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Sri Lankan LGBTIQ Community joins protests against Government

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In the wake of the prevailing crisis of the country, the Sri Lankan LGBTIQ community has joined forces in demonstrating their objection to the President and the Government.

The Sri Lankan LGBTIQ Community today (08) staged a peaceful demonstration at the Lipton Circle, Union Place, Colombo starting from 3.30 pm.

The economic, social and political instability in the country has affected every citizen as well as the community of diverse sexual orientations, gender identities, expressions and sex characteristics, the protesters pointed out.

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer (LGBTIQ) Community of Sri Lanka throughout the course of time has been subject to discrimination, harassment and violence on multiple platforms since the colonial interpretation of criminalisation driving those of diverse sexual identities into being criminals before law via the Penal Code and the Vagrants Ordinance. Despite a progressive social and political atmosphere being grown towards the visibility of these groups, there are ongoing reports on LGBTIQ individuals being subject to marginalisation on or off the state structure, including, but not limited to, arbitrary arrests, domestic violence, declining job opportunities, harassment in public places, challenges in access to services and etc. Simply put, these groups are challenged in enjoying their rights and privileges equally due to their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or sex characteristics.

Them being an intersection of society, the current crisis in the country has severely affected the LGBTIQ Community, thus the protest demonstrates that their struggle is not an isolated one, but a part of a larger human rights struggle.

Editor (LGBTIQ)

Photos: Nadeera Harshani Photography

There will be no power disruptions during the Sinhala and Tamil New Year – PUCSL

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Janaka Ratnayake, Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission has stated that there will be no power cuts on April 13, 14 and 15, the Sinhala and Tamil New Year.

Apparel industry apex body  demands an end to Govt’s procrastination

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The Government’s inaction in finding and implementing a constructive solution to the current crisis urgently risks the imposition of potentially heavy costs the country will continue to pay over the long-term, including access to global markets, The Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF), the apex body of Sri Lanka’s apparel industry claimed.

In a statement, the apparel industry has urged all stakeholders to put aside differences and work together to resolve the current crisis, which has imposed severe hardships on people and hampered the economy. 

If the current macroeconomic crisis continues for longer without taking urgent action to address it, the social and economic consequences imposed upon Sri Lanka’s people will be incalculable, the industry warns.

The country is still recovering from the adverse effects of the worst pandemic in decades that erased years of growth.  

Apparel is Sri Lanka’s single largest foreign income earner, contributing 6 per cent to the country’s overall GDP. The sector provides direct employment to 350,000 people and to another 700,000 indirectly.

“The current crisis has been brewing for several months, and the Government’s procrastination has created considerable hardship for ordinary people,” said a JAAF spokesperson. 

“Power and fuel outages have already led to the shut-down of many small establishments and escalated the cost of production for others.” Efforts to stifle peaceful protests have precipitated a political crisis, further complicating the situation, JAAF adds.

“Before the situation gets worse, we require immediate, decisive action to implement workable short and medium-term solutions to critical challenges,” the spokesperson emphasised. “Given the magnitude of the crisis, all stakeholders in the country’s welfare and the people’s well-being should work together in the larger interest of the people and the nation.”

JAAF fully supports the immediate appointment of financial and legal advisors to commence discussions with Sri Lanka’s creditors. 

This will allow debt servicing obligations to be paused, relieving the pressure on the system. Parallelly, Sri Lanka should engage with the IMF as a matter of urgency to seek bridging financing for essential imports – particularly for fuel, LPG and medicines. 

Seeking the assistance of the World Bank to reallocate unutilised funds from existing projects towards emergency relief programmes can also be an immediate safety net to those most affected by the crisis.

The crisis is hurting Sri Lanka’s international reputation as a reliable sourcing destination and exporter; buyers of the country’s merchandise exports (apparel is almost half of that), investors and business partners are getting worried.

“It will be a steep, uphill battle to retain buyer relationships, which have been built with great effort over decades,” the spokesperson said. “We simply cannot afford to lose even a single one of these relationships. 

The negative impact on the industry and the economy and the export sector will be almost catastrophic, and lead to loss of livelihoods and employment, and limit the country’s ability to fund essential imports, and badly damage its access to long-term external finances.”

Extended power cuts and inconsistent adherence to announced power interruption schedules have disrupted production planning and manufacturing, most severely impacting small and medium enterprises (SMEs). 

