New Trends in the Socialist Movement in Sri Lanka

Affected by the 2019 Easter bombings, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the international economic situation, Sri Lanka has faced the most severe economic crisis since its independence, and the country’s political situation once fell into turmoil. Since 2022, Sri Lanka has repeatedly declared a state of emergency in an attempt to alleviate a series of crises such as economic hardship and material shortages. However, the crisis was not alleviated and ultimately overwhelmed the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government, leading to Sri Lanka’s declaration of national bankruptcy in July 2022 and an abnormal change of regime. So, did the socialist movement led by left-wing parties play a role in this? What impact did the crisis have on Sri Lanka’s socialist movement? To answer these questions, this article focuses on the socialist movement during Sri Lanka’s crisis period after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, analyzing the new strategies, new trends, and their causes in the promotion of the socialist movement by Sri Lanka’s left-wing parties.

受2019 年复活节爆炸事件、新冠肺炎疫情以及国际经济形势影响，斯里兰卡面临国家独立以来最严峻的经济危机，国家政治局势一度陷入动荡。2022年以来，斯里兰卡多次宣布进入紧急状态，试图缓解经济困顿、物资匮乏等一系列危机。然而，危机并未得到缓解，最终还是压垮了戈塔巴雅·拉贾帕克萨政府，导致了2022年7月斯里兰卡宣布国家破产，政权非正常更迭。那么，左翼政党领导的社会主义运动是否在其中发挥了作用？危机对斯里兰卡的社会主义运动又产生了怎样的影响？为了回答这些问题，本文聚焦新冠肺炎疫情发生后斯里兰卡危机时期的社会主义运动，分析当前斯里兰卡左翼政党推动社会主义运动的新策略、新趋势及其原因。

I. Sri Lanka’s Left-Wing Parties and Their Understanding of the Crisis

一、斯里兰卡左翼政党及其对危机的认识

Sri Lanka’s left-wing parties have a long history and immense political influence, serving as the main driving force of the socialist movement. Including Marxist parties, Sri Lanka’s left-wing parties can be broadly divided into three types: traditional left-wing parties, new left-wing parties, and radical left-wing parties.

斯里兰卡左翼政党历史悠久，政治影响力巨大，是社会主义运动的主要推动力量。包括马克思主义政党在内的斯里兰卡左翼政党，大致可分为传统左翼政党、新左翼政党和激进左翼政党三种类型

The Lanka Sama Samaja Party, founded in December 1935, is Sri Lanka’s earliest left-wing party. Its current leader, Tissa Vitharana, has served as Minister of Science and Technology and Governor of the North Central Province. In July 1943, the Colombo Workers’ Club, the Ceylon Trade Union Federation, and the United Socialist Party, which had split from the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, merged to form the Communist Party of Sri Lanka. Its current General Secretary is Weerasinghe, and its Chairman is Gunawardena. The Lanka Sama Samaja Party and the Communist Party of Sri Lanka were founded earlier and adopted a policy of compromise with the long-ruling Freedom Party, and are thus considered traditional left-wing parties in Sri Lanka.

成立于1935年12月的兰卡平等社会党是斯里兰卡最早的左翼政党，现任领导人蒂萨·维塔拉纳曾担任政府科技部部长、中北部省省长等职务。1943年7月，科伦坡工人俱乐部、锡兰工会统一联盟以及从兰卡平等社会党分离出来的统一社会主义党合并成立了斯里兰卡共产党，现任总书记为维拉辛哈，主席为古纳塞克拉。兰卡平等社会党和斯里兰卡共产党建党较早，且对曾长期执政的自由党采取妥协政策，被认为是斯里兰卡传统左翼政党。

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, which split from the Communist Party of Sri Lanka in 1965, is a new left-wing party in Sri Lanka. Its current leader, Anura Dissanayake, is a Member of Parliament. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna launched armed struggles twice, in the early 1970s and the late 1980s, and was therefore regarded as radical left. Since entering the 21st century, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna has adjusted its mode of political participation, abandoning its previously radical armed struggle methods and turning to seek a voice in parliament. Its influence has at times surpassed that of traditional left-wing parties, making it a new left-wing party that cannot be underestimated in Sri Lankan political life.

