TROTSKYISTS DEFEND FREEDOM OF PRESS
[The following statement on a proposed law to vest control of the press with the Ceylonese government has been issued by the Lanka Sama’ Samaja Party (Revolutionary Section), the official Trotskyist movement of Ceylon. |
Having failed on 12 previous occasions, Mrs. Bandaranaike's Government has at last, no doubt with the assistance of her new accoucheurs in the persons of Dr.N.M.Perera and others, brought forth a definitive Press Bill which has now been presented in the Senate.
The LSSP(R), without any hesitation whatever, roundly condemns the bill and calls upon the organised labour and socialist movement to mercilessly oppose this new attempt to curtail the already diminishing civil liberties of the people.
It is a notorious fact that historically the native propertyowning classes have shown a singular lack of enthusiasm in the struggle for democratic rights. Indeed the elements of democracy were introduced by the imperialist bourgeoisie when it directly ruled Ceylon, and many of these in the face of the determined opposition of native vested interests. :
It is, therefore, not ad matter for surprise that ever since 1948 when political | power passed into their hands, the political representatives of the. bourgeoisie, whether organised in. the UNP [United National party] or the SLFP [Sri Lanka Freedom party] have systematically sought to undermine the democratic rights enjoyed by the people, -
In the sontext of a shrinking economic base and the existence of an independent labour movement democracy is a luxury the native bourgeoisie can ill afford and therefore the latter's rule has been steadily punctuated with anti-democratic legislation -+ the disfranchisement of the so-called Indians, the Public Security Act, the discriminatory language legislation, the more rigorous amendments to the Public Security Act, the whittling down of collective bargaining, the imposition of compulsory arbitration -~ and now comes the Press Bill which seeks to create a thoroughly subservient and totally sycophantic press at the service of that section of the bourgeoisie presently exercising political power,
But involved in the current attempt is something more than the mere suppression of inconvenient news (Sunethra or Giridara) or the promotion of a Byzantine press. What is aimed at is nothing less than the throttling of the free voice of the revolutionary socialist and independent trade-union movement, even though the declared purpose is the “regulation" of the monopoly Press represented by the daily newspapers.
Only Philistines and renegades can entertain the hope that the proposed Press Commissioner, the Press Council and Press Tribunal can hold the scales evenly between capitalist law, order and morality. and the revolutionary Press. It.is well known that the daily Press, for all its grossly partisan news coverage and its indecently vulgar editorial comment on all matters pertaining to the labour and socialist movement, is an important vehicle for the trade unions both for airing of their grievances and for the influencing of public opinion in their favour,
In fact it is one of. the. few instruments that is available to them to combat the misrepresentation. of the Government itself when~ ever they engage in any direct struggle,
It is precisely for this. reason that in any determined showdown the Government promptly seeks to avail of its powers under the Public Security Act to impose a.censorship, like during the CTB [Ceylon Transport Board] strike,of February 1963. It is a measure of the impertinent arrogance of Mrs. Bandaranaike's Government that in respect of the freedom of the Press it dares to introduce as part of the normal law what till hitherto was a power under the. exceptional emergency law of the country.
The attempted legislation of ‘the Government has - already pro~. duced a new crop of defenders of “democracy,” and in particular, of the freedom of the Press.- The LSSP(R) as the reyolutionary vanguard of the working class and.toilers, has no. illusions whatever either in bourgeois democracy: or in the protestations of the new champions of democracy, the Press magnates of Lake House, Times and Davasagroup of newspapers,
Neither does the LSSP(R) make a fetish of democracy or of the freedom of the Press which is included within it.
It declares that the bourgeois Press,. like its confreres in other parts of the capitalist world, is-in the words of Lenin and Trotsky, “monstrous factories of falsehood, libel and spiritual poison." But, however. serious the abuse of existing democratic rights by the’ bourgeois press, at no time in its long history has the international proletariat ever entrusted to the bourgeois state, however liberal its. form, the..task of "controlling" the press or act- -ing.as..the watch dog of democratic rights even when under attack: by the more extreme parties of the right.
Indeed, its utter distrust of the bourgeois state as the custodian of democratic rights is expressed in the universal demand of the working: class for the repeal of all repressive laws. This distrust stems from the very character of the state as the instrument of bourgeois. oppression.