The mandatory conversion of foreign exchange is complicating raw material imports, as banks are unable to meet their commitments to apparel exporters.

Devaluation of 40% destroyed the country

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Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe asked parliament today who the hell authorized the Central Bank to devalue the Lankan Rupee by 40% in one day? The people responsible for the irresponsible and negligent decision must be found out and punished. This stupid decision he noted ruined the Country.

230-235 for a USD was acceptable. Now it is on a path of no return. It is the dumbest decision to have been made by the Central bank. The officials responsible must be punished he repeated. He also asked who took the decision not go to the IMF last year? Parliament needs answers.

Parliament must take over the responsibility because the government has failed the people . He noted food inflation may be now 40% . This new year most people will not be able to put 2 meals on the table. What a tragedy he concluded.

Ali Sabri has re-assumed post of Finance Minister at Basil’s request

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It is reported that Mohamed Ali Sabri, who had submitted his resignation letter to the President within a day of assuming the post of Finance Minister, has agreed to take over the post of Finance Minister again at the request of former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa.

The talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) scheduled to begin on the 11th are extremely crucial for the country in the light of the current serious economic crisis. However, if Sri Lanka does not have a Finance Minister, the talks will not be able to take place on that day and the approach to finding a solution to the country’s economic crisis will drag on for another considerable time.

According to sources, Basil Rajapaksa has discussed the matter at length with Mohamed Ali Sabri and requested him to continue the initiative he has taken to initiate talks with the IMF on behalf of the country.

Although Ali Sabri is not an expert on economics, he is an expert in the legal field and has good relations with the international community, as well as a non-racist vision. He also promised to provide maximum assistance.

Sources said that Ali Sabri had decided to accept the post of Finance Minister despite the fact that no one was running for the post and that certain sections of the government were working to prevent him from accepting it.

His resignation letter has not been accepted by President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and he does not need to be sworn in as the new Minister of Finance and he is still the Minister of Finance.

Firms struggle amid Sri Lanka’s economic crisis

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It is a daily struggle for Ranjith Koralage, the boss of a Sri Lankan clothing manufacturer, to find enough diesel to run his company’s machines and steam rollers. 

The chief of Kolonna Manufacturing, which is based in Sri Lanka’s central province, has been running from station to station looking for 400 litres of fuel for the generator – just enough for one day. 

With long power outages, interruptions have become the order of the day in factories across Sri Lanka. Thankfully, a generator brings power back up in some factories. But the fix is temporary with limited fuel. 

Mr Koralage told the BBC: “Today we survived somehow, but I don’t know about tomorrow.” 

His export unit makes knitted garments for Victoria’s Secret, Puma and Levi’s, and is among dozens of clothing factories struggling to meet production targets. 

Garments are the second largest foreign exchange earner for the Sri Lankan economy. The sector had just recovered from the pandemic, with export earnings increasing by 22.1% to $514m (£393m) in January 2022 compared with a year ago. 

Kolonna’s order book is full for the next three to six months. But now disruptions are adding to existing worries around losing business to rivals in Indonesia, Bangladesh and Vietnam. 

“If [the] government doesn’t provide fuel we have to stop production, that affects customers’ deliveries. Our clients are already asking us daily if we will be able to complete the orders in time or not,” Mr Koralage says.

Sri Lanka is facing its worst financial crisis in decades, with foreign exchange reserves shrinking by more than 16% to $1.93bn in March, central bank data showed on Thursday.

Kolonna Manufacturing is a prime example of the model of economic development that Sri Lanka wanted: a factory in the island nation’s hinterland that creates local jobs. It employs 800 workers, all from the region, including its chief executive Mr Koralage. 

The unit makes garments for export and generates almost $140,000 a year for the local villages. 

But it is now stuck in a vicious cycle. The dollar shortage has left the country struggling to pay for imports including food, medicine and fuel. 

Even Sri Lanka’s power plants are struggling to maintain operations. Long, rolling, power cuts are crippling businesses, especially export-oriented ones that are capable of earning the much-needed dollars. 

Exporters like Kolonna typically lock in orders at fixed prices and have limited capacity to absorb rising costs. While a weaker Sri Lankan rupee benefits exporters, rising costs are draining all positives. 

This affects both the business and its employees. Mr Koralage says as the cost of living goes up, retaining skilled workers will be another yet challenge.

