Communist Party contributed to many changes in Lankan polity

COLOMBO: We have a significant place in the history of Sri Lanka and especially of its working people. So it is in the history of the international working class movement, says a press release issued by the Communist Party of Sri Lanka to coincide with the 12th National Congress of the Communist Youth Federation of Sri Lanka to be held tomorrow.

It says: “At the outset, let us remember with deep respect and honour our founding and pioneering leaders of our Party and all others who gave their lives, languished in jail, subjected to repression and suffered in many ways in their struggle for the cause of the Party.

Sixty-four years is a long period in the lifespan of a man but for a political party and especially for a movement as such ours it is relatively a brief period. Our Party has been working both under legal and illegal conditions, and in the Opposition as well as in the Government as a coalition partner in the Parliament.”

From the beginning, it was nurtured in the spirit of patriotism, proletrain internationalism and socialism. Though this Party was small it had the capacity to exert a profound influence in the society, through its struggle against imperialism, colonialism, and feudalism and now against Neo-liberalism.

It participated in all working people’s struggles and demonstrated its solidarity with people’s struggles of all countries. It has contributed immeasurably for the socio-economic-political changes in the country.

Proudly we say that we contributed our share in the social development of our country. Our party suffered setbacks, retreats, defeats and repressions but proudly we say that our Party is not stained with blood in its hands, it says.

“With the collapse of Soviet Union in 1991, the entire socialist movement suffered a setback, and more so ideologically. Naturally as much as the Great October Revolution of 1917, the birth of the Soviet Union, had a profound impact on the world and its collapse equally had its impact. But its impact was however, short-lived.

The Left Movement throughout the world has recommenced moving on. The uni-polar world brought about by the collapse of the Soviet Union is facing its challenges. Multi-polar world is struggling to be born with the shift in the world balance of forces - slowly but steadily.

The new awakening of Latin America commenced with a popular government in Venezuela in 1998, after a popular revolt, the first salvo against neo-liberalism.

Cuba, which resisted the neo-liberal onslaught fiercely and decisively after the collapse of the Soviet Union is no longer isolated and now joined by a galaxy of ten Left or Left-oriented governments in Latin-America within a period of eight years.

Nowhere in the world, the model of neo-liberalism was so expansively and rigidly implemented as in Latin America. It is today a beacon for countries in search of a peaceful alternative to the war-fare neo-liberalism.

This transformation is taking place through a democratic process (ballot-box and direct mass action). These new Left Governments are applying new, imaginative solutions tailored to the specific conditions and needs of their countries.

Another significant feature of these changes is an expression of cultural shifts as evident from the birth of the first indigenous government in Bolivia. The historically excluded segments of the society are being brought to political life as a result.

These changes continue to exert a qualitative impact on the region as well as other continents. Attempts to isolate Cuba and Venezuela have failed. There is tough resistance to Free Trade Area Policy of US. The attempt by US to incorporate unilateralism in the charter of the new South American community has failed.

Now stronger relations are established between these Latin American States and China, India, South Africa, Russia and Middle-East. This will further shift the world balance of forces.

Even Europe will have to re-discover America, in the context of these changes. We also witness the emergence of new economic, political and geographical groupings - even religious groupings. This is the contradictory nature of the current world developments.

Asia will be the world’s economic motor. It is expected to account for 45% of the world GDP in a few years’ time, in spite of its diversity. The emergence of China as a world power was a decisive factor,” the release says.

“The Communist parties are reemerging in all parts of Europe. Even a stronger Communist Party has emerged from the Killing fields of Iraq. Globalisation is a natural socio-economic process which cuts across borders of the nation-states, intensified by the scientific and technological advances.

It has to be realised that there is another aspect of this globalisation process. I.e. creation of an order which generates poverty, starvation unemployment and under-development.

This aspect has created the widest disparity within the states and between states, hitherto unknown in history.

“It should be understood that neo-liberalism operates within the process of globalisation. While capitalism develops at the global level. The contradictions too accompany this development sharply intensified. These contradictions are developing unevenly.

On the domestic front, we continue to be confronted with several crises. So long as the ethnic crisis remains unsolved, there will be a fertile soil for terrorism and violence to germinate.

The country has suffered enough for so long and it cannot afford to allow ethnic question to remain unsolved. We have made this question internationalised, pushing it so far as to the threshold of the United Nations.

It says, “The two main political parties should bear responsibility for this situation, though extremism in the South has been a contributory factor in preventing a solution.

Today, the militarily weakened LTTE seeks refuge in the UN. What they could not achieve militarily, they attempt to achieve through UN.

The extremist forces in the South cannot see this potential danger to which they have contributed. It is necessary to weaken the LTTE politically too and that can be achieved only through a political solution.

“We need not wait for peace talks in order to offer a political solution to the Tamil people. We as citizens of this country are duty bound to offer a solution, acceptable to the Tamil people, our own people in the country. It took almost 50 years for the two main parties to realise the need for revision of their policy on the national question.

They came so near to each other at the time of the drafting of 2000 constitution. But that attempt too failed because of petty, narrow and shallow politics. We missed another opportunity.

On the economic front, we cannot move forward so long as the national question persists, 25 years’ history since the eruption of war provides evidence.

There is a school of thought that an accelerated growth rate would solve all problems. This theory has been proved a great mistake in Latin America. Economic Development should accompany Human Development. Per capita income may go up but it means nothing if purchasing power of the people goes down.

We cannot think of a new economic vision so long as the national question persists. This is why highest priority should be given to the national question in our national agenda,” the release says.