THE government of Sri Lanka led by President Rajapakse is currently fighting a war on two fronts, on behalf of US and UK imperialism.
On the one hand it is fighting a bloody war against the Tamil people, and their right to self-determination, while with the other it has declared that trade unionists are terrorists, and that with the cost of living shooting upwards because of the world crisis of capitalism, trade unionists must accept starvation wages or else face imprisonment without trial.
Rajapakse has turned Sri Lanka into a vast military camp and prison, complete with hundreds of ‘disappeared’, that is political opponents who have vanished off the face of the earth, and death squads operating out of white vans, executing those who resist his bourgeois dictatorship.
This is the regime that enjoys the 100 per cent support of the UK government, with its president Rajapakse, being a welcome and frequent visitor to the UK, and its military establishments.
The reason for this closeness, is that he is the guardian of the considerable British investments on the island, where British capital exploits hundreds of thousands of workers, for as little as a pound a day.
As far as British imperialism is concerned, Rajapakse’s job is to guard their investments and resist the demands of the masses of the workers for wage increases to match the huge increases in the cost of living.
Rajapakse not only fights the working class, he also acts to split the working class, with his crusade to smash the resistance of the Tamil masses to Sinhala chauvinism.
His message is that he is going to crush the Tamil people, and has even sought to erase them from the school history books, so that he can continue with his pretence that they are aliens.
In fact, the oppressed masses of Sri Lanka have got everything in common with each other, whether they are Tamil, Muslim or Sinhalese, and nothing in common with the imperialist puppet Rajapakse and his regime.
In fact, the Brown government is supporting a poisonous regime that has slaughtered thousands of Tamils, and has sent thousands of Sinhalese youth to their deaths, for the sake of the Sri Lankan bourgeoisie and their UK and US imperialist masters.
In fact, Brown has supported Rajapakse at every turn, from his ripping up of the ceasefire agreement to his attempt to invade the Tamil heartland and occupy it.
Imperialism sponsors and rewards the Butcher and then condemns and proscribes and illegalises the defenders of the oppressed, the Tamil Tigers, who are standing fast in the face of massive attacks by the imperialist backed Sri Lankan army and airforce.
News Line supports the right of the Tamil people to self determination, and also supports the right of the Tamil Tigers to defend the Tamil masses against the attack of the Sinhala chauvinists and their allies in the US and UK governments.
In the imperialist backed war that is raging in Sri Lanka we stand for the victory of the Tamil Tigers over the Sri Lankan army. We urge all Sinhala youth to refuse to be cannon fodder in this racist war being fought on behalf of foreign imperialism, and to lay down their arms and return to their homes to make common cause with the Tamil people.
In the class war that is raging in Sri Lanka we support the Sri Lankan workers and their trade unions in their battle for wage rises to keep pace with a rapidly escalating cost of living.
We urge the trade unions to unite the masses of Sri Lanka – Tamil, Muslim, and Sinhalese – in a general strike to stop the war and win a living wage by bringing down the Rajapakse government and bringing in a workers government. This will expropriate the bankers and capitalists and bring in a socialist Sri Lanka, in which the Tamil people can freely determine what they want to do.
The British trade unions have got a key role to play in the struggle. They must give their full support to the struggling Tamil people and stand for the victory of the Tamil Tigers. The first thing that they must do is insist that the proscription of the Tamil Tigers is lifted by the Brown government.
