BACK TO PREVIOUS PAGE

It is necessary to bring to your certain specific incidents which occurred in 1971. The Janatha Vimukhti Peramuna was implanted in the rural proletariat, the lumpen proletariat and certain petty-bourgeois layers. In the urban working class and the estates the influence of the Old Left was still traditions of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) were strongest. The SLF won most of its seats in the rural areas. The worst massacres during the April incidents took place in the areas held by the SLFP. The SLFP politicians had shamelessly sown the germs of communal discord against the Tamil minority. In the 1956 election the CP and the LSSP stood for party on the language issue. But what did they do a short time later? They were not only against equal status for Tamil and Sinhala, but opposed even the granting of any lesser rights. It was in these conditions that we became disillusioned with them. That is why we struggled. If anyone willingly risks his or her life, or is prepared to be shackled as a prisoner, this can only be because there is no alternative. Chairman, you are aware that after the government came to power we started our political activities in the open and they were immensely successful. Look back and see the picture of our public meetings held in various parts of the country such as Kandy, Kegalle, Kurunegala and Southern Province and Colombo - you will see the mass of humanity, thousands and thousands of people that flocked round us, to see us and listen to us. And these were not people we had forced or cajoled with the use of guns to attend our rallies, nor have we supplied them with free lorries and buses, but people who had come of their own accord because of their interest in our politics. With every passing day we were moving forward. This process continued while another parallel process was taking place: dissatisfaction with the UNP result, with our blessing, in the election of the United Front government, with over a two-thirds majority. The LSSP and CP had told the people that if they were brought into power with a two-thirds majority they would amend the constitution, change the system of internal administration and open the way to socialism. The ordinary people took them at their world. They expected the new government to perform miracles and that is why they put the cross against the star and key an not against the elephant.

I have already mentioned that in the early days we were not strong in the urban working class. But by 1971 we had begun to spread out from the villages to the towns and, through our political agitational campaigns, our impacts was beginning to be felt in the cities, specifically in certain sections of the working class. Young workers in factories and work-sites were beginning to listen. It was then that the Old Left began to understand the threat we posed to them. They attempted to devise a course of action to deal with us. The first method was branding us as CIA agents, but you are aware that this attack failed. Then they resorted to the second method. This can be described in the words of Mr Sarath Muttettuwagama, a leader of the CP. In a speech made at a CP mass rally in Ratnapura during the later half of 1970, he stated that the repression of the Che Guevarists should not be left to the police. It should be the responsibility of the CP! During the same period the LSSP leaders also discussed the treat we posed. A meeting of their Polit Bureau issued instructions to their locals to unleash physical attacks against us. They asked for police protection to carry out this task. I have already mentioned these facts at our public meetings. When the second method failed, they discussed the matter in the new cabinet and considered ways and means of suppressing the Janatha Vimukhti Peramuna so that it could not become an effective political force. They decided, according to a recent statement by the Prime Minister, not to ban us as it would have made heroes out of us. The capitalist class is well aware of the futility of banning a Marxist party. So this government suspected that even if they banned us we would carry on political activities under another name. They devised an alternative scheme, which was and continue to be implemented.

You are aware that the country is facing a severe economic crisis. It is something which everyone admits. But the crisis has not materialized out of thin air. It existed on 5th April 1971. It was there before that date. At the time the government was not in a position to add to the distress of the people, to place the economic and social burden they have now placed on the masses with impunity, because there existed a revolutionary force that would have roused the people and led them to protest against these measures. It was necessary to destroy our movement before stern measures could be taken. And accordingly they prepared their plans. After January 1971 things came to a head. Mr. S. A. Dissanayake, a former Inspector - General of Police, was appointed Additional Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Defence and External Affairs, with effect from 1 March 1971. Long before this, the CID had been using its full powers to investigate the activities of the JVP. A separate unit had been set up, which had gathered sufficient facts by April 1971 through raids and arrests of comrades from various parts of the country. They also planted agents inside the JVP rank and file.

By 1 March 1971 arrangements had been completed for the deployment of military units in various parts of the country to collect intelligence about our activities. Press reports in relation to these manoeuvres appeared between 1 and 5 March. In the same week police power were vested in officers of the army. On 5 March the police rehearsed a plan in order to find out how much time it would take them when the alarm was sounded. This rehearsal was to test alertness in emergency and it was conducted in Colombo as well as in other parts of the island. On the sixth there was an attack on the US Embassy which supplied them with the excuse needs to repress the revolutionary movement. On 13 March I was arrested and on16 March a State of Embassy was declared. 4,098 people were arrested before 5th April 1971.

