| Description | Interview with an unidentified man. He discusses the social and political backgrounds of the leadership of the traditional left wing parties now represented in the government, who are largely from property owning families, the concentration of their activities amongst the urban working class, and the support of the rural population for the United National Party, the main conservative party, or the more recently formed Sri Lanka Freedom Party. He discusses the support for the LSSP (Lanka Sama Samaja Party) amongst rubber plantation workers, the different social base of the JVP (Janata Vimukti Peramura) or People's Liberation Front and its orientation towards the Sinhalese population because Sinhala was the first language of its leaders. He talks about the influence of Chinese and Russian printed literature in Sinhala on the JVP movement and his belief that the JVP had only a limited understanding of military strategy. He emphasises the numbers of insurgents killed by government forces and talks about the use of emergency powers and the 'Public Security Act' by governments during the 1950s and 1960s. He discusses the class character of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party membership, its mass following and the lack of fundamental difference in terms of leadership in the attitudes to the capitalist property system of all the main parties, whether conservative or left wing. He talks about the lack of alternatives for people, other than going outside parliament, the attitude of the present government to the plantations and the reasons why it has not nationalised the tea plantations and the appointment of a 'tea commission' and its terms of reference. He goes on to talk about the recent disturbances, the psychological impact of the attacks on police stations, the government's fears of further uprisings and difficulty in paying for military aid (tracks 1-12).
Track 13: silence 7.19 mins
Total: 32.21 mins
Dubber's reference number: PLA KF571E0553280 |