The Communist Party of Sri Lanka (CPSL) is holding its 22^nd Party Congress on 25 February. What is the significance of this party congress?

The 22 nd party congress will be held between the 25 and 27 February in Colombo. We had the previous one in 2017. We were to have the 22^nd in 2020, but we had to postpone the Congress for two years because of COVID-19.

The 22^nd Congress will be important for the Party because we are trying to have a serious conversation about the path the Party has to take to achieve the objectives set by its founders in 1943. For CPSL, freedom and socialism have always been very important.

For the Party the struggle for socialism is a final objective. We know we are a long way off and we have our work cut out for us. We have to do our work, we have formulated strategies and the Party Congress is a forum where we discuss our political and organisational reports. We have also prepared a report of self-criticism.

We finalised the draft of the political report after a lengthy politburo and central committee discussion. This is the result of extensive debate and the report has been in circulation among the membership for the last six weeks. Members are discussing this report in their party groups and the membership groups are to send in their views. Once their views are sent to party HQ, a committee will go through these and will discuss what can be accepted and what cannot. The accepted proposals will be placed before the Party Congress.

The  Congress will debate these reports and the proposals on them, by the members, and adopt them. The political document will be the guiding document for the next three years. A new Central Committee too, will be elected by vote. Nominations for the Central Committee have been made, and the election committee will be appointed to carry out the election.

What are the main themes that you will discuss during the congress?

We will discuss two concerns mainly; the international situation and the domestic developments in the last five years.

I think there are both challenges and opportunities in both these arenas. On the one hand it is obvious that there is a crisis in the neoliberal order. There are serious crises in all countries that follow neoliberal economic policies. On the other hand, the rise of China and Russia means that the world is again multipolar and these countries have become a stabilising influence in the world. The US and its Anglo allies no longer can do whatever they want. A nuber of countries, especially in Latin America, have shown that there can be a socialist alternative. As Sri Lankan communists, we must learn from these countries and apply their knowledge here. It is our duty to apply knowledge from these examples creatively.

There are, of course, many challenges in the domestic sphere. The record of this government is nothing to write home about. It has followed the same policies that we have been following since 1977 and after two years in power, it faces severe challenges.

When the SLPP came into power, it made some positive moves. It scrapped the MCC agreement, it showed some interest in reviving the economy by focusing on production. It appointed separate ministers for batik and clay products and they restricted certain imports. But things changed for the worst, really fast, and the overall picture now is bleak.

The main issue is that the government is not inclusive. This is supposed to be a coalition. Although coalition partners played an important role in bringing the government into power, only a few people are involved in the decision-making process, which invariably leads to problems. The Communist Party does not expect the President to do everything he wants, we are not that naïve. However, I think most coalition partners expected him, and the government, to get the country out of the neoliberal economic mess we are in now. However, it seems that the government is faithfully following the script we had been following since 1977.

Due to these policies the government has run out of dollars as well as rupees. From the 2020 budget proposal the government slashed taxes and lost about 25 percent of its income. Then COVID-19 happened, but we could have had a fresh start. That opportunity has been squandered too. There is a growing intolerance to diversity of opinion among coalition partners. Most coalition partners do recognise that we are in a bad spot. People are starving and people are angry.

You said that the government has run out of dollars as well as rupees. Are not successive governments responsible for the state the country is in, due to the policies they followed?

Of course. We started ‘liberalising the economy’ a few decades ago. We were lax on imports and exports, because we thought we would be an export economy. However, now we import a lot more than we export and the trade balance is widening. This has been happening for many years, I would say the last 25 to 30 years. We cushioned this gap with money from tourism, expat remittances and loans. With the pandemic, we lost tourism, expat remittances and now we can’t get loans. It doesn’t also have rupees because it lost a lot of tax revenue but it still goes ahead with extra expenditure. For example it has earmarked Rs. 100,000 million for development work in 100,000 villages, but there is no comprehensive plan. We don’t know what the objectives, benchmarks or benefits are. I am sure that the plan is in the brain of some intelligent person.

How do you propose Sri Lanka gets out of this rut, especially given that all leftist parties, including the JVP, get about five percent of the vote?

To overcome this, we have to go for an alternative development programme. I think many people would agree and there is unanimous agreement within the Left. However, we are not in agreement on how to accomplish this.

Judging by what is happening, it seems likely that the government coalition will experience more friction. We are convinced that we must come out of the neoliberal path. If the government doesn’t want to, our contradiction with the government will deepen.

We need a leftist democratic alternative, we have to build unity in the country and abolish or curb the powers of the executive presidency. We may not be able to achieve these things in the short run, people might laugh at us, but we have to move in that direction. We need to convince the masses of an alternative development programmeand we need to have Left unity. There is a role for the government in the market. Consider rice for example, a few individuals control the market. If the government had 30 percent of shares, it could control the price, but now it’s a spectator, and people suffer. We have to bring in planning, we need industry, sustainable agriculture and a blue water economy. We need to fix the dysfunctional legal system. We need a common programme that people can agree to. These are the concerns that will be discussed the most in the party congress.

Rathindra Kuruwita
Dr. G. Weerasinghe

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