BBC

Peru declares state of emergency on highways as protests continue

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Peru has declared a one-month state of emergency to allow the armed forces to supervise its highways, as the government of President Pedro Castillo tries to stem nationwide protests over rising fuel and food prices.

Hundreds of truckers and farm workers have been blocking roads across the country for more than a week in anger over rising costs, which have spiked since Russia invaded Ukraine.

The decree, published in the official newspaper on Thursday, allows for the army to be deployed to clear the blockades while also suspending certain constitutional rights such as freedom of movement and assembly.

“The police will keep control of internal order, with help from the armed forces,” it read.

Clashes between protesters and police in Ica, about 300km (185 miles) south of the capital, Lima, left one farm worker dead and 15 people injured, mostly police officers.

Demonstrators rally in Peru
Protests against rising costs continue to be held in the Peruvian capital, Lima [Alessandro Cinque/Reuters]

Castillo’s government has faced growing public anger over the crisis, especially after he imposed a mandatory, 24-hour lockdown in Lima and a neighbouring port city earlier this week in a bid to “re-establish peace”.

The left-wing president, who was sworn into office in July of last year, backtracked on the measure after opposition politicians and human rights groups slammed it as a “disproportionate” infringement on freedom of movement.

Thousands of people had taken to the streets in defiance of the measure before Castillo cut the lockdown short on Tuesday evening, calling on Peruvians to “be calm”.

The government has cut taxes on fuel, raised the minimum wage and proposed exempting essential food items from sales tax.

The episode marks the first time in Castillo’s eight months in power that he has faced a social protest movement.

AL JAZEERA

Mystery of alleged Chinese hack on eve of Ukraine invasion

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Allegations of Chinese cyber activity as the recent conflict broke out in Ukraine have been emerging. 

The details appear unusually murky but one Western intelligence official believes the aim was espionage – and the cyber-attack may have been broader than previously reported.

The Times first reported that hackers, alleged to be based in China, began targeting Ukrainian websites on 23 February, the day before the invasion. 

That led to questions as to whether they had advance notice of Moscow’s plans and if their intention was somehow to support Russia. 

A broad set of Ukrainian government and commercial organisations were said to have been targeted by hackers, including organisations linked to nuclear power.

It is unclear how far this activity was scanning for vulnerabilities online and how many websites were actually compromised.

But the aim looks to have been espionage – stealing secrets – rather than the kind of sabotage operations which Russia was accused of carrying out just before the invasion, and when it started.

The Times cited intelligence documents – but the Ukrainian security service denied they had handed anything over and seemed to downplay the revelations, adding to confusion. 

Some analysts wondered if they were worried about antagonising Beijing. 

On Monday, the Chinese embassy in the UK rejected the claim and described the Times report as “sheer irresponsible talk and not credible at all”.

Sri Lanka calls for $1 bln debt restructure as crisis rages: REUTERS Report

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COLOMBO, April 7 (Reuters) – Sri Lanka must urgently seek funds from multilateral lenders and aim to restructure a debt payment due in July, its outgoing finance minister said on Thursday, pleading for political stability amid the country’s worst economic crisis in decades.

The opposition and some partners of the ruling coalition rejected calls this week for a unity government from President Gotabaya Rajapaksa after he disbanded his cabinet, hoping to quell weeks-long street protests over shortages of fuel, power, food and medicine.

With its foreign exchange reserves shrinking quickly, massive debt payments due and the rupee currency slumping, analysts say the government – controlled by Rajapaksa and his elder brother Mahinda, the prime minister – is running out of options.

Reserves dropped 16% to $1.93 billion in March, central bank data showed on Thursday.

“We must look at how to structure the $1 billion international sovereign bond payment maturing in July,” said Ali Sabry, who submitted his resignation to Rajapaksa on Tuesday.”We must go to the IMF, there is no other solution that I can see.”

Sabrywas moved to finance from the justice ministry on Monday to replace President Rajapaksa’s younger brother Basil Rajapaksa.

It was not immediately clear if Rajapaksa had accepted Sabry’s resignation, submitted days ahead of scheduled talks with the IMF for emergency loans.

As the island nation attempts to fast-track the formulation of proposals to present to the IMF President Rajapaksa on Thursday appointed K.M.M Siriwardana, a deputy governor at the central bank who previously worked with the Fund, as treasury secretary.

