LSSP firebrand Vasudeva Nanayakkara has demanded that his party leader Bernard Soysa should resign from the Cabinet of the PA government and strongly condemned the emergency powers used by the government to break the recent CEB strike.
In a hard hitting interview with 'The Sunday Times' Mr. Nanayakkara said bringing CEB strikers to work at gunpoint was in his view something tantamount to criminal action. He reiterated that the LSSP wholeheartedly supported the CEB strike though it was not initiated by his party.
Mr. Nanayakkara also breathed fire on other issues. He accused some estate management companies of acting like gangsters and plundering the wealth of the people. Regarding privatisation Mr. Nanayakkara warned that the LSSP would lead mass agitation and even call out strikes to thwart privatisation in some instances.
Excerpts from the interview:
Q: Does it not show a lack of courage on the part of the LSSP to absent itself from Parliament each time the extension to the Emergency is debated? Why does not the LSSP show the courage of its convictions by solidly voting against the extension of the emergency?
A: Our position is that abstention is a kind of passive persuasion.
Q: Should you not have voted against the extension last time when the government using emergency powers broke the CEB strike with strong-arm tactics and got the workers to come to work at gunpoint?
A: I agree that the emergency was used against the strikers and earlier to stop the May Day rallies which we did denounce in no uncertain terms. While we oppose the extension of the emergency, we do not want to see the defeat of the PA Government.
Q: Many who respect the LSSP feel that your party leader Bernard Soysa should have resigned from the Cabinet. What is your view?
A: It is my conviction too that our leaders must not hold positions in this government because the way it is going is contradictory and incompatible with the fundamental position of the LSSP. My conviction and that of many is that he should resign now and actually that he should not have held office at all.
Q: There is the impression that the LSSP did not support the CEB strike or at the most was rather lukewarm about it?
A: That's not correct. We wholeheartedly supported the strike. W.R. Lenty who was in the forefront of the strike is our TU leader in the CEB. Mr. Lenty prior to the strike was constantly in touch with our party Secretary Batty Weerakoon. The strike had the LSSP's fullest support.
We have also condemned the way the government handled the strike and the witch hunt that went on. But the truth is, we are not the most powerful trade union there so we naturally can't claim we called the strike. I feel humbled by the fact that we were not the ones that initiated it.
Q: What do you think of bringing striking workers back to their jobs at gunpoint.
A: It was unthinkable that the President should have done so and said so in an interview. Let me tell you that under ordinary criminal law she can be charged but for the immunity she enjoys. For no law provides for such conduct by the President.
Q: Throughout the long history of the estate plantation workers the LSSP had been their strong supporters. Have you not now become lukewarm about them?
A: We still support the fight of the plantation workers for equal rights and status.
Q: What do you think of the Management companies that now run the estates?
A: Some of them are acting like gangsters, Public property is being looted. They should have been hounded out long ago. After all, these lands belong to the workers and their ancestors. The land has been forcibly taken away from them and given to big companies. The rights of the people are being trampled.
Q: Recently newspapers published a long list of public enterprises that will be privatised by PERC. What is the LSSP policy on this?
A: We are opposed to privatisation. This is our position which is consistent with the PA's manifesto.
Q: So what do you propose to do about it while being with the Government?.
A: Anything and everything. We will develop public opinion against privatisation. We will raise conscientious objections within the P.A. government and bring strong pressure on the government leadership against privatisation. We will mobilise leaders and those against privatisation to express and demonstrate the dissent of the people. We will call out strike action to thwart privatisation. We will whip up large scale mass action.
Q: Being a constituent party of the Government have you appraised the President of your attitude?
A: Yes We have written to her memorandum and verbally. In fact she has agreed to introduce laws for the government to take back privatised institutions if they are not acting in the national interest. Minister G.L. Peiris stated this explicitly in his winding up speech on the PERC Bill debate. We are now asking the President to match her words with action.
Q: You are known for for your strong stand on behalf of workers. Are you compromising now?
A: No. Neither the party nor I are prisoners of the government. We are constituents of the P.A. and played a part during elections to work against the UNP. This campaign against the UNP will continue undettered no matter who governs.
Q: In other words you mean you will work against the UNP were it to come into power?
A: We will never let the UNP come back to office.
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