Asia: 'progressives' Hit the Dust

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Yet another of So uth Asia's self-styled *pri ›gressive" leaders has fallen with resounding thud into the political dust.

Mrs. Bandaranaike lost Sri Lanka's general election on July 21 even more decisively than Indira Gandhi on whom she had increasingly modelled her semi-dictatorBandaranaıka's Freedom Party iost ail except 8 of its seats in parliament.

Jayen ardene's right wing United Nina Party won what he calls "e=" arrassingiy large" majority is total of 168 seats.

==- like Gandhi and =-.: Patter tor all their Rate lost mass clabolidi ..... 31 worst in the world-1.3 million unemployed out of a total workforce of under 6 million.

In Sri Lanka as in India and Pakistan, popular discontent with fraudulent "progressive" leaders has been reflected in a very contradictory way through support for explicitly right wing parties-the National Alliance in Pakistan, the Janata Party in India and now the United National Party in Sri Lanka.

There is no doubt that these parties cannot solve any of the pressing problems of the workers and peasants and that their plans will involve massive repression.

POWERS

Already Jayewardene has ken semi-dictatorial powers ical with" the Ware of inleashed i: his own re he vie to prop up the Gandhi dic tatorhip while the Socialist Party sunk tseit in the mire of the j anata Party and the non-aligned Communist Party (Marxist) did a more informal deal with the Janata.

OPPORTUNISM

In Sri Lanka the same opportunism kept the pro-Moscow CP and the LSSP (the "Trotskyist" party which before its expulsion was the Sri Lanka section of the 'United" Secretariat of the Fourth International) in close political alliance with the Bandaranaike government until the last possible moment before the elections.

Both the CP and the LSSP picked up their just rewards for this treachery -they were annihilated in the elections and are lett without a single partlamentary seat.

070172215 Jayawardene is attempting to head off by appointing as cabinet ministers some of the UNP's seven Tamil members.

Jayawardene plans to tackle his other immediate political problem, that of unemployment, by opening the gates to what he hopes will. be a flood of foreign investment from the imperialist countries.

The centrepiece of this plan is the establishment in Trincomalee of a tax-free and customs-free area for processing factories, casinos. hotels and shipping facilities through which the UNP hopes to convert Sri Lanka into a king of amalgam of Hong Kong. Singapore. Bermuda and Monaco.

There can be little doubt that the Sri Lankan working class, which only a few months ago launched a huge strike wave against Banders naika's antinerking var CR rabidly to use L1"S between the two countries. Both have made numerous claims of massive casualties inflicted on the enemy. Somalia, long time ally of the Soviet Union, has now asked for and been offered major military support from the main imperialist powers.

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