1965年从斯里兰卡共产党分离出来的人民解放阵线是斯里兰卡新左翼政党，现任领导人阿努拉·迪萨纳亚克为议会议员。人民解放阵线曾在20世纪70年代初期和80年代末期两次发动武装斗争，因而被视为激进左翼。进入21世纪以来，人民解放阵线调整其政治参与方式，放弃了曾经激进的武装斗争方式，转向在议会中寻求话语权，其影响力一度超越传统左翼政党，成为斯里兰卡政治生活中不可小觑的新左翼政党。

In 2008, Wimal Weerawansa, a core member of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, was suspended due to disagreements with the then-leader. In May of the same year, he and several other dissident MPs left the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna to form the National Freedom Front (NFF). The NFF is a radical left-wing party with nationalist tendencies. In 2011, dissatisfied with the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna’s parliamentary path policy, some members represented by Kumar Gunaratnam left the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and established the Frontline Socialist Party, the most typical radical left-wing party in contemporary Sri Lanka. Under Gunaratnam’s leadership, the Frontline Socialist Party adopts an uncompromising approach to struggle against bourgeois rulers, advocating for the restoration of the radical forms of the socialist movement in 20th-century Sri Lanka.

2008年，人民解放阵线骨干成员维玛尔·维拉瓦萨因与时任领导人不和而被停职，同年5月，他与其他几位持不同政见的议员脱离人民解放阵线，组成了民族自由阵线（NFF）。民族自由阵线属于具有民族主义倾向的激进左翼政党。2011年，因不满人民解放阵线的议会道路政策，以库马尔·古纳拉特纳姆为代表的部分成员脱离人民解放阵线，成立了斯里兰卡当代最典型的激进左翼政党——阵线社会主义党。在古纳拉特纳姆领导下，阵线社会主义党对资产阶级执政者采取不妥协的斗争方式，主张恢复20世纪斯里兰卡左翼激进的社会主义运动形式。

The COVID-19 pandemic that broke out in 2020 fully exposed the drawbacks of the capitalist system, reflecting the brutal reality of imperialist powers plundering developing countries like Sri Lanka, which are economically fragile and pursue open economic policies. Crisis is the most powerful lever for political change. As Engels pointed out, “Crisis either drives the entire nation resolutely onto the revolutionary path, or restores the pre-revolutionary situation as much as possible, thereby making a new revolution inevitable.” [1]1 This is a paraphrase of a passage from Engels’s article “Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany” (1851-1852), though the exact wording may vary by translation. Crisis heralds the inevitable arrival of the revolutionary movement. Sri Lanka’s left-wing parties clearly recognize that the crisis will advance the revolutionary process.

2020年暴发的新冠肺炎疫情充分暴露出资本主义制度的弊端，反映出类似斯里兰卡这样经济脆弱且奉行开放经济政策的发展中国家被帝国主义国家霸权掠夺的残酷现实。危机是政治变革最强有力的杠杆，正如恩格斯所说的，“危机不是使整个民族坚决果断地走上革命道路，就是使革命前的状况尽量恢复，从而使新的革命不可避免”。危机预示着革命运动必将到来，斯里兰卡左翼政党清醒地认识到危机将会推动革命进程。

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna views the current crisis as a multi-dimensional overlay of the COVID-19 crisis, the economic crisis, and the governance crisis. Under the COVID-19 pandemic, the global economic situation and epidemic prevention policies have dealt a severe blow to Sri Lanka. To revive the tourism market, the Sri Lankan government introduced schemes such as “bubble tourism” in an attempt to stimulate recovery, but this resulted in persistently high COVID-19 infection rates. Under the impact of the pandemic, the Sri Lankan government not only faces the most severe crisis situation since the 21st century but also a series of problems, including unresolved conflicts between Sinhalese and Muslims, disorderly turnover of government officials, and stagnant economic development. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna believes that the various crises in Sri Lanka are the consequences of the profit-oriented, anti-democratic economic system of the Sri Lankan bourgeois government, and their root cause lies in the anti-human and anti-social nature of the capitalist system itself.

