Defeating imperialism for world peace

Disna Mudalige

The 17th World Festival of Youth and Students (WFYS) that concluded in South Africa last month had been an invaluable opportunity for the Sri Lankan delegation to enhance national unity among youth while allowing Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim youth to work together for a common task. Sri Lanka National Preparatory Committee to the WFYS Coordinating Secretary Dr G Weerasinghe spoke to the Daily News regarding the Sri Lankan contribution at this festival.

Youth and student organizations which represented the country in 17th WFYS

1. SLFP Youth Organization, 2. Sri Lanka Communist Youth Federation, 3. Sama Samaja Youth Congress, 4. Sri Lanka National Union of Students, 5. Democratic Left Front Youth Front, 6. MEP Youth Organization, 7. National Youth Front (UNP), 8. CWC Youth Organization, 9. TNA Youth Organization, 10. Sri Lanka Muslim Congress Youth Organization, 11. National Congress Youth Organization, 12. National Freedom Front Youth Organization, 13. Jathika Hela Urumaya Youth Organization, 14. Red Flag Youth Front, 15. DPLF Youth Organization, 16. EPRLF Youth Organization, 17. EPDP Youth Organization, 18. Inter University Student Center, 19. Sri Lanka Freedom Student Organization, 20. Jaffna University Student Federation.

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Q: What is the purpose of the WFYS and how did it begin?

A: The origin of the WFYS can be traced back to the end of Second World War. The organizer of this festival is the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) which was founded on November 10, 1945. This was a significant year in which the attempt of the Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Japan to capture the world was defeated by the Soviet Union, Great Britain and America. May nine is the victory day. It was the day that the Nazis signed and accepted the defeat in the war. Last year the world celebrated the 65 years of the people's victory against Nazi Fasicism.

After the second World War there was a demand in the world that there should not be any more wars in the world and many international organizations were established with that objective. One among these organizations is the WFDY which was founded with two major objectives. First was to preserve world peace and solidarity and second was to fight against imperialism. During that period the entire world was under few imperialist countries. Therefore the struggle against imperialism was the major struggle of that era.

Later another organization called the International Union of Students was founded. These two organizations together started this festival movement. The first WFYS festival was held in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1947. Since then the world has witnessed 16 such world festivals in different parts of the world. Sri Lanka has always taken part in these festivals since 1947. This festival is dedicated to the struggle and legacy of two heroes - Commander Fidel Castro and Madiba Nelson Mandela.

However, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries in Europe there was a setback to the festival movement. Last one before this setback was held in Democratic People's Republic of Korea in 1989. It was the 13th festival. With the support of Cuba this movement was revived once again and the 14th festival was held in Havana in 1997 after the lapse of eight years. Venezuela hosted the 16th festival in 2005, and Republic of South Africa hosted the 17th festival from December 13 to 21, 2010.

Q: What were Sri Lanka's arrangements to participate in this festival?

A: The 17th WFYS was dedicated to the broad theme "Let's defeat imperialism for a world of peace, solidarity and social transformation". In almost parallel to the preparatory work that were being carried out by the international youth and students movements in their respective countries, we in Sri Lanka, representing all major youth and student organizations holding diverse political views rallied together in Colombo and formed the Sri Lanka National Preparatory Committee (SLNPC)for the 17th WFYS.

It comprised 20 youth and student organizations. Higher Education Minister S B Dissanayake was elected as the President. Youth Affairs and Skills Development Deputy Minister Duminda Dissanayake was elected the Vice President. Minister Chandrasiri Gajadeera was closely involved in its activities. JVP took part in this festival as a separate group and not as a member organization of the SLNPC.

The SLNPC was launched in September 2010 and it formulated a broad program of action in order to reach the hearts and minds of our youth and students with the theme of the WFYS. We organized a series of mini festivals all over the country.

