We recently published a short piece on the riots in Sri Lanka, noting the lack of
independent information. In the meantime, we discovered on the Ill Will websiteinterviews with Sri Lankan anarchists directly related to these events. ---- OnJuly 9, hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans stormed and occupied a number of keygovernment buildings, forcing President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the countryand resign. It was the culmination of months of insurgency sparked by thecountry's worst economic crisis since independence. The center of the protestswas a large-scale occupation in the center of Colombo, the island nation'scapital. ---- When the dust settled, on July 20, Parliament elected former PrimeMinister Ranil Wickremesinghe, a close ally of the Rajapaksa family, aspresident. The following night, soldiers cleared the last occupied governmentbuilding and part of the main protest camp. In the following weeks, a wave ofrepression was unleashed, many activists are in prison or hiding. At the time theinterviews were published (August 11), the police threatened to evict the protestcamp.After the crackdown on July 22, Ill Will conducted two interviews with anarchiststhere about their view of the uprising: its boundaries, horizons, and what thenext phase might look like. The first interview was conducted throughcorrespondence with an anarchist and journalist based in Kandy, Sri Lanka'ssecond largest city. The second was taken in a cafe in the suburbs of Colombowith J. and Z., two anarchists active during the occupation in the mutual aidtent, who have been on the front lines since the beginning of the protests.1st interview - KandyCan you share your perspective on the current situation?Even after Goto's resignation, the same group of politicians remains in SriLanka. New President Ranil Wickremesinghe swept to power after a popular coup andreappointed the same cabinet. After months of protests, millions of Sri Lankansare disappointed by this development. Some even accuse the protest movement ofbeing a sort of fifth column for Wickremesinghe and his Western backers.Wickremesinghe has since exercised full state power by declaring a state ofemergency and giving the military and police the go-ahead to suppress dissent.Protesters say they will fight on, but no one is quite sure how, givenWickremesinghe's talent as an extremely shrewd politician, who also has areputation for brutally neutralizing leftists and activists during the JanathaVimukthi Peramuna[1](JVP) uprising in the late 1980s. let.[2]Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your background?Before Occupy Colombo, I was involved in the local environmental scene. Manypeople from environmental groups were also social activists. We often talkedabout far-left and radical politics. So before the Gota Go Home protests, we wererelated to like-minded people, but we didn't have a "group" as such.How did you first encounter anarchist politics?I started work in 2016 and very quickly became dissatisfied with my job. This ledme to leftist Facebook groups. I started reading communist literature, and atthat time the whole right-wing populist wave started with Trump, Bolsanaro,Duterte and Le Pen. As I got more into leftism, I eventually started readingKropotkin and the works of other anarchist authors. I also discovered websiteslike CrimethInc and Adbusters that gave me insight into the libertarian left. Themore I researched the rich history of anarchism, such as the Spanish Civil War orthe Zapatistas in southern Mexico, the more I was convinced that another worldwas possible.Is there an anarchist tradition or scene in Sri Lanka? Are there other groups youare in contact with?There is no anarchist movement in Sri Lanka, but there is a rich leftist history.In the early 1970s and late 1980s, there were two Maoist-inspired uprisings thatlaunched the JVP. Most political parties in Sri Lanka are progressive andleft-wing in name only, and arose as a reaction to Western imperialism and thecountry's colonial past. However, just like the socialist regimes in SouthAmerica, these so-called progressive governments and parties were alwaysreactionary and statist to the core and did not care about the real working class.However, there are anarchist tendencies in Sri Lankan society. These tendenciescame to light as a result of this year's financial crisis and the protestmovement. However, no faction, party or group openly professes either anarchismor holds anarchist positions in Sri Lanka. We are not in contact with anarchistgroups abroad, because we ourselves are not properly organized and we only followindividual activists on social networks.What was your involvement in the protests and occupation like?I was involved in the small street demonstrations that preceded the uprising inMirihana, but I was not personally present at its inception.