The $1 billion bond maturing on July 25 was trading at 54 cents in the dollar, its lowest level since spring 2020 when the COVID-19 rout hit global financial markets, data from MarketAxess showed .

Other Sri Lankan dollar-denominated sovereign bonds traded at even more stressed levels, with most changing hands around 40 cents in the dollar.

“We must have political stability to find solutions to the financial crisis,” Sabry said.

“We must discuss with the World Bank and we must have a bridge-financing plan with the ADB. If we don’t have stability, who will conduct these talks?,” he said, referring to the Philippines-based Asian Development Bank.

Opposition lawmakers continued to call for the president to step down. At least 41 parliamentarians withdrew from the ruling coalition this week, though they could still support the government in the house and the opposition has not called for a no-confidence vote. read more

Foreign Minister G. L. Peiris told diplomats in a briefing that the government still held a majority in parliament and that “despite the agitation”, there was no consensus on who could replace the president, prime minister and parliament.

DEEP IN DEBT

Critics have accused the government of mismanagement, but the tourism-reliant economy has also been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Help from the IMF would likely come with some tough political choices – policy reforms that could add to the pain in the short term in hopes of getting the economy back on more solid footing in a few years.

J.P. Morgan analysts estimated this week that Sri Lanka’s gross debt servicing would amount to $7 billion this year, with the current account deficit coming in around $3 billion.

As the search for a replacement for Sabry at the finance ministry continues, P. Nandalal Weerasinghe took over as the central bank governor, succeeding Ajith Nivard Cabraal, who quit on Monday.

A court in the commercial capital Colombo on Thursday barred Cabraal from leaving the country until March 18, Rajith Keerthi Tennakoon, a well-known anti-corruption activist who accused Cabraal of misusing public funds during his tenure, told Reuters. Tennakoon had petitioned the court.

Reuters could not immediately contact Cabraal and his lawyer did not answer calls.

Weerasinghe, a former senior central bank deputy governor who has also worked with the IMF, will hold a monetary policy meeting on Friday. It was originally scheduled to be held on Monday.

An analyst said the central bank was expected to hike key interest rates by 300-400 basis points – following a 100 bps increase in early March – to tame inflation that hit 18.7% in March.

“We also expect the newly appointed governor to outline potential measures to be included in the IMF reform plan, views on potential debt restructuring, and currency management,” said Lakshini Fernando of Asia Securities.

REUTERS

Sri Lanka: the masses must organise and trust their own strength!

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After spontaneous protests demanding the resignation of President Gota last Friday in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, anticipation was mounting about how this movement in the crisis-ravaged country would develop.

Some parties and groups were calling for protests last Sunday, in response to which, a nervous President Gota called a curfew. The entire country was to be shut down from 6pm on Saturday 2 April through to 6am on Monday 4 April. Nevertheless, groups of youth across the country defied the curfew – the biggest act of defiance taking place in the city of Kandy, where thousands of students from Peradeniya University faced water cannons.

As soon as the curfew was lifted on Monday morning, the masses returned to the streets. Despite being a working day, large crowds were amassing from 7.30am. No strike was called by the trade unions, but the crowds grew larger and larger anyway, with bosses in many areas having no choice but to give workers dispensation to attend.

Crowds gathered in locations across the island. In every neighbourhood of Colombo there were protests. Crowds gathered in Independence Square. Angry crowds gathered outside the personal residences of almost all the government ministers. At one point, thousands of protesters broke through a police barricade outside Carlton House – the seat of the Rajapaksa family in Tangalle on the southern coast of the island.

Every corner of the country and every layer of society has been swept into the movement. There were protests among the Tamil tea plantation workers demanding the fall of the government in central Sri Lanka; as well as protests of Tamil groups in the North and East, who added their own demands to the call for Gota to resign, including the demand for the repeal of the repressive Prevention of Terrorism Act.

University students have been out en masse raising slogans such as, “you’ve fucked with the wrong generation,” whilst pickets were formed outside hospitals all over the island as healthcare professionals marched in demand of access to drugs, medical equipment and food for patients.

The lawyers have been particularly organised in this movement. They staged a mass protest at Mirihana police station, demanding the release of those arrested on Friday night for protesting outside Gota’s residence, whilst thousands of lawyers staged protests outside the courts demanding the prosecution of corrupt politicians.