斯里兰卡人民解放阵线视当前危机为新冠肺炎疫情危机、经济危机、治理危机等多维叠加的危机。在新冠肺炎疫情下，世界经济形势和防疫政策对斯里兰卡造成了巨大冲击。为推动旅游市场复苏，斯里兰卡政府推出“气泡旅游”等方案，试图刺激旅游市场复苏，结果却导致斯里兰卡新冠肺炎感染人数一直居高不下。在新冠肺炎疫情的影响下，斯里兰卡政府不仅面临着21世纪以来最严峻的危机形势，同时还面临着僧伽罗人与穆斯林之间冲突难以解决、政府官员更迭无序、经济发展停滞等一系列问题。人民解放阵线认为，当前斯里兰卡的种种危机是斯里兰卡资产阶级政府以利润为导向的、反民主的经济制度造成的后果，其根源在于资本主义反人类、反社会的制度本身。

The Communist Party of Sri Lanka points out more specifically that over more than 40 years, the neoliberal economy has caused a series of severe consequences in Sri Lanka: a continuous decline in national income as a share of GDP, an imbalance between import expenditure growth several times that of export revenue, the collapse of foreign exchange reserves, rapid debt accumulation, widening wealth gaps, increased social inequality, and social and political crises. In 1978, after the United National Party led by Jayawardene came to power, it developed an open economy, adopting a series of neoliberal economic policies such as establishing a free trade zone in the capital and encouraging foreign investment in agriculture and agro-processing, accelerating the development of private ownership. Private enterprises quickly became the main contributors to Sri Lanka’s economy, with their output value once reaching 93% of the national industrial output value. However, to this day, Sri Lanka’s fiscal revenue as a share of GDP has fallen from 24% in 1978 to 6% in 2019, and its foreign exchange reserves, which once reached US$7.5 billion, are nearly exhausted. Therefore, in February 2022, at its 22nd National Congress, the Communist Party of Sri Lanka pointed out that Sri Lanka’s unprecedented complex economic, political, and social crises are the result of the government’s continuous adherence to neoliberal policies over the past 44 years. Sri Lanka’s crisis situation shows the world how ineffective, incompetent, and harmful neoliberalism is, and that the struggle against neoliberalism must now be strengthened.

斯里兰卡共产党更为具体地指出，40多年来，新自由主义经济造成了斯里兰卡国民收入占GDP的比重持续下降、进口支出增长幅度数倍于出口收入的收支失衡、外汇储备崩溃、债务迅速增加、贫富差距扩大、社会不平等加剧的社会危机、政治危机等一系列的严重后果。1978年，贾亚瓦德纳领导的统一国民党上台后发展开放型经济，采取在首都建立自由贸易区、鼓励国外投资农业和农产品加工业等一系列新自由主义经济政策，加快私有制发展。私有企业一时间成为斯里兰卡经济的主要贡献者，其产值一度达到全国工业总产值的93%。然而，时至今日，斯里兰卡的财政收入占GDP的比重从1978年的24%降到2019年的6%，曾达到75亿美元的外汇储备濒于枯竭。因此，2022年2月，斯里兰卡共产党在第22次全国代表大会上指出，斯里兰卡前所未有的复杂经济、政治和社会危机是政府在过去44年里持续奉行新自由主义政策的结果，斯里兰卡的危机形势向世界展示了新自由主义是多么无效、无能和有害，当前必须加强反对新自由主义的斗争。

II. Trends in the Adjustment of Sri Lanka’s Socialist Movement Strategy

二、斯里兰卡社会主义运动策略调整的动向

Different eras and different types of left-wing parties adopt quite different methods for promoting the socialist movement. As Lenin pointed out, “Only by first considering the different basic features of each ‘epoch’… can we correctly formulate our tactics.” [2]2 This is a paraphrase of a passage from Lenin’s article “Under a False Flag” (1915), emphasizing the need to analyze the specific characteristics of an era to formulate strategy. Sri Lanka’s left-wing parties have adopted different policies and measures in their political struggles according to the differences of different eras. Overall, since the birth of left-wing parties in the 20th century, the modes of political change in Sri Lanka’s socialist movement can be divided into three types: “dependent politics,” “confrontational politics,” and “policy politics.”

