BADDEGAMA SAMITHA is a member of the Central Committee of the New Socialist Party (NSSP) in Sri Lanka. In Sydney in early January to attend the conference of the Democratic Socialist Party, he was interviewed by REIHANA MOHIDEEN.
Could you please tell us about the origin and activity of the New Socialist Party?
The NSSP was formed in 1977. It is a party based on the working class, which aims to unite people along working-class lines.
Sri Lanka at the moment is divided along ethnic lines. It is almost a divided country. We would like to bring these communities together as working people, as the working class.
To do that we organise a party, the NSSP. It is a nationwide working-class party, a party which is small in numbers compared to capitalist reformist parties, but which is still influential in the trade unions and the student unions, and in organising the masses in the rural areas and in the suburbs of the towns and the capital city.
Our hope is to develop the independence of left-wingers from the reformist capitalist nationalist parties, to organise them into a left-wing alternative.
What is the position of the NSSP with regard to the Tamil struggle?
We stand for the self-determination of the Tamil people. We believe that they are a separate ethnic group. They speak a different language and predominantly live in one area. Therefore we feel they should decide their own fate.
What does this mean for the socialist movement in the south of Sri Lanka? Given that the national question is the main political question, how do you organise around that?
What we do is stand firmly on the position of self-determination for the Tamils, organising workers to support them and campaigning among the students and young people to support the national liberation of the Tamil people. Also we mobilise the left-oriented masses to spread the word.
It is not enough just to talk about self-determination. You must act accordingly. First we campaign to stop the war. The NSSP is organising intellectuals, the clergy, the workers and the youth and students — all possible forces — to stop the war.
Why have all attempts at negotiated settlements failed?
The negotiations have not been genuine. Successive governments, or whoever initiated the negotiations, had their own interests.
For example, the government would not want a real solution because they are making profits out of this war. The war is a big business for the government.
Also, if they stop the war, they have no excuses to give to the people in the rest of the country for the high cost of living. They hide all this through the war.
Even some militant groups don't appear to be interested in stopping the war, because it is the only thing that keeps them going as a force. Therefore, there is a kind of agreement, an informal agreement, between the government and some militants to continue the war.
The Tamil people and the Sinhalese people don't need this war: the state and those leading the so-called liberation struggle are making political profit as well as economic profit from the war. The war is not being fought for the people but for the interests of certain groups.
So there isn't genuine commitment on the part of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam [LTTE] to a negotiated settlement and stopping of the war?
So far they have been tactically smart in talking to the government. But in a year's negotiations, they never took the results back to the people. They did not come out with a positive result: the only result was a falling-out with the government and a renewal of the fighting. No, we never felt they were genuine in stopping the war.
Although the LTTE say this is a liberation struggle, they have not united the whole community along the liberation line, aiming for liberation despite other differences. Instead, the Tigers have wiped out the rest in internal fighting. The price paid by the Tamil people has been higher than that of the Sinhalese soldiers.
What is the situation inside the liberation movement? There were other groups — socialist or Marxist current — such as the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF).
In the north the LTTE is dominant, although there are some groups that are cooperating with the government. They are saying that you must first get rid of the fascist forces, the LTTE, that there is no point talking to it, and that you must fight against it and the only force that can do that is the Sri Lankan state.
The EPRLF will not join forces with the government. They do not want to fight against the LTTE even though the LTTE has killed many of their cadres and leaders. The EPRLF is mainly based in Colombo, so they are not active, but they have their parliamentarians and their human rights organisation.
So the NSSP's immediate demand is for a stop to the war and a negotiated settlement?
Yes. We believe that unless the war is stopped there is no possibility of negotiations. And we believe this is the demand of the Tamil population and the Sinhalese population, because it is their children who are being killed. We also demand the removal of emergency laws, and then free elections, so the Tamils can decide their own fate.
What are the repercussions of the war for democratic rights, and how has this affected the socialist movement and the workers' movement in the south?
These are very difficult times for us. Everything is for war, so the state is asking people to tighten their belts. The war is paralysing for the socialist movement because it divides people and divides the working class.
It is hard to organise because the government is repressive and violating human rights and cracking down on the left. The government is using every tactic. For example, the Southern Provincial Council was recently dissolved. In order to do that they forcibly took an elected opposition member and held him in an unknown place. This overcame the opposition's one-vote majority and allowed the government to dissolve the council.
People disappear for weeks and for months. The police take people into custody and hold them without trial.
One of the main opponents of Tamil self-determination was the JVP [People's Liberation Front]. What is the situation with the JVP since its leadership was killed by the government?
Its members and sympathisers are still around, but as an organisation it's dismantled and scattered. Most of the leaders fled the country, and the rank and file and the youth movement are now trying to survive independently.
Are there any groups campaigning to find out what has happened to people who have disappeared?
We have parents and children of the disappeared. Women are very active. Also a mothers' front led by the LSSP, the main opposition party.
The antiwar campaign is gathering momentum. It is something we really needed and a big breakthrough. The war affects the whole country even though it is being fought in the north.