By Peter Main The MASS protests that ended with the storming of the presidential palace and Rajapakse’s flight began when even the slightly better-off residents felt the impact of the rapidly deteriorating economic situation. They were soon joined by thousands of others, who established a permanent encampment on Galle Face Green. Entirely missing from the […]

Once hailed as a model of development, Sri Lanka is facing complete economic breakdown

By Peter Main Rajapaksa is sending his thugs to kill us”, that was the one line message sent to the League by a supporter at the protest camp on Galle Face Green in Colombo on May 9. The Rajapaksa in question was Mahinda, the Prime Minister, but the attack was no doubt supported by his […]

The constitutional stand-off has been resolved but instability remains the order of the day in 2019

THE State of Emergency declared by the government of Ranil Wickremasinghe on March 6, initially for 7 days, was finally lifted on March 18. The attacks by Buddhist gangs on Muslim communities, which were the ostensible justification for the Emergency, left two dead and 450 Muslim-owned homes and businesses burnt out. Most of the violence […]

Executive Committee of the Socialist Party of Sri Lanka The declaration of a State of Emergency by the government of Ranil Wickremasinghe and Maithripala Sirisena is further evidence, if more were required, that theirs is a government that cannot resolve Sri Lanka’s long standing economic and social problems. The immediate justification for the State of […]

By Hemamali Wijesinghe  Sri Lanka has had a developed culture and literacy for many centuries. As far back as 1931, when it was still a part of the British Raj, the right to vote was won by a campaign that mobilised women as well as men. In 1933, when the British government launched the Poppy […]

By Peter Main Despite his characteristic boasting that he would win with ease, Mahinda Rajapaksa was defeated in the Sri Lankan Presidential election by a substantial margin, 51.3 to 47.6. Good, not because his successor is qualitatively better but because the change of government will mean, at least temporarily, a relaxation of the autocratic rule […]

  By Peter Main There will be no limits on the extravagance of the ceremonies that will greet the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) when they arrive in Sri Lanka. As they are whisked from the airport to their hotels along the newly completed Expressway, built and operated by Chinese capital, they will see […]

  Statement of the Socialist Party of Sri Lanka, section of the League for the Fifth International Two student leaders, Sanjeewa Bandara, Convenor of the Inter University Student Federation, IUSF, and Kimbullawe Chandrananda, Convenor of the Inter University Bhikku Federation, IUBF, have been detained by police in the capital, Colombo. Both were arrested on grounds […]

By Peter Main Hundreds of demonstrators have prevented Sri Lanka’s President Rajapakse from addressing a business meeting in the heart of the City of London. He had been due to deliver a keynote speech at the Commonwealth Economic Forum at the Mansion House. Protesters waving Tamil Tiger flags and placards demanded not only that he […]

A recent TV documentary has exposed the massacre of Tamil civilians by the Sri Lankan army during the last days of the civil war. By Sean Ambler

The pure horror of the Sri Lankan government’s genocidal war against the Tamils in May 2009 has been released in new photo and video evidence, which contradicts the Sri Lankan government’s lies. The photo and video footage show piles of dead bodies, many of them naked, with their hands bound behind their backs, and shot […]