One year after the start of the Gaza genocide, Israel, with the support of US imperialism, is only intensifying its extermination and ethnic cleansing of the civilian population of Gaza.
A Palestinian man holds the body of a relative killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip at a hospital morgue in Deir al-Balah, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024 [AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana]
Between October 5 and 7, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of people from areas in northern Gaza as Israel continued its offensive near the Jabalia refugee camp.
Despite reports on social media that “Jabalia is being wiped out,” no death toll has been published, amid a near-total collapse of Gaza’s medical infrastructure.
“Attacks in northern Gaza, combined with mass evacuation orders, which are inconsistent with international humanitarian law, raise serious concerns about the forced displacement and forced transfer of Palestinian residents of Gaza,” the UN Human Rights office warned Monday.
On Tuesday, Israeli forces demanded the evacuation of the Kamal Adwan, Indonesian and al-Awda hospitals in northern Gaza within 24 hours.
“It is evident that there is a new plan to displace our people in northern Gaza by dismantling the healthcare system across all its sectors in this region,” said Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, in a statement. “We have informed everyone that the northern region is densely populated with a significant number of residents. We have the right to continue providing services to these people. We will remain steadfast, we will stay, and we will continue to offer medical services no matter the cost.”
He added in an interview with CNN, “What is happening is arbitrary and clear displacement of the residents from northern Gaza.” He continued, “Kamal Adwan Hospital is still the only hospital operating in the north, so putting the hospital out of service would be a big disaster for the people who need (it). There are still many patients in the hospital and there are many babies and children in the neonatal unit, so it is difficult to evacuate.”
The United Nations reported in its daily update that in northern Gaza, “more than 400,000 people are under pressure to move southward to Al Mawasi, which is already overcrowded and lacks basic services. Humanitarian access also risks becoming further constrained, particularly between southern and northern Gaza, and so are the accessibility and functionality of key humanitarian facilities within areas slated for evacuation.”
These ethnic cleansing operations are accompanied by constant bombing, artillery bombardment and shootings by Israeli troops.
The deliberate starvation of the population of Gaza is only intensifying. A report by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) found that the amount of food supplies entering Gaza in September was the lowest since March of 2023 and there was a major decline in the availability of food for children aged 6-23 months and pregnant and breastfeeding women across Gaza.
According to the report, “only five percent of pregnant and breastfeeding women had consumed dairy products, and six percent of children had eaten some meat, with these percentages plummeting to one and three percent in northern Gaza, respectively.”
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Chris Gunness, a former spokesman for the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, accused Israel of carrying out a “slaughter” of the people of Gaza.
“In the last year, we have seen Gaza transform from the world’s largest open-air prison to the world’s largest concentration camp,” Gunness told Al Jazeera.
“Today, Gaza has been transformed into an industrial-scale slaughterhouse. And I use the word ‘slaughter’ advisedly because frankly animals in most abattoirs around the world are killed more humanely than the women and children of Gaza.”
In remarks on the first anniversary of the start of the Gaza genocide, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, “The nightmare in Gaza is now entering an atrocious, abominable second year.”
He added, “More than 41,000 [Palestinians] have been reportedly killed, mostly women and children. Thousands more are missing and believed to be trapped under the rubble. Virtually the entire population has been displaced—and no part of Gaza has been spared.”
He continued, “We are witnessing a clear intensification of military operations by Israel. Residential areas have been attacked. Hospitals ordered to evacuate. And electricity cut off—with no fuel or commercial goods allowed in. Around 400,000 people are being pressed yet again to move south to an area that is overcrowded, polluted, and lacking the basics for survival.”
He concluded, “No place is safe in Gaza, and no one is safe.”
Israel’s assault on Gaza is being accompanied by an Israeli military offensive throughout the Middle East, with a direct attack on Iran under discussion with the Biden administration in the US amid active operations in Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.
In a speech Tuesday addressing the people of Lebanon, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened the country with destruction “like Gaza.”
“You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza,” Netanyahu threatened, demanding that all resistance to Israel surrender.
Israeli strikes killed 36 people across Lebanon on Tuesday and wounded 150. Since mid-September, 1,473 people in Lebanon have been killed by Israeli strikes.
On Tuesday, Israel also carried out a strike in Damascus, Syria, killing seven civilians and wounding 11 more, according to Syrian state television.
[This article was originally published in WSWS here on 09 October 2024]
~Given the enduring supremacy of oil and gas, countries holding large, cheap reserves of the commodity remain essential to geopolitical calculations~
The United States and Israel are on the brink of war with Iran. While the Biden administration has publicly stated that it does not want “escalation,” it has made clear that it will support Israel regardless of what Netanyahu does. Nearly every bomb dropped on Gaza and Lebanon was made in the US and given for free to Israel by the Biden-Harris administration.
A natural gas refinery in the South Pars gas field in Asalouyeh, Iran, on the northern coast of Persian Gulf. November 19, 2015 [AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi]
For Netanyahu, who faces multiple criminal indictments once he leaves office, this moment presents an opportunity to realize the long-held, grotesque ambitions of the Israeli ruling class: to destroy the Iranian regime through war. As the Financial Timeswarned this past weekend, “the chances of an Israeli attempt to topple the Iranian regime cannot be fully discounted.” The paper noted that last week Netanyahu declared, “When Iran is finally free—and that moment will come a lot sooner than people think—everything will be different.”
