 Solution of the proletariat to the national question in Sri Lanka
The Leader of the JVP Somawansa Amarasinghe consecrates the Atapirikara to Maha Nayaka of the Malwatte Chapter Rev.Thibbatuwawe Sumangala Thero, 2004 |
In the modern world there are two main ideologies. They are the bourgeois ideology and the proletarian ideology. Outside these two ideologies which correspond to the two main classes in bourgeois societies there has been no third ideology that has been put forward to the world. Therefore for the transitional classes between the two main classes have to accept either the bourgeois ideology or the proletarian ideology. In this way when certain sections of the petty bourgeoisie, for whatever reason, enter the field of proletarian ideology they can be seen trying to subvert the proletarian ideology in order to correspond to their own class character.
Marxism is the ideology of the proletarian class. It has no relationship with religion which is socially temporary and therefore also historically temporary universe of discourse and a fictitious reflection of reality which will exist until the super cession of the producers by the products of human labor. Philosophy and religion are different forms of social awareness. The religious arguments are based on blind faith. Philosophy appeals to the intellect and requires the logical vindication of its tenets. Marxism has no relation to theology. Marx, Engels or Lenin are not gods who came to us to save the proletariat. Their teachings are not the words of god. The same way the communist manifesto is no Dhamma Pada or Bhagawath Geetha or a Quoran or an old testament. The works of Marx, Engels and Lenin are not Thripitakas. Marxism has no relationship with doctrinaire ideologies.
Marxism is a creative revolutionary ideology. It continuously nurtures itself and experiments by historical usage. It opposes every kind of doctrinaire ideology, develops on the basis of generalization of recorded experience of world history and on the victories of natural and social science. In as much as the history of philosophy was a struggle between materialism and idealism. It was also a struggle between dialectics and abstraction. In as much as the first main question of philosophy was of the existence of thought, second main question was whether the world is in a constant state of change and development and whether it is in a state of universal relationship or whether it remains in a state of motionless and a circular motion without internal contradiction or qualitative changes. This question arises as indeed everywhere is in the analysis of the national question and in seeking a solution to it. Marxist dialectic the science of the most basic principles of reality, human society, thought, movement and development considers material according to their characteristics relationships their mental reflections concepts and their intertwining; in movement. The conscious application of dialectics allows us to use concepts correctly and to consider the relationship between the phenomena and their contradictions differences and the transformation of contradictions. The mere dialectical approach to the analysis of the phenomena of reality social life and awareness, enlightens us of the true laws governing them and the dynamic of their development. Thereby makes it possible to foresee the future and find valid measures to plan. The scientific dialectical method of gaining knowledge is a revolutionary one because the acceptance of the fact that everything changes implies the necessity of doing away with everything outmoded and in the way of historical progress. The system of learning that is diametrically opposed to the dialectical system is abstraction. Abstraction considers objects and phenomena in isolation to each other and as being definite constant and without internal contradictions. Abstraction sees the relative stability and definition of objects and phenomena and underestimates their possibilities for change and development. The disregarding of internal contradictions as cause and dynamic of development is symptomatic of the abstract system of thought. Abstraction is the opposite system of the dialectic of thought and knowledge. Dialectical materialism completely rejects orthodoxy, conservatism and everything outmoded. It symbolizes continuous progress. "In this way this dialectical philosophy completely negates all concepts of absolute truth and of absolute states of humanity related thereto. For dialectical materialism nothing is complete; nothing is absolute; nothing is holy, it shows the transitional nature of everything and within everything, nothing except the coming into being and disintegration and the uneven process of eternally climbing upwards can exist before it. The dialectical philosophy itself is nothing except a reflection of the process of the thinking brain". (Marx-Engels selected works Vol. 3 page 399)
Social life is a constant state of movement, it is in a process of development from top to bottom. It is a grave mistake to disregard this and move away from the correct situation. Lenin has very clearly shown that the political plan of action is "unchangingly tied to its philosophical principles" (Collected works vol. 15 page 405). Marxist philosophy creates the philosophical and the methodological basis of the program of the party of the proletariat its strategy, tactics and policies. Lenin has very clearly explained this from a very definite standpoint as follows. The only choice is either bourgeois or socialist ideology - there is no middle way. (Humanity has not created a "third ideology". In a society divided by class contradictions there cannot exist an ideology which is classless or above class). Therefore in any way to underestimate the socialist ideology or to move away from it even very slightly is to strengthen the bourgeois ideology. (Lenin collected works Vol.5 page 384). He also mentions further by following the path of Marxist theories we come close to objective truth. By following any other path we only come to confusion and lies. (Collected works Vol. 14 page 143). He also says as follows – “We do not consider Marx's theory as finite or unbreakable on the other hand if we wish to stay with the progress of life socialists have to develop it which has only laid the scientific foundations all sides.” (Lenin, collected works Vol. 4, pages 211-212). In the world there is nothing except moving substance. Substance in motion cannot change in any way except in space and time. (Lenin collected works vol. 14 page 175).Marxist philosophy cannot be separated from accepting the material nature of the world and its nature of continuous change. Therefore materialist. substance is in constant and continuous movement and change. Marxist philosophy is based on the principle of motion and development as the universal principle of all existence and knowledge. Throughout the entire history of civilized thought this principle had to defend itself against various abstract concepts. Dialectical Materialism was born of the generalization of the scientific triumphs which showed that social life and human awareness exist in continuous change and development in reality itself and the historical experiences of humanity. This is why Engels called dialectics the science of the general laws of reality, and the movement and development of human society and thought in the Anti-Duhring (pages 168-169). Theoretical thought that takes the forms of concepts judgments and understandings is the reflections of the relationships of material governed by essential laws. The concept of development cannot be understood without the concepts of the relationship between phenomena and their coexistence and interaction.
No motion can take place without this relationship and interaction between the various facets and elements between different objects and within every objects, this is why Engels called dialectic "the science of universal interrelationships" in the dialectic of reality (page 17). In order to correctly understand any universal discourse we should analyze it in relation to the other relationships of discourse. We have to know its origin and further development. The world does not know of any absolutely isolated phenomenon. Dialectic is important because it shows us the correct point of entry to reality. However this entry can only be achieved by a material study of phenomena but Lenin said that the nucleus of dialectics is the study of contradictions. The world does not know of any matter or phenomenon that is absolutely unique. All material all phenomena are a unity of contradictions. Internal contradictions are an inseparable characteristic in the structure of every object and every universe of discourse. Not one universe of discourse can exist alone. Nothing can arise exist or change without relationship to a large number of material and phenomena. Orthodoxy the essence of which is the absolution of common truths due to the inability to materially analyze and evaluate singular characteristics of each country is extremely harmful to the socialist movement. The success of the international socialist movement lies to a great extent upon how broadly the common laws of the socialist revolution and their national specificities are considered. While orthodoxy engages in the absolution of the general reformism engages in the absolution of the peculiarity and form. In both fields of learning and practice it is extremely important to correctly evaluate the dialectic of form, peculiarity and generality. Science which involves itself with generalization works with general concepts. This is what acts in order for science to formulate laws and to give us foresight in our practical activity. The great power of scientific thought lies in the generalization of laws. The generality of scientific concepts is expressed only through the reflection of the form and the peculiarities. This is how the richness of the form and of the peculiarity is embodied by a concept. If we disregard the study of the form, our knowledge of the generality and the peculiarity would be Poor. It is impossible not to laugh at the attempts made by the capitalist political parties of Sri Lanka to use Marxism-Leninism for their own class interests and their attempt to cling on to Marx, Engels and Lenin. Would it be possible to use Marxism-Leninism and Marx, Engels and Lenin and hide behind "the right of nations to self-determination" as an argument for the Tamil United Liberation Front, the All Ceylon Tamil congress, the Tamil Eelam Liberation Front, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Tamil Eelam Peoples Liberation Organization or any other such Tamil Nationalist organization to achieve Tamil Eelam. And on the other hand for the UNP to repress the main party of the left in Sri Lanka the JVP on the pretext that it supports the Tamil Eelam movement. No, emphatically no. Marxism-Leninism is not a political philosophy that will serve or can be made to serve the capitalist class and the capitalist nationalists in any way. Marx, Engels and Lenin cannot be used for the purposes of imperialist strategies and tactics. Marxism-Leninism is the sworn enemy of imperialism the exploitative capitalist system and capitalist nationalism. Marxism-Leninism is a philosophy that is totally inimicable to imperialism, exploitative capitalism and of nationalism of any type in there service. There can be no doubt, uncertainty or incertitude about this. Although the capitalist class the capitalist nationalists, and the petty bourgeois opportutunistic running dogs try as they may to turn Marx Engels and Lenin upside down it is always doomed to failure.
We saw earlier how the communist league and the first international under the leadership of Marx always subordinated the national question to the class question and implemented the methodology for the solution considering the various peculiarities within the class question and how they never formulated a general formularisation. A common and absolute formularisation as the right of nations to self determination cannot be any way found in Marx and Lenin. It is only one part of a formularisation by Kautsky at the London Congress of the second international, after Engels death, that has been separated from its own second part to be used generally by imperialists the capitalist class and the capitalists and the petty capitalist nationalists. It is with this massive distortion that the enemies of the proletariat move into action today. The second congress of the communist international which proposed and resolved the constitution for the communist international and a number of policies on a large number of main and important questions did not include a formularisation of the right of nations to self determination in its resolution of the national and colonial questions. Instead it has put forward very clearly and without confusion the proletarian position, the Marxist Leninist position. This is the document which contains the position of the international communist party on the national question and should be used by all Marxist-Leninists of the world. It is very correct and natural that the proletariat should take this document as its policy basis also in the solution of the national question of Sri Lanka.
