ruling coalition shaken Once again Sri Lanka is being shaken by a most serious social, political, and economic crisis. The evolution of world market prices has hit the economy of Sri Lanka especially severely. The cost of imports is rising ceaselessly, while the prices for the coun try's main export products are continuing to decline markedly. Unemployment is rising constantly in the cities and the countryside and is accompanied by galloping inflation. The standard of living, which tens years ago far exceeded that of the Indian subcontinent, has fallen to the level of India's or even lower. Entire families of plantation workers are on the point of starving to death.
1972 with the proclamation of the one-party state. It stemmed essentially from intra-bureaucratic wranglings, but for a period had acted as a rallying point for discontent with UNIP rule. In 1972 the detention of its leadership undoubtedly destroyed any base that the party had and the continuation and even increase of attacks on its ghost are merely symptoms of the desperate need of the UNIP leadership to find some rallying point around which they can try to re-create some mass support for their party. The overall perspective for Zambia, then, is a period during which the standard of living of the working class will be under increasing attack. This will lead to a further weakening of the UNIP leadership's position. But the question of a genuine alternative will be rendered more difficult by the total absence of any Marxist tradition within the working class movement. Also, there can be no doubt that the continued existence of the white racist regimes to the south actually provides the Kaunda government with a valuable tool to use against any oppositional elements. One of the cruder government spokesmen has in fact already accused the students of being tools of the South Africans. Of course, such an accusation is rendered even more absurd by the fact that Kaunda himself has recently implied that the sole remaining obstacles to a détente with the racist Pretoria regime are Rhodesia and Namibia (see his speech of October 26 terming Vorster's latest pronouncements on southern Africa "the voice of reason"). Nonetheless, the highly charged atmosphere created by the continued existence of the white racist regimes makes such charges a powerful weapon against any potential opposition. November 24, 1974 Under these conditions the popularity of the coalition government, which includes the Sri Lanka Freedom party (SLFP, the "liberal" bourgeois party of Bandaranaike), the social-democratic Lanka Sama Samaja party (LSSP, which broke with Trotskyism to join a government of coalition with the bourgeoisie), and the pro-Moscow CP, is steadily diminishing. The popular base of this government has already been shaken severely by the bloody repression it unleashed against the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP - People's Liberation Front), the mass revolutionary youth organization on the island. (See INPRECOR No. 18, January 31) That popular base is
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Editeur responsable: René Groslambert, 34 rue Nothomb, 1040 - Bruxelles/ Imprimerie spéciale de l'editeur.
SRI LANKA now being further undermined by the growing misery to which the masses are being subjected. The first groúp to attempt to profit from the unpopularity of the ruling coalition has been the United National party (UNP), the conservative bourgeois party. The UNP has been able to take the offensive because the workers movement, with the exception of the Ceylon Mercantile Union and some far-left groups that represent only a small minority of the working class, has been paralyzed by the association of the leaders of the mass organizations with the government. The UNP is demanding parliamentary elections in 1975. It is winning votes and seats in every by-election and feels prepared to return to power. But at the time of the promulgation of the new republican constitution the coalition goverment postponed legislative elections to 1977 and affirmed that it wanted to continue to hold power until that time, in spite of its repeated failures in the by-elections. When the UNP unleashed a campaign of street agitation against this decision, the coalition accused it of being fascist. But the combination of antifascist agitation and the deteriorating economic and social situation has provoked tension within the government. Fearing a political regroupment of the main bourgeois forces (the SLFP and the UNP), and fearing a general offensive against the workers movement - even its reformist components - the leaders of the LSSP began to mobilize their youth organization. They asserted that they wanted to avoid a "second Chile" in Sri Lanka. It could be thought that this policy remains simply a means of putting pressure on the bourgeois coalition partner, and does not herald a break from the coalition with the bourgecisie. Even so, Bandaranaike reacted with a good deal of bad humor. In December 1974, during the celebration of the fortieth anniversary of its founding, the LSSP wanted to organize a big street demonstration in Colombo. Bandaranaike banned the demonstration. But the trade-union leaders of the LSSP decided to violate the ban. The government then decreed a daytime curfew. The LSSP leaders retreated. 32
Nevertheless, things have heated up since then. The government has banned training and parading by the LSSP youth. Anura Bandaranaike, the prime minister's son, has accused the LSSP of wanting to organize an "armed insurrection" of the type the government accused the JVP of planning as pretext for unleashing the repression in 1971. The coalition seems on the point of breaking down. But the LSSP leaders are continuing to demand only the "closest consultations among the government partners. " The stakes are being raised by the entry of the working class onto the scene. The trade-union leaders indentured to the government coalition have each time diverted discontent among the workers toward pure ly platonic protests. Since 1973 the trade unions led by the LSSP and the CP have been advancing a twenty-eight-point program demanding an immediate wage increase of 75 rupees a month for all workers, a sliding scale of wages, and nationalization of the banks, the textile industry, and the tea and rubber plantations. But up to now they have refused to wage a real fight for this program. Under the pressure of the growing poverty and increasingly explosive discontent of the masses, however, they have been compelled to announce a twenty-four-hour general strike for January 31, 1975. This annoncement has served as a focal point for the whole workers movement on the island. The two unions of plantation workers have decided to participate in the strike by raising their own demands, particularly an immediate solution for the serious problems of famine now racking the plantations. The CMU also decided to participate in the strike, as did all the teachers unions. Nearly two million workers have asserted their determination to stop work on January 31. The general strike thus threatens to be more than a simple warning gesture aimed at putting pressure on Bandaranaike, which is what the reformist leaders intended. It remains to be seen whether the SLFP and the whole bourgeoisie will be prepared on this occasion to engage in a test of strength with the entire workers movement. That could radically change the situation on the island. January 28, 1975