Sri Lanka: Crowd storms presidential palace, Gotabaya steps down

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Continue the revolution and overthrow the entire system!

Serge Jordan International Socialist Road

(This article was first published on July 10, 2022)

The crisis in Sri Lanka is developing rapidly and the situation is entering a new phase. On Saturday, July 9th, hundreds of people gathered in the capital Colombo to protest. The protest was started by young activists who occupied Galle Face Green, the center of the protest. . Today's protest reached a climax. The crowd rushed into the presidential palace of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, forcing Rajapaksa to flee just before the fall. That night, Gotabaya announced his resignation in response to the current street scene. Massive mass protests were celebrated across the country with fireworks after the announcement.

Many Tamil families celebrated and raised their eyebrows as Tamils, both in Sri Lanka and abroad, witnessed the disgraced and bloodthirsty dictator commit war crimes, torture, forcibly arrest their fellow citizens and have them "became by" disappeared”, even to the point of ethnic cleansing. The world's elite and bourgeois rulers are panicked by the current events in Sri Lanka, especially the economic, social crisis and political storm in this island country has become a mirror for many other countries, because the new situation of the global capitalist crisis Many countries have suffered from it.

Hundreds of protesters broke through the police cordon, entered the Presidential Palace, waved flags on the roof, and even jumped into the swimming pool of the Presidential Palace. The scene has been broadcast by major TV media around the world. This is not surprising, as the people of Sri Lanka have endured hours of daily power outages and endless queues for necessities under a powerful heatwave for months, but at the same time, a handful of corrupt politicians and billions The rich continue to live luxurious lives, as evidenced by Gotabaya's presidency.

The streets near the presidential palace have been occupied by a flood of protesters, who have expressed their outrage at the deceived rulers who have caused the vast majority of Sri Lankan citizens to suffer from economic disaster. Lack of fuel, a ban on private vehicles and a public transport system on the verge of collapse, did not stop people from traveling thousands of miles to participate in today's protests, some even from rural areas outside the capital Colombo. At noon that day, according to a reporter from Al Jazeera, "tens of thousands of Sri Lankan people are still entering the capital Colombo... Crowds poured into the railway station, asking the station staff to let them board the train and take them to Colombo, claiming to take back their country. "

Although the police, public security, and army wanted to stop the protest, it was impossible to disperse the protest in the face of a large and determined crowd. There are even reports that law enforcement officials in some countries sympathized with the protesters and joined the protesters. A video of police officers stopping patrol motorcycles, taking off their helmets and joining the protesters to shout slogans has been widely circulated on social media.

Sri Lankan police had expected to impose a curfew in the capital and other cities on Friday night to stop mass protests on Saturday, but it was lifted the next morning under pressure from opposition politicians and the bar. The government's protest prohibition order was also overturned in the Supreme Court's refusal, which also signaled the ruling class's struggle over how to deal with the societal pressures that are simmering from the bottom up and how large the next day is expected to be important. further split.

After today's incident, the U.S. ambassador to Sri Lanka called on the police to give the protesters "space". Some ruling classes are worried that the current state repression will fuel the arrogance of the revolution, and may even cause divisions among the grassroots military and police, as military, police and other forces capitulate disastrous economic policies and protect a distrustful and corrupt regime.

Resign

Faced with explosive developments, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was hiding in a safe and secret place, took the lead in announcing his resignation. He was nominated by the odious President for only two months and succeeded the President's brother- Mahinda became prime minister, and former prime minister Mahinda was forced to step down for similar reasons, triggering mass protests. This is the second prime minister to step down due to Sri Lanka's economic collapse and mass uprisings earlier this year.

The ruling class has gleefully named Wickremesinghe Prime Minister, to see if it can play down popular resistance and allow the brutal austerity policy to pass smoothly, resulting in such an unmanageable situation today. Not surprisingly, the former prime minister's private residence was set on fire by protesters. Under Wickremesinghe, the crisis has only gotten worse, and it is only a matter of time before the situation reaches a new breaking point.

