Seven months on from the Sri Lankan popular uprising, Janaka Biyanwila looks at how government spin, backed up with state violence, is attempting to keep a lid on popular discontent.
Janaka Biyanwila
After nearly two months in self-imposed exile, former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa returned to Sri Lanka on September 3, reports Janaka Biyanwila.
The Sri Lankan government has begun escalating its repression against the popular movement that removed former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa from office, reports Janaka Biyanwila.
The people’s movement in Sri Lanka that converged in the last three months achieved its main objective on July 9 with President Nandasena Gotabhaya Rajapakse's offer to resign, reports Janaka Biyanwila.
Women’s Centre leader Padmini Weerasuriya discusses the unfolding Gota Go Gama popular uprising and women workers’ struggles in Sri Lanka.
Despite ongoing protests, shortages, 40% inflation and a historic debt default, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa says he will finish his term. His statement comes amid a wave of mass arrests of peaceful protestors, reports Janaka Biyanwila.
In a government that has lost its popular mandate, Ranil Wickramasinghe, former prime minister from the opposition United National Party, has offered his services to rescue Sri Lanka's regime, reports Janaka Biyanwila.
The institutional integration of sports with the military has reproduced authoritarian sports cultures, writes Janaka Biyanwila. Popular protests demanding regime change are also about demilitarising the state.
Since the beginning of March, protests have erupted across Sri Lanka demanding the resignation of President Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa, writes Janaka Biyanwila. These protests emerged in the context of rising costs of living, exacerbated by a foreign debt crisis.
A new adaptation of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard is analogous to the contemporary Australian context, writes Janaka Biyanwila.
Recent developments in the A-League football (soccer) competition in Australia help to show how the realm of sport entertainment is increasingly colonised by capitalist markets and how popular participation is undermined.
Green Left Weekly has reported on attacks on the rights of fans. They show how the owners of elite football clubs, the media and the state (particularly in terms of policing) undermine fans' rights, especially those engaged in “active support” in the stadium (singing, chanting, dancing, and banner waving).