The Trump faction of the American ruling class has expressed its full backing for such a war. Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and former Middle East adviser, wrote a long post on X arguing for Israel and the US to topple the Iranian regime. He stated, “Iran is now fully exposed. … Failing to take full advantage of this opportunity to neutralize the threat is irresponsible.”
Though other sections of the ruling class have voiced concerns about the spiraling situation, the logic of their position—unconditional support for Israel’s actions—puts them on the same road toward war with Iran. The Democrats may have tactical differences with Trump about how to overthrow the Iranian regime but both salivate at the prospect of doing so.
The removal of the Iranian regime, while a geopolitical end in itself for American imperialism, is also a critical steppingstone in its economic and military confrontation with its chief adversary: China. All factions of the American ruling class unconditionally support Israel because they know that controlling the resource-rich Middle East—and ending the Ayatollah’s power—will significantly increase their power and flexibility in a war with China.
The importance of Iranian hydrocarbons
Iran is a large country, roughly the size of Spain, Ukraine and France combined. Eighty-nine million people live there. Compared to Iraq, its neighbor, which was invaded by the US in 2003, Iran has almost four times as many people and a far more sophisticated military and economy.
Iran has a long history of colonial subjugation, including British control over its oil industry in the first half of the 20th century, the CIA-MI6 coup in 1953 to prevent the nationalization of its oil industry and several decades of bloody rule by the US-backed Shah.
Everyone knows that Iran’s wealth primarily comes from its oil. Iran produces a little more than 3 million barrels of oil per day, about 3 percent of the world’s total. What is not as well understood, however, is the potential for Iran’s oil production to expand. Only three other countries in the world have larger reserves of commercially realistic oil (Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iraq). Additionally, Iran has the second-largest reserve of natural gas in the world after Russia.
Oil and natural gas remain the energetic bedrock of the global economy. Despite efforts to promote new alternative energies, the “energy transition” under capitalism remains a half-hearted and contradictory affair. The principal concern of the US and Europe with their investment in EVs and critical minerals is not stopping global warming but ensuring their economic and geopolitical supremacy vis-à-vis China, which has excelled in this area. Fifty-seven percent of the world’s energy comes from oil and gas, another 27 percent from coal, and just 1 percent comes from solar, a record high.
Given the enduring supremacy of oil and gas, countries holding large, cheap reserves of the commodity remain essential to geopolitical calculations. It is striking that Russia, Iraq and Iran—after Saudi Arabia—are the world’s largest holders of cheap oil reserves. Each country has been a principal target of US imperialism over the last quarter-century. The US invaded Iraq and is now on the brink of war with both Russia and Iran, the second and third largest holders of oil and gas reserves.
What is more, each of them—partially due to being squeezed and sidelined by economic sanctions—has a relatively underdeveloped oil industry, deprived of vital streams of capital and advanced technology required for production. This is evident in the case of Iraq, where after the US’s brutal invasion, American and European oil companies significantly raised production, increasing output from 2 million to almost 5 million barrels per day today.
The US oil boom’s role in imperialist strategy
Were the current US-Israeli onslaught taking place 10 or 15 years ago, the impact on global markets would be significantly worse. In the last few days, oil prices have risen by about 10 percent, the largest increase in two years since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, a dramatic shift in global oil and gas markets has tempered the effect.
In the last 15 years, the US has experienced the largest oil and gas boom in world history through hydraulic fracturing. This method allowed the US to grow from about 5 million barrels of production per day (mb/d) to over 13 mb/d. This represents about 15 percent of the world’s oil supply and is the only major source of supply growth internationally during this time.
The US ruling class is in an entirely different situation today regarding controlling global oil and gas production than when it was planning the Iraq invasion in the late 1990s and early 2000s. By being able to put a lid on oil and gas prices through fracking, US imperialism has been able to afford the loss of oil from Libya, Russia and Iran on the world market, allowing the US and its NATO allies to squeeze these countries and make plans for their regimes’ overthrow. (In Libya’s case, a “successful” plan that has led to a permanent state of civil war.)
The US oil boom, however, will not last forever. Generous estimates give it another 10 years, after which it will precipitously fall.
In his critical work Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism written in 1916, Lenin explained the importance of imperialism remaining one step ahead of its current needs. He wrote,
The more capitalism develops, the more the need for raw materials arises, the more bitter competition becomes, and the more feverishly the hunt for raw materials proceeds all over the world, the more desperate becomes the struggle for the acquisition of colonies.
To this, one could add that resources also deplete, and as they deplete, this “feverish hunt” further intensifies.
Where are the future supplies of oil and natural gas—so vital to the global economy—that will persist as other sources dry up, such as US fracking? They remain in the Middle East and Russia, with Iran, Russia, Iraq and Saudi Arabia being some of the most important future sources.
China and the US
It is important to stress that a key driver of US imperialism is the growing military and economic collision with China’s development. The US and its allies are fundamentally opposed to giving Chinese capitalism a “seat at the table” of the most advanced capitalist countries.
For several decades, China served as the cheap goods platform for the world’s major companies. But due to its own internal development—particularly in education and more advanced manufacturing processes—China has now created domestically controlled industries that seriously challenge US and European companies.
