A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Thursday, May 1, 2014
Political parties not interested in working class - Trade Unions
Amid
an apparently weakening labour movement — that leaders attribute to
growing affiliation to parliamentary politics and a neoliberal state —
Sri Lanka’s trade unions say there is more reason now to continue the
struggle.
Rather busy preparing for May Day, trade unionists on Wednesday were in
meetings, giving final revisions to their resolutions and getting things
in order for the rallies. With over five decades of involvement in the
labour movement, Bala Tampoe, one of the most active trade union leaders
and General Secretary of the Ceylon Mercantile Union (CMU), says
successive governments have neglected the working class. “Political
parties don’t see workers as voters. They are not interested in the
working class. They are unable to see workers as people putting in their
labour in a capitalist system,” says Mr. Tampoe, who will turn 92 this
month.
As someone at the forefront of the massive hartal (strike) in 1953,
which paralysed the entire country, he is concerned about many trade
unions being ‘trapped in parliamentary politics.’
Ties with India
Trade unionists like him, whether while observing May Day rallies here
or following developments in workers’ struggle in the region, remain
keen India watchers, for the Left in Sri Lanka earlier had close ties
with Indian counterparts.
Most of the Left parties in Sri Lanka are now aligned with the ruling
coalition that President Mahinda Rajapaksa leads. Leaders like Mr.
Tampoe observe that the real challenge is to mobilise workers outside
the sphere of parliamentary politics, which is ‘evidently controlled by
the capitalist class.’
Linus Jayatilleke, president of the United Workers Federation, says with
‘growing exploitation’ of workers in all sectors, there is a greater
need for them to appreciate one another’s concerns and raise them
collectively.
Menaha Kandasamy, General Secretary, Ceylon Workers Red Flag Union says
women working in the plantation sector are “made to work much longer
than the stipulated 8 hours; we have to start the struggle all over
again,” the Hindu reports.