COMRADES OF THE ISSP (REFORMIST )
(The following is a translation of an Open Letter published in the April 8 issue of Sama Samajaya, the Singhalese weekly of the Lanka Sama Sama ja Party Revolutionary), to the reformist LSSP whose leaders participated in the coalition defeated in the recent elections. in Ceylon. The letter is signed by Edmund Samarakoddy,— as secretary of the LSSP(R). i
tok 4 ' Dear Comrades,
‘This letter is addressed to you in the hope that you ‘will reflect on the matters mentioned herein and adopt the course of action that is consistent with a revolutionary orientation of your party.
It is about nine months. since you the ma jority of comrades of the LSSP took the decision to enter the SLFP [Sri Lanka Freedom party] government led by Sirimavo Bandaranaike and to form an SLFP- LSSP. coalition government. . When you made that decision, we of the minority who stood categorically opposed to your view continued on thé basis of the programme of the LSSP adopted at the Unity Congress of 1951 and we have functioned since then as the LSSP (Revolutionary). Shortly afterwards you were aware that the LSSP(R) was recognised bythe governing bodies of the Fourth International as the Ceylon sec-" tion of the Fourth. International.
In pursuance of your decision to form a coalition government with the SLFP, three members of your party became ministers of the SLFP-LSSP coalition government. It was your perspective that on the basis of a "14=point programme" and with your three ministers in the’ cabinet you would be able through parliament to oppose and gradually eliminate the capitalists and the imperialists and lay the founda-
—3G—
tions of socialism, You are aware that the cagalition government functioned for six months, from:dJune to December, 1964. It is true that six months is too short a period for achievements. But.six . months was more than sufficient for your party and the allies of your party to have won over the confidence'of the majority of the workers, peasants and the toilers that a coalition government with the SLFP led by Sirimavo Bandaranaike was the road to progress and. socialism, oy
_ After the defeat in parliament of the coalition government on December 3, 1964, you and the SLFP in your wisdom decided. to go to the polls and dissolved Parliament on December 17. The general elections have come and gone but the SLFP-LSSP coalition is not back in office. The UNP [United National party] and their allies have formed a government in parliament. The SLFP and your party are now opposition parties in Parliament. With the victory of the UNP and its allies you have now come to a halt on the road of socialism through a coalition government with the SLFP. As the coalition government does not now exist, the road through coalition with the SLFP remains closed, You have now two possible courses of action in this predicament. The one is to continue your alliance. with the SLFP and together with the SLFP seek to win mass support for the-. SLFP-LSSP-CP. front in the perspective of winning a parliamentary majority in the next elections. The other course of action is to abandon all hopes of achieving socialism through a coalition in parliament and adopt the road of irreconcilable class struggle against the capitalist class and against the capitalist government, The question of looking forward for a second coalition with the SLFP in the next elections must be on the basis of a searching inquiry and proper assessment of the consequences of the last coalition of your party and to the working-class movement.
As you had faith in parliamentary elections, it is not improper to refer to the fact of the defeat of the coalition government in the general elections. The election results show that a considerable section of the workers, poor peasants and toilers turned away from you. These sections had lost confidence in you and the SLFP. The failure and inability of your coalition government to take any positive steps to solve the pressing problems of the people generally is the reason for these sections of the working people turning against you. Many thousands of teen-age voters turned against you and voted for the UNP as they found no prospect of finding avenues of employment through the coalition.. These teenage voters have of course been deceived by the UNP that jobs would be available under the government. You are aware that the plantation workers of Indian origin’ turned away rrom you. This is not a matter for surprise. Your party abandoned the struggle for the rights of the plantation workers and supported Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike'ts conspiracy with the prime minister of India to foroibly tear them from their homes in Ceylon ‘and take them to- India. These workers rightly treated you as their enemy. You are also aware that the Tamil minority and other racial minorities like Muslims, Burgh-
37
ers, etc., had quite openly decided not to support you. Your party abandoned the fight against the oppression of the minorities and supported the SLFP policies of discrimination against them and of denying them their rights. The religious minorities, the Hindus, Christians, Catholics also opposed you, as you and the SLFP were openly discriminating against them by your unashamed support of Buddhist clericalism. Owing to discrimination also practiced against certain minority castes, thousands in such castes ceased to support the coalition government.