We can see in this document generalissimo presentation of the experiences of the international working class movement of the national question up to the second decade of the 20th century. The commission on the national and colonial questions, created by the second congress of the communist international included delegates from the communist parties of Russia, Bulgaria, France, Holland, Germany, Hungary, USA, India, Persia, China, Korea and Britain. The commission was chaired by Lenin and the secretary was Mehring. Basic draft thesis on the national and colonial questions drafted by Lenin on the 5th of June 1920 was discussed during the 4th and 5th sessions of the congress and passed by the congress on the 28th of July. The JVP too as a Marxist-Leninist Party accepts the thesis on the national and colonial questions as the basis for its position on the national question.
This is Lenin's advice to those ideological bankrupts and doctrinaires who try to copy Leninist tactics disregarding this document which generalissimo the experiences of the Russian revolution and the experiences of the proletarian revolutionary usage of the entire world ignoring and distorting the experiences of the Russian revolution and separating the Leninist tactics from the historical objective conditions which gave rise to them. "Do not copy our tactics, analyze the reasons for their special characteristics and the conditions that gave rise to them and their result, go beyond the letter, apply the life the essence and the lesson of the experiences of 1917 - 21". (Lenin collected works vol. 32, page 380).enin says as follows in a radio message to warning the Hungarian communist leader Bellakun on the misuse of Russian tactics in the short lived Hungarian revolution of 1919, on the 23rd of March 1919. "Merely imitating our Russian tactics in the specialist conditions of the Hungarian revolution would undoubtedly be a complete mistake. I must advice you about this mistake. But I would like to know where you see real assurances". (Lenin - collected works vol. 29, page 227). Lenin's position on this is very clear and completely without confusion.
We who have not copied Russian tactics analyses but analyses the reasons for there special characteristics, the conditions that gave rise to them and there results go beyond the letter. Let us apply the life the essence and the lessons of the experiences of 1917 -1921. Doing this let us solve our national question. Let us remedy it. Let us now start an objective analysis of Sri Lankan society in relation to the national question with an examination of the physical makeup of the population of Sri Lankan society.
The physical makeup of the Lankan social population
According to the 1981 census the total population of Sri Lanka is 14,850,001. Of this 10,985,666 or 73.58% belong to the Sinhala nationality. 2,656,768 belong to the Tamil nationality (18.16%). 1,056,972 or 7.12% belong to the Muslim nationality. Those belonging to the Malay nationality number 43,378 or 0.29% and those of European origin 38,236 or 0.26%. Of the Tamil population of 2,696,768 1,871,535 or 12.6% have been classified as Lankan Tamil people whereas of the balance 825,233 or 5.5% the majority the stateless, plantation workers brought over by the British from India since the mid 15th century and their decedents. According to the above the total population comprises 74% Sinhala nationality, 18% Tamil nationality and 7% Muslim(?) nationality. How are these nationalities distributed over the island?
Modern Lanka has been divided into 9 provinces according to the strategic and tactical necessities and for administrative purposes be the British. This was not done according to an ethnic basis nor any other scientific basis. First in 1833 in implementing the Colebrooke-Cameron reforms the governor Robert Wilmot Horton divided the country into 5 provinces viz: Northern, Eastern, southern western and central provinces. Again in 1845 during the time of governor Colin Campbell the north western province was created by bringing together the Hathkorale from the upcountry and the districts of Halawatha and Puttalama from the western province. Again in 1873 during the time of governor Henry Gregory the north central province was created by carving on the Nuwarakalaviya and Thamankaduwa from the Northern province in 1886 during the time of Sir Arthur Hamilton Gordon the Uva province was creating by carving out Udukinda, Yatikinda Wiyaluwa,Wellassa, Buttala and Wellawaya. At this point the Bintenna Pattuwa which comprise the greatest land area in the Eastern province was carved out of the central province and annexed to the Eastern province again in 1889 under the same governor the Sabaragamuwa province was created by carving out the Hastharakoralaya, Hathkoralaya and sabaragamuwa from the Western province. These were not created on the basis of historical homelands or present ethnic divides. Therefore it is a grave mistake to consider it as such.
The total area of Sri Lanka is 64,500 sq. km. It is exactly half that of Tamil Nadu. Of this the Eastern province is 9622 sq. km. of which Trincomalee district 2618.2 sq. km. Ampara district 4539.2, Batticaloa district 2464.6 sq. km. The Northern province covers 8685.7 sq. km. of the Jaffna and Kilinochchi districts 2072.3 sq. km. Mulllaitivu 2645.2 sq. km. Mannar district 2002.1 sq. km. and Vavuniya district 1966.1sq.k.m. The modern day Northern and Eastern province cover 18307.7 sq. km. or 30% of the entire area of Sri Lanka.
The population of the Eastern province in 1981 was 976,475 viz: Trincomalee district 256,750 Amparai district 388,786 Batticaloa district 330,885. The population of the Northern province was 1,111,486 that is Jaffna and Kilinochchi districts 831,112 Mulllaitivu district 77,512 Mannar district 106,540 and Vavuniya district 95,904. According to this in 1981 the total population in the Northern and Eastern provinces (of all 3 nationalities) was 2,087,943 or 14%. That is less than half the average population density in Sri Lanka. The call to limit the landholding in these areas to the inhabitants only means to reserve 30% of available land for 14% of the population or reserve 70% for 86% of the population. If one were to accept this call it would be accepting the subordination of the rights of 86% of the population and granting of special privilege to the 14% of people living in this area to grant them a special privilege (with regard to landholding) to take away the rights of people living in other areas.
In 1981 the Tamil population in all the five districts in the Northern province was 1,023,228 viz. That is 812,247 in Jaffna and Kilinochchi districts, 68,172 in Mannar district, 73,133 in Vavuniya district, and 69,170 in Mulllaitivu. The Tamil population in the other 8 provinces was 1,673,540. That is the five districts of the Northern province is inhabited by less than 40% of the Tamil population in Sri Lanka. More than 60% of the Tamil population live in the rest 8 provinces. The Tamil population of the Eastern province is 412,451. That is 238,216 in Batticaloa, 80,725 in Amparai, 93,510 in Trincomalee. This is around 40% of the total population of the Eastern province. That is 60% of the Eastern province are Sinhala and Muslim people. Numerically 335,201 Muslim and 243,358 Tamils. Due to the Mahaweli settlement after the 1981 census the figures of the Sinhala inhabitants have increased however it is very difficult to reproduce accurate data. Now the Tamil population in the east is no more than 1/3 of the population. In this way the Eastern province with a Tamil population of 1/3 or 40% of the total is being claimed as a traditional Tamil homeland by the Tamil nationalists.
The total Tamil population of the Northern and Eastern provinces in 1981 was 1,435,679. The Tamil population in the other 7 provinces in 1981 was 1,261,089. Accordingly it was less than 55% of the total Tamil population that inhabited the Northern and Eastern provinces, that is more than 45% inhabited the balance 7 provinces. In this way nearly 50% of the total Tamil population lived outside the areas described by the Tamil nationalists as traditional homelands.
The Tamil population of the central province is 523,132 a figure far greater than the Tamil population in the Eastern province. This figure equals the entire population of the Nuwarakalaviya district and of the population of 523,219 of the Nuwarakalaviya district 317,602 are Tamils. This is far in excess of the Tamil population in the Batticaloa district. Nuwarakalaviya district is inhabited by 317,602 Tamils 187,280 Sinhalese14,668 Muslims. The Tamil population of the Kandy district is 160,510 that is equal to the Tamil population of the Ampara and Trincomalee districts. The total Tamil population of 489,982 in the Nuwarakalaviya and Badulla districts exceeds the total Tamil populations of all three districts of the Eastern province.
The Tamil population of the western province is 234,111 that is 187,456 in the Colombo district, 51,539 in the Gampaha district and 42,111 in the Kalutara district. This amount is almost the total Tamil population of the Batticaloa district and exceeds the combined Tamil population in the three Vanni districts of the Northern province, Mannar, Mulllaitivu and Vavuniya. The Tamil population of 172,380 of the Uva province exceeds that of the Ampara and Trincomalee districts and nearly equals that of the Vanni districts in the same way the Tamil population of Sabaragamuwa province exceeds that of the Ampara and Trincomalee districts.
According to the population ratio of districts the Tamils are the second largest group in the Trincomalee district suggested by the Tamil nationalist as the capital of Tamil Eelam. In Ampara district they are the third largest numerically. However they are the largest group numerically in the Nuwarakalaviya district.
From the above we can understand the population in relation to nationality that more than 45% of the Tamil population live outside the areas demanded by the TULF and other Tamil nationalists capitalist and petty capitalist groups as a separate state Tamil Eelam comprising the Northern province the Eastern province and parts of the bordering Northern central and northwestern provinces and also that in the Eastern province that the Tamil population is the minority and that the demand is for the reservation and separation of 40% of the total area of Lanka for the Tamil nationality which is 18% of the population.
If Sri Lanka were to be divided into two on the wishes of and by the hand of imperialism,.. The Tamil nationalist capitalist class of Sri Lanka and South India and the running dogs of the Sinhala capitalist class and Tamil and Sinhala petty capitalist classes it would not be solving the question but worsening and complicating the question as was the case with the partition of India in 1947 according to the wishes of imperialism and Moslem capitalist class. The fact that, up to now there have been three border wars and border conflicts, Kashmir is claimed by both countries and intact being divided between the two countries. The deep enmity between the two countries render the possibility of a fourth war breaking out at any time; moreover the mass migration of more than 8 million Hindu refugees made homeless into India and the migration of an equal number of Muslins into Pakistan, the horrendous carnage and destruction and the impetus given their by separatist tendencies threatening India separation of Bangladesh from Pakistan the horrific experiences of this war and all other negative experiences would be revisited on us with magnified horror. The expelling of Sinhala people from the Northern province has already started. Who can say that the same process would not be carried out in the Eastern province as well. And what if the Sinhala people started the same in the other provinces. This would indeed be a favorable situation for the imperialists. It is clear that a subtle plan is underfoot to develop this process by the imperialistic puppet regime.
