{"id":240602,"date":"2025-01-18T18:01:23","date_gmt":"2025-01-18T12:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=240602"},"modified":"2025-01-26T11:40:43","modified_gmt":"2025-01-26T06:10:43","slug":"npp-jvp-modern-mensheviks-the-lankan-lefts-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/npp-jvp-modern-mensheviks-the-lankan-lefts-future\/","title":{"rendered":"NPP-JVP Modern Mensheviks & The Lankan Left\u2019s Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dayan Jayatilleka<\/a> –<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka<\/p><\/div>\n

The ongoing string of defeats of the governing NPP<\/a><\/span> at the Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society (MPCS) elections in areas as diverse as Angunukolapelessa (Hambantota), Welvitya-Divithura (Galle), Homagama, Kelaniya and Beruwela, are unprecedentedly early<\/b> signs of a trend which may take five years to come to fruition, but come to fruition they will.<\/p>\n

What we are seeing is an accelerated replay of the trajectory of the center-left United Front government of 1970 which enjoyed a two-thirds majority.<\/p>\n

Lessons of the 1970s<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The 1970s prove that if the Left doesn\u2019t provide a clear alternative early enough to a Center-Left government turned rightwards and economically hurting the people, the Right will succeed it. The Left has to seize the banner of anti-government struggle and lead it.<\/p>\n

In 1970 a center-left United Front with a powerful left component was elected to office with a 2\/3rds majority. In 2024 a left-populist movement driven by a Marxist party shifted to the center and won a 2\/3rds majority. The 1970 Government deviated rightwards and the UNP crushed it at the 1977 General Election.<\/p>\n

The 2024 one has done likewise, pivoting more sharply rightwards– the ISB sellout\u2014and adopting in an ultimate irony, the program of Ranil, son of Esmond Wickremesinghe, whose Shenoy-Suharto-Chicago Boys model triggered Wijeweera\u2019s arming of the JVP in the late-1960s.<\/p>\n

Left critiques of the 1970 UF government were of several types:<\/p>\n

* Critical support from within by those (Wickramabahu, Vasu, Janavegaya Maoists) fearful of a break with the UF base; \u2018unity-and-struggle\u2019 constructive criticism from without, by those who demurred at rupture. Voters bypassed all vacillators in halfway-houses, embracing the Opposition UNP as the only clear-cut alternative.<\/p>\n

* Frontal critiques from Trotskyists and Maoists \u2013 Bala Tampoe, N. Sanmugathasan–who had opposed the LSSP and CPSL shifts, national and international, to the right in 1964. Tamil-led, these had limited national traction.<\/p>\n

* Breakout to the Opposition (1972) by CPSL icons SA Wickremesinghe and Sarath Muttetuwegama, supported by the ATHTHA newspaper. Soviet pressure restored party unity, disastrously– the lesson being, never let anyone else\u2019s foreign policy be your domestic policy. Mao, Ho and Fidel never did.<\/p>\n

* Radical \u2018New Left\u2019 critiques from Wijeweera\u2019s JVP and smaller organizations before and after the 1971 insurrection and its suppression. (I belonged to the post-1971 radical \u2018New Left\u2019.)<\/p>\n

Imagine if:<\/p>\n

(a) Wijeweera\u2019s JVP had maintained its left critique<\/i> of the UF Government without<\/b> being provoked into adventurist armed violence.<\/p>\n

(b) The SA Wickremesinghe-Sarath Muttetuwegama wing of the CPSL (so-called \u2018hardliners\u2019) remained in the Opposition and evolved into the equivalent of Kerala\u2019s CPI-M.<\/p>\n

(c) Vasudeva-Vickramabahu-Vama SamaSamaja<\/i> had broken away in 1972-3.<\/p>\n

Any of these political options\u2014better still, a combination–may have achieved one of four outcomes:<\/p>\n

* Repeated the 1953 Hartal uprising when mass economic hardship was acute from 1973 (e.g., the ban of rice transport) or taken the 1976-1977 nationwide students\u2019 revolt-railway strike-General Strike to the next level.<\/p>\n

* Competed with the UNP as Left alternative in 1977.<\/p>\n

* Been the main Opposition in the 1977 Parliament.<\/p>\n

* Formed a strong Left Opposition in the 1977 Parliament.<\/p>\n

As a \u2018thought experiment\u2019, recall Rohana Wijeweera\u2019s political and ideological line of the 1970s towards the UF government, MINUS<\/b> the armed violence. That would have been the correct line then. That would be the correct line now.<\/p>\n

Mimicking Menshevism<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Invocations of Lenin in justifying AKD in the Lankan press remind me of LSSP ideologues during the UF government of 1970, justifying Dr NM Perera\u2019s budgetary policies by referring to Lenin\u2019s New Economic Policy (NEP).<\/p>\n

It also reminds me of Bala Tampoe\u2019s pun: \u201ca little Lenin is a dangerous thing\u201d.<\/p>\n

It must be recalled that Lenin didn\u2019t overthrow the old establishment, the Tsar. Tsarism had already been overthrown by the time he made it on a sealed train (negotiated from the Germans) to the Finland station in 1917. Warmly welcomed by cheering crowds, he almost had to be rescued from them when he finished speaking because he frontally criticized and called for the replacement of the Provisional Government, the petty-bourgeois leftist administration which replaced centuries-old tsarism (much older and infinitely worse than \u201cthe post-Independence Establishment which ruled Sri Lanka for 76 years\u201d).<\/p>\n

