CFTU on the present drift of country

COLOMBO: The Ceylon Federation of Trade Unions (CFTU) expresses its profound grief and grave concern at the loss of life, extensive injuries, destruction of property and massive displacement of people resulting from the ongoing war in the North and East between the security forces and the separatist LTTE.

An accentuation and continuation of this fratricidal and meaningless war threatens not only to extend the theatre of war to the entire country but also to push the country several decades back in economic and social progress.

It would be an unprecedented national tragedy, the statement said.

Sinhala - Tamil relations were already strained at the time of winning independence due to the divide and rule policy of the British colonialists and the short-sighted opportunist politics pursued by the leadership of both communities. It is common knowledge that the situation was aggravated due to the fact that both the United National Party and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party used communalism as a means of gaining and maintaining political power at the cost of the minority communities.

Today it has aggravated further due to the actions of new contenders for political power who espouse the same cause.

The failure of all post-independence governments to work out a power-sharing deal between the communities inhabiting the island and the gradually escalating use of coercive economic and political methods to suppress the legitimate rights of the Tamil people has over the years led to the emergence of militant movements among the Tamil youth and the beginning of their armed struggle for self-determination. Many developments have taken place in the world during the past few decades.

These include the rise of neo-liberal globalization and the collapse of the system of socialist states which have made the struggle of developing countries for economic independence and social development more complex and difficult. The bipolar world has given way to a unipolar world.

The only super-power left, the United States is imposing its hegemony on the world at will using its military-technological superiority.

In Sri Lanka neo-liberal economic policies have been proved unsuccessful in providing a solution to the problems of under-development, mass unemployment, and poverty. A concerted onslaught against the living standards of the working population and the rural poor has been unleashed to secure profits for the capitalists and their foreign collaborators. The plight of the working people and the rural poor is made more vulnerable by the ongoing military confrontation which siphons off considerable resources for it.

At a time when the working people and the rural poor need maximum unity to defend their interests, the war and the accompanying campaigns of ethnic hatred tend to split their ranks and make them impotent.

The time has come for the working class to think about its own "right of self determination" to choose for themselves the kind of society they would like to live in. They are being dragged into a war that benefits not them but the exploiter classes. We do not believe that Tamil workers would not be under the same conditions of exploitation in a future Eelam just as their brothers in the South.

Even the majority of the Tamils who have left Sri Lanka after July 1983 are today living in conditions worse than those of the workers of host countries.

In this complex situation amidst a continuing war and a developing war hysteria, the CFTU appeals to all patriotic Sri Lankans - Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim to reflect sincerely about the current developments including the one sided propaganda on both sides of the divide, to work actively to introduce sobering factors towards restraint on both sides so as to enable a conducive atmosphere to negotiate an appropriate power sharing agreement.

The CFTU founded jointly by Sinhala and Tamil and working class leaders in the late 1930s is fully conscious of the tribulations of minority communities.

We appeal to class conscious workers on both sides to seek each other's hands for unity in a common cause, to exercise their own right of self determination to achieve a better society.

The CFTU invites all like minded trade unions irrespective of political affiliation to come forward for a joint endeavour to promote ethnic harmony and peace.