This is most obvious in the realm of automobiles, where Chinese EVs, advanced and cheaper than those of the US, have experienced rapid growth. In just a few years, China’s auto exports have gone from being a small fraction of those of Japan, the US and Germany to now overtaking all of them.
Having completely jettisoned past rhetoric of “free trade,” the US and its allies seek to prohibit Chinese corporations from playing a major role in the global economy at all costs. Confronting its own deepening economic and social contradictions, the US seeks to use its still dominant military and financial power to undermine the economic rise of China.
A central reason to control geostrategic resources like oil and minerals is not simply to profit from them but to pressure countries by denying access to this vital supply of energy and resources.
China, for its part, has much of the world’s critical mineral processing located inside the country, posing a problem for US imperialism’s war plans. However, while China has a relative advantage in critical minerals and batteries, the US has the advantage in oil and gas, at least for the next five to 10 years.
A RAND Corporation study on how the US could win a war against China noted, “If China is vulnerable to critical shortages in a war with the United States, it could be … in oil supplies, of which it imports about 60 percent and has a declared strategic reserve of just ten days.” Indeed, it is likely that one of the key reasons China was so quick to pioneer EV technology was its ruling class’s awareness of this serious weakness.
Almost all the oil China imports comes from the Middle East. Now that that oil no longer flows to the US, due to the fracking boom, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia, Iraq and the UAE send their oil east to China. China imports a staggering 11.4 mb/d of oil, making it the largest importer of oil in the world. China is the top recipient of Iranian oil.
Oil and World War III
Taking the geopolitical situation as a whole:
The US currently has control over global oil and gas markets more than any other country.
This level of dominance, however, has a limited window of about five to 10 years before that control significantly erodes due to the eventual decline of fracking.
The US, economically threatened, plans for a military confrontation with China centered around Taiwan.
China is strategically vulnerable when it comes to oil, relying on massive daily flows of oil from the Middle East. Iran’s largest oil export partner is China.
The Middle East and Russia, in the long term, will be the principal sources of the world’s remaining oil and gas. Iran is one of the single largest sources of undeveloped oil and gas reserves.
Taking these components together, it is evident that Iran’s oil and gas are of great interest to the United States and its partners. While many other factors go into the consideration of war, it is no accident that the principal targets of US imperialism are the most resource-rich countries in the world.
Netanyahu’s threats that Iran will “soon be free” reflect the fact that Israel, acting as a US attack dog, has been given a blank check to restructure the Middle East. The Israeli ruling class has its own distinct set of interests, but the Israeli war machine is ultimately funded, armed and driven by US geostrategic interest in the region.
This is the cold geostrategic logic that underlies the US-Israeli war against Iran and its proxies in the Middle East. The US seeks to strengthen and deepen its hold over this vital region as it prepares for a potential war against China.
For those who are disgusted by the rampage of Israel in the region and the blood-soaked, hypocritical role of the US, it is essential to understand that this war is not a “policy choice.” Capitalism, in its nationalist pursuit of profits at all costs, drives American imperialism toward a conflict that threatens the lives of billions of people. However irrational and dangerous, the American ruling class sees no other way out to its deepening spiral of economic, social and political crisis.
[This article was originally published in the WSWS here on 07 October 2024]
Statement of the Socialist Lead of Sri Lanka and South Asia (SLLA), the Revolutionary Left Faction of the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) of Sri Lanka.
In the Presidential Election to be held on September 21, the working class, youth, students, peasants and the oppressed middle class have no choice between any of the capitalist, right-wing and pseudo-left parties that contest the election. The only choice is their own party, the Socialist Equality Party (SEP), the Sri Lankan section of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), the World Party of Socialist Revolution, that stands alone in this election, advancing a program based on the principles of international socialism: against imperialist war, austerity and for democratic rights. A vote for SEP is an expression of approval to uphold and advance the perspective and program of the ICFI for international socialism, that can genuinely emancipate the working class from the tyranny of capital. SLLA therefore calls upon our class brothers and sisters to vote for SEP in this election.
The global capitalist crisis and its manifestation in Sri Lanka and South Asia
The profound crisis engulfing Sri Lanka or any other country in South Asia is not an isolated phenomenon but a concentrated expression of the global breakdown of capitalism. Decades of neoliberal policies, dictated by imperialist financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and willingly implemented by successive governments, have driven the working masses into an abyss of social misery. The soaring inflation, unemployment, squalid working conditions, inequality and pervasive poverty are not aberrations but the direct consequences of a global system that prioritizes profit over human need.
The capitalist ruling elite in Sri Lanka—whether under the guise of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), or any other bourgeois formation—has no solution to this crisis. They are committed to further austerity measures, deeper cuts to essential social services, and more severe attacks on the living standards of the working people, which President Ranil Wickremasinghe has spearheaded since the suppression and betrayal of the 2022 mass uprising. These parties, regardless of their superficial differences, serve the same class interests: those of the domestic and international bourgeoisie.
The working class in Sri Lanka, as in every other country, is trapped in a system that is both incapable of reform and unwilling to concede even the most basic social rights. It is a system that is inexorably driving humanity towards economic devastation, environmental catastrophe, and the threat of global war. The SEP alone insists that the solution lies not in patchwork reforms or the replacement of one capitalist party with another but in the revolutionary overthrow of the capitalist system itself.
