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by Ivor Samarasinghe
(June 07, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The LSSP and the CP, in their hey day, spoke of revolution, and workers control. Their dream was the revolution that Lenin led. Stalin's government exposed it as an impractical dream. The visionary Gorbachev helped Russia back to capitalism, and it is now amongst the world's great powers. The revolution came with Sirimavo Bandaranaike as the Prime Minister.
Those Leftists who hung onto her saree sensibly realizing that capitalism had come to stay and were firmly entrenched in the economic firmament were recipients of portfolios. The so called 'Golden Brains' like Dr. N. M. Perera, Dr. Colvin R. de Silva and Peter Kueneman enrolled in her Cabinet. Imbued with the concept of workers' control they coaxed the Prime Minister to nationalize business and installed workers as managers. The workers, accustomed to taking orders, proved misfits and incredibly corrupt, with business running in the red, for what they managed was not theirs to protect. The experiment proved that the capitalist road was all that remained. The Leftists have grudgingly fallen in line trekking behind the capitalist government. Those who stand aloof like Dr. Wikremabahu Karunaratne will be progressively lost in the wilderness, not knowing how to find his way out of the forest.
He still talks of a 'capitalist government' in his fanciful belief that a workers' government or any other is possible. Has he, like Rip Van Winkle, not awoken yet? He was obviously sleeping when workers managed industry of every sort only to bring it down, never to raise its head under their corrupt management. The government that followed had the onerous task of handing back land and industry to the earlier owners, and the economy flourished again. The realists have joined the government, while the others mope, bitter at heart, not knowing which way to turn. In their misery they criticize the work of the government without a figment of truth, and thereby only compromise their earlier superior standing in society. How pathetic !
That leftism is breathing its last and that the road is closed for all time must be realized so that those brains will not fall by the wayside. Life is merciless and unrelenting. What it does not need it dumps on the dirt heap of history. The men of the Left must realize that they have no further role on the stage for the curtains have been drawn.
The split in the JVP succinctly points to the decay and imminent death of the Left movement. Wimal Weerawansa has wisely seen the end coming and jumped onto the Government's bandwagon. Not wanting to undress too soon he has registered another political party which will soon cooperate with the government. Other Leftists will fall by the wayside and be forgotten when they have been thrown into the dust bin of history. The Left movement is chasing a shadow which it will never catch up with. Even if all the workers of the World Unite they cannot break their chains for capitalism has come to stay. It is, that will provide the bread and butter for the worker and the World. The Left is impotent. What they will be tempted to do is exploit the ethnic divide. That will not take them far. There is no independent existence for the Left.
- Sri Lanka Guardian
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