The situation of the Moslem people
Although the capitalist nationalist of the TULF attempt to include the Muslims in their lot by using the term Tamil speaking people the Muslims do not belong to the Tamil nationality. Tamil is a nationality as well as a language. The TULF use the adjective Tamil in their name to denote the nationality not the language. In the same when they call their proposed state Tamil Eelam the adjective Tamil signifies the nationality and not the language. We know that a nationality has a common, shared culture. Culturally Muslims differ completely from the Tamil nationality.
The Tamil capitalist nationalist leadership cannot reconcile the contradictions between the Muslim community with its culture based upon very conservative way of life completely tied with religion as laid down in the holy Quoran, which satisfies itself with hope of betterment in the after life as predestined by Allah the all-powerful and marked by enmity towards other religions and the codification of the inferiority of women and polygamy, born in the 7th century of the time of the transition of the Arab people from the system of primary common ownership to the class society and the Mohammedan Arab caliphate; the feudal theocratic empire and the Tamil nationality with a cultural life based on the Hindu religion both of the common crisis of the world view in India between the 6th and 7th centuries B.C. based on the ancient and mediaeval Sanskrit religious philosophical and jurisprudential works and the worship of the gods Shiva and Vishnu and consisting of numerous rituals of worship (most of Sri Lankan Tamils are staunch Saivites) reflecting and affirming the backward caste system; which embodies the ideas and concepts of religion ethics and philosophy of early mediaeval media which have persisted up to now.
The Eastern province has the largest Muslim population in Sri Lanka. The settlement of Muslims, who fought the Portuguese and Dutch, by the rulers of the Kandyan kingdom contributed to the growth of Muslim settlement in that province. Today the Muslim population of the Eastern province is 335,201. This is 1/3 of the Muslim population of Sri Lanka. The only Muslim majority district in the country the Ampara district is in the Eastern province. Further nearly 1/3 of the population in the Trincomalee district is Muslim. During the 1977 general election Badiuddin Mahmood the SLFP candidate for the Batticaloa seat former minister of the SLFP and the leader of the Muslim group of that party and of the Muslim socialist front called for an independent Kilaksthan (Eastern land) for the Muslim people as an alternative to the slogan of Tamil Eelam. But because of the waning of his political activity due to the defeat of his party and its internal crisis as well as his personal defeat despite obtaining a large number of votes against the UNP, the Tamil national party and the TULF in the general election we have not heard anything of this publicly. But the seed he planted is very much there.
Having not obtained the support of the Muslim people of the Eastern province for a Tamil Eelam state the TULF after spreading extreme nationalism requested a mandate to this end in the general election of 1977 but failed to get this from the Eastern province.
The TULF won only 4 seats out of 12 in the Eastern province. They were Trincomalee, Batticaloa 1st seat, Padirippu and Pottuwil 2nd seat. All these MPs were of the Tamil nationality. President Jayawardana as usual, as unbelieving his responsibilities is in the habit of saying only 2 seats were won by the TULF and distorting facts. In the general election of 1977 it was the UNP that won 8 seats out of 12 in the Eastern province. The TULF which sought a mandate for the partition of the country won only 139,844 votes viz: Trincomalee 15,144, Muttur 7250, Batticaloa 49091, Kalkudah 12,595, Padirippu 15,877, Porruvil 23,909 Kalmunai 7093, Sammanthurai 8615,(Batticaloa and Pottuvil multi member seats). The opposing political parties i.e. UNP, SLFP, and LSSP received 280,303 votes as opposed to 139,844 by the TULF or double the votes. From this we can see that 2/3 of the electorates of the Eastern province is against the TULF. It is in this Eastern province where 2/3 of the people rejected the idea of Tamil Eelam and where on the other hand only 1/3 of the population is Tamil or where 2/3 of the population is Sinhala and Muslim that the capital of Eelam should be. This is not based on nationality but on strategic importance. Perhaps even a symbol of the "heritage" of Polonnaruwa.
The agrarian reform and the national question
To say that the 8 districts of the north and the east are traditional homeland where Tamils traditionally lived is no more than a nationalist concept created by distorting history. Un-ignorable evidence is that up to the 13th century Sinhala and Tamil people lived together in these areas. The anarchy that arose after the reign of King Nissankamalla in the 13th century and the successive palace conspiracies rebellions and foreign invasions especially the dreadful 40 year military rule of Kalinga Magha and the resulting destruction of the irrigation system which was basis of the dry zone settlements and the breakdown of the social - labor organization i.e. The Asiatic socio-economic pattern and the social labor organization in the means of production required for the rebuilding caused the Sinhalese to leave the dry zone caught in oppression due to invasions, and migrate to the southwest and the central hills, on the other hand it is apparent that the Tamils migrated to the north and east apparently to maintain links with Tamil Nadu (History of Ceylon, Professor Hemachandra Rai Part 2).
Even now the main problem of the dry zone is water. Especially for the Northern and Eastern provinces what is needed is irrigation This can be achieved by the diversion of the water surplus of the wet zone.
Under the new conditions it is clear that the Sinhala people in the Northern and Eastern provinces were absorbed to the Tamil nationality which was dominant in those areas under the Tamil mercenary armies of Kalinga Magha and Chandrabhanu junior and senior and subsequently the armies of the generals of the Pandyan emperor Arya Chakravarthi and other regional Tamil rulers and on the other hand the Sinhala nationality absorbed the later Tamil immigrants the mercenary armies of Tamil and Indo European and other origins of Kings like Parakramabahu VI. and their ranks the Sinhalese including the Bandaranaikes of the SLFP, the Jayawardanes of the UNP, Vijaya Kumaranatunge general secretary of the SLMP, Colvin R. DE Silva leader of the LSSP, K.P.Silva, general secretary of the C.P. as well as myself, who is presenting you this report are the descendants of those who arrived from Northern and southern India from various regions at various times in various ways and were absorbed by the Sinhala nationality. This is the true history.
It is a truth that Sinhala settlements existed in the Northern and Eastern provinces before the 13th century. The Kayts today was then called Urathota the modern Chunnakam was called Hunugama, Kodikamam Kodigama, Mannar was Mahathiththa, Kottiyaram was Kottiasaragama, Kankesanthurai was Jambukolapatuna. Trincomalee was called Gonagamaha or Gokanna, the Jaffna peninsula was Nagadeepa and Delft Piyangudeepa. The ancient Buddhist ruins adds to this evidence. It is not nationalistic to say that Sinhala people lived in these areas before the 13th century. It is only telling the truth but to cover this truth and to lie for the nationalistic purpose is very much nationalism. But to reject the claim that these areas as solely belonging to the Tamils and as closed to all other nationalities, just because after the 13th century, in the north and in some areas of the east the remaining Sinhala population was absorbed by the Tamil nationality and these areas became a vassel kingdom under the Paandyians becoming independent with their downfall in the face of Malik Kapoor's attacks and then again becoming a dependency of the Vijeanagar empire.
It is equally reactionary to close the north and east to other ethnic groups by accepting them as the traditional homelands of the Tamils and the evicting of the Sinhala and Moslem people from the north and the east as is the eviction of Tamil and Moslem people from other areas. No Marxist can agree to this. Every nationality every language every culture and every person must have equal rights in the same way every citizen must have equal rights in all regions of Sri Lanka. Otherwise it would be a swindle perpetrated to limit equality. There could be no debate among true Marxist that the basic question of the Sri Lankan social revolution in agricultural reform.
A basic feature of this agricultural reform would be the development and settlement of the dry zone. By considering the provincial and district borders created by the British for their strategic and tactical ends and administrative ease as ethnic and historical ones and reserving land for nationalities according to these lines would lead to what Lenin underlined as something never to be done by Marxists that is subordinating the rights of one nationality and granting privileges to another nationality. The modern Northern province covers 8635 sq. km and modern Eastern province 9622 sq.km. About 30% of the land of Sri Lanka which covers 64,500 sq. km. belong to these areas. 14% or 1/7th of the total land belong to the Northern province the population of the Northern province is less than 8% of the total population of the country that is slightly more than 1.1 million.
It is impossible to give the population of the Northern and Eastern provinces which is 14% or the total Tamil population of Sri Lanka which is 18% of the population, 30% of the total area of Sri Lanka simply because nearly half of the total Tamil population live outside this area. It is not possible to give 14% of the land of Sri Lanka to 8% of the population, that live in the Northern province because Tamil nationalist capitalist groups call for it or because Tamil nationalist petty bourgeois terrorist groups call for it or as a ransom to stop their violence. If as is happening today and would happen in the future Sinhala and Muslim people are evicted from the north and east the Tamil population left on 30% of the total of the area would be just 10% of the population. To give 30% of the land of Sri Lanka to 10% of the Tamil population would be limiting the rest of the entire population including the Tamils living in the other areas. It would be limiting their rights and for some reason granting privileges to a small group. There it cannot be done under any circumstances because to give a privilege to a nationality or ethnic group is to dispossess another nationality or ethnic group of its rights.