The Global Escalation of US Imperialism: From Ukraine and Gaza to Asia
The eruption of US-NATO’s war against Russia in Ukraine and the genocidal onslaught by Israel in Gaza are not isolated events but integral components of a broader strategy of global domination pursued by American imperialism. These conflicts, along with the escalating tensions in Asia, are driven by the relentless pursuit of the United States to maintain its global hegemony in the face of intensifying economic and geopolitical challenges. The working class in Sri Lanka, like workers around the world, is being dragged into this maelstrom of imperialist violence, which threatens to engulf the entire region in a catastrophic war.
In Ukraine, the US and its NATO allies have provoked and sustained a brutal conflict aimed at weakening Russia, one of the key rivals to US dominance in Eurasia. The war in Ukraine, which has already claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, is not about defending democracy or Ukrainian sovereignty, as Washington claims, but about advancing American strategic interests by encircling and destabilizing Russia. This conflict is pushing the world toward a nuclear confrontation with incalculable consequences for humanity.
Simultaneously, the genocidal bombardment of Gaza by Israel, fully backed and armed by the United States and other imperialist powers including Germany, is a stark expression of US imperialism’s ruthless determination to secure its dominance in the Middle East. The slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, coupled with Washington’s unwavering support for Israeli apartheid, is a crime of historic proportions, exposing the hypocrisy and barbarism of US foreign policy. The imperialist drive in the Middle East, like in Europe and Asia, is about controlling key resources and strategic territories to bolster hegemony of the Wall Street.
These aggressive moves are part of a broader imperialist strategy that is now rapidly expanding into Asia, where the US is building a vast military alliance aimed at encircling and confronting China. Sri Lanka, situated at a critical juncture in the Indian Ocean, finds itself increasingly caught in the crosshairs of this escalating conflict. As the US intensifies its military preparations against China, compelling its regional allies and partners to fall in line, Sri Lanka is being drawn into the vortex of war. The Colombo government’s increasing alignment with Washington, under immense economic and political pressure, threatens to transform the island into a frontline state in the impending imperialist war in Asia.
These interconnected conflicts—whether in Ukraine, Gaza, or the Indo-Pacific—are all manifestations of the same underlying crisis of global capitalism. The working class in Sri Lanka must recognize that their struggle is inseparably linked to the struggles of the international value producing class against imperialist war. The ICFI has called for the building of a powerful international anti-war movement, led by the working class, to oppose the US-NATO war drive, defend the rights of the oppressed in Gaza, and resist the imperialist encirclement of China. Only through the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of socialism can the descent into global war and barbarism be stopped. Only the SEP fights for this program.
The SEP’s Revolutionary Program: For an International Socialist Strategy
The SEP’s program is grounded in the principles of Marxism, as defended and elaborated by the ICFI. It is a program that uncompromisingly opposes all forms of nationalism, opportunism, and reformism, which seek to chain the working class to the capitalist state and its parties. The ICFI fights for the political independence of the working class, based on the understanding that the working class is the only social force capable of leading a revolutionary transformation of society.
Central to the SEP’s program is the principle of internationalism. The global nature of the capitalist crisis demands a global solution. The SEP rejects all nationalist illusions and insists that the struggle for socialist revolution must begin in the national arena, unfold in the international arena and be completed in the world arena. This demands the building of sections of the ICFI in each country of the world. The working class in Sri Lanka must unite with their class brothers and sisters around the world in a common fight against the capitalist system.
The SEP’s program includes:
The Establishment of a Workers’ Government: The SEP calls for the establishment of a workers’ and peasants’ government, committed to the socialist reorganization of society. This government would expropriate the major industries, banks, and financial institutions, placing them under the democratic control of the working class.
A Socialist Planned Economy: The SEP advocates for a planned economy based on social need, not private profit. This includes the nationalization of all major industries and resources, ensuring that the wealth produced by the working class is used to meet the needs of society as a whole.
The Rejection of IMF Austerity: The SEP opposes all austerity measures imposed by the IMF and other imperialist financial institutions. The party demands the repudiation of all foreign debts that have been used to impoverish the masses while enriching the capitalist elite.
Defense of Democratic Rights: The SEP fights for the defense and extension of democratic rights, including the right to strike, protest, and organize independently of the capitalist state and its political apparatus. The party also opposes all forms of ethnic and religious discrimination, recognizing that such divisions serve to weaken the working class and strengthen the ruling elite.
Opposition to Militarism and War: The SEP unequivocally opposes the militarization of society and the drive towards war, whether in Sri Lanka, US or globally. The party stands for the dismantling of the military-industrial complex including the nuclear war-heads and the reallocation of resources to meet pressing social needs.
Solidarity with the international working class: The SEP is committed to building a worldwide movement of the working class against capitalism. The party expresses full solidarity with the independent struggles of workers in every country, from the strikes in Europe and the United States to the mass protests across Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Rallying youth and students in the struggle for socialism: The SEP recognizes that youth and students are a vital force in the struggle for socialism. Under capitalism, young people face a future of unemployment, precarious work, and ever-increasing levels of debt. The capitalist system offers them nothing but a life of exploitation and insecurity. The SEP calls upon youth and students to break with the bourgeois parties and movements that seek to trap them in a dead-end of reformism and identity politics, to rally behind the working class and build ICFI’s youth-wing, the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE).
