MARXISM - LENINISM
AND THE RIGHT OF SELF
DETERMINATION
(This is a reply to the article published on 4th August 2015 by Chandana Sirimalwatta, Editor of “Janarala” of The Frontline Socialist Party.)
I will reply only to the last paragraph of your article. It is the basic question on which we disagree. Please consider that I write this in comradeship.
You have said:-
“We defend the rights of Tamils or any other group based on our politics. That is the Marxist-Lennist politics we believe. We recognize only the class divisions in the human community. It is true that dividing people as Sinhala or Tamil is a myth created by the Capitalist Society. We do not agree with that”
- Tamils are not another group. It is a race. In Sri Lanka there only two races. Not one. Not three. These are Sinhala and Tamil. This is due to the social evolution of our island and not created by the Capitalists. Groups such as Catholics and Muslims live within the two races. It was the Muslim and Sinhala capitalist leaders who encouraged the Muslims to ask for a separate state in order to weaken the freedom struggle of the Tamils. Fortunately Catholics did not get caught to this trap.
- All races have a homeland. Homeland of the Tamil race is Eelam. Now it has been bisected into two provinces. (I don’t know whether it is illegal even to use the term Eelam). The foreigners called our country Ceylon. Now we call it Sri Lanka. Similarly Tamils also have a right to choose the name of their country.
- 3. I think that free thinkers and socialists have some limited common ground. Because they make decisions based on evidence and facts and not on faith and beliefs. Believers accept everything their priests or leaders say. We are not like that.
- The Marxist concept of the Right of Self Determination
- Lenin’s ideas about Right to Self Determination
- Whatever our beliefs or theories, there is one thing we should know about the history of the modern world. That basic axiom is that no nation who has started a struggle (with or without weapons) for independence has given it up or got defeated. They start such a struggle because all other social, legal and political attempts have failed. they cannot be pacified by giving some relief. The membership of the United Nations after the Second World War rose up to 193 because various nations caged inside oppressive regimes became independent. Like us, leaders of those countries also talked about their ‘uniqueness’ and ‘western influences’. (In the final analysis our ‘uniqueness’ is embedded in the Gemunu mentality and Mahawansa which made the Tamils our eternal enemies.)
I would like to know when you last read what Marx and Lenin has written about the Right of Self Determination. I started reading them when I was 16 years of age. At that time we could buy for a pittance those books from the People’s Publishing House. There was a social environment which encouraged the reading of these books. The workers in Ports, Railways and Bus Depots used to read books at that time. That was our golden era. The 50 cent booklet I wrote with a friend on Socialism had to be printed five times. Do we have such an enlightened working class today?
Why I said all this is because now I am 76 years old and suffering from various ailments. I write from memory. (All the books I had on Marxism was donated to the N. M. Perera Centre in Colombo). Now writing is not easy. Since the young generation now rarely read these original books, some would find it difficult to understand what we are discussing.
Fredrick Engles with Karl Marx issued the ‘Communist Manifesto’ in 1848 with the slogan ‘Workers of World Unite’. The aim was to bring the working class in all countries to power.
They emphasized the fact that working classes have been formed within some countries. Some are under imperialist rule and further, there are at time nations imprisoned within independent countries. Therefore Marx wrote continuously about their right to independence. For example he wrote about Irish under the British, Jews and especially on India. When a nation is under a foreign rule, class struggle gets subdued. The aim of everyone in that nation is to get rid of the outside enemy. Why is this simple fact not understood?
Lenin who gave leadership to the Russian Revolution has written three thesis on the national question.
Russia is the biggest country in the world with many nations. When formulating the constitution after the revolution, Lenin’s stand was that all nations should be given the right to self - determination including secession.
This resulted in a considerate agitation. Senior revolutionaries such as Rosa Luxemburg did not agree with him. Like you, they also saw only the class struggle. Lenin reminded them that it is a ‘Union of Soviet Socialist Republics’. They become members of the Union voluntarily. He criticized those who oppose it as lunatics. Accordingly three countries including Latvia left the Soviet Union.
These ideas are theoretically developed in the ‘Permanent Revolution’ written by Trotsky, the creator of the Red Army.
Stalin who captured the state power after Lenin was a cruel tyrant. He did not care for any of the above policies. Countries that came under the Russian rule after the Second World War rose up demanding freedom. This happened in Hungary in 1958 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. Just like our response to Eelam, Russia also sent the Red Army to both these countries! Revolutionaries in Europe protested against this invasion. I also participated in these protests.
This is a summary of the Marxist politics I know. (I have written separately why I distanced myself from those political movements and became a humanist free thinker)
The reverse of this historical theory is also valid. If the right to Self Determination is accepted within a country, that nation will not split. Various federal systems achieve this. That is the best method in the world to live within the same land with power sharing. Since it alleviates the national pressure the need for separation is removed.
In a dialogue like this we talk exclusively about Sri Lanka. But we will be able to build a bright future only if we can get rid of this island mentality and learn from the experiences of other countries. I think this could be done by the free thinkers and socialists who have a world view. It is our duty to explain this and convince the people.
I doubt whether we are too late for such a solution.
R. Fernando.
Translation : S. M. Banduseela
Two Crocodiles were sitting at the side of the River. The smaller one turned to the bigger one and said, 'I can't understand how you can be so much bigger than me. We're the same age, we were the same size as kids - I just don't get it.
'Well,' said the big Croc, 'what have you been eating?'
'Politicians; same as you,' replied the small Croc.
'Hmm. Well, where do you catch them?'
'On the other side of the water way near the Parliament car park in Kotte.
'Same here'. Hmm.....How do you catch them?' asked the big Croc.
'Well, I crawl up under one of their big Lexus, BMW or Mercedes cars and wait for one to unlock the car door. Then I jump out, grab them by the leg, shake the shit out of them and eat 'em!'
'Aha!' says the big Crocodile, 'I think I see your problem. You're not getting any real nourishment. See, by the time you finish shaking the shit out of a Politician, there's nothing much left but just an asshole with a briefcase!
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