The average population density in Sri Lanka according to the census of 1981 is 230 per sq.km. This is 2603 in the Colombo district, 993 in the Gampaha district, 522 in the Kandy district, 517 in the Matara district, 487 in the Galle district, Jaffna and Kilinochchi, 401(everywhere in this report as up to 1983 Kilinochchi remained part of Jaffna district and was treated as such for census purposes of 1981. The population has rapidly increased whereas in the dry zone districts, it has declined as follows. Mannar 53, Vavuniya 36, Mullaitivcu 39, Batticaloa 134, Amparai 86, Trincomalee 98, (in Ampara and Trincomalee this situation has changed due to Mahaveli settlements) Anuradhapura 82, Poklonnaruwa 77, Moneragala 50, Puttalam 166, Hambantota 163, Matale 180. The latter districts cover around 60% of the total area of Sri Lanka. The importance of these districts as the arenas of Agrarian reforms can be seen in the record expansion of population between 1971 and 1981. Whereas the average population growth of the country during the decade was 17%, in the Mulleuthevu district the population rose from 43,625 to 77,572 that is by 77.7%. Facts have been revealed which convinced us that the reason for this enormous increase in the population of the Northern Vanni district is the systematic settlement of people from the hill country and other areas as well illegal immigrants from south India. This has been proudly acknowledged by the Ghandian movement linked to Uma Maheswaran in one of its own statements. Funding for this has been received on a large scale from various dubious organization in western European imperialist countries and organization such as Redd Barna have been involved in various ways. Actually it appears that Tamil Eelam terrorist organizations systematically established such Eelam settlements in order to obtain food, sanctuary and soldiers for themselves. It also appears that illegal immigrants were brought from Tamil Nadu and settled to be used as volunteers or mercenaries (due to the overwhelming corruption that exists in state Sri Lankan state institutions it is not difficult for them even to systematically obtain citizenship). During that decade the population expansion in Vavunia was 59.3% from 60,212 to 95,904. In Mannar 44.3% from 74,125 to 106,940 in Trincomallee from 36.4% from 188,245 to 256,790, in Batticaloa 28.9% from 256,721 to 330,889 and in Jaffna and Killinochi it was 19.3% from 696,664 to 831,114. The population has also expanded in the other districts of the dry zone as follows. Polonnaruwa 60.6% from 166,653 to 262,753, Anuradhapura 51.2% from 388,770 to 587,822, Moneragala 44.9% from 193,020 to 279,743, Amparai 42.6% from 272,605 to 388,786, Puttalam 30.4% from 378,430 to 493,344 and Hambantota 24.6% from 340,254 to 424,012. In all these cases the main reason for the population expansion is migration. There appears to be a general migration from areas with, a high population density and a shortage of land with no room for population expansion to the dry zone. The pace of this will be accelerated by the social revolution. Provision must be made for its acceleration. The Matara district is considered the district with the lowest availability of land and the highest population density in Sri Lanka. The other districts of the north western plain follow.
In these district in addition to a high density of population a large proportion of land is covered by plantations. The situation in north and east with the exception of the Jaffna district is completely different to this. The population density is low while land is not covered by plantation although a new problem has arisen because of the traitorous UNP government leasing out vast tracts of land to the multinational corporation of their imperialistic masters.
In the same way as the land and the population were respectively 30% and 14% in the whole of the eight districts of the north and east. The proportions were roughly the same in the other dry zone districts of Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Moneragala, Puttalam and Hambantota. Then if the north and east is to be closed to migration, these five districts should be too, for the population density in both regions are the same if this is done what would happen to the people of the northwestern and central districts which have the greatest land shortage. The finance minister of the UNP government answering a question during the presentation of the budget said that the greatest land shortage existed in the Matara (according to government statistics) followed by Galle, Kalutara and Gampaha and that Jaffna comes after these districts, the only district with land shortage in the north and east in Jaffna To give over half the land available for agrarian reforms in the country in a response to the call mounted by Tamil capitalist and bourgeois classes or as a privilege to the Tamil nationality or as a ransom to the Tamil Eelam terrorism or in a worse deal to keep the UNP in power is no solution to the national question but something which would exacerbate it and make it more complex. In the same way the national question is exacerbated by subordinating the Tamil nationalistic rights and granting privileges to the Sinhalese Nationality it is also exacerbated by subordinating the Sinhala Nationality's rights and granting privileges to the Tamil Nationality.
The policy of the JVP
The JVP having considered all these conditions has presented the whole country the strategy of the proletariat for the solution of the national question in Sri Lanka through its manifesto and program. The JVP is the only party that has presented its policies clearly and forthrightly in relation to the national question. The second paragraph of the party policy declaration included in the party program passed by the first congress of the JVP states as follows:
"2. The division of the country into two parts as well as autocratic centralism will be opposed." The policy of the proletariat is declared in this leaving no room for confusion, mistakes or cover-up. What is meant here is that any division of the country by way of a Tamil Eelam or Kilaksthan or by any other name will be opposed as well as autocratic centralism. The idea is that the country will be centralized democratically. That is that all citizens will be granted equal rights regardless of nationality, religion, caste, sex or any kind of discrimination. The country will be centralized without discrimination without granting privileges to anyone or without handicapping anyone or oppressing any nationality. We Marxists, we proletarian revolutionaries oppose the division of the country and decentralization. We know very well that the division of the country and decentralization are completely opposed to the class aims and necessities of the proletariat. Therefore we oppose it without the least hesitation. Our teacher Marx was called a great centralist by his greatest disciple himself Lenin. Yes this is correct. We Marxists are centralists. We proletarian revolutionaries know very well of the immense benefits of large states and centralism. We oppose this harder when we see more clearly that decimation of countries and decentralization are steps taken by the exploiting classes due to fear of the proletariat and to avoid proletarian socialist revolutions. We oppose with the same hardness the granting of privileges to one nationality at the expense of the rights of another and the autocratic centralism under these conditions. However opposition to such a type of centralism does not mean opposition to centralism in general or supporting decentralization. The bourgeoisie and the petty bourgeoisie are very much for the division of countries and decentralization. This is one of their popular slogans. The endeavor of the proletariat is not the division of peoples but to bring them together democratically and to absorb them in this way. Not the division and decimation of countries but to build greater States. It is only the imperialists, the nationalist sections of the Tamil bourgeoisie in south India and Sri Lanka, those sections of the Sinhala bourgeoisie who are the faithful servants of their imperialist masters, those romantic opportunistic petty bourgeoisie Sinhala socialists under the tutelage of bourgeois and petty bourgeois Tamil nationalists and the petty bourgeois Tamil nationalist sections who want the division of the country along national lines. Other than that it is not the necessity of the proletariat of the Sinhala, Tamil or Moslem nationalities. Proletarian socialists who oppose the division or organization of the proletariat along nationalist lines oppose unhesitatingly the division of the country along national lines as well. The establishment of a Tamil Eelam will not only be useless to the Tamil or the Sinhala proletariat but will have great detrimental effects on the working class movement as has already been proved.
Why are we opposed to the federal system?
The proletariat opposes the establishment of a federal system as a form of decentralization. The proletariat which realizes perfectly that greater and more centralized states serve their historic purpose better, opposes the decentralization of countries as well as always disagreeing to the decimation of countries. Therefore, to move to a joint or federal system from a centralized state, especially when it is being implemented as the first step in a strategy to divide the country - the proletariat can never agree to this.
Marxists use a federal or joint system as transitional step to bring countries and nations together but never as a transitional step towards separating countries and nation. They will never allow it. The JVP which steadfastly opposes the process of dividing Sri Lanka and creating a Tamil Eelam state unhesitatingly opposes the establishment of a federal system as a first step in the direction of Tamil Eelam.
The federal or the unionist system was a popular slogan with the 19th century anarchists lead by Mikhail Bakunin. The leader of this petty bourgeois tendency who was expelled from the first international in 1872 was of the opinion that the federal system was the best solution to the national question. Even in recent times, even today this is a very popular concept with the petty bourgeoisie. Marx fought bitterly with the anarchist on this question as well as in many other questions. Lenin following his example fought bitterly with the concept of a state modelled after the federal system of the narodniks and especially of the socialist revolutionaries who represented the petty bourgeois anarchist tendency, of his day. The special feature of bourgeois development is the economic administrative, legislative, legal centralism and also the centralism of the military apparatus within the borders of every country. Before this in the feudal system which possessed a natural economy decentralization was the special feature. But the main tendency of autocracy especially Russian autocracy was the creation of a state machinery. For this reason we can see at that time autocracy and centralism was seen as to be one and the same. However we need not consider the two. The centralist tendency of capitalism is beneficial to build socialism. It is even necessary. It represents progress in social development. The centralism of production and distribution under capitalism is beneficial to the socialist economic base. Therefore the socialist movement supports centralism as opposed to decentralization and federalism. If we carefully examine the history of social development we find that centralism walks hand in hand with democracy and progress.
Under socialism the federal system is used as a means for centralism and not decentralization. Lenin says the following in his thesis on the national and colonial question presented to the second congress of the communist international:
"7. Unionization is a transitional form towards complete unification of the workers of all nations. The connections of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republics to another soviet republic (to the Hungarian, Finnish and Latvian republics in the past with the Azerbaijan and Ukrainian republics in the present) or to nationalities without an independent political existence or self government (The Bashkir and Tartar autonomous republics within the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republics established in 1919 and 1920) and experiences within the RSFSR itself show the suitability of unionism.
"8. The endeavor of the communist international with regard to this question not only the development of the progress in this direction but also to study and examine the experiences of these unions that have arisen on the basis of the soviet system and the soviet movement. While accepting unionism as a transitional form towards complete unification it has to be unquestionably attempted to bring the federal ties closer.