The Bankruptcy of the NPP and FSP: No Alternative for the Working Class
In the midst of the deepening social crisis in Sri Lanka, parties like the National People’s Power (NPP) and the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP) pose as alternatives to the established bourgeois parties. However, their history, programs and political activities reveal that these organizations are fundamentally opposed to the interests of the working class and serve only to prop up the capitalist order.
The NPP, led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a right-wing party of the capitalist establishment, claims to represent a “progressive” alternative to the traditional parties, yet its entire political orientation is toward the preservation of capitalism. The JVP’s program is rooted in the same nationalist and reformist outlook that has characterized its politics since its inception. The NPP offers no genuine solution to the catastrophic conditions facing the masses. It proposes mild reforms within the framework of capitalism, failing to address the systemic causes of the crisis. The NPP’s calls for anti-corruption measures and a more “efficient” capitalist state are nothing more than attempts to conceal the root causes of the bourgeois crisis and divert the growing anger of the working class into safe channels that do not threaten the existing order.
Moreover, the NPP’s chauvinist history, including its role in supporting the communalist war against the Tamil population, exposes its inability to unite the working class across ethnic lines. Its record demonstrates that it cannot be trusted to defend the democratic rights of all workers. Instead, it seeks to foster illusions in the possibility of a “clean” and “fair” capitalist government, a delusion that only serves to disarm the working class in the face of escalating social attacks. If and when they are in power, the NPP will strengthen the capitalist oppression on the working class, in line with imperialist demands.
The Frontline Socialist Party (FSP), which broke away from the JVP in 2012, similarly fails to provide a revolutionary alternative. While the FSP engages in more radical rhetoric and criticizes the JVP for its “betrayals”, it remains fundamentally committed to a nationalist and populist perspective. The FSP, like the NPP, advocates for reforms within the capitalist system rather than its overthrow. Its program is based on the false premise that the Sri Lankan state can be pressured to act in the interests of the working class if enough “progressive” forces are mobilized.
The FSP’s nationalist orientation also places it in opposition to the internationalist principles that are essential for the liberation of the working class. It seeks to channel workers’ struggles into the dead-end of parliamentary politics, where they can be more easily controlled and dissipated. The FSP’s alliance with trade unions, which are deeply integrated into the state apparatus and function as tools of capitalist control, further underscores its role in maintaining the status quo.
The SEP/ICFI Perspective on the Tamil National Question
SEP- Sri Lanka and the ICFI have a principled and historically grounded perspective on resolving the Tamil national question—one that stands in stark contrast to the bankrupt nationalism of the Tamil bourgeoisie and the chauvinism of the Sinhalese ruling elite. The SEP insists that the democratic rights of the Tamil people can only be secured through the united struggle of the entire working class in Sri Lanka—Sinhalese, Tamil, and Muslim—based on an internationalist and socialist program.
The roots of the Tamil national question lie in the reactionary partition of British India in 1947, which left behind a series of communal conflicts and unresolved national questions across South Asia. In Sri Lanka, the Sinhala ruling elite has long exploited ethnic divisions to maintain its class rule, systematically discriminating against the Tamil minority to divert social discontent and prevent the unification of the working class. This culminated in the brutal civil war, in which successive governments waged a genocidal campaign against the Tamil population, culminating in the massacre at Mullivaikkal in 2009.
The SEP categorically rejected the separatist perspective of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which sought to establish an independent capitalist statelet in the North and East of Sri Lanka. The LTTE’s program, rooted in Tamil bourgeois nationalism, offered no solution to the oppression of the Tamil masses. Rather, it served to divide the working class and align the Tamil struggle with various imperialist powers. The LTTE’s strategy of appealing to India and imperialist powers for support was fundamentally opposed to the interests of the Tamil people and led to the organization’s eventual defeat.
The SEP, in contrast, upholds the right of the Tamil people to the democratic right to put an end to all forms of national oppression, which is the essential progressive content of the right to national self-determination. However, the SEP insists that the realization of this right cannot be achieved through the formation of a separate capitalist state, which would simply create new forms of capitalist exploitation, class oppression and imperialist domination. Instead, the SEP fights for the unity of the Sinhalese and Tamil working classes in the struggle for the perspective of a United Socialist States of Sri Lanka and Eelam, as part of the broader fight for a Socialist Federation of South Asia and Internationally.
This perspective is based on the understanding that the liberation of the Tamil people, like that of the Sinhalese, can only be achieved through the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of socialism. The SEP stands for the abolition of the unitary state constitutional structure imposed by the Sri Lankan bourgeoisie on the working class of all ethnicities and for the establishment of a federation of socialist republics, which would guarantee full equality and democratic rights for all nationalities. This is inseparable from the struggle to build an international socialist movement that unites workers across South Asia and globally against imperialism and capitalism.
The SEP’s program for resolving the Tamil national question is thus fundamentally opposed to all forms of nationalism and chauvinism. It is a perspective that recognizes that the oppression of the Tamil people is not an isolated issue but a manifestation of the broader contradictions of the capitalist system. The SEP fights to unite the working class across ethnic lines, in a common struggle for a socialist future, where the democratic rights of all peoples are fully realized. Only through the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism can the historical injustices faced by the Tamil people be rectified, and a lasting solution to the national question be achieved.