The vesting of every additional ‘power of repreasion, ineluding the powers now sought in the new Bill, is an attempt to place a new
noose round the neck of the socialist movement.
The LSSP(R), therefore, cannot under any circumstances entrust’ to the state the task of controlling even the admittedly corrupt Press of Ceylon. To do so would be to-aggravate all the existing problems created by the bourgeois Press and to give them a highly concentrated and, therefore, an even more terribly oppressive character.
It is true that the freedom of the Press, like all the other rights in a bourgeois democracy, is heavily weighted in favour of the capitalist class as to make a mockery of it when it comes to its exercise. But despite the lack of real equality in the exercise of the known democratic rights, including the freedom of the Press, the revolutionary party of the working class defends unreservedly the existing democratic rights, however meagre these rights are; indeed, it constitutes the spearhead of the fight for their. extension.
This is done, not out of veneration for "democracy," but because the most favourable arena for the party of the working class to carry out its historic task is that which contains the widest democracy.
Any other regime not only’ makes the work.of the revolutionary party more difficult and exhausting but also tends to reduce the — working class itselfy in terms of class consciousness, to a state of virtual. amorphousness.
The LSSP(R) warns the people that all repressive laws, whatever the declared purpose at the time of legislation, are finally used against the working class and the toiling people. The present bill is no exception to the general rule. .
Indeed, since the pill touches on an important democratic right, the right of free expression, the working class is vitally interested as np other class. This is so because it is the expression of the views of the working class which will be directly ate tacked.
In the case of the capitalist class even if one section of its Press is attacked the class interest of the bourgeoisie will be protected by the Press of the capitalist. state.
~~ - Hence the labour movement must ruthlessly struggle against the new bill and strangle this foul monster, which the Government of Mrs. Bandaranaike has dared to offer . the public,
The American submarines carrying Polaris missiles with nuclear heads are cruising in the Straits of Taiwan, the Golf of Tonkin, the Mediterranean, the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans, thereby threaten-~ ing peace-loving countries everywhere and all the peoples struggling against imperialism, colonialism and neocolonialism, Under these circumstances how can it be maintained that the nuclear blackmail and threats levelled by the United States against the peoples of the entire world no longer exist, simply because of the false impression created by the temporary halting of American nuclear tests in the atmosphere?
The atomic bomb is a paper tiger. These celebrated words of President Mao Tse~tung are known to everyone. This was our view in the past and it still remains our view. China is developing nuclear arms not because we believe in the omnipotence of nuclear arms or intend to use them. Quite to the contrary, by developing nuclear arms: China. aims precisely at breaking the nuclear monopoly of the nuclear powers and causing nuclear arms to be done away with.
The Chinese government is faithful to Marxism-Leninism and to proletarian internationalism, We have confidence in the peoples. It-is man who determines the outcome of war and not any weapon, no matter what kind, The fate of China is determined by the Chinese people, that of the world by the peoples of the entire world, and not by nuclear arms. China is developing nuclear arms to defend and to protect its people, against — the danger of a nuclear war unleashed by the United States.
The Chinese government solemnly proclaims that at no time and under no circumstances.will China -be the first to utilize nuclear arms, .
The Chinese people resolutely support the freedom struggles of all the oppressed peoples and nations. We are sure that the peoples of the various countries will end up victorious thanks to their own struggles and mutual support. China's possession of nuclear arms constitutes great encouragement for all the struggling revolutionary peoples and a considerable contribution to the main-= tenance of world peace. In the question of nuclear arms, China will not fall into either adventurism or capitulationism, The Chinese people is a people in whom one can have confidence.
The Chinese government understands perfectly the good intentions of peace-loving countries and peoples who are asking that all nuclear tests be stopped. However, more and more countries under- Stand that the more American imperialism and its partners are able to maintain a nuclear monopoly, the greater the danger of a nuclear war, They possess it while you don't; consequently they are very arrogant. But as soon as those who oppose them likewise possess it, they will no longer be so arrogant, their policy of nuclear black- _mail and threats will not. be as effective, and the possibility of. | achieving the complete banning and total destruction. of nuclear arms —
will become greater. We sincerely hope that nuclear war will never break out. We have the profound conviction that insofar as the. peaceloving countries and peoples unite their. efforts and persist in the struggle, At will be possible to do away with