Tsunami disaster

Sri Lanka after the tsunami

USP campaigns for democratic relief and reconstruction programme

THE GROTESQUE picture of devastation is slowly emerging and haunting us. In the context of 40,000 reported deaths in Sri Lanka, the United Socialist Party (USP) has suffered big losses of its forces.

Siritunga Jayasuriya, General Secretary, United Socialist Party, (CWI, Sri Lanka)

In the recent meeting of the extended central committee of the party it was reported that at least 86 sympathisers of the USP have died.

The brunt of the tsunami was borne by the eastern part of the island. The principal town Pottuvil has seen the worst disaster in its living memory, nearly 2,000 houses have been swept away without trace.

Most of the eastern part of the island of Sri Lanka is inhabited by Tamil-speaking Muslims, and is historically a very poor and neglected area. In the last 20 years of war the people of this region are neither accepted by the south as they are Tamil speaking, nor do the northern Tamils completely accept them as their own as they are Muslims.

Hats off to the self-sacrificing and heroic USP comrades of Pottuvil. Within hours of the disaster they swung into action to save people from dying in the debris and the swamp that was left by the killer tsunami.

The USP of Pottuvil literally saved nearly 120 families from death, by going to the island created by the devastation. As the only bridge was cut off due to inundation, the comrades, led by Abdul Jabbar, made makeshift catamarans to reach the other end and gave food and water to many children, women and elderly and saved them from starving to death.

It was only due to the fighting efforts of the comrades of the USP that the government agencies involved in relief work were forced to go to these areas to give succour.

Tsunami in the south

THOUGH THERE was a delay in the arrival of the monster tsunami in the south by 30-40 minutes, it was as deadly there as anywhere else. The entire southern coast, starting from south of Colombo (Morotuwa) to Hambantota and including Yala the National Animal sanctuary, is the tourist belt. Many poor Sri Lankans eke out a living based on the tourist industry on the very shores of the Indian ocean.

One cannot imagine the devastation that has taken place. Middle-sized boats used in fishing in deep sea have been thrown onto the roads and very few can be salvaged. Homes have been reduced to rubble, the scene of children's toys, clothes and books stuck and clinging on to the near by shrubs and trees haunts the passers by.

The now infamous and ill-fated "Samudra Devi" (Queen of the Sea) train as it reached Akurala, near Hikkaduwa, was hit by the monster wave. It threw the 12-carriage train, along with the railings, one hundred metres away, killing up to 2,000 passengers.

It took the government agencies such as the police and medics 24 hours to reach that place; if an early aerial response had come to their rescue, many lives could have been saved.

Destruction and discrimination

THE USP made a special effort to visit the affected areas of the north. With a team of other left leaders, NGOs and the press, the USP went up to Mullathivu to see for itself the volume of the damage caused by the tsunami on the already war-ravaged Tamil people.

It must be emphasised that for the USP this was not the first visit to the north since the ceasefire between the LTTE (the separatist Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam) and the government. The USP, as a political party of all working people, has already established its credentials by standing on a socialist programme in past elections in this area.

The visiting team first went to Jaffna and was met by the political leaders of the LTTE at the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation.

We had fraternal discussions to gauge the extent of the damage and also the discrimination that they face in relation to the supply of aid and relief items to the northern peninsula. To rub salt on the already war ravaged people the Sri Lankan government decision to send the army to manage the relief camps is seen as an affront to the Tamil people.

The team experienced no difficulty in going to the war areas. The Tamil authority that is in charge of the north did not obstruct the team from doing its own relief work to the people.

The most arduous journey was travelling to the jungles of Mullathivu which is considered as the stronghold of the LTTE. But it must be said that the people in general and the LTTE in particular, have suffered much damage by the tsunami.

The entire Mullathivu town which was once considered as the fisherman's rich town of the north has been completely washed away. All the buildings, schools and other dwellings have landed in the sea; there is no mark of habitation left. The extent of the monstrosity of the tsunami here can be gauged by the broken necks of the Palmyra trees which are usually ten metres tall.