Building ICFI Sections across South Asia
The crisis of capitalism is global, and nowhere is this more evident than in South Asia, a region plagued by deep-seated social inequality, ethnic conflicts, and the ever-present threat of imperialist war. The ruling classes across the subcontinent—from India and Pakistan to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka—have proven utterly incapable of resolving these crises. Instead, they have resorted to intensifying exploitation, whipping up nationalist and communal divisions, and suppressing the struggles of the working class. In this context, the necessity of building sections of ICFI in every country in South Asia is not merely an organizational task but a life-and-death question for the working class.
The working class in South Asia, numbering in the hundreds of millions, is the only social force capable of leading the struggle against capitalism and imperialism. However, for this potential to be realized, the working class must be armed with a revolutionary socialist program that transcends national borders and unites workers across the region and globally. The ICFI, with its unbroken continuity of Trotskyism and its principled opposition to all forms of nationalism and opportunism, provides the necessary leadership for this historic task. The building of ICFI sections across South Asia is indispensable for educating advanced sections of the working class and mobilizing them around the perspective of permanent revolution—the understanding that the democratic and social tasks in semi-colonial countries can only be achieved through the socialist revolution, led by the working class and extending internationally.
Mobilizing the Industrial Power of the Working Class
Central to the success of this revolutionary struggle is the mobilization of the immense industrial power of the working class through the methods of class struggle: strikes, factory occupations and general strikes. Across South Asia, workers are engaged in daily battles against brutal exploitation, wage theft, unsafe working conditions, and the dismantling of social protections. Yet, these struggles are repeatedly betrayed by the traditional trade unions, which have long been integrated into the capitalist state and function as instruments of class collaboration. These unions, tied to the ruling parties and nationalist agendas, serve to stifle and divert the militancy of the working class into dead ends, preventing any challenge to the capitalist system.
In response, the ICFI advocates for the establishment of independent action committees, or rank-and-file committees, within every workplace and community. These committees, controlled by workers themselves, must be built outside the bureaucratic grip of the official unions. They are the means through which workers can democratically organize their struggles, link up with other sections of the working class, and prepare for the revolutionary seizure of power. These committees are not simply vehicles for economic demands but are the foundational structures of dual power, laying the groundwork for a workers’ government that would expropriate the capitalists and reorganize society along socialist lines.
Power to the Working Class: The Path Forward
The task of these action committees extends beyond the workplace. They must become centers of political education, training workers in Marxist theory and the lessons of historical struggles, while exposing the reactionary role of all bourgeois and petty-bourgeois parties. They must also act as conduits for international solidarity, linking the struggles of workers in South Asia with those of their class brothers and sisters worldwide, particularly in the advanced capitalist countries. The International Workers’ Alliance of Rank and File Committees, established by the ICFI has undertaken this task of materializing international working class unity.
The struggle for power must be rooted in the understanding that the working class, led by the revolutionary party, organizing its methods of struggle, is the only force capable of resolving the immense social and democratic issues facing the masses. The action committees must evolve into organs of direct workers’ power, capable of challenging the bourgeois state and establishing a workers’ government based on socialist principles.
In every country of South Asia, the necessity of building sections of the ICFI as the revolutionary leadership of the working class and mobilizing workers through action committees is urgent. The alternative is the continued descent into barbarism—poverty, environmental catastrophe, communal bloodshed, and world war. The ICFI alone offers a way forward, and the necessary leadership, based on the principles of international socialism and the unity of the working class across all national, ethnic, and religious divisions. The ICFI section of the United States contests the upcoming presidential election, against the capitalist Democratic and Republican parties, with the same internationalist and socialist program. The future of South Asia, and indeed the world, depends on the ability of the working class to seize power and reorganize society along socialist lines.
Pani Wijesiriwardene, the Presidential Candidate, and Deepal Jayasekara, the General Secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) of Sri Lanka, participated last Saturday morning (18th) in a state television (ITN) program hosted by Deepthi Kumara Gunarathne, an arch-enemy of the working class. The interview, a nauseating spectacle, lasted for 45 minutes and is available on YouTube.
The co-host of the program stated that the leaders of the SEP had been invited to speak on the party’s program for the presidential election to be held on September 21 this year.
The General Secretary introduced the party as the Sri Lankan section of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), summarized its historical origins, and outlined its political program. Wijesiriwardene stated that the party does not have a separate election program but is contesting this election to bring the message of the party’s international socialist program—against austerity, dictatorship, and world war—to the working class as much as possible. This highlighted their main concern for participating in this television program.
SEP leaders at “Deepthi Samaga”
However, the SEP leaders did not merely participate in a neutral television interview. They are fully aware that the state television’s daily morning program, titled “Deepthi Samaga” (meaning ‘with Deepthi’), named after its host, is conducted by a political enemy of the program aimed at independently mobilizing the working class for international socialism. They are also aware that the ITN has given a prominent platform in this state media to Gunarathne and retained him as their host precisely because of his pro-capitalist and anti-Marxist politics, which have spanned over two and a half decades. Still, these leaders claim they were supposed to use the television program to disseminate this message to the working class in the country.
