Fight for a socialist solution to the political crisis in Sri Lanka
By
the Socialist Equality Party (Sri Lanka)
31 October 2018
Bitter political infighting has erupted as competing factions of the Sri Lankan ruling elite grab for state power following the political coup of October 26 by President Maithripala Sirisena.
One faction centred on the United National Party (UNP) is led by Ranil Wickremesinghe who was sacked as prime minister last Friday. The other is based on the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) headed by the president and former president Mahinda Rajapakse who was installed as prime minister by Sirisena.
The Socialist Equality Party (Sri Lanka) calls on the working class to reject all of these capitalist parties and to mobilise independently to fight for its own class interests. No one should have any illusion that these venal representatives of the Sri Lankan bourgeoisie will defend democratic and social rights. Whichever party or parties finally emerge on top will deepen the assault on the living conditions of working people—Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim alike—and brutally suppress any resistance.
The SEP calls on workers and youth to rally to its banner and fight for a workers’ and peasants’ government based on an international socialist program to defend the democratic and social rights of the working class, youth and the urban and rural poor.
Sirisena’s unconstitutional action in sacking Wickremesighe is the culmination of a protracted decay of parliamentary rule since Sri Lanka was given so-called “independence” in 1948. The political coup is an acute expression in Sri Lanka of the worsening global economic crisis, sharpening geo-political tensions, particularly between the US and China, and the resurgence of class struggles internationally.
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