Consider that firstly from a war angle that the Soviet Republics surrounded by the greatly powerful imperialist states of the whole world would not be able to exist without close ties to other soviet republics. And that secondly without close economic ties between the soviet republics it would not be possible to rebuild the means of production which has been destroyed by imperialism and to ensure the welfare of the working class. And thirdly the progress towards a world economy governed by the proletariat of all nations and united by a common plan - this tendency is clearly manifest under capitalism and without doubt furthered and completed by socialism".
From this it should become completely clear in what way and to what ends that Lenin used federalism and advocated its use. Lenin used the federal system as a transitional one. Therefore it is temporary. It is a first step to bring together peoples that have been separated and exist separately, and not to separate and isolate the workers of those nations. It was the first step towards complete unification of the proletariat of the old Czarist colonies with the Russian proletariat. That is as a step towards centralism. He is of the opinion that this should be brought closer, that is increasing centralism, this is what actually happened in the Soviet union and other places. The proletarian socialist movement will give absolutely no encouragement to use the federal system as a transitional step in the opposite direction - that is as a step towards decentralization and separation under the capitalist leadership as a step towards creating the disunity of the proletarians of different nationalities and their Separation. The imperialist United States, Canada a developed capitalist country and neighboring capitalist India have a federal and unionist system of government as well as the Soviet Union. The first constitution of the USA formulated about 200 years ago in the 18th century after the American revolutionary armies under George Washington defeated the British imperialist armies led by General Cornwalis, was a loosely centralized one. That is, it was greatly decentralization with extensive powers to the provincial states with very weak central government. It could not exist like this for very long. Therefore it was more centralized. This tendency towards centralism arose of subjective necessity and had to be centralized more and more on a number of occasions. Today the constitution of the USA is a strongly centralized one. A large number of states were joined and centralized through this. The federal system was used for this. In Canada the federal system has been used to join the former British colonies and the earlier French colonies (the province of Quebec, the city of Montreal in this province has the greatest French speaking population in the world outside the city of Paris). This too is one of the most centralized federal systems in the world. But the country which is considered as having the most centralized federal system in the capitalist world is in India.
The necessity of creating a federal system in India arose due to the need of bringing together various states and nationalities that form it. Although the political unification of India was a slogan from the Vedic era itself, that is although the concept of a united greater India, (Eksath Baratha Vanshaya) a greater Indian empire (Chakravarthi Kshethraya) existed this has not being fulfilled up to now. Dharmashoka the greatest of the Mauryan dynasty or the Guptha emperors Akhbar the great or Aurangzeb the greatest of the mogul rulers failed to achieve this. Even British imperialism which made the whole of India its colony was unable to achieve its political unification. During the period of British imperial rule what existed was a state of conglomeration. That is the whole of India was not under direct British imperial rule - although the British viceroy in India from 1848 to 1856 Lord Dalhousy managed to bring the area from the Indus to the Brahmaputhra river and from the Himalayas to the Kanyakumari cape under British hegemony after the death of Ranjit Singh the last native ruler of Panjab and the fall of the last Indian free state Panjab and the annexation of the small Maratha lands. This does not mean that the whole of India became a unified British colony. Whereas some Indian states came under direct colonial rule the kings of some states continued as vassals of the English. In this way India consisted of direct British colonies (there were a number of these - these were ruled by different British governors) - for example the provinces of Madras and Bombay were ruled by different governors - and of non-independent states. When India gained independence in 1947 not only the direct colonies but also the non-independent vessel states were also affected. (these colonies and vassal states in most cases were not based on national lines, in some instances some nationalities would be distributed in number of states and in others a number of nationalities would inhabit one state). It was after the British partitioned India according to religious lines - into Moslem India and Hindu India - that the federal system was used by the capitalist class of Hindu India to bring it together. This unionist system used by the Indian capitalist class to bring together the various nationalities and regions of India is a very centralized one. According to this, under emergency government can even impose direct rule. It can also pass legislation affecting and in emergency conditions even suspend the provincial constitution temporarily. As opposed to usual unionist systems according to the Indian constitution special powers are granted to the central government. However today we see this centralized unionist system used by the Indian capitalist class to unite India used by imperialism and its agents for exactly the opposite purpose. That is in their endeavor to decimate India. This is happening more openly in the Panjab and more discreetly in Tamil Nadu.
The federal system can on the one hand be used as a transitional step to bring together different nations and countries and on the other hand as a transitional step to divide centralized states. Therefore the proletariat cannot agree to the use of the federal system to decentralize an existing united centralized state. However the proletariat would never hesitate to use the federal system as a transitional form to unite separate states and nations. For example in the future (this may not happen in our lifetime) the proletariat of all the countries in south Asia (after the success of the socialist revolution in these states would never hesitate to use the federal system to bring together these nations and states with common social economical and cultural identity and history, based on equality. Such a unity can only be achieved under socialism. This cannot happen within the capitalist system. All that can happen within the capitalist system is that the weaker more powerless capitalist class and the state of this class being swallowed by the stronger and the more powerful capitalist class. We cannot ignore the possibility that the Indian capitalist class which support the Tamil Eelam movement on tactical grounds (not the south Indian Tamil capitalist class - their support is based on strategic interests) are not motivated by this aim. However if they jump the gun the Sri Lankan proletariat and the Indian proletariat cannot stand by passively. If this happens it should be stopped. It can be stopped. But only by the Sri Lankan proletariat with the help of the Indian proletariat - not by the Sri Lankan capitalist class. The Sri Lankan proletariat which opposed the subjection of Sri Lanka by India or any attempt to carve their country in two and swallow it up, affirm that it would in the future, when the power of the proletariat is affirmed in India unite as a socialist India, socialist Sri Lanka, socialist Pakistan, socialist Bangladesh, socialist Nepal, socialist Bhutan and a socialist Maldives and brothers and equals. The course of history is such. The Sri Lankan proletariat will never allow the establishment of a federal system as a step towards weakening Sri Lanka, or any attempt to carve Sri Lanka in two.
Decentralization - whose necessity?
Decentralization is one method used to face the rising proletariat and its independent movement by the capitalist class and petty capitalist class elements. A good example is the process of decentralization used by the French capitalist class against the rising proletariat throughout the 19th century after the ebb of the French revolution. The capitalist class which takes the country towards autocracy by undermining democracy on the one hand moves the country towards decentralization through undermining centralism on the other. The result is autocracy and decentralization. However the necessity of the proletariat is democracy and centralism. These are two conflicting aims arising out of diametrically opposed class interests - that is the autocracy and decentralization of the capitalist class and democracy and centralism of the proletariat. Today the country has been centralized autocratically - that is, it has been centralized equality taken into account. Therefore it is not a democratically effected centralism. What the proletariat demands is democratic centralism. But what the capitalist class does at this point is to decentralize while protecting its autocracy and for this very purpose instead of centralizing democratically. Decentralization of the capitalist class is not democracy being given to the people, it is done with the aim of preserving its autocratic power. The proletariat puts forward democratic centralism in opposition to the decentralization of the bourgeoisie and resolves the national question democratically on the basis of equality. The third paragraph of the manifesto of the JVP states the following. "3. The protection and the maintenance of the territorial integrity of the country will be effected on the basis of real equality and autonomy for various minorities."
The territorial integrity of Sri Lanka which is a multi racial state depends on equal treatment for all nationalities which inhabit it. If this is not fulfilled the territorial integrity will be threatened. In the same way the establishment of autonomous regions for underdeveloped areas and those areas inhabited by various minorities within centralism becomes a necessity for social development. The establishment of these autonomous regions is basically the establishing of democracy. It is not the decentralization put forward by the capitalist class. The establishment of these autonomous regions will take into account differences in the composition of the population and the differences in development and will be created very democratically. This is not a simple process. On the contrary it is a very complicated one. For example the north and the east cannot be one autonomous region. Why?. Because of the differences that exist in these areas. The Eastern province takes a leading rank among the areas with the most complex distribution of population in the country. In the Trincomalee district all three nationalities are basically equally represented. In the Amparai district Moslem people take first place Sinhala people second place and the Tamil people the third place. In the Batticaloa district the Tamil people take the first place Moslem people the second and the Sinhala people the third. Basically the Tamil people represent only one third of the population in this province. Therefore it is impossible to bring this province together as one autonomous region with the north or establish this province as one autonomous unit. Autonomous units should be established based on the various differences of population composition and development. The rights of the Tamil nationality should belong in the same way to the Moslem nationality. What is apparent from the denial of this would be that a differentiation is being made because a section of the Tamil people engage in terrorist activities and the Moslem people do not. This too would not be granting rights to people but paying ransom to terrorists. The Moslem nationality cannot be subjected to the supremacy of the Tamil nationality within the term "Tamil speaking people" as attempted by the TULF. "Tamil speaking peoples" is not a historical form of human society. It is merely a formulation used for the purposes of the Tamil nationalist bourgeoisie. The objection of the Tamil national party to the sending of Sinhala teachers to teach Sinhala in Moslem schools in the north and east despite the requests of the Moslem people in these areas, and thereby the attempt to foist the decisions of the Tamil nationalism on the Moslem people show this. In this way autonomous regions are required in various other regions. We know very well the demand of proletarian socialism for a centralized economic planning. A main motive of economic planning is the division human and material resources between economic fields with due regard to social division of labor. An autonomy cannot be established in detriment to such a system of centralized planning. I would like to emphasize the following paragraphs I mentioned at the beginning of this report and repeat them. "Marxist are of course opposed to federation and decentralization"
"Other conditions being equal, the class conscious proletariat should stand for the larger state, it will always fight against mediaeval particularities"
"But while and insofar as different nations constitute a single state Marxists will never under any circumstances advocate either the federal principle or decentralization. The great centralized state is a tremendous historical step forward from mediaeval disunity to the future socialist unity of the whole world. And only via such a state can there be any road to socialism. Far from precluding local self-government with autonomy for regions having special economic and social conditions the distinct national composition of the population and so forth democratic centralism necessarily demands both. In Russia centralism is constantly confused with tyranny and bureaucracy. This confusion has naturally arisen from the history of Russia. But even so it is quite inexcusable for the Marxist to yield to it." Lenin - Critical remarks on the national question.
