Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières
Dr. Lional Bopage turns 74 this year. In this interview he looks back at key moments in the history of the Sri Lankan left.
Bopage got involved politics in his student days while attending Rahula College, Matara. He was among the students who experienced the change of medium of instruction to (...)
Upali Cooray, who passed away on 21 August 2009, was a revolutionary socialist; trade unionist; anti-racist; partisan of anti-colonial and national liberation movements; human rights lawyer; university teacher and much more. Upali Cooray: His militancy had no match
Upali Cooray (17 September (...)
In four decades, Sri Lanka has moved from poor country category to lower middle income category. However, as we all aware averages do not tell the entire story and are oftentimes misleading.
Since 1977, Sri Lanka has been following uninterruptedly neo-liberal economic policies. The change of (...)
President has removed Ranil Wickramasinghe and appointed former President Mahinda Rajapakse as the new Prime Minister. Executive Presidents abusing their powers in violation of democratic norms is not new to our political history and this unacceptable act follows in that line. It has also (...)
With Independent Sri Lanka having reached the age of 70, it cannot reconstruct itself without self-criticism. As we live under the shadow of the twin forces of Sinhala Buddhist and Tamil nationalism, where will the impetus for such self-criticism come from? I find a flicker of hope with the (...)
Q: Could you speak about your family and your background? Did it have an influence on your politicisation?
A: My family is from the Islands, Nainativu and Analaitivu and my father was a clerical servant in the Education Department. As a small boy, my family stayed with the Poobalasingam family (...)
Caste relations and conflicts have taken varied forms at different times in Jaffna. The recent conflicts around upper-caste cemeteries in proximity to oppressed caste dwellings resulted in a major protest on May 13th, opposite the Jaffna Bus Stand. In Kalaimathy village in Puttur, historically (...)
To say that the Sri Lankan leftist movement is on its last legs would be… generous, at best. Having all but abandoned all pretence of their once venerated Marxist/Trotskyist ideology, it is by no means a stretch that many hardcore leftists of old are now in bed with right-wing capitalist (...)
Maithripala Sirisena, Honourable President, Presidential Secretariat, Colombo - 01, Sri Lanka
Hon. President,
Protecting the Politicat Rights of Comrade Kumar Gunaratnam
Frontline Socialist Party politburo member comrade Kumar Gunaratnam has been sentenced to a one-year prison term (...)
To mark the 80th Anniversary of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party — on the 18th of December 2015 — the Leader of the LSSP, Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy Tissa Vitharana, former Professor in the Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, offers a prescriptive (...)
These days the focus of most of the country is on the general election scheduled for 17th August 2015. People want to know how the victory achieved by Maithripala Sirisena after defeating Mahinda Rajapakse in the 8th January 2015 presidential election will be reflected in the representation of (...)
These days the focus of most of the country is on the general election scheduled for 17th August 2015. People want to know how the victory achieved by Maithripala Sirisena after defeating Mahinda Rajapakse in the 8th January 2015 presidential election will be reflected in the representation of (...)
Reflecting on Santasilan Kadirgamar’s life.
He was my comrade and neighbor and oft would we sit out on my veranda, sipping the stuff that cheers and first talking sensibly, then slinging it out in voices that kept the neighbors, too polite to complain, awake till the late hours, as a bottle of (...)
The 2015 parliamentary election in Sri Lanka is marked by the rejuvenated presence of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (‘People’s Liberation Front’, known nationally and internationally as the JVP, its Sinhala abbreviation). At this election, the JVP is striving to increase its headcount in (...)
MEDIA RELEASE
03 July 2015
The European Union (EU) should respect democracy by not undermining the left-wing Syriza-led government of Greece, and stop forcing austerity measures on the Greek people.
This message was conveyed to the EU by representatives of Left organizations, trade unions, (...)
On the occasion of 110th birth anniversary of Dr. N M Perera, a leader of the Lanka Samasamaja Party (LSSP), commentators may praise him as a great democrat and outstanding parliamentarian. It has been generally agreed that N.M (as he was lovingly known) had contributed immensely for the (...)
The New Town Hall was full to overflowing, the corridors crowded, the overflow went into the grounds outside; they came from Colombo, they came from the outstations (Sammanthurai, Trincomalee, Hambantota, Anuradhapura, Kandy, Puttalam, Kurunegala, Matale, Kegalle, Galle and Kalutara), young men (...)
When it comes to the role of the state in development, Sri Lanka has witnessed an extremely sterile debate that has formulated the question as a choice between the state and the market. There are champions on both sides, increasingly encrusted in their ideological positions.
The purpose of (...)
Lightning, thunder and heavy afternoon shower are very common in these days in Negombo. As my bus moved through Katunayake-Colombo highway that borders the Negombo lagoon, I see a reflection across the lagoon what is happening over the lagoon in the sky. It is scary, but beautiful. I browsed (...)
The “etc” refers to a few small Left groups such as the Frontline Socialists and the USP’s Siritunga Jayasooriya who, like the larger JVP, are disoriented by the Common Candidate (CC) phenomenon, the un-socialist MoU, and the UNP-Chandrika-My3-Fonseka-JHU chop-suey (formal name: National (...)
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