Headed by Lenin\u2019s old school principal\u2019s son Kerensky, it consisted of Marxists and leftists \u2013 his former comrades and bitter rivals the Mensheviks led by Julius Martov, and the \u2018S-Rs\u2019 (the \u2018Socialist-Revolutionaries\u2019), a left party bigger than the Bolsheviks.<\/p>\n

Lenin called for the overthrow of the Provisional Government born of the February Revolution which shattered Tsarism. He overthrew it in October 1917 because it didn\u2019t and couldn\u2019t disentangle itself from the alliances with and commitments to the Western powers which tsarism had enmeshed Russia in, continued its involvement in the world war between imperialist rivals, and would have brought economic catastrophe upon the Russian people.<\/p>\n

In their sellout to the foreign and local bondholders, and their invitation to and deeper entanglement of Sri Lanka with rival Big Powers, AKD and the JVP-NPP are the direct descendants of the post-tsarist Menshevik and S-R Government, not of Lenin. A contemporary Lenin would call for their replacement.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":227218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2186,46,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-240602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-featured-news","category-constitutional-reforms","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"\nNPP-JVP Modern Mensheviks & The Lankan Left\u2019s Future - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/npp-jvp-modern-mensheviks-the-lankan-lefts-future\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NPP-JVP Modern Mensheviks & The Lankan Left\u2019s Future - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/npp-jvp-modern-mensheviks-the-lankan-lefts-future\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-01-18T12:31:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-01-26T06:10:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Anura-Kumara-Dissanayake-JVP.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dayan Jayatilleka\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dayan Jayatilleka\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/npp-jvp-modern-mensheviks-the-lankan-lefts-future\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/npp-jvp-modern-mensheviks-the-lankan-lefts-future\/\",\"name\":\"NPP-JVP Modern Mensheviks & The Lankan Left\u2019s Future - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/npp-jvp-modern-mensheviks-the-lankan-lefts-future\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/npp-jvp-modern-mensheviks-the-lankan-lefts-future\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Anura-Kumara-Dissanayake-JVP.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-01-18T12:31:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-01-26T06:10:43+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/754610f57449c7be5e5814d3d53310f6\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/npp-jvp-modern-mensheviks-the-lankan-lefts-future\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/npp-jvp-modern-mensheviks-the-lankan-lefts-future\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/npp-jvp-modern-mensheviks-the-lankan-lefts-future\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Anura-Kumara-Dissanayake-JVP.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Anura-Kumara-Dissanayake-JVP.jpeg\",\"width\":900,\"height\":600},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/npp-jvp-modern-mensheviks-the-lankan-lefts-future\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"NPP-JVP Modern Mensheviks & The Lankan Left\u2019s Future\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/754610f57449c7be5e5814d3d53310f6\",\"name\":\"Dayan Jayatilleka\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bbfd553b46b4b6b7e8b3a4a4c91f66c2a0d8a3bcbeec217c521cd46dbf3b8815?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bbfd553b46b4b6b7e8b3a4a4c91f66c2a0d8a3bcbeec217c521cd46dbf3b8815?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dayan Jayatilleka\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/djaya\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"NPP-JVP Modern Mensheviks & The Lankan Left\u2019s Future - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/npp-jvp-modern-mensheviks-the-lankan-lefts-future\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"NPP-JVP Modern Mensheviks & The Lankan Left\u2019s Future - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[…]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/npp-jvp-modern-mensheviks-the-lankan-lefts-future\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2025-01-18T12:31:23+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-01-26T06:10:43+00:00","og_image":[{"width":900,"height":600,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Anura-Kumara-Dissanayake-JVP.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Dayan Jayatilleka","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dayan Jayatilleka","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/npp-jvp-modern-mensheviks-the-lankan-lefts-future\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/npp-jvp-modern-mensheviks-the-lankan-lefts-future\/","name":"NPP-JVP Modern Mensheviks & The Lankan Left\u2019s Future - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/npp-jvp-modern-mensheviks-the-lankan-lefts-future\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/npp-jvp-modern-mensheviks-the-lankan-lefts-future\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Anura-Kumara-Dissanayake-JVP.jpeg","datePublished":"2025-01-18T12:31:23+00:00","dateModified":"2025-01-26T06:10:43+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/754610f57449c7be5e5814d3d53310f6"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/npp-jvp-modern-mensheviks-the-lankan-lefts-future\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/npp-jvp-modern-mensheviks-the-lankan-lefts-future\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/npp-jvp-modern-mensheviks-the-lankan-lefts-future\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Anura-Kumara-Dissanayake-JVP.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Anura-Kumara-Dissanayake-JVP.jpeg","width":900,"height":600},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/npp-jvp-modern-mensheviks-the-lankan-lefts-future\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"NPP-JVP Modern Mensheviks & The Lankan Left\u2019s Future"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/754610f57449c7be5e5814d3d53310f6","name":"Dayan Jayatilleka","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bbfd553b46b4b6b7e8b3a4a4c91f66c2a0d8a3bcbeec217c521cd46dbf3b8815?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bbfd553b46b4b6b7e8b3a4a4c91f66c2a0d8a3bcbeec217c521cd46dbf3b8815?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Dayan Jayatilleka"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/djaya\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Anura-Kumara-Dissanayake-JVP.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240602"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":240606,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240602\/revisions\/240606"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}