Sri Lankan left back on the coalition path
SRI LANKA
Vijaya Kumaratunga the CPSL floated the idea of an alliance greatly facilitated the victory of the ruling UNP's candidate, since, while the total vote cast was at an all time low of 50% (in sharp contrast to the 80% turnout in 1982). Premadasa, the winner got some 25%. The CPSL took advantage of this situation to fall back on its customary coalition line At its 1989 congress, the CPSL passed a resolution calling for the formation of an
THE RENEWED fighting between
Sri Lankan government troops and Tamil separatist guerillas has underlined the continuing political instability gripping the island. The following article, written before the latest outbreak of fighting by two leaders of the Nava Sama
Samaja Party, a Trotskyist group, focuses on the response of the major left parties to recent political developments.
NIEL WIJETILAKA AND S.
KANDASAMY
B Y MAYDAY 1990, the United
Socialist Alliance (USA), the major left front, was showing signs of cracking. The Alliance was formed as an alternative to the main bourgeois parties, the United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). The Alliance was in a position to put forward a programme against the Sinhala chauvinist forces and pursue a bold campaign for the rights of the Tamil-speaking people.
Bitter lessons of past coalitions
However just before Mayday 1990, the USA split. The Stalinist Communist Party of Sri Lanka (CPSL) and the ex-Trotskyist Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) set their eyes on an alliance with the bourgeois SLFP on the basis of a parliamentary coalition, notwithstanding the bitter lessons of the previous coalitions with this party in the 1960s and 70s. The left of the alliance resisted this trend and on Mayday the USA forces found themselves holding three different demos and rallies.
The old left parties, namely the LSSP, the CPSL, as well as a split from the Sri Lanka Mahajana Party (the SLMP-V), held a rally together. The SLMP and the Trotskyist Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP) held separate Mayday rallies and marches. The ensuing crisis, eagerly seized upon by the bourgeois press, has caused considerable confusion amongst the working class.
The immediate reason for the present 26 crisis is the policy pursued by the CPSL. After the assassination of SLMP leader International Viewpoint #188 • July 2, 1990 with the SLFP. The NSSP and SLMP were firmly opposed to this idea. These two latter parties therefore decided to put up Ossie Abeygoonesekera of as the left candidate in the 1988 presidential election, an election which proved to be a fierce battle to defend the rights of the Tamil speaking people against the murders of the chauvinist JVP and the repression of the UNP govpresidential election became an open clash between the left on the one hand and the reactionary and chauvinist forces on the other. A number of leftists and their sympathizers were murdered by the JVP and meetings in support of the left's candidate were attacked. An NSSP central committee member, Comrade Chamdrawimala, was killed at the very first propaganda meeting in a JVP bomb attack. A prominent SLMP leader, Deva Bandara, died when the JVP opened fire at another meeting. The NSSP General Secretary, Dr. Wickremabahu, was also very seriously injured in this incident.
Scepticism within socialist alliance
Against this background both the LSSP and the CPSL tried to make out that they were supporting Ossie, while actually supporting Bandaranaike of the SLFP. Thus it is no surprise that the people who had supported the USA became sceptical and disillusioned, particularly with the CPSL. The bitter experience of the coalitions of the 1960s and 70s cannot easily be forgotten by the working class. The old left parties, which were once a major force in the country, were seriously weakened precisely because of their coalition-
Moreover the CPSL and LSSP's mass base soon dissolved into the SLFP. Where the LSSP as concerned, those conscious elements who still remained in the party waged an internal battle against the coalition with the SLFP, resulting in a sizeable Trotskyist faction breaking away to form the NSSP. The left-leaning elements which had earlier dissolved into the SLPP then broke away from that party in 1983 to form the
People were prevented from participating freely in the 1988 presidential elec tion. The JVP's campaign for a boycott anti-UNP front with the SLMP on the grounds that the USA could not pose a credible alternative. In order to aver opposition from the rank-and-file, this coalition was presented as merely an anti UNP agitational front.
1989 was the peak year of the rural Sinhala petty bourgeois uprising. This movement, which started off with bruta killings of political opponents, was shifting to the urban areas, where working class forms of struggle were adopted (strikes, hartals and so on) though of course such actions were forced down the workers' throats by the JVP. However there was also real voluntary support for strike action, in for instance the transport sector. Against this background there was considerable demoralization in the ruling class and armed forces.
Tamil front in power in north-east
The Premadasa government came close to collapse and a bewildered capitalist class began to make a frantic search for a way out. The government's problems were further aggravated by the presence of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in the North and East of Sri Lanka, and the agitation directed against the government by the left-oriented Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF, which was in power in the North-East under the newly introduced Provincial Council System.
It was thus clear that the people had no faith in the Premadasa government. All capitalist sectors were trying to push former prime minister and opposition leader Sirima Bandaranaike to take over the reins of power. The NSSP called for the establishment of a Provisional Government consisting of all opposition parties and groups, including the LTTE and the JVP and democratic organizations such as the trade unions, for the purpose of ensuring free and fair elections. The idea was to have an ad hoc body purely for this purpose. But the reformist current in the USA proposed that there should be a provisional government consisting only of the parties represented in parliament, a proposal supported by the SLFP and sections of the UNP.
