant struggles to build powerful strongholds in the countryside, support and lead democratic and anti-imperialist struggles of the Sri Lankan masses, support and unite with the struggles of the oppressed nationalities for the right of self-determination, of the religious minorities for religious freedom and of the oppressed castes for social equality and justice, and unite with the international working class movement to support the struggles of the world people against imperialism and reaction.

In order to sharpen and consolidate the political power of the working class, the Arunodaya Group places special emphasis on developing unity in action among all Left formations in the short run and working towards unifying all Sri Lankan socialists under the banner of a single party in future, in the long run.

 

 

Peoples’ Democratic Socialist  Alliance (PDSA)

The peoples of Sri Lanka have time and again risen against the ruthless exploitation and oppression of the ruling classes.  Their awakening assumes a variety of forms and is often led by various types of party and non-party forces, including at times the opposition parties of the ruling classes.  The Arunodaya Group will support all such movements and always strive to orient them towards the goal of socialist revolution.

The main enabling force of the socialist revolution led by the working class is the peasantry.  The Arunodaya Group fully relies on the working class, rural proletariat and poor peasants resolutely uniting with the lower middle class and even winning over a section of the upper middle class.  In the end, only a tiny section of the middle class may join the enemy camp of the revolution.  Others may vacillate and could become unstable allies of the socialist revolution.  With the aim of working towards socialist revolution that will also realize the contents of the democratic revolution, a Peoples’ Democratic Socialist Alliance (PDSA) needs to be forged.  The PDSA comprising all the above class forces and having as its core the worker-peasant alliance will form the nucleus for the formation of a revolutionary party of the working class.

To achieve this aim, the Arunodaya Group will work within and in cooperation with all like-minded mass organizations and individuals,  towards the formation of PDSA,  through an inclusive process of consultations, mass actions and awareness raising campaigns.

The Revolutionary Course

To accomplish socialist revolution in the pluralistic society of Sri Lanka, the Arunodaya Group will skillfully master and combine various forms of struggle using every available avenue and will develop a comprehensive revolutionary practice through an organic combination of all forms of struggle and organisation.  Under normal circumstances, Sri Lankan polity allows socialists to work through open, legal and parliamentary means.  Socialists will be able to secure victories in elections at various levels and win majority in local and provincial councils and even in the parliament.  While tilting the balance of class forces through protracted and vigorous political struggles, the Arunodaya Group is prepared to utilize such opportunities independently or in coalition with like-minded forces provided the Arunodaya Group enjoys the strength to ensure the fulfillment of its own commitment to the electorate.

The basic principles that will guide the Arunodaya Group's relation with and role in such bodies are as follows:

a)      Retaining the Groups’s independent organisational functioning and political initiatives at all cost,

b)      Utilizing in full the power enjoyed by the local and provincial bodies in carrying out radical democratic reforms and orienting popular consciousness towards socialist and democratic alternatives,

c)      Serving such local and provincial bodies as part and parcel of a broader revolutionary opposition, and

d)      Ensuring the free development of democratic forces, democratic consciousness and democratic movements without any hindrances under all circumstances.

Under exceptional national and international circumstances, the possibility that the balance of social and political forces may permit a relatively peaceful transfer of power to revolutionary forces exists.  However, we have to be mindful that the democratic institutions of the island are essentially based on fragile and narrow foundations and that even small victories and partial reforms can only be achieved and maintained on the strength of mass militancy.  The working people must prepare itself for winning the ultimate decisive victory in any manner but without resorting to adventurism, that the capitalist ruling class would force them to adopt.  Under any circumstance, the Arunodaya Group will not resort to conspiratorial methods and substitute itself on behalf of the working and oppressed people of Sri Lanka.  The Arunodaya Group would not be the saviour, but the working and oppressed people themselves will be.  A People’s Democratic Socialist AlliancePeople’s Democratic Socialist Alliance will remain the most fundamental weapon of socialist revolution.