[3]I helped activistsand protestors in the occupation of GotaGoGama when it first formed.The first few weeks were phenomenal - it was probably the first time Sri Lankanshad witnessed a mass occupation protest. There were supply tents giving out freefood to protesters and visitors alike; it was a good example of mutual help andsolidarity. The protests were mostly peaceful, there were only a few clashes withriot police.Sri Lankans are mostly unaware that the police and military are there to protectthe state. As a result, many openly fraternized with the police, thinking theywere "just doing their job." Anti-police sentiment began to rise as the financialcrisis began to gather momentum. It was then that the hard hand of the statemanifested itself in full force.With the exception of extreme leftists, Sri Lankans are generally sympathetic tothe police and security forces. Worryingly, many members of the Sinhalesemajority see the military as their "saviors" who crushed Tamil separatism duringthe civil war. But when batons started falling on them on July 22, they wereconfused. Some shouted, "You are supposed to protect us!" They forgot that thepolice and the army are instruments of the state.What debates and views appeared in the movement or directly in your group?We had debates about tactics and politics. I tried to introduce anarchist ideasto some of the occupiers, but it was like throwing peas against a wall. The fewwho claimed to be anarchists did not bother to get information or try to organizethemselves. The protesters more or less thought that their popular movement hadbargaining power after Gota's ouster. They assumed the soldiers and police wouldstand back and let them occupy government buildings and dictate change. Butgetting this far is a miracle. I see this as the first step to winning many battles.Leftist politics, as I said, has become unpopular here because of pseudo-leftistparties and groups like the JVP. Most young people look down on socialistideology. Socialism, they say, is for boring college professors, annoying collegestudents, and crap politicians whining about "Western imperialism" from thepodium. For young people, the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is afailure compared to the prosperous capitalist countries. They see Asian tigerslike Hong Kong and Singapore as what Sri Lanka could be if it fully embraced freemarket policies. However, Sri Lankans tend to overlook the fact that Hong Kongand Singapore are brutal police states incompatible with easy-going, easy-goingislanders like themselves. Sri Lankans have no idea about the anti-authoritarianleft. They haven't heard of places like Rojava, the Free State of Ukraine in1918, Catalonia in the 1930s, or present-day Chiapas.What were the turning points of the protest movement?The biggest turning points in the movement were May 9 and July 9. On 9 May,former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa[4]unleashed his threshers to break upprotest sites in front of the Temple Trees and Galle Face. Once these thugs beganattacking GotaGoGama,[5]people from the surrounding offices, neighborhoods, andeven dock workers came to help the occupiers. A night of retribution followed,when many mansions and properties belonging to government politicians were set onfire. Rajapaksa's supporters were beaten and thrown into the Beira Lake inColombo. The Ninth of July was dubbed "Endgame" after the Marvel movie, andrightfully so. Thousands of people gathered at the Presidential Palace and thePresidential Secretariat and the rest is history.What do you see as the missed opportunities of this fight? What do you considerto be the limits and obstacles that this fight could not overcome?Anarchists or people with anarchist ideas could not organize themselves well tocollectively join protests and support a strike against the state, or to educatepeople coming to occupy. Liberals and other political tendencies in the protestmovement only wanted to reform the state by kicking out the current party andwriting a new constitution. We anarchists understand that if all we achieve areshort-term deals with the capitalists who actually control the state, Sri Lanka'sproblems will only continue. We have seen how much corporations devastate theenvironment to make way for plantations, factories and resorts. We understandthat any compromise with the bourgeoisie will end in failure.One of the main barriers to spreading our message is language. We need to findspecialized translators who can translate anarchist literature into Sinhala andTamil. Anarchists in Sri Lanka are a small group, and seeing the general distasteof the people for anarchism, they put off publishing Sinhala and Tamil zines.Forms of green anarchism, anarcho-primitivism and guerrilla gardening appeal toSri Lankans given our pastoral culture and green island home. Many of our peopleyearn for simpler times when life was in balance with nature.Officially, the protest movement adheres to the principle of