21st December 1997

It is breast feeding time in English class!

Most Zam bian sec ondary students responded extremely well to our teaching efforts. They value education as a ladder up which to climb to prosperity. Education is free there, but there aren't enough school places for all those who want to go to school. Every secondary school therefore becomes a night school for those who had fallen by the wayside. Employed youths, school drop-outs and housewives flock to these night schools in pursuit of a formal education they could not have access to.

It was not only expatriate teachers from Sri Lanka who taught in them. Sri Lankan accountants. engineers, lawyers - all of them made use of the opportunity to add to their salaries by stepping in to teach various subjects for the London GCE examination. We also did the same.

There was a young Zambian mother who attended one of our classes, carrying her baby pickaback. Midway through our lesson, we had turned to the blackboard to write an exercise on it for the class to do. It took us a few minutes to put chalk to blackboard, and when we faced the class again, there was this young mother, seated in the front row, breastfeeding her infant. A touching sight -her whole ebony bosom uncorseted and bare in the stillness of a late African evening - but enough also to cause some embarrassment, a minor culture shock, in an Asian teacher's mind. . Nobody else in that class took any notice.

African mothers breastfeed their babies anywhere, any time as they stand in queues to buy their mealie-meal (maize flour) in shopping complexes, as they walk along pavements, as they travel on buses, as they worship in church or as they entertain visitors in their drawing rooms. Africa is the place where mankind originated. From its earliest days, the African child is strapped to its mother's back. The child stays there as the mother tills the field, gathers firewood, collects water, cooks the meals and attends night school. The child is coddled and fed on demand not according to a feeding schedule. It is very rare to hear an African infant cry because it is hungry.

At the co-educational secondary school where we taught, the girls would openly remove their school uniforms in the open playing field to change into their PT kit. Dressing rooms were not necessary. And how those girls relished their PT under the guidance of British expatriate Mrs Sylvia Chesterman, great sportswoman herself! She coached several outstanding Zambian women athletes who participated in international meets.

Zambian secondary pupils preparing for the Cambridge Overseas School Certificate liked "Bible Knowledge", a soft option which gave easy access to a credit or distinction pass. Ebenezer Phiri was one such student who studied the Bible with dilligence and developed a fondness for Biblical language. He passed his Cambridge Certificate examination, found a job and a wife, kept in touch with us and informed us of his progress. One day, he visited us in our flat in Vulture Court down Church Road to give us the news. "I have glad tidings for you, Sir," he said. "My wife is with seed." Nine months later, he visited us again with gladder tidings. "My wife has brought forth," he proclaimed. Ebenezer deserved the gift he expected from us. Five Kwacha (the equivalent of ten rupees at that time) for "Mosi", the popular local brew that inebriates.

We worshipped in a little church in Lusaka. Behind the last row of pews where we sat was a tablet which read "Erected in 1944 and enlarged in 1958."

"Accept these our gifts as a token of our willingness to SAVE (serve) thee," prayed the minister as our offerings in Kwacha (the Zambian currency) were received. (But then, we have heard similar mispronunciations of the neutral English vowel in our country too.

We used to hear a mother in our neighborhood calling out "Vylate" to her daughter Violet and 'Anus' to his son who was christened "Ernest"! At the end of the communion service, the Zambian minister pronounced the benediction: May the PISS (peace) of God go with you." Many Zambian speakers of English find difficulty in producing the long vowel sound /I:/ as in "keep and "reap".

The English vowel "ae" as in "cat" and "back" was another pronunciation trouble spot for them. "SARM" was how our Zambian friends turned into a monosyllable our polysyllabic Sinhala name.

From its beginnings to its expulsion

Blows Against The Empire - Trotskyism in Ceylon: LSSP 1935-64 Edited by Al Richardson / Bob Pitt

This book covers the history of the LSSP from its foundation in 1935, through its adherence to the Fourth International in the late 1930s, its illegal activity during the Second World War, its attitude towards the country's independence, the contentious issue of the state language, and its role in the hartal of 1953, to its joining a coalition government led by the SLFP in 1964, which led to its expulsion from the Trotskyist world organisation.

The editors have assembled materials tracing the development of the island's oldest political party - once a major force in the local political scene that led large and militant trade unions and strikes and had at one point a parliamentary contingent of17 representatives. The selection has been slanted towards accounts and documents from the local movement itself.

Kumari Jayawardene provides the background to the formation of the party while Ranjit Amarasinghe charts its transition from an independent organisation to a coalition partner.

Two interviews, hitherto unpublished, given to Bob Pitt - by the late Prins Rajasoorya during his visit to Britain in 1990, and by the legendary Mark Anthony Bracegirdle in London in 1995, are included.

Veteran Trotskyist Meryl Fernando gives a detailed account of the period 1939 - 60. He joined the party during wartime while still a university student. He later represented the LSSP and the LSSP (R) as MP for Moratuwa from 1956 to 1964.

He comments: the Samasamajists in the immediate postwar period had "the potential of being the unifying force to rally the anti-imperialist forces around the slogan, 'Independence from British Rule' and by calling upon the British to quit Ceylon. In such a situation there was the possibility of drawing the minorities behind the working class banner by guaranteeing democratic rights. and in particular the Tamil minority the right of self-determination. Although this was on the agenda of the day, both LSSP and the Ceylon Unit of the BLPI failed to launch a struggle to compel the British to leave Ceylon."

Charles Erwin, an American left- wing writer contributes an article investigating the evolution of the movement in India during the 1940s.

On the eve of Indian independence, in February 1946 the sailors of the Royal Indian Navy rose in revolt. Bombay was at the centre of the uprising. It spread to Karachi, Calcutta and Cochin. Indian ratings on 74 ships, four flotillas and 20 shore establishments took part. For six days they were "free" from the colonial masters and superior officers.

Within days general strikes gripped the cities and towns of the sub-continent. The BLPI walkouts from factories were staged. The Bombay "Evening News" blamed "Trotskyist rowdies for instigating the general strike of 300.000 textile workers. Police and military units opened fire on demonstrators, culminating in an eight-hour battle at Castle Barracks. Hundreds died of gun-shot wounds. The shock waves were felt in Delhi and London.

The Indian National Congress was hostile to the ratings. The British Prime Minister informed parliament that Congress had officially disclaimed involvement in the revolt. Congressman Sardar Vallabhai Patel demanded unconditional surrender by the sailors. Jinnah too asked for surrender. Nehru was slightly more ambivalent and Mahatma Gandhi subsequently said, "the ratings had been badly advised."

Personal concerns of the sailors sparked the revolt and it soon fused with the national liberation struggle. There are some who even see the British government's decision to pull out in 1947 as being precipitated by the naval revolt. Within days the British announced the Cripps Mission which brought a new plan for its departure. The Indian Naval Revolt is now almost a forgotten episode.

Other items reprinted include articles by: N.M Perera on the Language Issue, Colvin R.de Silva on Independence, Philip Gunawardena on Revolutionary Defeatism, Leslie Goonewardena on the Third International, Edmund Samarakkody on the Assasination of Bandaranaike, V. Karalasingham on the 1956 General Election, Bala Tampoe on the Hartal, and an interview with Selina Perera, which appeared in the American "Socialist Appeal" in 1939.

The editors acknowledge that the picture assembled does not amount to a history; rather it provides a few of the materials on the basis of which a history could be written.

– T.P.

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