In the previous section , we published an interview with an anarchist from Kandy.
The following one was taken in a cafe in the suburbs of Colombo with J. and Z.---- Z. is a graphic designer. He was involved in graffiti at school and alwaysintuitively held the "fuck the system" point of view. After getting lost in acorporate job for a decade, he started freelancing. Moved back to Colombo duringcovid and found himself in the middle of Aragalaya. One day in early April,unaware of the occupation, he happened to be walking past Galle Face and bumpedinto a friend who had set up a food distribution tent in connection with theprotests. Since then, he has been heavily involved in protests.J. first got involved in activism when she put up posters on the school aquariumbecause she felt that the fish were being mistreated. When nothing happened, shestarted stealing fish from school once a week. She was involved in the feministand environmental movement, so she had some contacts with other people whenAragalaya started. She was living in the south of Sri Lanka at the time. But whenshe realized it was becoming something huge, she knew she had to be at the centerof the action. She gave up her house and job and went back to Colombo. She movedin with her parents to avoid other commitments and to be involved as much aspossible. She stayed overnight but never pitched a tent at the occupation,commenting: "It's funny that I'm saying this now, but every time I thought, 'OK,I'll pitch a tent and move in,' I felt like 'ah, it's too late, it'll be over ina week'.Both Z. and J. participated in the operation of the mutual aid tent for thedistribution of food during the occupation and were in the front line of theprotests. Z. created anonymous designs and posters for the movement, althoughmany of those they printed were destroyed during the May 9 raid. J. filmed andbroadcast live from the front lines to provide an alternative to the media image.This interview has been slightly edited for clarity and brevity. Z. and J.'sanswers were edited as common.2nd interview - ColomboCan you first share your thoughts on the current situation?Frankly, we all experience a certain level of fear due to state repression andthe recent witch hunt. But we are also frustrated and irritated that after almostfour months of protests, we have not come close to what we set out to do. Thereis still a large section of the population who feel that we won just because wesent Gotabaja and the Rajapaks home. This was primarily a symbolic victory. Andsecondly, we have not actually sent them home while Ranil Wickremesinghe is inpower; they are just behind the scenes waiting for the right moment to come back.So we are in a kind of waiting phase.It seems to me like a calculated game that the Rajapaks are now playing withRánil at the helm. There are so many things that could be done right now toaddress the crisis this country is in. Nevertheless, it focuses primarily onsuppressing demonstrations and persecuting protesters.Ranil, who is one of the most unsuccessful politicians in Sri Lankan history, isembroiled in numerous scams and fraud allegations, in addition to being linked tothe torture camps of the 1980s. He was not even elected to parliament in his ownconstituency. No one wanted Ranil to come to power. He is obviously only there toprotect the Rajapaks. It just shuffled the cards.Can you say something about the current state of repression?People are being arrested for their participation in Aragalaya. A state ofemergency has been declared, which is used as an excuse to arrest anyone at anytime. They don't even need a warrant to pick you up. We saw them drag that DanishAli out of the plane. They go after everyone who was seen, every video that wentviral. Even the guy who counted the money found in the presidential palace andhanded it in was arrested along with his four friends. They're after people whostole the president's clothes iron or his flag. Things like that, you know? It'spretty stupid.That's how it started. But now there is a team working to go back through all thefootage from all the protests and identify the people whose faces appeared inmore protests, all those who were more actively involved. They just want to dragus through the court system, even if they don't necessarily lock us up. They wantto make our lives hell. There isn't even enough room in the prisons and there aretoo many people involved in this movement to catch them all. It's more aboutmaking everyone afraid, backing down and the movement slowly dissipating.How did you get involved?We ourselves participated in the organization of several protests. They were"pocket protests" to boost morale. People felt that Aragalaya was too limited tothe sites of the occupation, which had also become highly politicized in manyways. So there was a push for people to start protesting again in theirlocalities, at local intersections. We participated in it. We did one seriescalled Freedom Fridays. A number of neighborhood groups emerged from Aragalaya.Our group organized a protest in front of the Ministry of Power and the IndianHigh Commission against the corrupt dealings between Gotabaja and Indian PrimeMinister Modi. It seemed to us that they were using the crisis to dominate andmonopolize Sri Lankan energy projects. It wouldn't have happened without ourgroup. We could be sanctioned by India. According to Amnesty International, theyhave a file on every person who was before the Indian High Commission that day.But it was a very important concrete protest that had to take place.What was it like running a food distribution tent?Well, super