non-violence.Paradoxically, however, its most important moments, 9 May and 9 July, weredefined by violence and aggressive direct action. The most important "frontunits" of these protests are the Inter-University Students' Federation (IUSF),colloquially called Anthare. The Anthare use a very aggressive style of protestand often attack law enforcement. The Anthare are a remnant of the hard-left JVPstudent movement, and liberals accuse them of seeking destruction. Meanwhile, theliberals march behind Anthar until the tear gas is dispersed and the hardfighting ends, and then they take all the credit.What do you think the next phase of the fight will look like?Given Ranil Wickremsinghe's reputation as a brutal exerciser of power and ashrewd politician, the movement will face many challenges that it has not facedin previous months. Right now the reactionary and fascist forces are regroupingand launching a counterattack to avenge the humiliation they faced on May 9th. Wehear that the state apparatus is identifying key protest leaders in the hope ofeither intimidating or bribing them. We also know that politicians and governmentappointees work hard to deflect and discredit popular dissent.What would it mean to win?The ultimate victory would be for the people of Sri Lanka to rise up as one,overthrow their political masters and seize the means of production. The islandwould be organized around collectives of fully autonomous workers and farmers whowould be free to make their own decisions and build a truly libertine country.Sri Lanka has existed in a self-sufficient manner for centuries. If the countrywere freed from the tyranny of the state and capital, it would be a true utopiaof people living for themselves, and not for some depraved ideal of the nation-state.What are the lessons from Sri Lanka for struggles elsewhere?Sri Lanka teaches that spontaneous protests can weaken the will of a tyrannicalregime. It also teaches the importance of solidarity because it united manypolitical currents and ideologies around one goal, much like the Spanish Civil War.What can people outside of Sri Lanka do to support you?We need more anarchists from abroad to visit us and teach us how to organize.Learning from books is fine, but we are very limited when it comes to experience.We would like to learn from indigenous uprisings, such as in Chiapas, Mexico, andfrom anarchists in Greece, how they organized during the financial crisis there.We also sorely lack political resources such as access to political literature.We are looking for a good printer to produce zines, posters and stickers tospread the word. Personally, I think that the first step of the organization inour country would be to build a small media center with a printer and computersso that we can establish contacts with anarchists abroad and print materials.Then, when our groups are large enough, we can move on to direct actions. BeforeJuly, some of us had planned to put up banners, but doing graffiti, for example,is especially difficult due to the current exceptional regulations. Even minoroffenses can be disproportionately punished, and activists face long courtbattles and years in prison. Travel and mobility is currently a big problem weare facing due to fuel shortage in Sri Lanka. Some of us use bicycles fortransportation, but even their price has increased due to the huge demand.What are you planning now?Right now we need to organize ourselves into affinity groups and plan our next steps.(July 26, 2022)(to be continued)Comment:[1]People's Liberation Front - Marxist-Leninist party which is now the thirdlargest party in the Sri Lankan Parliament.[2]Ranil is accused of overseeing the Batalanda detention center, which was usedto interrogate and kill dissidents and leftists during the second JVP uprising.The numerous tortures at Batalanda included flaying, beating, gouging out eyes,burning, raping and quartering. It is speculated that the horror stories fromBatalanda were deliberately released to the public to instill fear and demoralizethe population.[3]Mirihana is a suburb of Colombo where Gotabaja's personal residence islocated. Thousands of people protested in front of Goto's house on March 31.During clashes with police and soldiers, protesters stormed the barricade and setfire to a bus and several police vehicles. That night, spontaneous protestsspread throughout the city.[4]Former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa is the elder brother of GotabayaRajapaksa and is widely regarded as the patriarch of the family. He was forced toresign as prime minister on May 9.[5]GotaGoGama or GGG is the name of the main occupation site located at GalleFace Green in Colombo.Source:https://illwill.com/dispatches-from-sri-lankahttps://www.afed.cz/text/7720/depese-ze-sri-lanky-i_________________________________________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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