Our defeat was always implicit in the victory of others; our wealth has always generated our poverty by nourishing the wealth of others — the empires and their native overseers.
Sri Lanka
Interview with Balasingham Skanthakumar by Eric Toussaint. Reposted from CADTM, August 7, 2022.
By B. Skanthakumar
July 11, 2022 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from CADTM — Sri Lanka’s citizens’ movement, known as the Janatha Aragalaya (‘Peoples’ Struggle’), notched its most significant victory yet when Gotabaya Rajapaksa announced through the Speaker of Parliament that he would quit on 13th July, mid-way through his presidency. His admission of surrender, after resisting for months the central demand of public protests — #GotaGoHome — in the political fallout of the island’s devastating economic crisis [1], followed mass protests on 9th July.
By Chris Slee
April 28, 2022 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal — Sri Lankan police opened fire on a demonstration in the town of Rambukkana on April 19, killing one man and injuring 14.
The demonstration was part of a wave of protests that has spread throughout Sri Lanka in recent weeks, sparked by an economic crisis. The country has suffered shortages of food, medicine, petrol, diesel, cooking gas and other commodities. There have also been electricity blackouts.
The protesters blame official corruption and nepotism, and have called for the resignation of president Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his government. Rajapaksa’s cabinet resigned on April 3, but the president did not.
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Mahinda Rajapaksa (middle) with his brother