After Gotabaya's presidential palace was stormed, 16 MPs from the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party (SLPP) called for the president's resignation, even though they had supported Gotabaya until the last minute . Possibly influenced by the social climate, one of Gotabaya's former advisers declared that "the president is gone, it doesn't matter what he says - he's already an irrelevant figure." The cabinet spoke hours after the prime minister's resignation Abe Wadena confirmed to the public that Gotabaya intends to resign "next week". At the time of writing, Gotabaya's whereabouts remain unknown, although footage shows him and his family quickly boarding a naval vessel and setting sail.

The movement's goals and slogans have shifted from the popular "Gotta get out" and the overthrow of the current president to what to do next. The main opposition parties have tried their best to cobble together various forces to push "all parties" to form a coalition government, but in fact the anger of the Sri Lankan people is not limited to the Rajapaksa family. The political organization and system on the table are the source of chaos. We can reasonably say that none of the groups on the table could propose an economic policy radically different from the one pursued by the Rajapaksa dynasty and its successor governments. No political party on the table - whether it is Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), the People's Liberation Front (Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, JVP) or the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) - opposed the outgoing cabinet Its central strategy and goal is to seek more financial aid from the International Monetary Fund and use a more brutal austerity program to force already miserable workers and poorer living standards.

This time the youth, working class and poor masses of Sri Lanka have shown great revolutionary energy and potential, despite the burdens of life they have shouldered for months. They once again told everyone that only their own class mobilization and organization can force the ruling class to make concessions, rather than relying on other forces. The people of Sri Lanka must know that the struggle should not stop at this stage, but should continue. General strikes and the "Hartal" general shutdown in April and May this year demonstrated the important role unions and the working class played in intensifying the movement.

But the masses must also develop their own alternative to the revolution, rather than giving individual unrepresentative bourgeois politicians arbitrary decisions about the needs of the masses and the direction of the kidnapping movement. Alternatives could begin with the establishment of local grassroots action committees in workplaces, universities, towns and villages, making these committees the organizing nucleus for representatives of the working class and revolutionaries to form their own governments in the future and see hope for change. The committees are democratically elected, reflecting and accountable to the vast majority of active workers, poor peasants, revolutionary youth, and all the oppressed Sri Lankans. The committee begins by breaking the constitution of the totalitarian, chauvinistic, Sinhalese Buddhist Centre, and then debates the way out of Sri Lanka's bankrupt political and economic system.

In addition, the masses must be deliberately prepared to defend themselves against a dangerous and bloody repression, or even a possible military coup. A clear call for class solidarity was issued to the grassroots military and police, asking them not to violently suppress mass movements.

With clear movement direction and renewed discussions, we will be able to envision a post-Rajapaksa society vision without escaping the difficult and complex issues, including acknowledging previous repression and abuse of Tamils and war reparations, affirmative action and the right to self-determination. Sri Lanka's defense chief Shavendra Silva recently called on the public to "support the military and the police," in part reflecting fears at the top of the military that his bloody past would be revealed and that his corruption with Rajapaksa would be openly investigated. All should be investigated. Not only Rajapaksa, all criminals, military personnel or retired soldiers should be tried for war crimes, encourage the construction of mass resistance to end the military occupation of the Tamils in the east and north, excessive military budget must be cut Drop it and use it instead for social needs. Demands such as these are vital to the unity of the Tamil and Sinhalese youth workers.

The mass occupation of the Presidential Palace in Colombo today opens a new chapter in the Sri Lankan revolution, events that will occupy the international page. The new victory has driven out the corrupt, totalitarian, chauvinist regime puppets, but with Sri Lanka's economic problems unresolved, there are still huge challenges ahead that cannot be solved by a country-wide, capitalist approach solve.

Urgent measures such as refusing to compromise with greedy international borrowers, repaying debts, imposing price caps on necessities, imposing public controls on capital flows, and immediately investigating the wealth of the Rajapaksa family, the mass movement must have The unanimous plan calls for fundamental changes to the profit-oriented capitalist system at home and abroad, and supports workers to take the lead in the production and distribution of the island's economy, and use it in the democratic and socialist planned economy. Above all, the masses must form their own parties to achieve this goal, without trusting any foreign powers and their institutions. These bourgeois institutions will only act according to their own economic interests and geo-strategies. Instead, the masses need to show support and pass on experience to workers in South Asia and other countries around the world. People in these regions are also being hit hard by the global food and energy crisis and will also be Inspired by the experience of the massive uprising in Sri Lanka as a model.