hectic. In the beginning they tried to have a list of volunteers. Butit just didn't work. So people came whenever they could. There were a lot of egoclashes, a lot of little fights and shoving. Because people were sleep deprived.They dragged on long into the night. They were frustrated.It was crazy. There were queues and queues and queues for food. We didn't justfeed the people at the protest. There were other people from the villages andsuburbs of Colombo who came just because the food was free. With the food crisis,Galle Face became the place to get free food. The main priority of thedistribution tent we were involved in was to keep the people who were occupyingthe space. There were always things prepared for the multitude of people whooccupied it. Everything else was given away to people who just passed throughGalle Face.It was just buzzing there at that moment. Queues of people formed in front of thetent. We distributed packets of rice, buns, drinks and packets of cookies. Therewere also toiletries, clothes, raincoats, everything you can think of. Handsanitizers, medicine, everything. And it was hectic. People crowded around thetent. We had to have people in the front and back of the tent to keep people inlines so they wouldn't steal, they wouldn't overtake. Then there was the constantbattle with the weather, the roof flying off, keeping all the food dry andgetting the food out in time so it wouldn't spoil. Volunteers kept droppingpallets on the ground, we almost broke our ankles. It was just crazy.At the summit, Galle Face was bustling with activity, with the food distributiontents fully booked. We had to constantly expand and reorganize everything.There was so much going on. It went up and down and up and down. Movies wereshown in the cinema. There were concerts. People were constantly flowing throughthe library. There was a college, a people's university, where classes were heldevery day. It all peaked between April and May. Then we had to rebuild everythingafter the May 9 attack. It was also such a constantly changing and evolvingspace. We were there every day, there was always something to do... while stillenjoying the tear gas.What were the turning points of the movement?The first island-wide mass protest was planned for the third of April. Thegovernment stepped in and declared an island-wide curfew. She shut down phonenetworks and blocked access to social media. This roused the people: even thosewho did not know whether they would come out on April 2 showed up on April 3.This state suppression of our right to protest was the spark that lit the fire.So when the curfew was lifted on April 4th, it was huge. Even on April 3, whenthe ban was in effect, many people still dared to go out into the streets andprotest in their localities, in their neighborhoods, on their streets, in frontof their houses. Given the fear people lived in under the Rajapaksa regime,undermining Gotabaya's power by breaking the curfew was a huge turning point.People slowly began to lose their fear and feel their own power. They felt likethey were part of something much bigger.This was followed on April 9, when a mass protest began at Galle Face, whichlater turned into an occupation. People protested there for about two or threedays and some just didn't leave. People traveled from places far away fromColombo so they could not just return to their town or home at night. And so alot of people stayed overnight and then just started occupying the space. And itbecame the village it was. There was no occupation plan that we knew of or anyonethat I know of. It just spontaneously became an occupation.This prompted the emergence of similar occupations across the country. The nextmajor turning point was on 9 May, when there was a state-sponsored attack againstGalle Face protesters and other protesters across the island. Armed femalefighters tore down tents, burned things, and attacked protesters. We have seenthese attacks with our own eyes and the police have just stood by. The policecordon just let them in. Half the crowd from Colombo came and attacked thepro-government gorillas. And many people fled back to their villages. The armywas hiding those pro-government threshers when our people started attacking them.This subsequently gained massive support from the rest of the public. The peoplewho occupied these spaces were seen as the youth of the nation, fighting for therights of everyone else. The whole maneuver actually backfired on them, and May 9finally strengthened the movement. He pissed off a lot of people.Then came July 9, when the Ratama colombata or "From the whole country toColombo" protest took place. Some journalists reported that up to two millionpeople were in the streets that day.[6]It was a major turning point. It took afew days for the dust to settle. Protesters hung around and continued to protest.We were only at the entrance gate of the presidential palace when people startedbreaking it down. There were so many people that we couldn't move at all, so whenthe tear gas hit us, we couldn't run away. It was really hectic. That was the daythree state buildings were occupied. And then on July 13, the fourth was occupied.The next breakthrough came on 22 July, when soldiers on Ranil's orders came tothe GGG, demolished half of it and attacked the protesters again.One thing also needs to be said is that even before April 3, since February,there were occasional protests across the country, they just happened more inrural areas. There were protests by fishermen and farmers. This is the first timea crisis of this magnitude has brought everyone together in