Nations and Nationalities We know that nations are born only on the basis of bourgeois relationships and that a nation cannot exist without a common economic existence and that it is only by the fact of having independent economic existence that a nation differs from a nationality. Within the Asiatic system in Sri Lanka there existed a Sinhala nationality and a Tamil nationality. Scientifically this so. Before the introduction bourgeois production relationships Sri Lanka was made into unitary centralized state by the British imperialists under the sovereignty of queen Victoria. Therefore after the establishment of bourgeois production relationships in Sri Lanka common economies were not created for the Sinhala nationality and the Tamil nationality separately. A centralized multinational state was established as well as an economy common to both nationalities. Therefore the nation thus born is the Sri Lankan nation. There is no other nation in the scientific sense here. The Sinhala and Tamil nationalities exist in a common economic life under the imperial bourgeois system but as different nationalities not wholly assimilated in multi-national sense. Therefore it is wrong to say that there exists in Sri Lanka either a Sinhala nation or a Tamil nation. Marxism-Leninism does not accept this. What exists is a Sinhala nationality, a Tamil nationality, a Moslem nationality and only a Sri Lanka nation. Scientific historical analysis shows that the first settlement within the Asiatic socio-economic pattern in Sri Lanka grew in the plains of the dry zones suited to agrarian economy based on a Asiatic production pattern - that is in the modern Northern province, Eastern province, north central province parts of the Uwa province and in parts of the north western and southern provinces. The northwestern plains and the hills were at that time unpopulated. This was because of its geographical characteristics and the wet tropical monsoon forests not being suitable for the agrarian economy which was the basis for human society at the time. Therefore within known history the Sinhala nationality and the Tamil nationality lived together right up to the thirteenth century in the dry zones of Sri Lanka. It was due to this reason that the Uththara Deshaya or Rajarata and the Ruhuna enjoyed precedence over the Dakshina deshaya or Mayarata and the Malayarata. The regions in the mountains above 750 meters known as the Malayarata was definitely unpopulated until the thirteenth century. Before the thirteenth century the north and the East of Sri Lanka was not traditional homelands of the Tamil nationality. But to talk of evicting Tamil people from these areas and establishing Sinhala settlements is an extreme reactionary step. It cannot be done it should not be done. But in the thirteenth century we can see from the findings of Professor Paranavithana and various other historians that the Tamil people as well as the Sinhala people had to leave these areas due to them been made uninhabitable. Due to repeated foreign invasions and the inevitable destructions of battles for repossessions and the cruel repressions of foreign rulers (example Kalinga Maga) and the destruction of the irrigation system which was the basis of the Asiatic civilization on which the settlement of the dry zone was based on and the unavailability of the strata of irrigation technicians necessary for its rebuilding. During the process of the Sinhala nationality leaving the dry zone they migrated to the Dakshina Deshaya and Malayarata the regions they were used to fleeing to during earlier foreign invasions and that the Tamil people centralized themselves especially on the Jaffna peninsula in the north and sometimes on the coast of the Batticaloa area in the East. From then on these two nationalities lived apart in isolation. This situation changed after the unification of Sri Lanka under the flag of the British Empire. After the decline of the dry zone in the thirteenth century there arose regional governments known as Mahavanni and Suluvanni. We see that there existed 18 Mahavanni and numerous Suluvanni. This Vanni areas were ruled by Vanniyars some of them were Sinhala and some of them were Tamil. The Chulavansaya names king Vijayabahu the third as a Vanni king. Up to the end of the 19th century that is until the time of governor sir Henry Gregory the typical characteristic of the north central province and the Northern province except the Jaffna peninsula was underpopulation and the destruction of this irrigation system. Further these regions had been basically without settlements and overgrown by jungles for almost seven centuries. The repopulation of these areas started recently. Its speed accelerated in the post colonial era. As we examined earlier the Vanni area is being systematically repopulated by Tamil Eelam terrorists. After doing this they called the Vanni which remained depopulated and overgrown for seven centuries, their traditional homelands.
It is equally reactionary to consider the north and east as the traditional homelands of the Tamil nationality on the basis of the conditions that came into being after the 13th century and the conditions that were created more recently and to evict other peoples from these regions i.e. To evict Sinhala and Moslem peoples from these regions. It should not be done; it cannot be done. As I mentioned earlier even the present boundaries of the Northern and Eastern provinces were created by the British imperialist colonial government for its own purposes. These cannot be considered as boundaries of nationality and be used to create traditional homelands. In the same way autonomous regions cannot be based on this either. Implied in the acceptance of the north and east as traditional homelands of the Tamil nationality is the acceptance of the other regions as traditional homelands of the Sinhala nationality. If other nationalities were to be evicted from the Tamil regions on this considerations other peoples would have to be evicted from Sinhala regions and so on. However we should not forget that nearly half of the Tamil nationality live outside the so-called traditional homelands. Looking at international experiences we see that the only thing that could happen is the extreme suffering of peoples. What is the national question that can be solved by displacing hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. We should in no way forget the terrible tragedy that resulted after the partition of India. No Sinhala imperialism has grown from the special privileges granted to the Sinhala nationality through the official languages act the constitution and the standardization of education. This is a creation of Tamil politicians. It is a false conception of theirs. What should be done is to establish equality by removing these privileges. The question is not solved by continuing these privileges for the Sinhala nationality and granting the Tamil nationality privileges in another field that is handing over the ownership of one-third of the land of the country in the Northern and Eastern provinces in whatever names. While the privileges of the Sinhala nationality should be annulled no privileges should be granted to the Tamil nationality either. We see that the capitalist rulers are attempting to further confuse the question by granting special privileges to the Sinhala and Tamil nationalities in different fields through autocracy and decentralization. In the same way that the Sinhala proletariat need neither a separate state nor special privileges the Tamil proletariat need neither special privileges nor separate state either. The class necessity of the proletariat of all three nationalities are unity and equality. The policy of our party is also based on this. That is on not granting special privileges for the Sinhala nationality the Tamil nationality or the Moslem nationality. The proletarian socialism will not only be no party to but also strongly opposed to any step that will lead to building another small Pakistan for American imperialism in Sri Lanka or to create a basis for a conflict like the Indo-Pakistan conflict within Sri Lanka or cause the eviction of people from land that they have inhabited for generations and create hundreds of thousands of refugees. Our party the JVP as the proletarian socialist party will unchangingly and unflinchingly oppose the partition of the country and the creation of a Tamil Eelam, a Kilaksthan or a separate state by any other name. We will not allow it. With this intention we definitely implement the following policies of our party to create complete equality for all nationalities living in Sri Lanka and to do away with all privileges, limitations, favoritism and oppression. The paragraph 8.2 of our manifesto is as follows.
"8.2 The demarcation of administrative areas created by the imperialists will be rearranged scientifically."The rearranging of administrative areas provinces and districts and subordinate units created by the imperialists as we mentioned earlier unscientifically and un-methodically for the purposes of colonial administration is a necessity towards the solution of the national question. Without achieving this autonomous regions could not be created. Paragraph 24 of our manifesto says the following on national languages. Paragraph 24
1. Peoples representatives of all government bodies may speak in any of the national languages of the country and simultaneous translations provided in all national languages.
2. All laws, government decrees and resolutions will be issued in all national languages.
3. The right to receive education in educational institutions in the mother tongue or in any preferred national language is recognized.
4. The right to transact business with the government in the mother tongue or any other national language is recognized. No citizen will be disadvantaged socially, economically, politically or in any other way due to language differences."It is very clear that granting a special privileged position to one language in a multi national state inhabited by people speaking a number of different languages against the will of the people making it the official language especially without the consent of people speaking another language is national differentiation and the creation of national oppression and that it is a threat to the existence of a multi-ethnic state. The proletariat needs no official language.
There is no declared official language in Russia or China. In the absence of compulsion when there is equality all sections of the proletariat generally use the language of the majority as the common language. That is due to the force of necessity rather than due to the force of oppression and suppression. It is in this way that Russian is used as the common language in Russia and Mandarin in China. This is one thing but to force the language of one section of people on the others through laws and compulsions is something else altogether. The results of these two are two different things. When in a multi-ethnic state one language is granted special privilege and raised to official language it paves the way to conflict. That is because oppression is contained in it. Therefore the proletarian state is careful not to differentiate between its citizens of their language and nationality or to grant privileges or create limitations. If not multi-ethnic state cannot be preserved without disintegration.
What cannot be achieved by force through laws in the absence of equality is fulfilled voluntarily, democratically, and with the consent of the people under conditions of equality. This has been the historical experience. The proletariat accepts the necessity of a common language to carry out the affairs between peoples. However this is something that should happen without privileges, limitations, favoritism, oppression, compulsion and violence and completely on a voluntary and democratic basis. This cannot happen in any other way.
The paragraph 28 of our manifesto states the following:
"28 Every citizen is guaranteed equal pay for equal work without religious, sexual, caste, national or linguistic discrimination."
Paragraph 29 mentions as follow:
"29 The social oppression of one nationality by another nationality and the oppression of one caste by another caste will be done away with and those who persist will be punished."
Paragraph 34 mentions as follows.
"34.1 Estate workers of Indian origin will be have the right, according top their wish either to have citizenship or to return to India.
