Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières
Since the end of the war, Sri Lanka’s economy is being transformed through a rapid process of financialisation. Such widespread financialisation facilitated infrastructure development, a real estate boom linked to urbanisation and expansion of credit leading to increasing indebtedness of the (...)
“… stability, no less than revolution, may have its own kind of Terror”
Ranil Wickremesinghe has apparently peaked in popularity in the twilight of a dismal political career. Among party leaders, he is viewed favourably by 54% of the public (in comparison to 43% for the Leader of the Opposition (...)
Inspired by Yugoslavia’s market socialism, Trotskyists in the Sri Lankan government instituted workers’ councils during the 1970s. A decade later, the experiment collapsed. What explains its rise and fall?
On June 28, 1948, the Cominform, the Stalinist alliance of European Marxist-Leninist (...)
Labour force participation rate continues to fall
Sri Lanka’s official unemployment rate climbed, raising serious concerns for the policymakers, as the economic crisis is taking a severe toll on jobs, with many small and medium-sized businesses are either closing down or pushed to the brink (...)
Second reading of controversial Bill this month
The Government will bring the Bureau of Rehabilitation Bill before Parliament for a second reading this month. When the Bill was first presented in November 2022, the Supreme Court found the Bill unconstitutional in its entirety, a ruling it (...)
The Sri Lankan Government needs to move ahead with MMDA reforms before any more delays and scuttling by conservative groups with intentions to suppress Muslim women’s rights in the name of culture or religion
The Sri Lankan Muslim communities have been abuzz with debates about the reform of (...)
Arguments about the economic benefits of women’s labour participation go hand in hand with assumptions about the personal value of women’s work, often framed in terms of empowerment and choice. Yet this notion of choice and empowerment elides not only the deeply unequal and often exploitative (...)
According to Ranil Wickremesinghe and his supporters, stability has transpired in Sri Lanka since his Government was formed. This article attempts to interrogate this stability from an economic policy viewpoint, looking at the 2023 Budget as the centrepiece of the Government’s economic policy (...)
Exclusive: 182 experts say only debt cancellation offers chance of recovery but private investors are playing hardball
Some of the world’s most powerful hedge funds and other investors are holding up vital help for crisis-hit Sri Lanka by their hardline stance in debt-relief negotiations after (...)
Sri Lanka, along with many other low- and middle-income countries, has experienced a series of financial shocks due to both external and internal factors. Global forces have caused food and energy import costs to soar and interest rates to rise, even as the currency has devalued significantly. (...)
Gnanamuttu Kusumawathi, known as Kusuma akka, passed away five years ago. We remember her rebellious spirit and strength with admiration and gratitude. Kusuma akka was a leader in the Panama Pattuwa (Pattuwa refers to an identified area of land in Sinhala) land struggle from August 2010 until (...)
On December 17, 2022, fishermen in northern Sri Lanka alerted the navy about a boat in distress adrift in the sea. On December 18, the navy rescued a group of 104 people from the boat. The navy has referred to them as Myanmar nationals while a statement from the United Nations High Commissioner (...)
Caring for household members. Well-being of the family. Putting food on the table. Washing clothes. Making ends meet. Looking after the young, the old, and differently abled family members. These are everyday activities performed by someone or some people for someone or some people. The (...)
Sarala Emmanuel, co-founder of the Feminist Collective for Economic Justice, researcher and activist, reminds us: women are the first affected by the economic crisis and they are also the ones who will bear the brunt of the measures. proposed to combat the crisis.
Here is an excerpt from an (...)
In late December 2021, the Ministry of Plantation Industries announced that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Industries, Mine, and Trade of the Islamic Republic of Iran to settle a US$250 million outstanding debt of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation with the (...)
The State’s response to people’s outcry was unsurprising, given Sri Lanka’s history of a powerful executive, a constitution that failed to strengthen democracy and decades of investment in laws and policies of repression, including militarisation
In 2022, a youth-led citizens’ movement succeeded (...)
As part of Sri Lanka’s economic bailout, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is telling us that we should increase women’s labour force participation. It is part of a recommendation about ‘growth-enhancing structural reforms’ including reducing youth unemployment, liberalising trade, developing (...)
Sri Lanka’s embassies have repeatedly warned the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and other authorities of glaring shortcomings in the handling of local labour in West Asia–including an urgent need for Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) attachés in these missions to have minimum (...)
Following article is based on the presentation made by the writer at the 4th International Research Symposium titled ‘Sri Lanka in crisis: Search for a way out’ organised by the National Centre for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences.
Let me begin by providing a brief critique of (...)
2022 has seen the most dramatic uprising of people against the government’s tyrannical rule since independence. Amidst a devastating economic crisis, the people raised their voices against corruption, misrule and economic mismanagement, demanding greater democracy. Instead of heeding the (...)
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