common frustrationbecause it has affected us all in one way or another. It wasn't some isolatedthing that others could sort of ignore because it didn't concern them. But theprotests really started taking place already in February.How was the preparation for July 9?We had a series of meetings where we strategized how to get public support andget people more involved, even if that didn't necessarily mean visiting the siteof the occupation.Before July 9th, we saw a lot of people sharing things on social media. Butthat's what we saw for the whole four months. It wasn't until nine in the morningthat we realized how big it was going to be. In fact, I don't think we evenrealized how big it was or would be when we got there.Everyone was worried that public support was waning and that we would lose. Ikept a journal the whole time. And when I go back and read it, there are pageswhere I wrote to myself, "I had high hopes at the beginning of the movement, butnow we are losing. We no longer have any support. GGG is empty. The protests aregetting smaller and rarer." And then on July 9, there was a huge turnout.So it was a pleasant surprise for many of us. But in my personal opinion, therewas a lot of unnecessary celebration. At that time we had not yet seen Gotabaja'sresignation or any of the changes we expected from this movement. Rather, peoplewere just celebrating that so many protesters took to the streets, which was areason to celebrate. But it wasn't over at that point.Why did so many people come on the ninth?There was a lot of hype around it. On social media, the ninth received a lot ofattention. That's how the information got out. In addition, many groupsparticipated in the dissemination of information.In addition, the deterioration of the economic situation has just deepened.People were desperate. That this movement blossomed in the beginning was clearlydue to frustration and desperation at this level: standing in lines, not beingable to feed your children, not having access to medical care or needed medicine. From every point of view, people were just completely pissed off. When the"Across the Country to Colombo" protest started to spread, people felt that "OK,this is going to be the last push" to really get those narcissists off the hook.We had poverty in Sri Lanka before this economic crisis. But now it got worse. Weare talking from the perspective of the privileged middle class. But most of thepeople who took to the streets on the ninth were not like that. We were a verysmall minority. It was frustration that made people use their last scraps ofpetrol and diesel to get to Colombo for this protest.Was the occupation of the buildings planned or did it happen spontaneously?I think it was half and half. Within Galle Face there are many groups withdifferent ideas about what should be the main objective. But everyone knew thatwe were going to march to that building, although no one could have known whatresistance we would receive from the state forces. They greeted us with tear gasand water cannons. There were plainclothes police brutally attacking theprotesters with batons as they jumped the barriers. But all the barriers were outof order, because there were just so many people, so the crowd overcame it alland broke through all the barriers. And after overcoming the last one, all thatwas left was to get inside, which people eventually did. The state fired liverounds and people were injured. But once the crowd reached the entrance to thebuilding, there was no choice but to go inside.We only found out that the Secretariat and Temple Trees were occupied when wewere trying to weave through the huge crowds and get back to the main road. Onlythen did we realize the full extent of what had transpired that day. Since allthe occupied buildings were taken at roughly the same time, one is tempted to saythat there must have been some level of organization and communication. But itwas half and half.What happened between July 9 and 13?In the days following July 9, the state propaganda machinery worked very hard tohighlight the looting and damage to state property that occurred during those fewdays.Some people who had been in the movement for some time argued that it was publicproperty, that repairs would come from taxpayers' money, and did everything intheir power to protect that property and prevent it from being looted, looted,and damaged. But honestly, it was a mess.Whenever protesters occupied government buildings, there was always a group ofparticularly violent people who tried to destroy government property. In additionto breaking the barriers, there were incidents where some people simply burstinto the building and set it on fire. This happened at Ranil's house on theninth. The fire threatened to spread to nearby houses and the same people did notallow the fire engines to enter.We lost a lot of support from the public saying, "Look what the protesters did toyou. They went and destroyed these buildings." Some feel that this has negativelyaffected the movement's support in the public eye. For weeks, all that was talkedabout in parliament was that the houses of the ministers had been burned down.What do you see as the movement's missed opportunities?At the time it seemed to me a mistake to give up the buildings that were occupiedon the 9th. This seemed to be our only lever to bring about any changes wewanted, especially since Gotabaja had not yet resigned at the time. Perhaps thebuildings could have been used as leverage to get rid of Ranil.However, with the gap of several weeks, I don't know. There was probably no otheroption. Given the fact that