2. Estate workers of Indian origin with Sri Lanka citizenship will be guaranteed all rights enjoyed by other citizens."
This question cannot or should not be solved through any negotiations between the capitalist rulers of India and Sri Lanka but by the will of those affected by the issue. The UNP and SLFP capitalist governments which did not grant citizenship to estate workers according to their wish were very generous in granting citizenship to Indian racketeers.
Paragraph 35 of our manifesto states as follows:
"35 The honorary citizenships granted by the capitalist government to Indian and Pakistani Boras and all other foreign capitalists will be annulled."
Paragraph 36 states as follows:
"36 All necessary steps will be taken to stop illegal immigration and smuggling."
Paragraph 39 states as follows:
"39.1 The temporal form of state power will be guaranteed.
2. Interference by religious institutions in the affairs of the state and in the political life in the country will be prohibited.
3. While the right of everyone to practise a religion of his choice is guaranteed, discrimination on religious grounds will be prohibited.
4. The process of exploiting people in the name of religion will be stopped.
5. Temple lands will be confiscated and the pre-bourgeois exploitation done away with.
6. Religious institutions will have the freedoms to carry out all of their religious activities and the state will not interfere in or hinder these activities."
The 40th paragraph of our manifesto is as follows:
"40.1 Education will be the sole responsibility of the state and the secular nature of education will be guaranteed.
2. Every citizen without any discrimination will be entitled to equality of opportunity in education.
3. All requisite facilities will be made for all to study in any one of the three languages - vis Sinhala, Tamil and English."
The complete policy framework to the solution of the national question by bringing about national unity and national trust by abolishing national oppression national inequality and granting of special privileges to one nationality by subordinating the rights of another nationality. The present national question can be solved by simply implementing these policies. Whether the Tamil nationalist capitalist class agree or disagree with these points is not important. Whether the Tamil nationalist capitalist class and petty capitalist class which call for the granting of special privileges for the Tamil nationality at the expense of the rights of the Sinhala and Moslem nationality or whether the Sinhala nationalist capitalist class and the petty capitalist class which calls on granting of special privileges for the Sinhala nationality at the expense of the Tamil and the Moslem nationality. Agree with this or not the proletariat will unfailingly implement it. After that the national inequality the national oppression and the national mistrust will be swept aside. In implementing these policies it is not important whether those engaged in violence calling for Tamil Eelam or those who get it done agree or done. No necessity of discussion with them about this would arise. When national oppression is abolished and equality between nations are created and the granting of privileges to one nationality subordinating the rights of another is abolished and thereby national trust is created the logical base for a call for a separate Tamil Eelam state will fall. And also the material basis for it will fall. Without destroying the economic political or ideological basis of the Tamil Eelam separatist movement the protection of the territorial integrity of the country or the stopping of Tamil Eelam violence cannot be achieved. Therefore the starting point for this is the implementation of this proletarian socialist policy and to bring into existence a new constitution based on these policies. This is why we have mentioned in the first paragraph itself of our policy declaration that:
"The dictatorship of the proletariat will be established. A new constitution will be formulated. A referendum will held for its acceptance."
This can only be achieved when the proletariat comes to power and abolishes all privileges. From this it should become clear why the national question cannot be solved except by the leadership of the proletariat.
When these policies are implemented standardization based on language and the resulting differentiation and the educational imbalances between various regions will be abolished as well as the differentiation and privileges created through the Kandyan and Moslem laws and mediaeval special regional codes like the Thesavalami will be abolished and all laws connected to mediaeval social practises relevant to temple lands will be swept away by a new legal system relevant to the people. This should be done so. All citizens should have equal rights in every way and one law should be applicable to all. Everybody should have equal social rules. Therefore the political organization of the people on national lines should be abolished. The capitalist class first dividing itself and organizing politically on nationalist lines that is by dividing themselves on nationalist lines and then dividing and separately organizing nationalities they have on the one hand divided and organized even the proletariat and the other have paved the way that the whole country be divided and organized into separate political units." This is the end result of creating different political organization along nationalist lines.
Marxists-Leninists never tolerate the division of the proletariat along nationalist lines. They never make way for it. It should not be allowed. This is a spring of policy of the proletariat on this matter. By this it should become very clear that only the proletariat can solve the national question democratically and unite the country. The situation created by the national question in Sri Lanka will not disappear as soon as these policies are implemented. This is because it is tied up with various other socio-economic and political contradictions. In order to abolish the Tamil Eelam movement and the violence to this end the present bourgeois system of production which finds itself in a deep destructive crisis should be replaced by a new economic system centrally planned and with a socialist production pattern. It is essential through this to find quick solutions to the growing unemployment and the lack of chances to higher education for all those who qualified and the lack of necessities and facilities for land development. Marx says the following on this: "for people to really come together they must have common necessities. And for these necessities to become common these property relations (bourgeois) which create the exploitation of some nations by others should be removed." - Marx, Engels collected works volume 6 page 388. This can only be achieved and will only be achieved by the proletariat.
In order to completely abolish the Tamil Eelam movement and the violence for its ends Sri Lanka has to be removed from the regional strategy of US imperialism and thereby clashes with the national necessities of the regional countries must be avoided as well as defeating imperialist regional strategy which is the Balkanisation of the Indian sub-continent through engaging in political ideological organization and agitation propaganda activities with the aim of bringing the whole sub-continent again towards a socio-economically politically and culturally united states. It is only the proletarian movement of Sri Lanka and the sub-continent that can do all of this and will do all of this.
It is only through this that the separatist movement and the connected terrorism be abolished. It can only be achieved by the proletarian movement.
It is absolutely of no use using threats or appeals - unilateral or multilateral or prayers for the removal of Tamil Eelam training camps in Tamilnadu in India. As long as Sri Lanka remains in the regional US imperialist strategy as a threat to the national necessity and the national security it will be difficult to remove the Tamil Eelam training camps in Tamilnadu. As long as Sri Lanka remains the "Unsinkable aircraft carrier" of the US tactical and strategic forces of the united states there will be Tamil Eelam terrorist camps in Tamilnadu. However we do not mean here to say that the policy of the Indian government is static without considering the internal contradiction within the strategic necessity of the bourgeois ruling class in India and the contradiction between that and the tactical necessity. This cannot be so. India is one of the rising powers of the world today. The Indian capitalist class would naturally be inclined to use the policy of "killing the fly with the bullet" in neighboring smaller states. They know that it is especially easy to swallow up these countries by decimating them. The facts that people like Chulavansaya younger son Chandrahasan and Vaikuntavasagan calling upon India to annex the north and East of Sri Lanka to India and appealing to the Indian army to occupy the north and the east, at a conference held in the USA on the problems of the Tamil people of Sri Lanka and Amirthalingam himself making the same request himself from south India from the Indian government and a former MP of the TULF Navaratnam as I remember declaring in Hong Kong after July 1983 that their intention to annex the north and East of Sri Lanka to India shows that the Tamil capitalist class in Sri Lanka know of this and use it in there plans. In the same way that Turkish armies invaded Cyprus and created a separate state in its north, it is their intention as a first step to have such a thing done. Even here there rises a contradiction between defence and offence in the strategic necessity of the Indian capitalist class. The defensive necessity created by the creation of a Tamil Eelam state by their intervention, acting as a catalyst to the separatist movements even in South India, Panjab, Kashmir, Assam, Nagaland, Missoram, Manipur and Thripura. And the offensive necessity of dividing weakening and swallowing up step by step its neighbor which gangs up with American Imperialism. Which one of these will be victorious will be decided by the conditions that develop. We can see that the Tamil Eelam terrorist movement has joined hands with the Khalistan terrorist movement in Panjab and act in solidarity with them. The "Weekend" paper of the 1 April 1984 citing the "Boston Mars" of March 31st its article "Exiles Sikh leader goes to Sri Lanka" mentions as follows. On the invitation of K Benjamin the convener the "Campaign for separate governments for minorities everywhere". K Benjamin explains the necessity of obtaining help for the necessary military training in order to carry on the escalated arms struggle towards the separation from Hindustan which was the call of his Indian friend. He further explained that the all India Sikh students union are ready for a guerrilla war against the government and that it had become a very powerful organization and that it had the support of the Sikh people. The other representatives of various guerrilla organization taking part in this conference although agreeing to give military training said that they were unable to provide the expenses for travelling, weapons and uniforms. The Sri Lankan ELTTO organization was represented by one Gnanaprakash who said that the Khalistanists could be trained in Tamilnadu and that his organization could even bear the expenses for it and if necessary give them the chance to take part in the arms struggle that is taking place in Sri Lanka. However he requested that the Khalistanists come to Madras secretly and in disguise with the knowledge of the Indian central government. Answering questions from Edward King Mayor of Boston Gnanaprakash further said that problems of security would not arise because the Sikh students could be put in safe houses in Tamilnadu. Mayor King who expressed his satisfaction at this assurance said that his conviction when he brought the resolution for Eelam in the house of representatives in Boston had been re-enforced and said that in the same way would bring a resolution for Khalistan and that this will create support in the United States for a separate state for the Sikhs. He further said that he could approach friends at educational institutes like Boston, Harvard etc., for the necessary finances and said that the most important thing was victory in the psychological war with the Hindus and assured that this could be done quite easily and that it could be achieved by granting scholarships to carefully selected Hindus for research about nationalist struggles in India. According to this report it was arranged that Jagath Singh Chauhan the Amirthalingam of Khalistan to come secretly to Sri Lanka visit a Tamil Eelam terrorist training camp in Vavuniya and return to south India by boat. It is understandable that solidarity should grow between the terrorist movement like these with the division of countries in the sub-continent. These conditions will undoubtedly affect the policies and the opinions of the Indian government. This will affect the nature of Indian strategic necessity as well as the contradictions within its tactical necessity. In the same way the condition that develops in Sri Lanka on the Tamil Eelam question will also affect this. The Indian capitalist class would be especially alarmed about the upsurge in the proletarian movement in Sri Lanka. We should not in any way confuse the inter-capitalist contradictions and the basic contradictions between the capitalist class and the proletariat. It would be a very serious mistake as these two are of completely different meanings.