不同时代以及不同类型的左翼政党，推动社会主义运动的方式存在较大差异。正如列宁曾指出的那样，“首先考虑到各个‘时代’的不同的基本特征……我们才能够正确地制定自己的策略”。斯里兰卡左翼政党根据不同时代的差异性，在进行政治斗争时采取了不同的方针政策。总体而言，自20 世纪左翼政党诞生至今，斯里兰卡社会主义运动的政治变革方式可分为“依附政治”“对抗政治”和“政策政治”三种类型。

1. The Weakening of “Dependent Politics”

1.“依附政治”弱化

“Dependency politics” refers to the situation in which traditional left-wing parties, within the framework of parliamentary politics, base the realisation of socialist goals on cooperation and alliance with Sri Lanka’s main ruling parties and bourgeois political forces, thereby forming a political dependency. The Communist Party of Sri Lanka, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party and other traditional left-wing parties have engaged in long-term political cooperation with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party since their founding, a practice that continued into the Sirisena government period of 2015. The “dependency politics” of traditional left-wing parties on the Freedom Party and the Rajapaksa family has been criticised by new left-wing and radical left-wing parties as a compromise with the bourgeois regime. In 2014, former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa decided to call an early election in pursuit of a third term, which met with strong opposition from radical factions within the traditional left-wing parties. This also led to a split within the Communist Party of Sri Lanka. Nevertheless, the Communist Party of Sri Lanka decided to continue supporting Mahinda Rajapaksa. In 2015, after Sirisena won the presidential election and became the leader of the Freedom Party, the object of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka’s dependency shifted from a “person” to “policy”, i.e., conditional support for Sirisena and the United National Party’s good governance policies. After the Freedom Party “changed its leader” and Mahinda Rajapaksa moved to the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna camp and dissolved the United People’s Freedom Alliance, the Socialist Alliance, to which the traditional left-wing parties belonged, lost the political platform of the United People’s Freedom Alliance in parliament and became rootless. Its influence in parliament also weakened, and its suggestions to the government were often ignored. For example, during the parliamentary debate on the 2022 budget held by the Sri Lankan government at the end of 2021, the warning raised by a Communist Party of Sri Lanka MP that the decline in government revenue and foreign exchange reserves would inevitably lead to a crisis was completely disregarded by then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

“依附政治”是指传统左翼政党在议会政治中，将社会主义目标的实现建立在与斯里兰卡主要执政党、资产阶级政治力量的合作与联盟基础上，形成政治依附性。斯里兰卡共产党、兰卡平等社会党等传统左翼政党自建党以来与斯里兰卡自由党长期进行政治合作，并一直延续至2015年西里塞纳政府时期。传统左翼政党对自由党和拉贾帕克萨家族的“依附政治”受到新左翼政党和激进左翼政党批判，被视为对资产阶级政权的妥协。2014年，斯里兰卡前总统马欣达·拉贾帕克萨决定提前进行大选，谋求三连任，遭到传统左翼政党内部激进派的强烈反对。斯里兰卡共产党内部也因此出现分裂。尽管如此，斯里兰卡共产党还是决定继续支持马欣达·拉贾帕克萨。2015年，西里塞纳在总统竞选中胜出，并成为自由党领导人后，斯里兰卡共产党的依附对象由“个人”转向“政策”，即有条件支持西里塞纳和统一国民党的善政政策。在自由党“换帅”和马欣达·拉贾帕克萨转移至人民阵线党阵营并解散统一人民自由联盟后，传统左翼政党所属的社会主义联盟在议会中失去了统一人民自由联盟的政治平台而无枝可依，在议会中的影响力也不断弱化，对政府提出的建议常被忽视。如2021年年底在斯里兰卡政府就2022年预算举行的国会辩论会上，斯里兰卡共产党议员提出的政府收入及外汇储备下降必将导致危机的警告，完全没有得到时任总统戈塔巴雅的重视。

2. Transformation of “Confrontational Politics”

2.“对抗政治”转化

“Confrontational politics” refers to the efforts of left-wing political forces to transform Sri Lanka’s capitalist system and achieve socialism through relatively radical means such as violent revolution. The “confrontational politics” of Sri Lanka’s left-wing parties manifested very differently in the 20th and 21st centuries. In the 20th century, “confrontational politics” took the form of armed struggle, most typically the two armed uprisings launched by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna. After the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna was rebuilt and abandoned the revolutionary path of armed struggle, “confrontational politics” in the 21st century evolved into relatively moderate forms of confrontation both inside and outside parliament.