we lost a lot of public support between July 9 and13, there was no choice. Especially since it was almost impossible to control thecrowds inside the occupied buildings. The public was developing a more and morenegative view of Aragalaja with each passing day, perceiving her as a destroyerof law and order. Moreover, if the state forces decided to enter and use forceagainst the people occupying the buildings, we could have bloodshed. So for thesake of the lives of the people who joined the movement, maybe it was a smartmove. But at the time it felt like a mistake.What central debates took place within the movement? From the beginning, there were familiar divisions between nonpartisans andleftists, and between more anarchist ideology and constitutionalists who wantedthings done according to the law and such-even though our constitution is archaicshit.There was a great debate about whether or not the movement was taken over by theleft. Many lives have been lost during insurgencies in our history. The oldergeneration who lived through this period still vividly remember the blood in therivers and dead bodies everywhere. This fear of the left has been exploited bygroups who want us to lose public support. There was a strong presence of theLeft throughout Aragalaya from the very beginning. And it still exists there.None of this would have been possible without groups such as the Inter-UniversityStudents' Federation (IUSF, also known as Anthare ), and the teachers'federation, without the unions that staged a hartel (island-wide strike). Allthis contributed to the pressure on the government. People liked to use them whenthey found it useful, and the next day they turned around and said, "Ah, the leftis hijacking this movement." That was very important to them. It's like thatScooby-Doo thing where they rip off the mask and reveal that "it was actually JVPall along." They were indeed present, but the movement was not entirelycontrolled by the JVP, nor was it taken over by the JVP or the Left.In a sense, there is still a military occupation of the north and east. This isone of the main problems with the government budget, because there has been noreduction in the military budget since the end of the civil war, which was onlyin 2009. Tamils in the north and east have been oppressed for generations. Theyhave been dealing with these problems for a long time. Power outages, fuelshortages, unavailability of medicine, state oppression, police brutality. Theywere dealing with all this before the war and they are still dealing with it nowthat the war is over. These are things they have been protesting for generationsas well. But it was hardly reported in the media and did not reach the rest ofthe country.When this movement started, many groups in the north and east, the Tamilminority, looked on with amusement. These are things they have been dealing withsince childhood. Now that it affected the Sinhalese majority, the people in thesouth, suddenly it became an island-wide movement that was put on a pedestal."Wow, look what these people have achieved by protesting. How brave of thosepeople to protest." But in reality we were a privileged people who knew they weresomewhat safe.A memorial to the Mullaitivu massacre, which took place at the end of the civilwar, was held at GGG. There was a lot of pressure around it. Some thought itwould discredit Aragalaj by associating him with the LTTE.[7]After all, anythingthat can be taken out of context and used against us. Other people objected thatif we can't organize such things, how can we say that GGG and this movementbrought about the unity that everyone celebrates.There were so many smaller arguments that came up throughout the movement. Evenwhen it comes to taking over buildings in the final stages. Some people arguedabout the way it was run and how the crowds were controlled.Some people did not agree with the way the free food was given out. "Okay, nowit's becoming something of a soup kitchen for people who don't even have to beprotestors. They just come there for food." But how can you not give food tohungry people who are starving because of the economic crisis we're fighting,just because they're not protestors like us? Plus it brought a lot of people toGalle Face.What role did the left and various political parties play in the camps and moregenerally in the movement?Numbers. The numbers certainly contributed. But also given the nature of the IUSFand similar factions that have been engaged in such protests for years, facingtear gas, barricades and cannons was nothing new for them. They kind of took thelead in the beginning by being on the front lines because it was a familiar thingfor them. They've been doing it for years. For many of us who joined themovement, it was our first taste of tear gas or face-to-face combat with thepolice. They showed us that there was nothing to be afraid of, that we could doit. Whenever these groups came, thousands came. It really gave us the morale andnumbers we needed to achieve something like this. But that in no way meant thatit was a JVP movement. Because there were many other groups, factions andindividuals present all along.What debates took place within your group?Some people persistently refused to sit down at the negotiating table withpoliticians, and they maintained this position throughout. Others changed theirminds and joined the meetings with politicians, except for Pohottuwa'sparty.