The UNP government while on the one hand allowing the Tamil Eelam movement to grow and allowing the TULF to sow nationalism and on this basis agitate, propagandize and organize for Tamil Eelam as well as allowing the creation of terrorist organization as well as the training of terrorists has on the other hand unleashed a great wave of suppression against ordinary Tamil people. What will also happen by this is the strengthening of the Tamil Eelam movement. All repressive activities against these ordinary Tamil people should be stopped immediately. These will be stopped immediately by the proletariat. After this it is very important to completely stop all the subtle imperialistic political activities being carries out in the country by US imperialism directly and also its accomplices the catholic and imperialist organization active in the guises of religion, social services etc. in order to solve the national question and achieve the territorial integrity of the country. This also can only be achieved by the proletariat.
As we have already examined the national question is not something that exists in isolation. It is completely tied up with the present bourgeois socio-economic structure. Today the national question is only one expression of the entire class crisis. Therefore it cannot be resolved separate from the class question. It has only a class solution. Although the capitalist class was able to sole the national question in the earlier stages of capitalist development it is unable to do so in the moribund stages of capitalism. Therefore the solution of the national question which is a task of the bourgeois democratic revolution has been handed over to the proletariat. It can be completely solved only by the proletariat.
Having completely fulfilled all the tasks mentioned by us there are some more necessary steps to be taken to prevent the further existence of a terrorist movement for Tamil Eelam. That is to launch a campaign to win those who were involved in Tamil Eelam violence again to society as good citizens. For this they have to be compelled to undergo self-criticism and then be given a general amnesty on this basis. If not and if they persist in terrorist acts it will be dealt with in the same way as the Rada of the soviet Ukraine. It will be completely destroyed. For this the paragraph declaration of our policy declaration applies.
"The state security committee consisting of peoples representatives shall be set up with a view to maintaining surveillance over all enemy activities facing the socialist state and taking suitable steps to protect the socialist state"
Conclusion Comrades of the central committee,
In order to complete this report I wish now to bring your attention to a number of matters concerning the conditioned spawned by the national question.
The effect of the national question exasperates the current socio-economic and political crisis. The imperialist camp led by American imperialism has managed to increasingly reinforce its base in Sri Lanka using the crisis spawned by the national question. They have managed to greatly tighten its grasp economically, politically and militarily. Even the Zionists of Israel and white supremacists of South Africa use this condition to infiltrate Sri Lanka. The carving up of the country as well as being beneficial to the imperialists its combativeness has being used by them for their benefit. These who are benefactors of the Jayawardene government are also on the other hand the benefactors of the TULF. We see the imperialists very successfully, using the conflict between two bourgeois class groupings for privileges and the inter-bourgeois contradictions for their own ends. The imperialists who have occupied all fields of activity in Sri Lanka having successfully used this conflict have now very subtly launched a psychological war between the Tamil people and the Sinhala people in order to carve the country into two. To this ends they have used various people in various stratum of society very subtly. Some have been given various privileges positions and prizes ranging up from American scholarship. On the one hand while working through the TULF to win the Tamil masses for the separatist struggle on the other hand conditions were prepared to create these activities through the UNP government among the Tamil as well as Sinhala people. While having secret talks with the Tamil Eelam movement the TULF, while coming to secret agreement, while establishing secret standing committees consisting of the president, powerful ministers and the TULF (according to the details of secret talks made public in the world magazine by A Jayaratnam Wilson between Jayawardene and himself and Amirthalingam and himself he has accepted that there had been a secret pact between Amirthalingam and Jayawardene on the 31st January '81 and that a high level committee was established consisting of president prime minister and leading ministers and leaders of the TULF including Dr. Tiruchelvam and that this committee met regularly) and on the other hand innocent Tamil people were pushed towards Tamil Eelam by cruel repression. What else did the Jayawardene government expect by cruelly repressing innocent Tamil people while allowing the murderers of anti-Tamil Eelam leaders like Dureappa to escape to England and south India and holding secret discussions with them? In the same way the Jayawardene government has systematically carried out the preparation of the mentality among the Sinhala people for the division of the country for the past seven years. The imperialists have used not only the UNP government but also petty bourgeois opportunist groups masquerading as leftists for this purpose.
Comrades of the central committee,
You know very well that petty-bourgeois romantic socialists all over the world are supporting alongside Reagan the Polish counter-revolutionary movement. In the same way we should not forget that they supported Imre Nagi along with Eisenhower during the Hungarian counter-revolution in 1956. In 1968 during the counter-revolution in Czechoslovakia they supported Alexander Dubcek standing with Johnson. Therefore we should not be surprised at this. Trotskyism and Maoism as different petty-bourgeois tendencies has displayed their naked face more openly than anywhere else with regard to the national question in Sri Lanka. They have aligned themselves with the capitalist class and imperialism. Most of these numerous petty-bourgeois romantic socialists groups have greatly helped imperialism to win its psychological war with the Sinhala people to divide the country. They do this by hiding behind the formula of "the right of nations to self determination". We have discussed in detail this matter at the beginning of the report. We have seen how mature Leninism abandoned this formula and how Lenin after ending his debate with Rosa Luxembourg who joined him to build the Zimmerwald left against the opportunism of the second international which had by then declined to a petty-bourgeois international and later the third international, said that the proletariat of the oppressor nation should fight for the right to separation and the proletariat of the oppressed nation should fight for union, and how in the end how Lenin most decisively put to the party in May 1917 by a special resolution the Marxist program on the national question and how after this the second congress of the communist international presented the Marxist-Leninist stand the proletarian socialist stand very clearly, through a definite proletarian program on the formula of the right of nations to self-determination as mentioned in the national program of the Russian social democratic workers party by the request of Rosa Luxembourg (Rosa Luxembourg calls for the following at the end of an article on the right of nations to self-determination which was a part of a series of articles on the national question and self government. "To try to protect this abstract term in the program of the Russian social democratic party would be a betrayal of the stand which has been attempted to be applied to all matters in the program... The lessons that the international proletariat should learn from the division of Palestine, the division of Cyprus and the division of India are enormous. We should learn lessons from the way that (imperialism) conspired to seperate the Katanga province in Belgian Congo (Zaire) rich in Copper and minerals, Under the leadership of Tsombe after Patrice Lumumba came into power and how it was continued even when imperialist lackeys like Mobutu came in after Lumumba. The proletariat cannot allow any more Cypruses and no more Palastines. We should not forget the situation that has arisen due to British imperialism annexing Northern Ireland. We cannot allow the North and the East of Sri Lanka to be turned into another Northern Ireland. We cannot sit back with folded arms and allow this to happen. Jayawardene's government is playing a role parallel to that of the reactionary exploitative leaders of the Arab world, when they allowed the imperialists to divide Palestine.
Comrades of the central committee,
Under these conditions our task is extremely serious and complex as well as difficult. But it is something that can be achieved and must be achieved. The development of the objective conditions is opening the way for the proletarian victory. But as I mentioned at the beginning of this report, the basic problems of the working class movement is the subjective conditions. Even here the main problem that has to be solved today is the situation that has arisen because a small band of petty capitalist opportunists have been able to separate the proletarian vanguard of Sri Lanka from the vanguard of the international proletariat. This band of petty capitalist opportunists which has come forward due to a large number of historical reasons, to set themselves up as the Sri Lankan section of the international working class movement and thereby claim privileges that they are not entitled to, now seem to stand covertly with imperialism in order to preserve these privileges. It may be difficult to solve this question until the Sri Lankan proletariat becomes the ruling class and the dominant class. But if it can be solved before this it will be to the benefit of the entire working class movement. This situation has even been used by the Sri Lankan bourgeois to even repel certain elements inclining towards the working class movement. This situation is used by the ruling capitalist class when they say that the true party of the working class movement has no international support and that the those who have international support do not have the support of the proletariat in Sri Lanka. The relationships of the Sri Lankan proletarian socialist movement with the socialist states should not be tactical. They should naturally be strategic. Therefore what should be created are strategic relationships. To think in any other way would be to strengthen imperialism.
Comrades of the central committee,
Considering these conditions, we must act undaunted and tirelessly to ripen the subjective conditions that is to create the leading party of the proletariat quickly and as suited to the present conditions on a strong basis.
The way forward to the winning post may be as hard as the path we have trodden up to now. Perhaps even harder. But we must go down this path however difficult it may be and however great the barriers against us. We can successfully traverse the path. We must lead the working class movement to the winning post in order to prevent our country from becoming a slave camp of Yankee imperialism, to prevent the country from being divided according to imperialist strategy to save the country form the present destruction and to build a new society, where man is not exploited by man and where man is not oppressed by man. Our task is a very serious one. Our party which is tempered by the painful and difficult experiences of the class struggle will be able to fulfil it.
We who have put forward the proletarian position on the national question clearly and without confusion must carry out a great struggle for the victory of this position among the entire proletariat and the rest of the oppressed sub-classes. We must carry out a great ideological struggle. We must defeat the psychological warfare of imperialism. We must defeat nationalisms of all kinds. We should struggle to unite the proletariat of all nationalities. It is only in this way that the tasks of the proletariat can be fulfilled. Here too the myths spread by the petty bourgeois romantic opportunists should be defeated decisively. The working class movement should be exorcised from these myths...." | 