Such is the breadth of the movement that even the armed bodies of the state are showing cracks. On Friday night, footage emerged in Mirihana of the driver of a police van raising his fist in encouragement of the protests, whilst on Monday footage was posted on social media of a police officer in Kottawa fraternising with the protests and even getting on the megaphone to say, “Even though we are wearing uniforms, we are with you.”

In one incident, protesters were scandalised to see members of the armed forces on motorcycles carrying automatic weapons and heading for the protests at the parliament building, only to be challenged by the police. An army commander has now demanded the police officers face disciplinary action.

These are hairline cracks in the state and it isn’t our wish to exaggerate them, but they are important symptoms of how the mood in society is also affecting even the rank and file of the police and the army, sections of whom could be won over to the side of the masses.

Parliament in crisis

The action of the masses on the street has opened up a deep crisis in the government and parliament. On Monday, events moved quickly: the governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Nivard Cabraal, resigned. The courts have since banned him from leaving the country. Twenty-six cabinet members also resigned. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and his brother, the Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, were the only ones left standing in the government!

The corrupt clique around the Rajapaksas has become a focal point for the disgust of the masses. The workers and the poor have been driven to desperation by the severe economic crisis. Meanwhile, they see this clan above them, robbing them blind.

Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa Image Ministério da Defesa FlickrThe action of the masses has opened up a deep crisis in the government – after twenty-six cabinet members resigned president Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brother were the only ones left standing in the government! / Image: Ministério da Defesa, Flickr

The political representatives of the ruling class in Sri Lanka now face a dilemma. They desperately need a government, including a new Finance Minister and a Secretary to the Treasury, in order to begin negotiations with the IMF. All of the parties acknowledge this. The governing parties as well as the opposition are talking about the need for “national unity” to get out of this crisis.

But as long as Gotabaya Rajapaksa is in place, no one is willing to commit political suicide and serve under him as a minister. Even the president’s nephew, Namal Rajapaksa, was among those ministers who have resigned – showing that even Rajapaksas don’t want to be associated with the Rajapaksas! The comedy was finished off when Gota attempted to appoint a new Finance Minister… only for him to resign immediately!

And on Tuesday, as parliament convened to debate the ongoing crisis, 42 MPs from Gota’s coalition announced that they would sit as independents and were withdrawing their support from the government. As a result, Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s coalition has been reduced to 108 seats – just shy of the 113 seats it needs to form a majority. But no other grouping has a majority either.

Despite the depth of the crisis, no one can force Gotabaya Rajapaksa out as president. And he has made it quite clear: he isn’t voluntarily going to go anywhere. In fact, as the protests continue, he has only ratcheted up his belligerence.

Rejection of all parties

One particularly noteworthy feature of the protests that have escalated this week has been their rejection of the entire political establishment and all political parties. Alongside the core slogan, “Gota must go”, the masses have added another slogan, “225 must go” – that is all of the 225 MPs represented in the parliament must go. They are all as rotten as each other.

This mood shows a very healthy instinct. The masses understand that all the bourgeois parties represented in the parliament – including the opposition – merely represent different wings of their exploiters. The masses see through their game, played year in and year out, of rotating through ministerial portfolios to give the illusion of change. They aren’t taken in by the spate of resignations, and cynical jokes are going round about how these same characters will be back in new ministries at the next cabinet reshuffle.

Meanwhile, the people on the street rightly sense that the opportunists in the opposition are false friends who conceal daggers behind their smiles.

Indeed, where these opportunists have tried to turn up and feign sympathy with the protests, they have swiftly been chased off the street. In one case, the reactionary Buddhist monk Battaramulle Seelarathana Thero – leader of the Sinhala-chauvinist Janasetha Peramuna party, which has a record of supporting the Rajapaksas – was chased back to his luxury car amid shouts of, “it’s because of the people like you, we suffer today like this!”

Elsewhere, members of the official opposition, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (the SJB, a party which emerged from the ruins of the discredited traditional party of the Sri Lankan capitalists, the UNP), have also found themselves chased away. They have been rightly rejected by the masses.

On the streets, it has proven tough for these representatives of capital to pass themselves off as “champions of the people”. But in the air conditioned chamber of parliament, under the adoring gaze of the capitalist press, they have had a much easier time.

The scandal that has been going on inside parliament shows that the people are quite right to reject all of these criminals.

