Sri Lankan Marxists the main provider of funds, it will demand big trade and political concessions in return. Japanese industry is inter- rally to Fourth ested in the natural resources of the Indochinese zone (as well as the presence International of cheap labour). Above all, Tokyo actually has a regional policy: East Asia is the framework for the "re-deployment" of its capital, and thus forms a security sphere of major importance.
However, the "smaller" players in the Cambodian game, starting with Thailand, should not be overlooked. Thailand has many advantages (the Thai minister of foreign affairs, Arsa Sarasin, took a wicked pleasure in visiting Phnom Penh two days before his French colleague Roland Dumas). The Thai military and bourgeoisie are already behind much of the trafficking involving Cambodia. Symptomatically, the Thai Military Bank has opened two agencies, in the capital and at the key port of Koh Kong, thus getting a head start in the competition. Inter-imperialist and inter-capitalist competition is thus going to contribute, behind the common UN flag, to the Cambodian reality of tomorrow.
After 21 years of war, most Cambodians are probably not too worried about what the future holds, just as long as it means peace.
### Armed gangs
However, even here, nothing is certain. The "peace process" may run aground and the civil war restart. Even without that, Cambodia has become a paradise for armed gangs. This is for geographical (the widespread forest cover), economic (the role of smuggling) "nd political (the heritage of the past two, ecades) reasons. Banditry is growing, while piracy is endemic in the Gulf. These may well benefit from the de mobilization of soldiers into unenfoyment. Peace might mean no more than the right of those who do not have private armies to be robbed in silence.
The placing of the country under supervision may aggravate this danger rather than limit it. There is a risk that the UN intervention will have perverse effects. It may well weaken the existing administration (that of the Hun Sen regime). Indeed, the UN personnel, wholly ignorant of the country, cannot replace it (in a good number of places, this personnel will be, moreover, primarily preoccupied with pocketing princely salaries and servicing this or that commercia' backer). 10 Couption andy perhaps, continue to the The UN money will feed an unparalleled
THREE hundred delegates to the conference of Sri Lanka's Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP - New Socialist Party) voted for affiliation to the Fourth International at the end of November.* PHIL HEARSE
T HE NSSP has around 3,000
members and leads two important trade union federations, which makes it a powerful force on the Sri Lankan left. One of its leaders, Vasudeva Nanayakkara ("Vasu" to everyone on the island) is an MP and among the most popular leaders of the Sri Lan-
Two major questions dominate the life of the working class and the political left in Sri Lanka: the IMF-sponsored austerity and privatization policy imposed by the UNP (United National Party) government of President Premadasa, prolonged war between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who seek an independent
At the conference there was a lively debate about the policy to be followed in the fight against the government. According to NSSP leaders, the bourgeois opposition Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP)
the opportunist left the ex-Trotskyist Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), the Sri Lanka Mahajana Party (SLMP) and the Communist Party) are trying to force all anti-government currents into a "popular front", a policy rejected by the conference. NSSP leaders pointed out that the bourgeois opposition had no clear alternative policy to that of the government (see box).
Given the role played by the NSSP in Sri Lankan politics, a big campaign against the NSSP's policy is being waged by the bourgeois opposition opportunist left. In particular they want to coopt the popularity of "Vasu" for their popular front.
Immediately before the conference, Colombo newspapers reported that 30 government soldiers had been killed in an ambush by Tamil Tigers. According to hospital workers, the real figure was much higher. The war in the north and east of the island, far from being a sporadic campaign, is a daily war on a huge scale. Armed police, soldiers and sailors guard road-blocks all over Colombo, despite its distance from the war zone.
The NSSP calls for self-determination for the Tamil-speaking people, but does not give support to the LTTE. NSSP leaders I spoke to compared the Tigers to the authoritarian "Shining Path" guerillas in Peru and Pol Pot's movement in its early stages. The Tigers murderously repress all other Tamil organizations in their Jaffna stronghold, and have assassinated NSSP
Party leaders in hiding
During the last decade Sri Lankan socialists have faced enormous difficulties in maintaining and developing their organization. Between 1983 and 1985, the NSSP was banned and operated underground with its key leaders in hiding.
Between 1987 and 1990, the Sinhalese terrorist organization, the Janata Vimukhti Peramuna (JVP), waged a fierce campaign against the government and left wing parties. NSSP general secretary, Vickremabahu Karunarathne ("Bahu" to the Sri Lankan left) was seriously wounded in a JVP machine gun attack in 1989.
In response to the JVP campaign the government unleashed a reign of terror by security forces and death squads. In the 1987-90 period, 60,000 people were slaughtered in this campaign, and, according to the NSSP, more than half of these people had nothing to do with the JVP.