Government crisis

WHILE THE tsunami has brought death and destruction to the Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim ordinary working poor, the rich and elite are trying solve their crisis through the tsunami relief.

The Sri Lankan government was on the brink of a financial precipice. It had just three weeks of foreign exchange left. The government had no money to meet the increased salary promises to the state sector employees. Interest payments of $55 million were hanging by a thread.

For president Chandrika the tsunami has been more than a blessing in disguise to this SLFP-led, communal JVP-infested government. Because of the massive inflow of foreign aid, the weak Sri Lankan rupee, which was dropping dramatically, has recovered by 20% against the British pound and 10% against the US dollar in the last week.

Even though the international media are talking about the fast recovery, nothing concrete has been started.

The actual relief for the affected people is yet to be seen on the ground. What foreign aid and medical relief is coming, is being siphoned by the JVP (a Sinhalese chauvinist party) and SLFP (a capitalist party) supporters in their areas to further their influence.

This capitalist government, strengthened by the tsunami, has already started covert war games. While giving the task of managing the relief camps to the army is bad enough, the invitation to the American, British and Indian armies to come to Sri Lanka for 'humanitarian aid' is an indirect act of war against all Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim people.

This weak capitalist regime of Sri Lanka is on a dangerous and self-destructive course. It is incapable of solving the fundamental problems of the ordinary people such as poverty, unemployment, disease, lack of proper and safe housing etc; and is historically and continuously depending on the forces of imperialism to do their policing.

USP programme

IN THIS critical period of the history of Sri Lanka, the United Socialist Party demands:

No to the foreign (American, British and Indian) armies which have arrived in the name of tsunami aid.
The tsunami aid which is a product of the sacrifices of the working people around the world should go to the needy people directly, as quickly as possible.
All the reconstruction and relief distribution should be in the hands of democratically-elected committees of the affected people and the trade unions.

To their shame the Sri Lankan capitalist class, including both the opposition UNP and the ruling UPFA, are united in their war efforts. We demand this parliament scraps the present defence budget and diverts these resources to the rehabilitation efforts of the tsunami victims.

We demand the Left and the trade unions of Sri Lanka rise up and come to to the aid of tsunami-affected people. This should be done by engaging the working class, the peasantry, fisherman, plantation workers and by those affected by the tsunami, in a national convention of the working people of Sri Lanka.

This convention should discuss the issue of the democratic distribution of the aid and the rehabilitation of the people. It should also discuss the dangerous trend of imperialist interests that are developing in the Sri Lankan society and to take the necessary step to stop such a disaster which will be much more dangerous than the tsunami.

CWI appeal

THE CWI appeal for donations to help the United Socialist Party (USP) in Sri Lanka after the tsunami disaster of 26 December 2004 has received an incredibly powerful and overwhelming response internationally.

Members in Pakistan, India and Kashmir, despite living in poverty conditions themselves, are collecting food, clothes, medicine and even money as well.

The CWI would also like to warmly thank the comrades of the Parti Socialis Malaysia. Even though Malaysia has also been affected by the tsunami, they have decided to collect money in support of the USP comrades in Sri Lanka. They have also demonstrated at the Indonesia embassy in support of the Acehnese fighters and against the government which allows the military to carry on its murderous 'anti-guerrilla' operations in spite of the ceasefire enacted by the Acehnese immediately after disaster struck.

In Austria, CWI members have been able to utilise the good relations they have with Austrian airline workers, gained through assisting them in struggle, to get vital assistance and advice in relation to delivering help to Sri Lanka.

Our newly elected councillor in Aachen, Germany, is putting forward a motion at the next council meeting, asking all councillors to donate their expenses towards the Campaign Sri Lanka. Socialist Party councillors in Lewisham are putting forward a motion to the council which calls on the Blair government to cancel the debt of the countries affected by the tsunami.