It is not merely the question of the defeat of the coalition government that should be your concern. You have lost much more than ministerial positions in a bourgeois government. Your search for a new road through coalition with a bourgeois party has led you to abandon the struggle for socialism and your party became a mere agency of the capitalist class, and what is more you were and re= -main linked to capitalist reaction through your support for Sinhala racialism and Buddhist clericalism. Your complete abandonment of all that you stood for and fought for is proved by the fact that when your election campaign began you ceased publishing the Samasama jaya, your Sinhalese weekly and you substituted for it an openly vote=catching and disgusting publication called the Jana Mathaya [public Opinion] catering for Sinhala racialism and Buddhist clericalism. Nothing more was required to prove the complete and total degeneration of the leadership of your party than their behaviour in:the elections. In a situation where a conscious anti- Marxist reactionary movement led by the forces of capitalist reaction were campaigning against the revolutionary socialist. movement the answer of your leaders was to indulge in eulogising the socalled Bandaranaike principles and the public worship of the bourgeois leader Mrs. Bandaranaike, and also by displaying their devo~ tion to Buddhism,
The deeds and misdeeds of the SLFP-LSSP coalition government in office should convince you that your party and the toiling people moved further away from the goal of socialism as a result of this coalition and that the forces of reaction were strengthened. The leadership of your party turned away from the working class and disrupted the developing movement for the struggle for the 21 demands. Your party in coalition permitted the continued enforcement of the wage~freeze policy of the SLFP. The leadership of your party connived at and tolerated the use of the police to break up legitimate strikes of workers. Police assaults on workers took place under the very eyes of your leaders. Thus the interests of the capitalists and imperialists were protected by your coalition government, The policy of class. collaboration practiced by your leadership helped the employers to further exploit the wage earners. The forces of capitalist reaction were strengthened through the coalition. Do you think that you are moving towards the socialist goal when you strengthen the forces of capitalist reaction? You will admit that the opposite is the case, If the goal of socialism is still: dear to you, you must here and now break with the bourgeois SLFP and
forge your links with the workers and toilers and all the oppressed on the basis of identifying yourselves in the struggle against capitalist exploitation in all its forms and against the capitalist system.
The control of the bourgeois parliament is now in the hands of the UNP and its allies. You are opposed to the UNP and you will no doubt seek to fight the UNP government. The UNP government is — a capitalist government and if you mean to undertake seriously the fight against the UNP it is necessary to mobilise all the anticapitalist.forces -- the workers, wage earners, poor peasants, the suffering. middle classes and the oppressed racial and religious and other minorities. The SLFP.is a bourgeois party and you cannot hope to fight. the forces of capitalism, while you have as an ally — a capitalist party. To fight and defeat the UNP government and the capitalist class you must break with the bourgeois SLFP. To fight. and defeat the UNP, you must support the class struggle of the workers against the employers. To mobilise all the oppressed racial and religious groups, you must break with the Sinhala chauvinism and | Buddhist clericalism of the SLFP. All this means the imperative need for you to break with the policies you followed since coalition and to return to revolutionary politics. . Many of you have no doubt a desire to return to the programme of. the revolutionary party. But your leaders stand in the way. Your leaders who have degenerated beyond recognition will not and cannot change and are not ready to break with their:bourgeois allies -- the SLFP. To take the only road: leading to socialism you must. leave the leaders where they wish to remain. The unsoiled banner of the revolution is in the custody of the LSSP (Revolutionary). All of you who desire to build the revolutionary movement and the party must today decide to take the road back to the party -- the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Revolutionary); the Ceylon section of the FOURTH INTERNATIONAL.
Yours fraternally, |
Edmund Samarakkody
NEXT WEEK
A report from Algiers: "The Algerian Revo-
“lution Again in Movement," by Henri Dumoulin.
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Directeur-Gérant: Pierre FRANK. . 1! &diteur)..