As a result, a movement of the parents and families of the "disappeared" has developed, and the NSSP considers building this movement a major task for its supporters.
Trade unionism in Sri Lanka is "political" unionism, with left wing parties controlling their own trade union federations. * This article first appeared in the British revolutionary Marxist fortnightly, Socialist Ouilook.
(extracts from NSSP official statement, November 25, 1991 ) *
These federations co-ordinate their activity through the Joint Council of Trade Unions, but there is fierce competition for membership between them.
The NSSP leads two union federations, the United Federation of Labour and the Government United Federation of Labour for public sector workers. These two federations organize a wide range of workers, including those working in tea plantations, rubber factories, shoe factories, hospitals, fish processing plants, banks, print works, the garment industry and a wide range of national and local government offices.
A major UFL affiliate has been leading a long strike of hundreds of young workers, mainly women, at the Pollypack plastics plant over union recognition. A one-day solidarity strike, and a rally addressed by NSSP leaders, was organized on November 20. During the conference it was learned that the NSSP-backed GULF had won a fiercely-contested election for union representation at the People's Bank, the largest in Sri Lanka.
In addition to political perspectives, the NSSP conference held debates on international perspectives and organization. At the centre of the debate on international perspectives was the question of the semi-collapse of Stalinism.
While recognizing the offensive which international capital has launched, delegates stressed the new possibilities for building the international Trotskyist movement. The international perspectives resolution, including the proposed affiliation to the Fourth International, was carried with just one abstention.
Looming large in the organization debate were the special problems which women have in participating in Sri Lankan politics. Women make up a very low percentage of the NSSP's membership, although the party has a high percentage of women members compared with other parties. The party leadership stressed the importance of making it easier for women to join the party and become part of its leadership. *
SRI LANKA
Religion
and Marxism SRI LANKA is a country in which Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and the Roman Catholic church all have a large following. It is also a country in which many people with religious faiths rally to the fight for socialism. The British revolutionary Marxist fortnightly, Socialist Outlook, talked to two members of the NSSP leadership, Linus Jayatilaice, a Catholic priest, and Baddegama Samitha, a Buddhist monk, about their faith and its relation to socialism.
8TH Congress of the Nava Sama Samaja Party THE 8th Congress of the Nava Sama Samaja Party was held at the New Town Hall on the 21st, 22nd, 23rd and 24th of November 1991. About 200 memberdelegates and 50 observers attended...
The political resolution clearly spelt out that the party, while participating in common agitation against the Premadasa regime, should strive to forge a left alternative on the basis of:
1. implacable opposition to the dictates of the IMF/World Bank leading to privatization and destruction of the living standards of the masses;
2. Land to the tiller and preservation of the nationalized plantations;
3. Mass actions as the main form of struggle;
4. Enshrining the right to self-determination of the Tamil-speaking people inclusive of the right to separatism as a means of unifying the nation on a volun-
5. Replacement of the present dictatorial presidential constitution with a revolutionary constitution based on workers', peasants' and soldiers' councils.
The Congress resolved to unity the struggles against privatization and the erosion of living standards of the working masses with that of the movement o the students and teachers against the Affiliated University Colleges and cuts ir
The Congress gave special attention to the political need to intervene in the building of a women's liberation movement in Sri Lanka.
The Congress gave particular attention to the urgent need for an independent workers' movement to bring together the working class and other oppressed peoples of the South Asian sub-continent combined with any other secular and democratic forces.
Further, the struggle against imperialism, the resistance to the erosion of the living standards of the masses, the defence of democratic and human rights nd the fight against chauvinist and sectarian forces throughout the world wa knowledged as the priority in the discussion under the International Resolu
In the International Resolution, the party re-affirmed its decision to join the United Secretariat of the Fourth International as its Sri Lankan section. The need to mobilize all conscious forces against environmental destruction and the plunder of ecological resources of the world by the multinational corporations and local destructive elements was another vital decision of the Con-
¡evolutionary greetings sent by Socialist Action of the USA, the Revolution. ary Communist League of Japan and the Marxist Platform of the USSR were read out at the Congress.
Linus was previously the priest at the largest church in the Negumbo region, but now devotes himself full-time to politics and trade union organization. Samitha, while already a Buddhist priest, was a student at Britain's Lancaster University, and active in solidarity work with the 1984 British miners' strike.
L
INUS, how did you get involved with Marxist polltics? In the late 1950s, well before Liberation Theology developed, I was a youth leader in the Church and sought ways to fight for justice, which for me meant the struggle of the poor against the rich. I was identified as a leftist, but the hierarchy was powerless to do anything about it.