In April 1971 the revolutionary preconditions for the seizure of power by the proletariat and for an armed revolutionary struggle were absent. That is my view. In the absence of a revolutionary situation - i. e. both objective and subjective conditions - an armed was not possible.

My view is that conditions were not ripe for organizing an armed revolutionary uprising to seize state power. The objective conditions were maturing fast, but they were still unripe. It had not reached a stage where the masses saw no other solution but revolution. It is true, however, that then, as now, society was moving in that direction. The subjective conditions were also lacking: that is, the existence of a revolutionary party that has steeled itself, won the support of the masses and is fit to lead them in an armed struggle for power. The Janatha Vimukhti Peramuna was developing and moving towards that goal, but had not reached full maturity. We had failed at that time to established the JVP in the Northern and eastern provinces and in the Estate sector as a political force. And then there was the question of mass support. It is true that out of the millions who voted for the Coalition Government, tens of thousands had by this time washed their hands of it. It is also true that this section was the politically developed section. They were abandoning the Coalition Government and moving Leftwards towards the JVP. But there was a section which, although disgusted and frustrated, did not break away from the government during those either months. On other words the JVP had not yet reached the stage where the masses could see it as a real alternative to the government, accept its leadership and join in the class under its banner. In our Marxist conception, a revolution - an armed uprising - is not something done behind the backs of the masses.

JUSTICE FERNANDO: Have revolutionaries in any part of the world never made mistakes?

THIRTEEN SUSPECT : Mistakes have been made. In fact they have learnt lessons from these mistakes. Mistakes can happen in the future as well.

JUSTICE FERNANDO : I said a mistake. I meant a miscalculation.

THIRTEEN SUSPECT : There can be no revolution without the participation and active support of the people. That is our stand.

I told you earlier that I reject the position that it was a JVP decision to seize state power on 5 April 1971. I do not admit that. But as I discovered later and something I do not deny is that there have been instances when certain comrades of the JVP, in the face of intolerable repression, restored to a struggle against such repression.

In March 1971 a class need arose for the ruling to suppress the revolutionary movements of this country, especially the JVP. They acted accordingly. the April incidents were the result. I interpret the process as one initiated by the counter revolution. This does not mean that anyone who acted against capitalist repression on 5 April, or had mistaken a decision taken by other to be a JVP decision, or even decided on such a course on their own in the absence of another alternative, was thus a counter-revolutionary. A number of close comrades of mine are no longer living. The entire revolutionary leadership of the Matara district exists no more. Comrade Susil Wickrema, Comrade Jayatissa of Deniyaya, Comrades Piyatissa, Loku Mahatmaya, Suraweera, Jayaweera, the two Bogahawatta brothers were all both personal friends and fellow comrades. No one can speak about their fate. On enquiring from their homes all I have learnt is that are no longer among the living.

For me, Honourable Chairman, the April episode was an occasion when the capitalist class found its existence as a class increasingly threatened by the proletariat. It is a result of a counter-revolutionary course of action on which the capitalists system from the proletariat. It has been part of that course of action to ban the JVP today. A large number of persons connected with the JVP, but belonging to the Leftist parties, have been murdered. A large number of persons connected with the JVP have been put in prison, as have many who had no connection with us. It has become possible to continue the movement in general.

In conclusion this is what I have to say: I admit that the capitalist class has been temporary victorious. But I do not see it as a defeat for the proletariat. This is only a big retreat for the proletariat; yes, I call it a big retreat. A retreat is not a defeat, but a phase from which it is possible to recover and march again to certain victory. No revolutionary movement has raced non-stop to victory in a straight line from start to finish. Forward marches followed by retreats are quit common in revolutionary movements. That is the position with which we are confronted today and it is from this position that I have come to give evidence before you. I have not spoken here by stretching my principles for personal gain. I remain an unrepentant Marxist and what I am defending here are Marxist principles rather than my person. For as a revolutionary Marxist I have nothing else to defend.

Whatever the capitalist class may have expected to gain through the April incidents, their ultimate result has already been expressed by a revolutionary poet in the following stanza:

The poet expresses himself in clear and pain terms. The flowers of revolution have blossomed, but how they lie withered and dead. But their perfume has not ceased. To enhance that perfume and with that aim in view other buds will continue to bloom. In fact, gentlemen, the capitalist cause has no real reason to celebrate its success. For in the class struggle victory is a see-saw until the proletariat finally emerges victorious. That is our belief. I have concluded my evidence.

 PUBLISHED ON: 02-11-98

JVP HOME PAGE

A REPORT ON THE 1971 UPRISING BY FRED HALLIDAY under construction