Indian Ocean tsunami disaster
Sri Lanka appeal
SRI LANKA is, after Indonesia, the area hit hardest by the tsunami.
Officials in Sri Lanka have estimated so far that more than 30,000 people have
died, 40% of them children, and another 5,600 are missing.
The Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI) can report with great
relief that, after heroic efforts to establish the whereabouts of all its
members, the United Socialist Party (USP – the CWI’s section in Sri Lanka) has
found that it has sustained no direct loss of life.
The tsunami had crashed into areas where many USP members and their
families lived and worked. One national committee member in Galle, comrade
Piyatilake, was missing for days and the worst was feared. His workplace was
destroyed and two people standing near to him at the moment the wave struck
were swept to their deaths. Piyatilake himself was severely injured and
hospitalised but has now returned to his home to recover fully.
More than 25 USP members and their families in the south and east of the
island are homeless, most living in makeshift camps and in urgent need of
water, food, clothes and medicine. Many party members have suffered the loss
of close relatives and all could face problems of drinking water shortages and
the threat of diarrhoea and disease.
The CWI is calling on all its members and supporters to come to the aid of
the USP as it organises help and protection for its members. Financial
donations can be made through our website or by post (see below), so we can
arrange more shipments of water purifying tablets and medicines. We are also
sending bulkier items by container – clothes, materials to provide shelter,
basic foods and other essentials.
Political response
AS THE tsunami struck, Sri Lanka was beginning to recover from 20 years of
civil war, which ravaged the north of the island and decimated its population.
A real prospect of reconstruction existed, however limited, under capitalism.
Now millions of Sri Lanka’s people have been thrown back into a dark night of
poverty, shortage and uncertainty.
While dealing with the survival of our own members, the USP will also be
trying to make a political response to this disaster. With posters, leaflets
and papers our members will be aiming to put forward a programme of demands to
deal with the situation and expose the real causes of this disaster and the
inadequate response of the government.
Reconstruction
FOR A full and rapid recovery resources must be poured in by imperialism –
in the form of the World Bank and IMF – which have squeezed the population dry
with their neo-liberal programmes of privatisation and deregulation and failed
to fund protection from the elements. All foreign debts should be immediately
cancelled, not just postponed.
The actual reconstruction needs to be controlled by elected committees of
workers and poor people to ensure maximum assistance to those who most need
it, regardless of nationality, religion and political affiliation. Unity needs
to be cemented amongst workers and poor people. They can have no faith in
capitalist politicians. Outbreaks of communal conflict must be prevented as
the struggle for scarce resources continues.
However, a permanent solution to the problems facing the workers and poor
of Sri Lanka will only be found through a socialist transformation of society
and the establishment of a government of their own directly elected
representatives.
The United Socialist Party of Sri Lanka will be redoubling its efforts to
build a powerful workers’ party with a socialist programme. Its members need
every support they can get in the hour of most need.
>
United Socialist Party
Sri Lanka is a country often divided along ethnic, as well as class, lines.
The disaster has revealed great acts of solidarity between the Tamil and the
Sinhalese sides, and some appalling incidents of state and communal sabotage.
Over decades, members of the United Socialist Party (USP) – at the risk of
their own lives – have stood for the unity of the working class and the right
of self-determination of the oppressed Tamil-speaking people. We are the only
organisation that produces a paper, Red Star, in both Tamil and Sinhala
languages.
In 2003, the members of the USP and the Janaraja Joint Health Workers Union
(which is affiliated to the USP) played a key role in a successful strike of
91,000 healthworkers countrywide. They were striking for a 40% wage rise, the
same rise that had just been granted to doctors.
The USP also stood in 21 out of 22 districts in the general election in
2004, coming first out of all the left parties. Three months later, in the
provincial council elections, the USP stood in 14 out of 15 districts where
elections were held. Polling 21,732 votes – double the votes in the general
election – USP candidates often came in third or fourth place and in Galle and
Nuwara Eliya received 3,896 votes and 2,278 votes respectively.
The USP gained recognition as a socialist party that was prepared to fight
the big capitalist, communalist parties. This is a big achievement for a small
socialist party without the resources of the main parties. Now the party is
struggling to regain its fighting capacity.
See www.socialistworld.net for more details.
>
How you can help
The statement below explains ways in which Socialist Party members can
assist our section in Sri Lanka.
We will be sending goods to Sri Lanka by container in the next two days and
again next week. If you can spare tents or plastic sheeting, light clothes
(including underwear) or light bedding please email us on
[email protected] as soon as possible. On 10 January, the comrades of the USP will again set
out from Colombo to each of the worst-hit areas, hoping to take supplies for
the most needy.
If you are able to obtain any basic medical equipment, such as boxes of
rubber gloves, bandages, wound dressings, water purification tablets, etc.
Please email the above address as soon as possible.
Socialist Party members have already been asked to give large donations to
our week’s income appeal, which will fund vital international work as well as
the general election. Nevertheless, we are asking that you give an additional
donation to the Sri Lanka appeal fund to help our members and to enable them
to produce political material as soon as possible.
Please donate via the CWI website or use the account detailed below. There
is also an appeal sheet attached for collecting from supporters, the public,
trade union branches etc.
Donations can be made:
Online at www.socialistworld.net
Add the words Campaign Sri Lanka to the comment box. An appeal sheet can
also be downloaded from the website.
Directly to: Campaign Sri Lanka, Lloyds TSB, Leytonstone branch. Account
number 0023293, Sort code 30-95-03
By cheque to Campaign Sri Lanka, c/o Committee for a Workers’
International,
PO Box 3688,
London, Britain, E11 1YE
Tel: ++ 44 20 8988 8760,
Fax: ++ 44 20 8988 8793
Messages of support can be sent directly to the USP in Sri Lanka :
[email protected] and should be copied to
[email protected] (in case e-mail is
not working).