The essential question that the SEP leaders have been concealing for over twenty years from the working class, youth, and students of the country is this: Who is Deepthi Kumara Gunarathne, and what is his political tendency? Gunarathne is the godfather of an irrationalist, subjective idealist, and reactionary political tendency based on the pseudo-left ideological movement of postmodernism, which sprouted in the late 1990s and had considerable influence among university students, academics, artists, and working youth during the first and a half decade of this century. Along with several pseudo-left intellectuals, including Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri, a lecturer (now a professor) at the University of Colombo, he was a prominent leader of the “X Group,” which was based on this ideology. The group published its literature and a couple of magazines, including one named “London,” devoted to what they referred to as “cultural politics,” based on Derridian “deconstruction” and Lacanian “psychoanalysis”, and oriented primarily toward the urban middle class. After this organization dissolved in 2004, Gunarathne established a political party named the Sri Lanka Vanguard Party (SLVP), which a few years ago was converted into the “Samabima Pakshaya (SP)” (Equal Ground Party), and publishes the website 3mana.com.
Throughout this time, Gunarathne virulently opposed historical materialism and history, as well as the revolutionary potential of the working class, whose very existence he denied. At times, he has vented his wrath against the working class with fascistic rants condemning class struggles and even calling to “crush” trade unions in favor of the “oppressed” petty-bourgeoisie, portraying the former as parasites depending on the latter. He and his political movements have been vociferously inimical to Trotskyism. A lackey of capitalist pro-market parties and politicians like the late Mangala Samaraweera, Gunarathne has received and continues to receive political and financial support from them. He currently openly supports the policies of near-dictator President Ranil Wickremasinghe, endorses the tax hikes to combat what he refers to as “consumerism,” and appreciates austerity measures and privatization programs as dictated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Amidst the mass struggles of April-July 2022, which Gunarathne falsely reduces to a middle-class uprising, he scathingly condemned the “people,” whom he claims do not exist, for demanding “dal and sugar,” and proposed to implement harsh and “unpopular” belt-tightening measures if the SP gained power.
The SEP’s first and last article that barely criticized Guneratne’s politics was based on a public speech he gave at a Colombo meeting in April 2014 as the leader of the SLVP. The SEP leadership wrote in the Sinhala section of the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) as follows:
‘Gunarathna said in his speech: “There is a question about capitalism and who are the capitalists in Sri Lanka. In traditional left-wing parlance, it is the capitalists who are helping me at this time [of course]”. Gunarathne got an opportunity to work with a Sri Lankan financial capitalist, Tiran Alas. “He’s dressed and eats like a regular man. A BMW car is parked outside. But his driver is inside that car with AC on and he is having fun. In the old left language, the worker is the one who has fun with the AC on. We need to identify what capitalism really is in Sri Lanka. This system is really maintained by the oppressed.”
The essence of these statements is that there is no class that can be identified as a working class: it is the “oppressed” who maintain the capitalist system.’
The article further explains as follows:
“Gunarathne burns with hatred for modern Marxism, Trotskyism. The reason for this is that only the Trotskyist International Committee of the Fourth International (ICF) and its Socialist Equality Parties strongly defend orthodox Marxist concepts and principles, including the revolutionary potential of the working class. All other so-called leftist organizations abandoned even the pretense of having any concern for Marxism and the working class and quickly switched to the camp of the bourgeoisie with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Gunarathne expressed his hatred thus: “Trotskyism is over today. My point is that Trotskyism is no longer a worldview for analyzing global capitalism. Trotskyism always insists on objective reality. But the problem with globalization is self-centeredness.”
The person issuing these foolish statements is ignorant not only of Trotskyism, but also of the serious analysis by the ICFI of the globalization of production.
Gunarathne is one representative of the middle class social strata absorbed by the reactionary ideologies unleashed with the globalization of capitalist production. It is not surprising that neither he nor anyone who spoke in that assembly talked about the “objective reality” – that is, the contradictions of capitalism in globalization that characterize today’s world politics, and that it is moving towards collapse and the threat of a third world war that could wipe out humanity with nuclear power. The rally’s speakers demonstrated their commitment to imperialism by spreading skepticism about the revolutionary potential of the working class and Marxism.”
The meeting referred to in the SEP article is part of a series of meetings organized by the pseudo-left Frontline Socialist Party (FSP) for a “ Dialogue of Lefts”. Wije Dias, the General Secretary of SEP, in November 2013, wrote an open letter addressed to the FSP rejecting an invitation received to participate in the said discussion.
Dias stated as follows:
“[T]he purpose of the proposed meeting is to lay the foundations for a regroupment of an array of bourgeois and petty-bourgeois organizations. Such a regroupment, were it to be realized, would result in the creation of yet another political trap for the working class. The Socialist Equality Party, which for more than 45 years has defended Trotskyist principles and fought tirelessly for the political independence of the working class, has no intention of lending credibility to the sort of reactionary regroupment that you are seeking to implement. Therefore, the Socialist Equality Party emphatically rejects your invitation.”
The party that fought so tirelessly “for the political independence of the working class” was supposed to wage a determined fight against the developing pseudo-left tendencies, as resolved by the ICFI. However, despite the growing influence of the postmodernist tendency among youth, spearheaded by the X-Group, the SEP leadership stubbornly neglected this reactionary movement, and not a single article was published “exposing” this tendency. The party leadership’s approach toward the politics of the VP and SP is the same. This omission largely paved the way for the betrayal of at least two generations of youth, intellectuals, and politically conscious advanced sections of the working class, leading to disorientation and demoralization, and driving them away from the Marxist revolutionary program advanced solely by the ICFI.