The victorious socialist revolution will carry out the following basic tasks and uphold the new socialist and democratic orientation through:

1.      democratisation of the structure and affairs of the state by

a.       vesting political power at every level with bodies elected on the basis of universal, equal and direct suffrage

b.      guaranteeing full individual and collective democratic rights of the peoples and their various democratic organizations

c.       eradicating the culture of repression, torture, human rights violations and intervention of the armed forces in civilian affairs and

d.      restructuring the police and armed forces and infusing them with a new spirit of service to the peoples of Sri Lanka;

2.      Reconstitution of national unity on the basis of a federal, democratic, secular polity by

a.       recognising the peoples’ right to self-determination including secession

b.      instilling a sense of belonging, participation, equality and security in all peoples and groupings

c.       democratizing decision-making processes effectively

d.      devolving resources and

e.       decentralising developmental activities to enlist popular participation in nation – building;

3.      Rapid economic development and eradication of mass poverty on the basis of:

a.       thorough going land reforms and comprehensive industrialization

b.      establishment of mechanisms to transfer to the dry zones the surplus population on a voluntary basis and water from the rest of the island on a sustainable technological basis

c.       taking over the reins of national economy from the hands of the monopoly-multinational-landlord alignment and delegating the working people with decision-making power and production planning and

d.      reordering the present priorities and reorienting the existing policies to suit the requirements of safeguarding national sovereignty and necessary and sufficient social welfare measures.

4.      Effecting a modern democratic cultural transformation of the whole society by:

a.       ensuring universal education and basic health-care for the peoples

b.      abolition of all sorts of social, economic and sexual exploitation of women and ensuring their equal status and rights in all affairs of life

c.       eradication of caste oppression and

d.      protection of the rights to equality of opportunity and equity of access through measures of positive discrimination assisting all weaker sections to catch up with the rest of the society in social progress.

5.      Abrogation of all unequal treaties and pacts concluded by the reactionary ruling classes with the imperialist institutions by:

a.       developing firm unity with the socialist and other progressive anti-imperialist countries and friendly relations with the countries of the developing world in general

b.      forging solidarity with the peoples struggling for national liberation and emancipation throughout the world and

c.       establishing diplomatic relations with all countries on the basis of the principles of peaceful co-existence.

The Arunodaya Group, with this programme as its aim, dedicates itself whole-heartedly in the service of the great revolutionary cause of socialism in Sri Lanka.

---

[1] Since the 1917 Russian socialist revolution the world socialist movement has undergone drastic changes signifying major implications and experiences for the working people all over the world.

[2] The world’s richest 20 percent now receives 86 percent of the world’s gross domestic product.  The poorest 20 percent receive only 1 percent.  In 1998-99, with the world gross output per capita growing at the rate of 1.5-1.8 per cent, more than eighty countries had lower per capita incomes than they had a decade or more ago, and at least fifty-five countries have consistently declined per capita incomes.

[3] Because of historically high interest rates and high oil prices.

[4] A condition for providing new loans and ensuring continuous payment of previous debts.

[5] In 1981, the Third World's foreign debt servicing absorbed US$ 44.2 billion; by 2000 the figure had climbed to US$347.4 billion; The number of undernourished people rose from 570 million in 1981 to 800 million in 2000; In 1960 the income of the wealthiest 20% was 30 times that of the poorest 20% of the world’s population; by 1997 that gap had widened 74 times; At the end of the 1990s there were 1.3 billion people, one out of every three, living in poverty in the developing world.  The World Bank's latest report on poverty predicts that this figure could climb to 1.5 billion by the end of year 2001; The global income share of the countries that now constitute the developing world has diminished to 15% of world income from 59% that was 150 years ago.

[6] The new constitution abolished Section 29 of the Soulbury Constitution of 1946, gave prominence to Buddhsim only and reinforced the status of Sinhala as the only official language.

[7] Traditional left interpreted all activities of state capitalism as socialist policies of nationalisation.

[8] This included top brass of the security forces, the judiciary and the Attorney General’s department.

[9] By 1998 about eighty state industries and service enterprises had been privatised for an income of Rs 49,213.5m to the state.

[10] Crops such as tobacco, gherkin, baby corn, sugarcane.

[11] World Bank and the IMF have provided loan assistance to Sri Lanka, of course, with free economic advice, which has led the country to depend on further and further borrowing, not to maintain the economy but for servicing current debts. Agreement Article 8 of Sri Lanka with the IMF, and recent loan agreement for USD 253m are examples for this situation.  By year 2000 unpaid state loans amounted to 97.1% (Rs 1,218,700m) of the gross domestic product (In year 1975 it was only 54.8%).  However, recommendations are still to increase prices of commodities, take away all subsidies, increase taxes, sell state enterprises and expand the private sector.