In the following, Sri Lankan anarchist 'Gadfly', who participated in the protestmovement that overthrew President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, reflects on GotaGoGama(Goto, Go Home), the occupation that was at the heart of the movement. Gama isthe Sinhalese word for "village"; the Tamil equivalent is gramam. Since April 9,protesters have permanently occupied Galle Face, a half-kilometer oceanfront parkin the center of Colombo, Sri Lanka's capital. On 9 July, a massive mob stormedthe presidential palace, the presidential secretariat and the prime minister'sresidence, forcing Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country.You can read interviews with participants of this movement on our website HEREand HERE.Revolutionary Village"It seems like a lifetime, or at least a prime era-the kind of peak that willnever come back. GotaGoGama (GGG) was an extraordinary time and place to be apart of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run... but noexplanation, no mixture of words, music or memories can touch the knowledge thatyou were there, living in that corner of time and the world. Whatever that meant...Madness in every direction and at every hour. You could ignite sparks anywhere.There was a fantastic universal feeling that whatever we were doing was right,that we were winning...And that, I think, was the handle-that sense of inevitable victory over theforces of the Old and the Evil. Not in any mean or militaristic sense; we didn'tneed that. Our energy would simply SURVIVE. There was no point infighting-neither on our side nor on theirs. We had all the momentum, riding onthe crest of a tall and beautiful wave...So now you can go up that steep hill at Galle Face and look to the west, and ifyou look hard enough, you can almost see the high water mark - the place wherethe wave finally broke and rolled back." - Gatherer S. ThompsonIt was Sri Lanka's Woodstock, Kronstadt and Occupy Wall Street all rolled intoone. For most of us it started in April. With the near-constant rain and mudpounding our feet, we all chanted, thousands of people, "Gota Go Home!"We grew up listening to stories about the glorious days of the Hartal[generalstrike]in 1953. That was when Sri Lanka came to a standstill, everyone rose upand went on strike. "People came out of their houses and cooked rice on therailway tracks," eyewitnesses said. "The land was a ghost town."Then we have bitter memories of the bloody end of the eighties. As America hummed"Everybody Wants to Rule the World" and watched "Say Anything," in Sri Lankascreams emanated from torture chambers and the last sight of charred, beatenbodies smoldering on tire fires.Thirty years later, however, something completely different happened, and it wasa refreshing change from the political rants we've been fed since the 1990s.Gota[former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa]came and promised the people a kingdomof wonders, but all we got was a purgatory of blackouts and inflation. The freemarket couldn't fix the mess; the man was blatantly robbing us and the queues forbasic food stretched for miles. The trouble came when the middle class (that is,the class that doesn't care) also took to the streets to protest. It all startedwhen the protesters went to Mirihana[the suburb where Gotabaya Rajapaksa lived]togive the old goat a little roast in his decadent lair. The rest of the countrywatched glued to their televisions; as people saw the police barricades beingtoppled with triumphant fervor, smiles slowly spread across their faces.That was the moment sheep became lions. In the days that followed, the packmarched to a patch of grass called Galle Face, fists in hand, vowing not to moveuntil Gota was dragged home."Leaderless Resistance"The GGG was the first truly leaderless movement in Sri Lanka."No one is in charge here, brother. In reality, we are all in charge. You, me andthe guy over there," said someone at Galle Face.Anarchos: Greek "without rulers or leaders".But that didn't stop the goons from arresting people they thought were leaders.The fact that the Galle Face movement was leaderless had its advantage in a way -it frustrated the authorities, who were constantly on the lookout for a broodingcharismatic figure somewhere in one of the tents plotting a revolution.We remember in the early days of GGG the secret police and political spies askingus who the leader was. The government frantically searched to cut off the snake'shead.But like Ravanan[the mythical ten-headed demon king of Lanka], Aragalaja[Sinhalafor "fight"]was many-headed.A few of us knew that a fire had been lit...Sharing is caringMutual aid defines human society. We wouldn't have come this far if our ancestorshadn't banded together to survive.But this sense of community, even in Asia (or should we say especially in Asia)has disappeared with each manifestation of the state over time.GGG reaffirmed the importance of community by building a community that caredabout the revolution taking place in the heart of Colombo.There was a kitchen, a hospital, a guerrilla garden, distribution points, alibrary, a cinema and a school, while two trucks with solar panels served aspower plants! Those who could contributed food, clothes, tents or books. Thosewho could not, put a hand in the construction and operation of GGG.The protest site was called Adarasha Gammanaja, or "model village".The Sri Lankan government has attempted to create such Adarasha Gammanaja before,such as the kibbutz-inspired Gammudawa[Gam Udawa - "developing village"]project.But it was our little GGG who got the world talking!Attempts to build autonomy and self-sufficiency in Sri Lanka have been madebefore, but it was only to support the image of the ruling regimes; it was rarelyto the benefit of ordinary people.However, GGG came together and operated in a non-exploitative manner. No onereceived special privileges and everyone got their fair share. "To each accordingto his needs, each according to his ability."Understanding that we only have each otherSri Lanka has long been plagued by sectarian violence. The roots of bigotry andracism go back to pre-independence; politicians used ethnic differences andstrife to effectively divide people. Entire books