Solidarity to the people of Sri Lanka. Only the people can save the people!

11.07.22

THE NEW ERA OF UPRISINGS IS COMING!

THE PALACE IS NOT SAFE!

The images from the occupied Presidential Palace in Sri Lanka are images of the popular uprisings of the future that has just begun. They frighten the political rulers but encourage the people. Their palaces, with swimming pools and luxurious interiors, are not unconquerable!

For several months now, the island state, one of the most developed countries in Asia, with a tourism industry, has been experiencing an unprecedented economic and social crisis. The people are living with shortages of fuel and basic goods, power cuts and face the danger of undernutrition and hunger. Inflation is exploding and commodities are running out. This situation is not the result of the war in Ukraine as presented by the mainstream media, since it started long before that. In the context of pandemic, the tourism-reliant economy and country's dependence on migrant remittances, caused the debt to explode and led to the collapse of foreign exchange reserves. The climate crisis and the government's decision to ban the import of fertilizers exacerbated the agricultural and food crisis. Following the outbreak of war and its impact on fuel prices, on 12 April the government was forced to default on debt. The debt has increased because Sri Lanka in recent years has been unable to borrow from international financial markets at affordable interest rates, forcing the government to turn to private creditors (mainly from the US) and to enter into bilateral agreements with India and China. This situation epitomises the functioning of modern totalitarian capitalism, well known in countries like Greece, Argentina, etc.

As is usually the case, it is the IMF that has been called in to "assistance". But debt restructuring in the new geopolitical context -and while the people of the country are already starving- can no longer be tolerated. The program conditions of the "assistance" proposed by the IMF and the international financial institutions are price increases, privatization of state-owned enterprises, wage freezes - which provoked even greater indignation among the people. The outburst was expressed in demonstrations and, in the last few days, with the occupation of the Presidential Palace and the burning of the residences of the family that has been ruling the country for the last decade applying the doctrine: authoritarianism, nationalism and neoliberal economic reforms.

The popular revolt is now directed against the entire political personnel and against the super-rich and corrupt ruling classes. The main fear among the international leaders and the IMF is that these popular uprisings will be repeated in other countries, starting with the poorer states, but it is not excluded that they may also take place in the more developed capitalist countries. A few weeks ago the peasant uprising and the national strike called by indigenous organizations in Ecuador forced the Ecuadorian government to sign an agreement which includes important concessions: suspension of the state of emergency, a 15-cent reduction in the price of gasoline and diesel per gallon, a prohibition on mining activities in protected areas, support for the health system for immediate delivery of medicines and supplies to hospitals in poor rural provinces, fertilizer subsidies, etc. The agreement was reached after 18 days of demonstrations and road blocks on the highways, which triggered brutal state repression. The same path is being followed by the farmers in the highly developed Netherlands against rising prices and against the increase in the cost of production and living, with road blocks and demonstrations unprecedented in this model country of modern capitalism.

From Colombo to Quito and Amsterdam, the peoples are coming to the front line in this era of wars, nationalisms and armaments. The prospect of radical overthrow is still absent and the revolutionary strategy is even more absent. The economic crisis and popular anger do not mechanically and automatically provoke revolts and revolutions. Even in the case of an uprising, there is a possibility that the anger of the workers and youth will turn into "reconciliation project" or be diverted to reactionary political forces.

But as long as the people realize their power, as long as they occupy palaces and invade the pools of the rulers, the leaders will run away, striking fear into the capitalists, who were convinced that the people would accept penury to pay the debt.

The only debt for the working class is the struggle for bread and freedom. To win, the people of Sri Lanka -and all peoples in resistance- must go beyond the horizon of capitalism, to demand the overthrow of the system that condemns them to poverty and wars. What can deliver small victories today, along with the prospect of the total overthrow of an already rotting and tottering world, is an international revolutionary current with a communist perspective.