[8]No one really knew what was right. But it drove a wedge between peoplewho met the politicians and those who refused.What were the main limits the movement encountered?This is the first time in Sri Lanka that diverse groups of people across genderidentities, classes and socio-economic backgrounds have come together. It was awhole mix of different people. Of course, people who were similar came together.But there was a lot of mutual influence. It also broke down a lot of gender, ageand class barriers, which was a huge thing. I think that was one of the biggestthings that came out of these protests.But within GGG we saw that all social problems are reflected there. Althoughthere was an unprecedented level of unity and the breaking down of class, genderand racial barriers, Sinhala-speaking men still dominated there. You still had aminority of women at the megaphones. And minorities were still minorities evenwithin the movement. While there has definitely been more acceptance andinclusion, we still have a long way to go before we see the kind of country wewant to see.Were there more intense divisions or open schisms at certain moments?I think it was a bit subtle. We were at the Fort protest and had a lot of friendsfrom the LGBT community with us. Other protesters discriminated against them forwaving the rainbow flag. So there were these little problems. There were notthose big disagreements, but such smaller, more subtle disagreements where unityis not yet possible.It was always a minority that was angry and never made a big scene about itbecause they wanted to prioritize the main goals of the movement. I am part ofthe GGG women's circle. Women constantly complained that too few women spoke atpress conferences, that there were too few women at the megaphone, that too fewwomen participated in organizing and strategizing. So there were thosecomplaints. The LGBTQIA+ community tent was established only recently. There weretrans friends who were discriminated against and faced a lot of hardship andharassment just for being there. This sort of thing happened all the time.Everyone kind of worked on it as best they could. But it wasn't like all theseproblems disappeared completely. It was simply that the wider society wasreflected there.Some of the people in GGG who were pitching tents and staying there were notreceptive to the ideas that people like us were coming up with. As we have neverphysically stayed there in tents. Because we were there from the beginning, wegained respect and became friends with people from the library and people fromthe kitchen and other groups. We helped each other. But certain tents alwayslooked at us as outsiders.There was some incoherence in communication between the occupying andnon-occupying protesters. Some of us who didn't live there felt excluded fromcertain decision-making processes and actions.Did you feel that people became radicalized during the movement?Definitely. Many of these people would never have thought that they would go tobreak the barricades and face tear gas and beatings. It was amazing after yearsof oppression and fear from the state to see the youth standing on the barricadesshouting Api baya nah!, meaning we are not afraid.One thing I personally witnessed: there was a girl who worked as a theateractress and participated in the protests. She was very petite and I once saw herhit with a water cannon. It hit her in the ass, her glasses flew off and she wasinjured. But that afternoon at camp I saw her again, smiling and talking aboutother things as if it were nothing. It's great to see that people have become soradicalized by the movement and that it's a normal thing for them.Now that Ranil is in power, what does the next phase of the struggle look like?I think that is changing. I don't think the strategies we used to get rid of theRajapaks can be applied to Ranil as he has a reputation as a cunning politicianin the way he proceeds. So we are currently engaged in a propaganda war.What lessons from Sri Lanka might be useful elsewhere?If you are in a similar economic and political situation, don't wait. Startorganizing and strategizing now.What are your plans now?We are exploring other avenues. Not dissent, but a revolution in life by breakingout of the system; we will create self-governing communities where we can growour own food and make our own decisions. We were inspired by our friend's idea tostart a vegan permaculture community so that we could break out of the system andgrow our own food and live in harmony with nature using ecologically sustainablemethods in the face of the impending food crisis. That's something we're lookingforward to. We will not deal with the constitution and laws because we will growour own food and produce our own energy. We will no longer have to worry aboutmoney and currency fluctuations.That's the plan for now, so we'll see how it goes and if we can actually find theground where we can start this sustainable lifestyle we're looking for, away fromthe system and oppression. It's revolutionary in a way.We do not believe that Aragalaj will stop. He will develop into what is requiredof him now under Ranil's guidance. It is a waiting phase during which we canchange the strategy. But that doesn't mean we stop. We will continue to creategraphics and find ways to publish information and our thoughts. And we will bothcontinue to fight.Any closing thoughts?Fuck the shelf.(July 31, 2022)Notes:[6]For context: Sri Lanka has a population of 22 million.[7]Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.[8]A party associated with the Rajapakas.Source:https://illwill.com/dispatches-from-sri-lankahttps://www.afed.cz/text/7722/depese-ze-sri-lanky-ii_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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