A school student from Hamburg in Germany wrote a leaflet and spoke in front of different classes at her school, explaining not only the need to donate money but also the need to cancel the debt of the affected countries. She ignited a number of political discussions and succeeded in raising a fantastic Û436.81 from fellow students and teachers. (see report below)

Elevkampanjen, an anti-capitalist youth organisation in Sweden, raised a marvellous amount of Û2,500 at their annual conference.

CWI parties in Belgium, France and England and Wales have also been collecting money, clothes, tents and medical supplies, etc.

What is the money for?

THE MONEY coming in to our appeal account is being transferred to Sri Lanka. It is paying for urgent supplies of medicine and food and financing the transport of USP full-time comrades and other members on visits to all the affected areas of the island. It will also go towards publishing leaflets, posters and a new issue of the party's paper - Red Star - which has the front page headline: "US troops leave now!"

Unlike almost all other bodies concerned with the relief effort, all accounts of the money collected are open for all to see.

Given the situation on the ground - the unequal and discriminatory distribution of aid, the attempts by communalists (and government forces) to stir up tensions between the Tamil and Sinhalese community - the intervention of the USP can play a pivotal role in trying to ensure that a political mobilisation takes place along united class lines.

USP travels the island

Amazingly, all the USP's members have survived the tsunami. Those who had been reported missing have been found alive. However, many comrades have lost family members and friends. Having lost their homes, a number of comrades and their families live under horrific conditions in camps for displaced people.

Despite difficult circumstances, comrades from the capital Colombo have travelled the island, in order to deliver aid and to get a first hand account of the situation unfolding in the camps. They have also visited the camps in the north of the island where Siritunga Jayasuriya, general secretary of the USP, was able to address big meetings of the people made destitute.

The USP received a very good response when they exposed the hypocrisy and true intentions of US imperialism and also of Indian imperialism. Both are allegedly deploying troops for humanitarian reasons but, in truth, are aiming for increased economic and military control in the region.

Distribution of aid in Sri Lanka is still chaotic, bureaucratic, probably corrupt and certainly discriminatory. Under the guise of being 'even-handed', the government is trying to take control over all emergency supplies that arrive at Colombo airport and elsewhere.

Undoubtedly aid is being used as a political weapon; cronies are favoured and Tamil-speaking people in the north and east discriminated against. The USP is demanding that all aid and reconstruction supplies and programmes are put under the control of elected committees of workers and poor peasants.

THE COMMITTEE for a Workers' International (CWI) is the socialist international organisation to which the Socialist Party is affiliated.

Support and solidarity in Doncaster

WHEN I heard about the appeal for clothes, tents, etc, after the tsunami for our sister party in Sri Lanka, the United Socialist Party, I contacted all Doncaster branch members to ask for any useful items they could spare.

Mary Jackson, Doncaster

I also mentioned the appeal in some local shops. One immediately found ten picnic sets in the storeroom. Alan the butcher gave me ten barbecue plates and asked me to call back in a few days. He told his family and they got together five bin-liners full of cotton sheets, towels, summer clothes and plastic containers!

My neighbour, Diane, due to go into hospital the next morning for reconstructive surgery after a particularly aggressive cancer, came round. She told me that she was really upset about the tsunami disaster - when I asked her about going into hospital, she said that this was more important.

She came round because, she said: "I knew if anyone was doing something it would be you." She then called all her relatives and friends and managed to collect eight bin bags of summer clothes, not finishing until 9pm that night.

Another neighbour gave me all her towels and tea towels, saying she could easily buy more. At work, colleagues filled my car with sleeping bags and a tent, which one of them had won in the Christmas raffle and donated straightaway to the appeal.

The response was amazing - within three days, I had too much to fit into my little Metro. A new member, Adam, donated two bags of t-shirts. David, who only joined the Socialist Party a week before, had gone round all the charity shops but, unknown to us, my friend's mother had already been! He readily agreed to take the goods to Sheffield as a first step on the way to London and then Sri Lanka.

