Sri Lanka

Racist Buddhist mob ambushes United Socialist Party march

CWI condemns attack and requests solidarity

July 27, 2014

Originally posted by Socialistworld.net

The Committee for a Workers’ International strongly condemns the brutal attack on the United Socialist Party (USP) by an organisation of Buddhist racist monks (BBS) in Sri Lanka today.

The USP had organised a motorcycle march to build opposition to the ongoing racist attacks on religious minorities. The motorcade was driving to Aluthgama, a town where Muslim shops and houses were attacked by organised Buddhist extremists earlier this month. (Report: http://www.socialistworld.net/print/6853)

Participants were distributing leaflets and discussing with local people about the reactionary and dangerous nature of the BBS. They were urged to join in the building of united action against any racist attacks or discrimination on language, national, religious or any other basis. Read More...

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July 20, 2014

Workers can win

Victory for $ 15 campaign in Seattle – USA

United Socialist Party, Sri Lanka

Seattle city council in the United States of America has voted to impose $ 15 as the minimum wage in the city. This is the first major city in the US to effect such a law and the new amount is almost double the present wage available in the country.

We did this. Workers did this. First victory for $ 15 will inspire people all over the nation”, said socialist Seattle councilor Kshama Samant who was instrumental in bringing the resolution to this effect.

What’s the different between Seattle and other cities in the US where workers have also been fighting heroic battles demanding @15? Mass campaign built support for $15 and elected Kshama, a member of socialist Alternative (co-thinkers of the United Socialist Party in Sri Lanka) last November. This was a turning point. Read More...

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July 20, 2014

Over 100 Gazans have been killed in one week, including 20 children

Siritunga Jayasuriya

Netanyahu’s Israeli government has launched a horrific onslaught of hundreds of air strikes on the densely populated Gaza strip. Over 100 Gazans have been killed in one week, including 20 children. 400 have been injured. One strike hit a group of football fans who had gathered to watch a world cup match; nine were killed.

Palestinians in the occupied territories are forced to suffer heavy representation with regular military incursions, acute unemployment and poverty, and are blockaded, separated and have land continually confiscated. Read More...

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May 16, 2012

USP May Day Parade and Rally – 2014

LankaSocialist Correspondent

The May Day parade and the rally of the United Socialist Party (CWI Sri Lanka) went ahead on May 1st in Colombo, in spite of the continuing difficulties that the Rajapakshe government creates for those who argue for free speech, democratic rights and socialism.

The parade started from Meetotamulla in the North of the city, through predominantly Muslim, Tamil and Portuguese areas to Grand Pass Junction. A large number of local people turned out to listen to the speeches at the USP rally in the square at Kosgass Junction. Read More...

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May 16, 2014

CWI

History of the Committee for a Workers’ International

40th anniversary of the founding of the CWI

May 16, 2014

Originally posted by Socialistworld.net on April 21, 2014.

To mark the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Committee for a Workers’ International on April 21st 1974 we are publishing here three items.

The first is an interview with Tony Saunois, the secretary of the CWI, on the CWI’s history and development that was originally published in sozialismus.info II/2014, the theoretical magazine of the CWI’s German comrades, Sozialistische Alternative (SAV).

The second and third items, ‘Workers of all countries, Unite!’ and ‘Socialism and internationalism’ are written by Robert Bechert of the International Secretariat of the CWI and one of those at its 1974 founding meeting. These were originally published, in a slightly shorter form, in ‘The Socialist’, the weekly paper of the Socialist Party in England and Wales.

In addition there is a link to the 2004 edition of ‘A socialist world is possible’, a history of the CWI written by Peter Taaffe, a member of the CWI’s International Secretariat and also general secretary of the SP England and Wales. Read More...

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March 05, 2014

Beyond UNHRC Resolution

Demand a Constituent Assembly

LankaSocialist Correspondent

First published in http://www.socialistworld.net on February 04, 2014
Original source: http://www.tamilsolidarity.org/?p=3507

Genocide – that is the recent verdict given against the Sri Lankan government by the Permanent People’s Tribunal (PPT) in relation to the carnage in the last stages of the civil war. Yet this verdict will have no value for Tamils other than serving as a propaganda point. As we know, the PPT decisions are never acknowledged by the ‘international community’ of world governments. But that is largely beside the point; the volume of established evidence that has been accepted by the PPT could have been accepted in any court of law. Is a court challenge to the Rajapaksa dictatorship likely to take place? We all know the answer. Similarly we all know the answer to the question of what is likely to come out of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session in March this year.

There will be no talk of a political solution either or any attempt made to address the national aspirations of the Tamil masses in Sri Lanka. It is not a lack of evidence that is holding them back. Rather a severe lack of ‘political will’. And that ‘will’ is not determined by genuine interest in ‘justice’, but rather by the competing economic interests in the region. Read More...

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February 18, 2014

Mr. Mahinda Deshapriya
Commissioner of Elections
Elections Secretariat
Rajagiriya.

Request to initiate action against Secretary to MoD and UD for participating in election campaigns

Dear Sir,

You are well aware by now that Secretary to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and Urban Development (UD), Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has participated in the launch of the election campaign of the Colombo District Jathika Hela Urumaya nominee Udaya Gammanpila, a candidate for the provincial council elections for the Western Province, on the UPFA list, at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute on 13 February, 2014.

The law is quite clear about senior public service officers taking part in political activities. All officers from staff grade and above are prohibited in taking part in political activities including attending any event that can be identified by the public as political. Read More...

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February 18, 2014

United Socialist Party Press Statement

Western and Southern Provincial Election 2014-02-15

Unites Socialist Party, Sri Lanka

The Rajapakshe regime is using the holding of elections on a staggered basis as a trump card so that it can detract the peoples' attention from the anti-government struggle, while the workers, peasants, and youth are being suppressed by the emerging constitutional dictatorship using the military and police. It is the strategy of this coalition government to hold elections as it deems fit as a means to cut across the generalized political process utilizing the whole state apparatus and resources. Suppressing all democratic rights and deceiving the youth, who are yearning for jobs, peasants, and workers have been burdened with the unbearable cost of living. It is very clear that the aim of the government is to safe keep the state power which is in crisis in the face of mounting opposition to the government from the workers, the poor and the youth. We cannot expect these elections to reflect a clear public opinion while the departments of elections and police are under presidential rule with their supposed independence being dismantled under the 18th amendment to the Constitution. Read More...