On 6 April, members of the SJB even raised placards in parliament and mimicked the slogans on the street calling for Gota to go! “There can be no voice that runs counter to that voice heard on the streets. We are here to represent the people,” said SJB leader, Sajith Premadasa.

And it’s not just the opposition who, like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, are trying to ingratiate themselves with the elemental movement of the masses. Even the major capitalists of Sri Lanka have now come out “in favour” of the protests. The spokesperson of Sri Lanka’s biggest supermarket chain, John Keells Group, which profits from the suffering of the people as it ratchets up the prices of foodstuffs to maintain its profits, declared (without apparent irony) how it “acknowledges the hardships and pressures the current environment is placing on our citizens and our team members.”

The largest apparel exporters and biggest private-sector employer, MAS Holdings, that has grown rich off the sweat of the workers who cannot now even afford to eat, have not only expressed their sympathy for the masses, but have explained how they “stand by and respect our citizens and our team’s right to participate in peaceful protests and to express themselves freely.”

One tweet very succinctly summed up the attitude of the masses to this game of opposition that the ruling class are now playing:

“Don’t be fooled by cricketers, public figures who work alongside Rajapakshas arriving late to the party. Note their missing hashtags #GoHomeRajapkshas #gohomegota from their perfunctory statements. Even Namal Rajapaksa quit. They’re just playing along to save their businesses.”

These criminals are attempting to offload their role in the present crisis onto the shoulders of the Rajapaksas alone. But it is not just the Rajapaksas who are responsible for the present suffering of the Sri Lankan people. Rather, the entire class to which the Rajapaksas belong – the capitalist class – is responsible.

The “executive presidency”

The masses are correct to be suspicious of the manoeuvres not only of the ruling party, but also of the pro-big business opposition. Right now, the opposition are trying to focus the entirety of the attention of the masses on reforming Sri Lanka’s capitalist democracy. But this is a complete deception. All talk of reforming democracy in Sri Lanka, as long as capitalism exists, can only be mere rhetoric aimed at fooling the masses.

SJB leader Sajith Premadasa has given us plenty of examples of such rhetoric in the past week. His party has declared that the main problem is the nature of the presidency, with its extreme concentration of powers in the hands of the president himself:

“The time has come to abolish the Executive Presidency”, he told parliament. “Let us use this opportunity to change this system and introduce one with checks and balances. Let us use all the available emergency constitutional tools available and within this week bring laws to abolish the Executive Presidency.”

This demand has been picked up by a number of other lawmakers and media pundits. But what is its real content? Certainly the Sri Lankan constitution is far from democratic. Parliament enjoys relatively few powers next to the “Executive Presidency”.

The constitution has many of the features of what Marxists refer to as “Bonapartism” – a regime that has been seen in other places and at other times in history when the capitalist class has become to rotten and discredited to govern, but where the working class is not yet class conscious enough to govern.

It is no accident that the Sri Lankan constitution has tended in this direction, nor were the latest powers acquired by the presidency under Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s 20th amendment the beginning of this process.

It was in the late 1970s and early 1980s, under the regime of J. R. Jayewardene of the United National Party – the predecessor of the SJB opposition – that the executive presidency was introduced.

The tendency towards Bonapartism and the concentration of political power in the hands of the strongman-president is a symptom of the weakness of Sri Lankan capitalism. It is as a result of the extremely sharp social antagonisms in society that the ruling class is forced to concentrate all power in the hands of an individual just to secure a modicum of political stability for itself.

But problems occur when the “strongman” becomes a destabilising factor in the situation, as Gota has now become. It is very difficult for the ruling class to get rid of this thorn in their side, which they have endowed with tremendous amounts of power.

The talk of the opposition parties about “checks and balances” and “getting rid of the executive presidency” are fundamentally aimed at getting the masses, who they despise and fear, off the street! They want to form a government with some legitimacy in order to negotiate with the IMF and Sri Lanka’s other imperialist creditors. Whatever system they settle upon – and it seems they can settle upon very little right now! – they will struggle to find a grain of legitimacy among them.

Let us be clear – the idea that it is possible to establish a “perfect” democracy in Sri Lanka under capitalism is an illusion. Its Bonapartist features are a symptom of the crisis of capitalism on the island, and a sign that capitalism and the entire bourgeois regime are ripe to be overthrown.