London meeting

THE SOLIDARITY shown by ordinary working people and the questions now being asked were demonstrated by the 77 people who came to central London's Socialist Party meeting on the tsunami disaster.

Paula Mitchell

The meeting was organised at very short notice, yet one-third of those who came were new to the party. In the previous week, we put posters up around different parts of London, leafleted on Saturday stalls and at workplaces and colleges. Two people came from seeing posters, others were brought by members or after reading our leaflets.

Clare Doyle, from the Committee for a Workers International, explained how capitalism is to blame, both for the extent of the tragedy and the slow, stingy response of governments and big business.

Senan, Socialist Party member from Sri Lanka, explained about the particular conditions in Sri Lanka and the work of the United Socialist Party there.

Over £1,400 was donated to Campaign Sri Lanka and a further £140 to the Socialist Party's fighting fund. Three people joined at the meeting, convinced of the need to fight for a socialist alternative to the capitalist system which turns natural events into human disasters.

International solidarity

GINA, a Hamburg school student and CWI member explains how she successfully appealed for international solidarity.

"AT MY school, I collected €436.81 in donations for the Free Trade Union Centre (FTUC) in Sri Lanka in only two days.

To me, being a socialist also means to quickly estimate situations and to provide political answers to them. In discussions at school, I had to counter a number of arguments. Initially, a lot of school students believed that the tsunami disaster was 'simply' a natural disaster and that we can trust the UN to deal with the consequences and the human misery of the disaster.

With the help of the first statements of the CWI, I wrote an 'Information sheet'. The sheet contained general information on Sri Lanka (the situation after the civil war, difficulties between the Tamil and Sinhalese population etc.) I also added the following demands which the United Socialist Party is campaigning for:

No religious, political or ethnic discrimination in distributing the aid
Democratic control over all aid and emergency programmes, through elected committees of workers and poor people in every area
The cancellation of all foreign debts
Money to be spent on relief and construction - not on arms and warfare
Effective tsunami warning systems to be installed

Moreover, I had the intention of criticising the work of the big charity organisations, such as UNICEF. I wanted to make clear that it should be down to the workers, poor peasants and fishermen themselves to decide what to do with the money, through committees in order to reconstruct the region in a sustainable way and, of course, to guarantee that help reaches minorities and poor people. I also pointed out that the charity organisation 'Brot fur die Welt' (Bread for the World), for example, uses 50% of each donation for administration and staff etc.

Unfortunately, we were not allowed to directly collect money for our comrades from the USP because, formally, school laws forbid donations for political organisations. Therefore, the money was collected for the Free Trade Union Centre, which our comrades in Sri Lanka are politically collaborating with.

With this 'info-sheet', I went to the headmaster. Impressed by this 'work', he gave permission to organise a solidarity campaign.

I photocopied and distributed the leaflet and handed it out to all school students. I also announced the campaign through the school's loudspeaker system. The leaflet made it easier for school students to convince their friends and relatives because - as you all know - there sometimes is much more distrust of smaller organisations, even though I gave enough information about the FTUC, as well as a telephone number.

Then I visited each class and discussed with them. I quite openly, without any kind of censorship, put forward the CWI's analysis about the relationship between the catastrophe and the capitalist system we live under. Often, school students applauded our ideas.

I received €436.81 in only two days by putting up posters, making calls and being present during breaks to discuss with students. I remitted the money with Western Union Money Transfer to Siritunga in Colombo. Unfortunately, Western Union is charging €26 to deliver the money.

I urge everyone to test whether you could do something similar in your school, workplace or university. Even if people argue that they have already given money, we can explain to them that their donation will maybe not arrive where it is needed.

And, by the way, it goes without saying that it is really effective to ask teachers in front of their own class how much money they are ready to give!"