Workers and students on the war path

Recent media reports revealed the chummy affair the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime is having with the Israel government. This was revealed through an interview by Sri Lanks’s former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Donald Perera to Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth. Donald Perera is the current Sri Lankan Ambassador in Israel. The statement by him branding the Palestinian liberation struggle as a terrorist act and extending total support of the Government of Sri Lanka to crush it is deplorable. Furthermore, he has expressed Sri Lanka's gratitude for the support given by the Israel state in the war against the LTTE.

Mahinda Rajapaksa who at one time as chairman of the Palestinian friendship organization managed to win over the support of Muslims by opposing Ranil Wickremasinghe’s proposals to established diplomatic relationships with the Israel state has laid bare his nudity today. The rogue pact between the Mahinda regime and the Israel state has come to the open with the revelation of the former CDS.

US-Israel-India axis

While an Israel Consul General is operating in Colombo, the Israel ambassador to India who oversees Sri Lanka visited Colombo to attend an official event to commemorate the Israel national day. This further reveals the Sri Lanka – Israel rogue pact. All of this is clear proof to the US-Israel-India influence over the Sri Lankan government led by Mahinda Rajapaksa. Recently, the Daily Mirror newspaper too, penned an editorial recalling so called assistance by Israel in the war against Tamil Tigers.

The Tamil Diaspora still believes that powerful governments led by the US are in the process of probing the Mahinda regime. It is of the view that the Mahinda regime is propped up solely by Asian powers along with China. They seem to have faith on the US state department and Senate hoax of inquiring into atrocities committed in the last days of the war.

Tamil leadership and the Tamil Liberation Struggle

Tamil political parties, who don’t seem to be reflecting on the setback to the Tamil Liberation Struggle, are apparently aiming to minimize the devastation to NorthEast by the Mahinda regime with his assistance. The effort to bring all Tamil political parties under one banner is an indication of this move.

JVP has not given up racism

A poster by the JVP students union once again has exposed its racist ideology. It states; “we don’t understand what Duvaraka’s mother says – she doesn’t understand what we say”. What else is it if not unashamed racism?

The campaign we launched from Ratmalana demanding a Rs. 2500 pay rise in addition to Rs. 180 per unit of the Cost of Living (COL) index has heated up the workplace. The Secretary of Labour had to agree to the gazetting of the Rs. 180 COL allowance at the Worker Advisory Committee mainly due to the forceful intervention by Linus Jayathilake of the United Federation of Labour. The JVP unions who have called for a pay rise of Rs. 8000 by adding their calculation of COL to the demand have also agreed to the Rs. 10,000 demand by Ceylon Mercantile, Industrial and General Workers Union (CMU) led by Bala Tampoe. Whichever way, company bosses are jittery as they are fully aware that the battle for wages is around the corner.

The students struggle in the Ruhunu University in Matara ended with a police attack. Although the government is taking steps to heap the responsibility of student Prasanna Anura Bandara’s killing on the Inter University Students Federation (IUSF) the Mahinda regime will not succeed in halting the student’s battle against measures to privatise university education.

26 July 2010