However, instead of struggling for the overthrow of the UNP government, the reformist leaders participated in the so-called All Party Conference (APC) called by President Premadasa, paving the way for the stabilization of the Premadasa regime, which thereby succeeded in crush-
ing the rural petty bourgeois revolt and also in obtaining loans from the IMF with ease. Because of this extension of support to a decaying regime there was a severe crisis in the SLFP. The leadership of the latter clearly understood that the volatile situation which could follow the downfall of the UNP government would be advantageous to the left rather than the SLFP.
The UNP government which crushed the JVP revolt tried to show that it was capable of bringing peace. By its conciliatory attitude to the dominant Tamil group, the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), especially in the wake of the IPKF withdrawal, the government succeeded in pushing the left-oriented Tamil groups into the arms of India for protection and in obtaining ample loans from the IMF. Government pays out to win hearts and minds
Operating a so-called poverty alleviation program (Janasaviya), the government started offering loans on easy terms to the rural population and distributing some lands sporadically in order to win the confidence of broad layers of the disillusioned petit bourgeois sectors. Certain clauses under the draconian emergency laws which were the targets of severe criticism were withdrawn. The government further tried to impress the world by pledging eliminate corruption and adhering to criteria of merit and ethnic ratio in the matter of recruitment and so on to the public service and the Corporation sector.
But the emergency laws promulgated against the working class have not been removed. The ban on strikes, pickets and meetings in work places remains intact. The inflationary spiral is ever growing and real wages are steadily falling. The government is aware that the workers are ready to struggle for wage demands.
State defence minister Ranjan Wijeratne charged in Parliament that NSSP MP Vasudeva Nanayakkara was "conspiring" with the trade unions to topple the government. While the broad anti-government agitational struggles are temporarily at a low level, working class struggles have come to the fore.
The stabilization of the Premadasa government has intensified the crisis both within the SLFP and the left movement. There is strong resentment amongst the lower layers of the SLFP against its rightist and opportunistic wings and especially SLFP strongman Anura Bandaranaike. His mother, the party leader, remains a helpless captive due to her advancing years and the repeated defeats she has suffered. Bandaranaikes seek working class support
The leadership of the SLFP have realized that what is needed today is a new leadership which can win the confidence of not only the capitalist class but also the working class, the petit bourgeoisie and the Tamil people. They look towards Chandrika for this purpose. She is the daughter of the Bandaranaikes, and also the wife of the late popular left leader Vijaya Kumarantunga, who had fought against racism and thereby won some confidence amongst the minority communities. Chandrika is in a position to mobilize these forces because of her left orientation. Therefore the CPSL maneuvered to bring forward Chandrika as a prelude to their impending coalition game with the SLFP.
Soon after the murder of Vijaya Kamaranatunga, Chandrika left for Europe and has not participated in Sri Lankan politics for two years. Moreover, whilst abroad, she appealed to her party (the SLMP) as well as the left not to field a candidate for the 1988 presidential election. Even when Vijaya was alive, chose to withdraw from political life for some time purely to allow some compromise to set in with the SLFP led by her mother who was one of the 1988 presidential candidates. The CPSL had aimed at putting forward their coalition demand on May Day. While the LSSP wavered, Chandrika unmistakably expressed her stand in
La coalition. This is undoubtedly a conspiracy to tie down the working class behind the racist, capitalist forces.
The NSSP was obliged to launch a vigorous campaign against this. In the southern provinces there was severe opposition to the LSSP joining hands with the SLFP. Consequently the LSSP and CPSL were
SRI LANKA obliged to celebrate May Day under the USA banner.
Encouraged by Chandrika's return to Sri Lanka, the CPSL quickly maneuvered to sabotage the USA's May Day commemoration by insisting that the splinter SLMP(V) be admitted to the USA. The SMP rejected this and decided to hold an independent May Day rally, but did not object to the other parties commemorating May Day under the USA banner. Ultimately, the CPSL contrived to fulfil its coalition line by proposing that the SLMP(V) leader Chandrika should chair the USA May Day rally. But the capitalist class saw in Chandrika a bridge between the USA and the SLFP. Three separate Mayday rallies held
Against this background, the NSSP decided to hold its May Day demonstration and rally separately in order to expose the reactionary coalition perspective of the other left parties and the rightist opportunism of the SLMP. The three coalition-oriented parties, the CPSL, LSSP and the supporters of the Militant Tendency mustered about 7000 people, whilst the anti-coalition SLMP had 15,000 in their demonstration and 50,000 at their rally (according to reports in the Ceylon Daily News). The NSSP's demo and rally had about 4,500 participants. This clearly shows the anti-coalition tendency of the working class. The comparatively large mass base demonstrated by the SLMP is attributable to the apparent stability of the UNP regime. But the government's crisis will soon surface. As the working class moves into struggle in response to rising inflation, the coalition line is bound to gain some momentum. The LSSP, CPSL and the SLMP(V) have already discussed a joint electoral front for the forthcoming local government elections. The influence of the NSSP is growing in this context. Workers in CPSL controlled unions in large factories such as Hayleys and Mayura Garments are beginning to turn to the NSSP, which was able to muster more workers than the CPSL this May Day. This augurs well for the future.
The NSSP reiterates its commitment to support, without sectarianism, all mass struggles against the pro-imperialist UNP regime, to oppose any anti-working class coalition with any section of the capitalist forces, to fight unrelentingly for the rights of the Tamil speaking people, and to mobilize all democratic forces under the leadership of the working class. These are the tasks of the Sri Lankan left, especially 27 the Trotskyist parties and groups.* July 2, 1990 • #188 International Viewpoint