For me it started with the "mystical" or spiritual side of Christianity, which many Marxists might find difficult to understand. But I was struck by the history of the people of ancient Israel being led out of exploitation, towards the "promised land".
In my area, Negumbo, people are Christians and those who thought like me wanted to probe into the depths of Christian belief. We feel that serious Christian people have to take sides in a society, to take a class position, to side with the exploited, the oppressed and the unjustly imprisoned. After serious analysis of how you could identify with the exploited class, the workis lolas ve deside tabit waste Marx- 11 ist tools of analysis that you need.
Fighting for the "disappeared"
DURING the 1987-1990 State of Emergency in Sri Lanka, government sponsored death squads waged a campaign to exterminate the Sinhalese chauvinist terrorist organization, the Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). But the JVP were not the only victims. Estimates put the number of those killed or "disappeared" at 60,000, with more than half of that number being innocent civilians or leftist opponents of the UNP government.
HOW did you become involved in the movement of the families of the disappeared?
MY husband Ranji disappeared on October 29, 1989. I needed shelter and protection and I wanted inquiries made about what had happened to him. So I turned to the NSSP in the Negumbo region where we lived. They sheltered me and their
MP, "Vasu", raised the question in parliament, demanding to know what had happened.
Mu husband was a supporter of the UNP government, actually a member of the same UNP branch as the prime minister.
But he was also a trade union activist in the "free trade" zone in Negumbo. These free trade zones, tax exempt areas for foreign businesses, are being promoted by the government as part of the IMF plan.
In the plant where my husband worked, "Floral Greens", a Hong Kong company making artificial flowers, many workers get bad industrial injuries, for example losing fingers in the machinery.
My husband raised this issue vigorously with the management and got the issue raised with the National Labour Office.
The company or its agents abducted him.
* But there were attacks on other members of your family.
Both my elder and younger brothers were abducted by security forces and one of them certainly killed
My elder brother was one of a group building new houses in a village. They were told to leave the village by the army, who used the security situation as an excuse. My brother refused and was abducted in the middle of the night. After inquiries, the authorities said he had been killed in an accident.
My younger brother was taken away from our village by the JVP, who took him to one of their encampments as a labourer and cook. But after about 30 days he escaped and returned to the village. When the army heard he had been with the
JVP they took him away and he has not been heard of since.
After that time I was regularly followed by the security forces, and again the NSSP got it raised in parliament and stopped. Since that time I have devoted my time to campaigning for the disappeared.
Also I have been building an organization called the Negumbo Women's Committee. Our aim is to organize the young women in the free trade zone, who are terribly exploited. Last year we set up a magazine for free trade workers, but as a result some of us were arrested and it was effectively closed down. But we continue our work; the party will not abandon
International Viewpoint #220 • January 20, 1992
SRI LANKA
Samitha, as a Buddhist monk, what do you think of Christianity? That's a big question! I can't give a complete answer in a short interview, but I think that contrary to the establishment Christian view, Jesus was a rebel who defended oppressed people. You can look at the story of how he cleared the moneylenders out of the Temple, and how he attacked the tax collectors. Of course, that was a long time ago in the history of Christianity, but I think that original 12 this struggle. *
Christianity is definitely in contradiction with a profit-making society.
But I think a serious problem, a serious question every Christian has to face, is the whole Christian idea of Creation and the idea of an "external God". I think that Christians will find reconciliation with Marxism much more difficult than I do, especially since Christianity often clashes face-to-face with Marxism in Europe. I think Buddhism is more logical and consistent in its concern for all living things.
My impression is that, because of Liberation Theology, Christianity in the Third World is often very different from that in the advanced countries.
Anyway, I think that any religion has to listen to its followers, that religion cannot ignore the cries of the people. • Linus, what do you think about Buddhism?
Well, I try to understand original Buddhism, not Buddhism as it is practised now, which seems to me to have become too narrowly concerned with the needs of individuals.
I think that there should be a serious attempt by all religious people, including followers of Islam, to go into the history and roots of these religions, and what human needs they responded to.
Obviously, you have in the roots of all religions the need to comprehend the world, to make sense of the universe, but also deep-seated needs of human beings to express their most deep-rooted hopes and fears, including those for a better world.
On Buddhism, I must say that it is more logical in its basis than Christianity, and therefore has a more straightforward foundation to develop towards Marxist thinking. The problem is that its logic is not yet dialectical logic. For that you need Marxism! *
A shift in the wind
POLITICAL life in France has day of action and strike called by
FRANCE nearly a third of its votes in the partial elections between 1988 and 1991.