A massive student festival was held in Jaffna University. Tamil as well as Sinhala students from South contributed to it. Another festival was held in Hatton with the participation of youth in plantation areas. A full day program was organized in Matara which included a Walk, dance and musical shows and a football match as highlight events. Last of regional festivals was held in Colombo in December last year.

Q: How was the constitution of the Sri Lankan delegation team to the 17th WFYS?

A: This was the biggest ever delegation from Sri Lanka to a WFYS in its history. There were 187 youth and students including 20 Tamils and seven Muslims in the delegation. It included 31 university students and 20 females. The delegation also comprised three dancing teams representing the Visual and Performing Arts University, Jaffna University and Youth Services Council.

Q: What experience Sri Lankan delegation could gather and what impact they made during the festival?

A: We participated in the opening ceremony which was attended by South African President Jacob Zuma, African National Congress Youth Leader Julius Malema and Democratic Youth World Federation President Tiago Viera. The ceremony was coloured with parades, cultural events and an air show.

A Sri Lankan stall was open throughout the festival period. There were nearly 100 conferences, seminars, workshops and interexchange meetings throughout the festival.

Our delegation participated in a conference on "Public free and universal education, science, culture and information in the service of people". Speakers representing Europe, Asia and America voiced their opinions. The time allocated for Asia was offered to Sri Lanka. I delivered the main speech during our time slot.

After the scheduled speeches the floor was open to the audience. At that moment Inter University Student Federation Convener Udul Premaratne made a very provocative speech. It was a speech full of lies. The Sri Lankans who were in the audience were not happy over it. They prevented him talking further. Later another two students also addressed the gathering. One among them was Inter University Students Center Convener Asanka Bulegoda.

After these speeches I had the opportunity to give concluding remarks.

What I said was that free education in Sri Lanka was a result of the struggle of progressive and national leaders in the country. Since 1947 we have been enjoying free education upto University level. I also emphasized that investment in education is an indirect investment for the health of the people. The country started to show very much improved health indices by 1960 with the evolution of first generation of mothers who obtained free education. For example our immunization coverage is 100 percent where as this rate is less than 50 percent in India even today. By immunizing we can save our children from so many deadly diseases. Our mothers are aware of the importance of it through the education they received.

When we consider health, we are on par with developed countries. During my observations I also said that there is a consensus in our country that education and health should always be free.

There had been immense pressure from various international institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank to curtail these benefits irrespective of the government in power. However all these attempts have proved to be futile.

This is the declared policy of the government. The youth movement is determined to carry this forward. The government had openly said that they preserve free education and going to strengthen, improve and extend it further. At the same time the government is not in a position to absorb all those who are qualified to enter universities from the A-L examination. Therefore there is growing attention in the Sri Lankan society of the possibility and necessity of private sector participation in providing higher education.

There are thousands of students who leave the country every year for higher education consuming millions of foreign exchange. However there is no declared policy of the government to privatize higher education. This was the essence of my speech.

Our team also participated in five seminars, three meetings and a workshop on "Privatization of Education in Asia" during the festival. The fifth day of the festival was Asia Day and Vietnam, DPR Korea, India and Sri Lanka jointly conducted a cultural program on that day. Our dancing teams got the opportunity to perform for about half an hour in it. Sri Lankan dancing teams also performed in front of the Sri Lankan stall in the friendship-fare premises and in front of Palestine stall in solidarity with Palestine struggle for independence.

The highlight of the closing ceremony was the peace march. Sri Lankan group was an impressive part in it with its dancers and drummers. The following day our group received huge publicity over South African print and electronic media.

The final declaration of the festival supports the struggle for national unity in Sri Lanka.

The attempt of the JVP to make it anti-government by including "the struggle for free education and democracy" was opposed by the SLNPC. We were of the view that there is no whatsoever threat for both free education and democracy in this country, and therefore no need to give special emphasis towards them in the declaration. On the other hand, by strengthening national unity democracy can also be protected. The position of the SLNPC was accepted by the International Organizing Committee. Over 15,000 participants from 126 countries adopted this declaration.