In deciding to accept Gunarathne’s invitation, it is clear that the party leadership decided to gag themselves, face to face with their class enemy, over the treacherous and reactionary role played by Guneratne in disorienting a generation of youth and the working class, which he boasts about. Having made no substantial exposure of Gunarathne’s decades-long reactionary politics, and taken no attempt to engage in polemics with the ideas of his tendency—which is the mark of a revolutionary party, as James P. Cannon once said—the party leadership had no guts to reject Gunarathne’s invitation. During the interview, Wijesiriwardene referred to the post-1991 tendencies that rejected Marxism as a “metanarrative,” advocated pluralism in epistemology, and used empiricist logic, which contributed to the erosion of “socialist culture,” but carefully avoided pointing fingers at Gunarathne, who has been one of the main culprits for this political crime.
The SEP opportunist leadership was well aware that Gunarathne, being an enemy of the working class and its struggles, would be careful not to raise the most destabilizing questions for the SEP leadership: Why was your party not able to exert at least a substantial influence in the mass struggles of 2022, let alone provide the necessary leadership for it? Why was your party not well received, even with your revolutionary program? Why did the membership of your party not grow, even during these unprecedented struggles? Challenged by these questions, the SEP leadership could not simply blame the FSP or other groups for strangling the mass struggle and channeling it toward parliamentarianism. In fact, Gunarathne had proposed such a betrayal of the struggle as early as late April 2022.
This mutual understanding marked the culmination of a shameful cohabitation. These questions, which would place the SEP leadership in trouble, have already been answered by the great leaders of our movement:
“During a revolution, i.e. when events move swiftly, a weak party can quickly grow into a mighty one provided it lucidly understands the course of the revolution and possesses staunch cadres that do not become intoxicated with phrases and are not terrorized by persecution. But such a party must be available prior to the revolution inasmuch as the process of educating the cadres requires a considerable period of time and the revolution does not afford this time”. (L.Trotsky, The Class, the Party and the Leadership, 1940).
The SEP leaders seem uninterested in finding out why Gunarathne, a class enemy and SP leader, invited them to the interview despite all his hostility to Trotskyism and the SEP, as identified in the article by the SEP. But Gunarathne knows that the tacit agreement entered into with the SEP leadership serves his ends by providing him with an opportunity to strengthen his fake left cover. In a world situation where bourgeois pundits who declared the “end of history” in the early 1990s had to admit, in the backdrop of the 2008 Great Crash, that they were wrong and that history is still ticking, and ushered in an epoch of unending war, social counter-revolution, the danger of fascism, and a resurgence of global class struggles showing a lurch toward the left by the masses around the world—which trend was demonstrated in Sri Lanka in 2022—Gunarathne and the like are gravely seeking this left camouflage to set further political traps.
During the interview, the leaders referred to a number of social problems the Sri Lankan population faces, including the effects of austerity measures and poverty. However, significantly, the leaders failed to mention the existence of the Tamil national question. This is not an accident.
While there is reference to the onslaught on democratic rights, the growing threat of world war, and the country being drawn toward the vortex of an imperialism-led war against China, the Tamil national question is not mentioned even in the SEP election statement of August 16, published on WSWS. In explaining the socialist revolutionary program to uphold what was ambiguously referred to as the “National Democratic Right of Tamils” during the first public meeting held in Colombo on August 16 as part of the election campaign, Wijesiriwardene was careful not to identify it as the eradication of national oppression, which is the essential progressive content of “self-determination.”
The SEP leadership virtually marked the end of the Tamil national question on May 18, 2009, when former president Mahinda Rajapaksha militarily crushed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), epitomizing their gradual subjugation of the party to the pressure of Sinhala chauvinism, diluting the concrete, practical struggle to mobilize the industrial force of the Tamil, Sinhala, and Muslim working class around transitional demands (such as the release of all Tamil political prisoners, unconditional withdrawal of the invading Sinhala military from the North and East, and full reparations and compensation for the devastated families) under the perspective of a United Socialist States of Sri Lanka and Eelam (USSLE), with the support of and as part of the struggle of the international working class. When questioned at a recent press conference about what is referred to by the word “Eelam” in the SEP’s perspective of a USSLE, Wijesiriwardene miserably failed to mention that it represented the SEP’s recognition of Tamil national oppression as a fact and those people’s right to be free from it, which could only be realized by the working class fighting unitedly across ethnic lines for such a socialist perspective.
We consider it apt to conclude this critique with the following observation by Trotsky on the failures of the leadership of the Comintern and KPD to resolve the crisis of revolutionary leadership in “German October” of 1923:
“The periods of the maximum sharpening of a revolutionary crisis are by their very nature transitory. The incongruity between a revolutionary leadership (hesitation, vacillation, temporizing in the face of the furious assault of the bourgeoisie) and the objective tasks, can lead in the course of a few weeks and even days to a catastrophe and to a loss of what took years of work to prepare…By the time the leadership succeeds in accommodating itself to the situation, the latter has already changed; the masses are in retreat and the relationship of forces worsens abruptly.” L.Trotsky, The Third International After Lenin (Pioneer Publishers, 1957, p97-98)