Argentina 2001 and Sri Lanka 2022

The masses are correct to distrust all of the bourgeois and petty bourgeois parties and politicians. This is the strong side of the slogan, “225 must go!”

But the slogan also has a weak side. To illustrate this point, it is worth looking at a time when a very similar slogan was raised by the masses in another time and place. In 2001, the Argentinian masses erupted onto the streets and raised the slogan: “que se vayan todos!” (“kick them all out!”)

argentinazo Image public domain

There are a number of parallels between the present situation in Sri Lanka and the situation that developed in Argentina in 2001 / Image: public domain

There are a number of parallels between the present situation in Sri Lanka and the situation that developed in Argentina in 2001. At that time, Argentina was facing bankruptcy, and was forced to turn repeatedly to the IMF. In order to pay back its debts, the IMF demanded the Argentinian government apply brutal zero-deficit austerity budgets – i.e. that they make the workers and poor pay for the crisis.

This eventually led to a situation in which the masses could take no more, and their anger exploded in massive protests.

Much like Sri Lanka today, the movement made Argentina ungovernable. The country even went through five presidents in the course of two weeks! Ultimately, however, the masses became exhausted and returned home.

What happened next? The government defaulted on its unpayable debt, the currency was massively devalued, and unemployment and inflation continued to worsen. In fact, these were the only two options facing Argentina on the basis of capitalism: either pay the debts and conduct massive austerity attacks; or default and allow inflation and unemployment to rip through society. Either way, the working class would be made to pay for the crisis of capitalism.

And today, Argentina is back in the same situation! The Argentinian government has once again returned to the IMF for help, having been battered by the exact same, worldwide crisis of capitalism that is gripping Sri Lanka. The IMF has been willing to oblige… in exchange for promises to carry out further austerity attacks on the working class.

Trust your own strength!

As in Argentina in 2001, in the absence of a political alternative, the ruling class politicians of Sri Lanka can simply wait for the masses to become exhausted. One so-called “left”, Vasudeva Nanayakkara, who was among the 42 MPs to resign from the governing coalition, expressed the strategy of the ruling class thus:

“This government cannot move forward now. There must be a government with everyone participating for at least 6 months and then have an election.”

All talk of elections in the indefinite future must be recognised for what it is: an attempt to defuse the movement of the masses – to get them off the streets and to frustrate them in parliamentary games. Other politicians complain that to hold a new election amidst such an acute economic crisis would be an inexcusable waste of resources that the country does not have. There is an answer to that: save money by cutting the inflated wages, expenses and ministerial cars of the MPs themselves! No representative should be on more than the average workers’ wage.

The masses have a healthy instinct in distrusting all the representatives of the rotten capitalist class. The workers and the poor must trust only in their own strength. But they need organisation in order to harness this elemental power. Today, power is literally in the hands of the workers and the poor: it is there, in the streets. The problem is, the working class is not conscious of this fact. And if they are not made conscious of this fact, the movement will inevitably exhaust itself.

Trotsky once explained how, “without a guiding organisation, the energy of the masses [will] dissipate like steam not enclosed in a piston-box.” What is necessary is to give the mass movement organisation.

In all workplaces, among the peasants, in the fisheries and neighbourhoods, committees of the workers and poor must be formed to coordinate the struggle. Linked up on a district-wide and national level, such committees could become the organs of an alternative power to the rotten parliament, presidency and the entire capitalist state in Sri Lanka.

What is missing is a party that the masses can have confidence in, and organise through. The masses reject all the existing parties, but they do not have a party of their own. Sri Lanka has a longstanding tradition of left parties, but they threw away the authority they once had precisely because they entered into coalition governments with bourgeois and petty bourgeois parties, thus tainting themselves with the austerity measures of past governments. That is why they have no authority today.

The left in Sri Lanka should seriously look at its own past and understand that what is needed today is a complete break with any idea of class collaboration. The left and the trade unions should be coming together to promote workers’ committees everywhere and coordinate them at the national level in order to give an expression to the will of the people on the streets. This, combined with a powerful all-out general strike across the whole country, would bring down the whole rotten regime and prepare the ground for the workers, the peasants, the urban poor, and all the downtrodden layers of society to finally seize power, take over the wealth of the privileged few at the top and use if for the benefit of the mass of working people. There is no other way!

Ben Curry 07 April 2022