Sri Lanka: Police raid
NSSP headquarters ideological preoccupations have been refined over the years. In the South, the priority is breaking the hope born out of decolonisation, so as to enable stable management of the debt crisis. It is surely clear today that the Gulf war was neither about democracy not about the elimination of Saddam Hussein. In the East, the G7 must bury is the hope born in 1917.
The club has also enabled a relative regulation of the international political science. They have opened a discussion about the future of the various international institutions, including the United Nations. Within the G7, the seven most powerful countries have been able to discuss their differences of interest, and seek a way to master the growing role of "emerging economies" like India, Mexico, Brazil, China, Russia, and the countries of Southeast Asia. New contradictions
The Berlin Wall collapsed, the Gulf war was won. Today, there is no significant Eastern or Southern threat to Western dominance. But discussions on commerce and the world recession reveal a number of divergences between the great powers.
As the liberal system reaches its ecological and social limits, these conflicts may intensify. What is left in a country which has been forced in to a strategy of "everything for export?", scapegoating of immigrants, prioritizing debt repayment, the impossibility of developing internal markets, and the control of international institutions by the new world order. Revolt and conflict. Ethnic cleansing and genocide. And the slow rise of more serious confrontations. With their doctrines and their privileges, the rulers of the seven richest countries are the world's biggest threat to peace.
Globalisation is both the consolidation of the status quo, and a challenge. The end result of the process of globalisation is not yet determined. The most likely outcome, the reinforcement of the dominant system, is unacceptable. We must find, and impose, another possible outcome.
The new radicalism will come from the marriage of the practice of resistance with the will to go beyond the present situation. It implies refusal to get used to the status quo, and refusal to confine ourselves to permanent crisis-management. Each of the last UN, G7 or EU conferences has provoked a counter-assembly, rich in debates and proposals, and supported by a range of forces struggling against the consequences of globalisation. There is a real convergence of forces, both in terms of our critique of the "powers that be", and in our proposals for action. But we still face the challenge of welding these counter-proposals into a coherent alternative. * 32 International Viewpoint
Armed police officers raided the Columbo headquarters of the Nava Sama Samaja (New Socialist) Party on 1st June. The Central Committee was in session when thirty policemen armed with automatic rifles, grenades and sub-machine guns broke into the building, saying that they suspected illegal activities The real reason for this aggression is that the NSSP, Sri Lankan section of the Fourth International, is the key organisation supporting the electricity workers strike, which began on 29 May, causing a total blackout for 4 days. The 14,000 strong workforce went on strike demanding that the government give up its plan to privatise the Ceylon Electricity Board This is the second time in one month that the government has tried to intimidate the NSSP., the first being a police attack on the May Day demonstration (see page 34). On Friday May 31, President Chandrika Kumaratunga, said that she will resort to any means "short of killing" to get the strikers back to work. She declared the strike illegal and ordered mass arrest of the strikers. Within hours of her threat, unidentified gunmen attacked J.B.P. Dissanayaka, a leader of the telecommunications union leader. The attack was clearly aimed at intimidating other public sector trade unions which have expressed solidarity with the striking electricity workers. Dissanayaka, who escaped unhurt, is also a leader of the public sector trade union movement opposing privatisation. Members of the NSSP have also received death threats. Pro-government forces, including some members of Parliament, have tried to rouse chauvinism among the masses by staging anti-strike demonstrations depicting strikers as a hindrance to the war effort against Tamil separatist forces. Major General Anuruddha Ratwatte, a maternal uncle of the President, is both the Deputy Minister of Defence and the Minister for Power and Energy. Unfortunately, these acts of
Worker attacked by police at NSSP 1st May March (see page 34 for eye witness report). intimidation are likely to discourage many workers from carrying on their strike action. The NSSP is calling for renewed efforts in the campaign against state terrorism, war and privatisation. A picket will be held in the heart of the capital, Colombo, on 05 June. * socialists and trade unionists
• To protest and condemn the raid against the NSSP headquarters
• To protest and condemn all forms of intimidation against the
Electricity workers and public sector workers in general.
Please write or fax: The President of Sri Lanka, H.E. Chandrika
Kumaratunga, Presidential Secretariat,
Colombo 01, Sri Lanka. FAX (941) 333 703. Send copy to the NSSP fax (941) 334 822.