have been written about thehistory of conflicts in Sri Lanka.Given the numerous divisions in the country, the state and its henchmen werehappily waiting for the GGG to disband within a week. But they were very wrong.Instead, they saw our LGBTQ friends serving Iftar[the meal eaten after sunsetduring Ramadan]to Muslims. Priests, monks, nuns and imams formed human barriersto protect protesting students from police batons. The Sinhalese commemorated theTamils who lost their lives in the race riots of '83 and the last phase of thewar[the Sri Lankan civil war]. Mixing classes. A gathering of all people for asingle purpose.Those nights under the stars with the Indian Ocean breeze reminded us of whatmakes us truly human. Despite our differences, we stuck together: We understoodthat it takes all five clenched fists to strike against those who oppress us.The event builds trust...We were the Galles of Galle Face; a barbarian horde that rushed against the Romanshields of riot police.Quite a few of us got our first dose of CS gas. Fired canisters have become acollector's item. Radical students, who practically grew up on it, initiatednewcomers into the art of street fighting.If eyes are the windows to the soul, then tear gas eyes are the floodgates of thedisinherited.The pillars of solidarity and mutual aid underpinned GGG's direct action; notablythe 24-hour protest chant at "Gate Zero", the main barricade outside thepresidential secretariat.Accordingly, the walls of Port City were summarily covered in graffiti and blackbanners were posted on lampposts. A lot of market traders and small businessmenopened their shops precisely for the crowds of protesters who flocked here every day.The support network helped GGG open branches in many parts of the island to helpeducate people.And when the state attacked the occupation strike on May 9, people didn't juststand idly by; the rascals were hurriedly sent into the algae-infested waters ofLake Biera.In a country marked by inter-ethnic riots and massacres, the story turned on thenight of May 9, when people burned down the houses of parliamentarians and othergovernment politicians.The largest direct action in the history of Sri Lanka is undoubtedly the attackon the Presidential Palace, the Presidential Secretariat and the Temple Trees[theofficial residence of the Sri Lankan Prime Minister]on 9 July. Protestersoccupied the swimming pools of these decadent homes and thousands flocked toColombo to revel in luxuries completely unaffordable to plebeians.This movement seemed for a moment to straighten again the backbone that had beentaken from the long-suffering people. These were days of triumph for a peoplesubjugated by warriors, despots, imperialists and capitalists.Where did we go wrong?The occupation of the three state buildings did not last long, and governmentmedia and propagandists, among other things, worked hard to scare the public withrumors that the protesters were secretly funded by minorities.In a desperate bid to save the establishment, Parliament quickly elected RanilWickremesinghe to fill the vacant Goto seat. He was the Frank Underwood[mainantagonist in the political thriller House of Cards]of Sri Lankan politics andwas the right-hand man of the Pinochet-style party governments of the late 1980s.It gained its notoriety thanks to the rumors of the Batalanda torture camp.Ranil is primarily known as a shrewd businessman. Surprisingly, this did not fazethe occupiers when they decided to surrender the buildings on 22 July. GGG waslulled into the complacency that all revolutions struggle with when they win.It is quite easy for moderates and liberals in any popular movement to take thepath of compromise. The pseudo-radical masks that some wear slowly melt away whenthe powerful throw them a few nuts - or just their promise. The worst offendersare charismatic mini-politicians who invade the radical space. They have thecharm to turn any political discussion in their favor. They spout the latestideologies and blend in quite easily, but they have no idea about theory andpractice.The political class is well aware of these types and is luring them forprivileges in the coming regime and grooming them to become the new statists.Such people have ruined so many movements that have come and gone.What we are dealing with now...Meanwhile, the IMF[International Monetary Fund]team has come and gone, promisinga bailout program that will undoubtedly bring a lot of austerity to the people.Queues for fuel are still a common occurrence. He made a loaf of bread soexpensive that most of the working poor could not afford it.The state has thrown down the gauntlet and its forces are now pursuing theprotesters with extreme bias. People are arrested for taking glasses, flags andother mundane things from government buildings. Hell, even the guy who hugged thepillar of the presidential palace was arrested!GGG was cleared a week after the brutal hit on July 22nd. Many protesters weremercilessly beaten with iron rods and electric cables; tents and other equipmentwere smashed. Concerns grew when bodies began to wash up on the beach next to theoccupation site. Reports of drive-by shootings in what police described as "gangviolence" made headlines.To make matters worse, the government said the protesters would be charged aboutUS$13,800 for the damage they allegedly caused to the Galle Face Green.Gotabhaja, who had been bouncing around Southeast Asia trying to claim asylum ina third country, flew back to Sri Lanka on the night of September 2 and wasquickly whisked away in a convoy of jeeps by a group of political sycophants tothe Rajapaksa family home in the south of the country. There are rumors that hemight try to sneak into Parliament through the back door and seek the PrimeMinister's seat.Aragalaya is reeling, but we will not go quietly into the night. We have learnedour lessons and are waiting for the right moment to make history again.Source:https://cs.crimethinc.com/2022/09/06/sri-lanka-it-takes-a-whole-village-gota-go-gama-what-we-learned-in-the-occupation-movementhttps://www.afed.cz/text/7744/gotagogama_________________________________________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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