The launch in Jaffna was publicised in advance in the social media and through a vigorous leafletting campaign conducted from Vavunia to Jaffna. Our leaflet explained the general political situation and called on people to get involved with us on the basis of our socialist ideas and progamme. We also did energetic fly-posting announcing the 25^{th<\/sup> book-launch meeting.<\/p>\n}

As a prelude to the main event on the eve of the meeting, the 24^{th<\/sup> August, we held a press conference in the Jaffna Press Club. The following morning, the two main Jaffna papers publicised the speech made by Sirithunga Jayasuriya, General Secretary of the USP at the media briefing on their front pages. It was the top news in the Valampuri paper and the Thinakural carried a full article.<\/p>\n}

In the evening after the meeting the Sirasa all-island 7 o\u2019clock news covered the meeting and carried the USP statement. The following day, the Jaffna Shakthi 7.30 news programme also carried an item on the book launch for nearly three minutes and other TV channels like Dan TV and Vasanthan also gave us coverage.<\/p>\n

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At the meeting, two academics of the University of Jaffna \u2013 Dr. Saminathan Vimal and Dr. Mahendran Thiruvarangan \u2013 spoke as well Srinath Perera, Editor of Rathutharuva and Sirithunga Jayasuriya, whose views were very well received as was a guest speech delivered by Suresh, a member of the New Socialist Alternative of India. M. K. Sivajilingam, a former member of parliament, also made a short contribution.<\/p>\n

It is not easy to have a meeting in Jaffna organised by Southern people but it was a great success. It turned into a detailed analysis of the Tamil national question and the consequences of the three decades war. The pros and cons of the right to self-determination for the Tamils, which runs through this book as a golden thread, were widely touched on by all the speakers.<\/p>\n

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40 copies of the book were sold at the event along with other socialist books at the book stall conducted by the Socialist Book House along. 80 copies were handed over to Poobalasingham, a major book shop in Jaffna, on their request for selling. Since the book launch, many people have inquired about how to get a copy of the book.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A public meeting organised in Jaffna last Sunday, 25 August, by the United Socialist Party (USP) was a great success with more than 70 people attending. It was to launch the party\u2019s new book in Tamil: \u2018The Tamil Eelam People\u2019s Struggle \u2013 A Marxist View\u2019 and took place in the main Public Library Hall in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\n\t\r\n