TAMIL AND SINHALESE WORKERS MUST UNITE TO END RAJAPAKSE DICTATORSHIP
rab
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
TAMIL AND SINHALESE WORKERS MUST UNITE TO END RAJAPAKSE DICTATORSHIP
THE Rajapakse dictatorship in Sri Lanka, which is backed with British
finance and arms, and British big business investment, is continuing
with its dictatorship over both the Tamil people and the Sinhalese
workers.
There are now hundreds of thousands of Tamils in internment
(concentration) camps in the north of the island, living in the
foulest conditions possible, with an absolute minimum of food and
medical treatment in camps that are susceptible to flooding.
The regime’s spokesmen say that the interned are still ‘mentally’ with
the Tigers, but that they are being re-educated, and the Tiger cadre
is being rooted out, a process that may take years!
As well, there are thousands of political prisoners, both Tamil and
Sinhalese, being held without trial in Rajapakse’s jails, including
journalists who have had the courage to speak out against his regime
and its oppression of the Sri Lankan people.
The latest journalist to be jailed, after another rigged trial in the
High Court, is JS Tissainayagam. He was found guilty under the
regime’s notorious ‘anti-terror’ laws of ‘causing communal
disharmony’.
This charge is being made in a country where the oppression of the
Tamil minority, by pogroms and military massacres, has been standard
practice since 1948.
Tissainayagam was arrested on March 7, 2008, when he went to the Sri
Lanka Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) to look for his
journalist colleagues Jasikaran and Valarmathy who had disappeared. He
was detained for almost six months without charges, and then charged
with inciting violence in articles in his magazine, the North Eastern
Monthly, which is now closed. He was also accused of receiving funds
from the Tamil Tigers rebels. He has denied the charges and intends to
appeal.
His supporters are spelling it out that the regime is now using its
anti-terror laws to quash all dissent and to cement the Rajapakse
dictatorship, which has just secured a huge IMF loan to pay for an
expansion of the military.
His supporters also spell out that Rajapakse’s regime is making Sri
Lanka a no-go area for journalists, who now fear that they will be the
victim of ‘white van’ death squads that serve the interests of the
regime.
It is their opinion that since its military victory over the Tamil
Tigers (secured with the full support of the international community)
the regime is determined to silence all critics, by making them all
fair game for ‘white gang’ death squads, by describing them as enemies
of Sri Lanka.
The object is to turn Sri Lanka into one big prison camp.
The proof of this is that although the war is over and hundreds of
thousands of Tamils are being kept in internment camps, the regime
plans to increase the size of the military from 200,000 to 300,000 men
under arms. This will be more than twice as big as the British army,
which has been fighting at least two wars at a time for the last 20
years or so.
The need for this overwhelming force arises from Rajapakse’s main
role, which is to protect the massive investments by British and
international capitalists in Sri Lanka, especially in the big garment
factories and in the tea and rubber industries.
With the world capitalist crisis raging, the international banks and
bosses want to see further cuts in wages in Sri Lanka and trade unions
smashed, as well as the privatisation of state owned industries.
They also want the IMF and other loans paid back in full, and on time,
including the considerable interest payments.
The big army, the various police forces, the ‘white van’ killers will
be used against the working class of the island regardless of
nationality.
The way forward in Sri Lanka is through the revolutionary unity of the
Sinhalese and Tamil workers to bring down the Rajapakse regime and
bring in a workers and small farmers government. This will nationalise
the banks and macjor industries, annul the foreign debts, and give the
Tamil people the opportunity to decide their own future.
Dusty
> The News Line: Editorial
>
> Tuesday, 1 September 2009
>
> TAMIL AND SINHALESE WORKERS MUST UNITE TO END RAJAPAKSE DICTATORSHIP
...
> The way forward in Sri Lanka is through the revolutionary unity of the
> Sinhalese and Tamil workers to bring down the Rajapakse regime and
> bring in a workers and small farmers government. This will nationalise
> the banks and macjor industries, annul the foreign debts, and give the
> Tamil people the opportunity to decide their own future.
If that means the Tamils giving up their effort to form a state within
the tiny overpopulated island, you're right, otherwise it's a
reactionary utopia, doomed to do little more than result in further
repression, bloodshed and suffering and to further increase the stream
of "refugees" imposed on the western working class and the tragic loss
of much needed professionals from Sri Lanka.