“对抗政治”是指左翼政治力量力图通过暴力革命等较为激进的方式变革斯里兰卡资本主义制度体系，实现社会主义。斯里兰卡左翼政党的“对抗政治”在20世纪与21世纪有着截然不同的表现。在20世纪，“对抗政治”采取武装斗争形式，其中以人民解放阵线发动两次武装起义最为典型。随着人民解放阵线重建并放弃武装斗争的革命道路，21世纪的“对抗政治”演变为议会内外较为温和的对抗方式。

In the 21st century, left-wing parties such as the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna have adopted non-violent “confrontational politics”, accompanied by high-intensity forms of struggle such as strikes and protests to advance the socialist movement. Apart from a brief period of cooperation with the Freedom Party in 2004, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna has taken a hardline stance towards the Freedom Party, especially the Rajapaksa family, meaning it refuses to cooperate with the Rajapaksa family’s governance policies and opposes them on every issue. The Frontline Socialist Party, founded in 2011, continues “confrontational politics” outside parliament through street politics. The Frontline Socialist Party, with the aim of reviving socialism, is dissatisfied with the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna’s participation in Sri Lanka’s parliamentary political life, viewing it as a compromise with the bourgeoisie and an abandonment of the spirit of revolutionary struggle. It advocates restoring the 20th-century radical left-wing tradition of socialist revolution through marches, strikes, demonstrations and other means outside parliament.

在21世纪，人民解放阵线等左翼政党采取非暴力的“对抗政治”，并伴随着高烈度的罢工游行等斗争形式推动社会主义运动。除2004年与自由党有过短暂的合作外，人民解放阵线对自由党尤其是拉贾帕克萨家族采取强硬态度，即对拉贾帕克萨家族的执政政策不予合作，逢其必反。成立于2011年的阵线社会主义党在议会之外以街头政治斗争的方式继续着“对抗政治”。阵线社会主义党以复兴社会主义为宗旨，不满于人民解放阵线参与斯里兰卡议会政治生活，认为那是对资产阶级的妥协，是对革命斗争精神的放弃，主张在议会之外通过游行、罢工、示威等方式恢复20世纪激进左翼的社会主义革命传统。

In April 2022, new left-wing and radical left-wing parties launched street “confrontational politics”, raising the slogan “Gota Go Home” (“Gota Go Gama”, meaning the president should step down), in an attempt to overthrow the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government. In May of the same year, the left-wing parties’ street “confrontational politics” escalated to an unprecedented scale involving millions of people, the largest in nearly 70 years, and ultimately led to the resignation of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

2022年4月，新左翼政党和激进左翼政党发起街头“对抗政治”，高举“戈塔回家”（“Gota Go Gama”，即总统下台）口号，试图推翻戈塔巴雅政府。同年5月，左翼政党街头“对抗政治”发展到近70年来前所未有的数百万人参与的浩大声势，并最终导致了前总统戈塔巴雅·拉贾帕克萨下台。

3. Strengthening of “Policy Politics”

3.“政策政治”强化

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the tendency towards “policy politics” among Sri Lanka’s left-wing parties has been relatively pronounced, although the content differs slightly between traditional left-wing and new left-wing parties: the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna advocates establishing “progressive forces led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna” to jointly advance the socialist movement; the traditional left-wing parties explicitly state that a feasible institutional design is necessary to achieve a systemic alternative to capitalism and complete a gradual transition to socialism. During the Sri Lankan crisis, “policy politics” has become increasingly accepted by other left-wing parties. During

新冠肺炎疫情暴发以来，斯里兰卡左翼政党“政策政治”倾向较为明显，只是传统左翼政党和新左翼政党在内容表述上略有不同：人民解放阵线主张建立“人民解放阵线领导的进步力量”来共同推动社会主义运动；传统左翼明确表示，需通过可行的制度设计，方能实现资本主义的制度替代，完成向社会主义的逐渐过渡。在斯里兰卡危机期间，“政策政治”愈益为其他左翼政党所接受。斯里兰卡共产党在2020年议会选举阶段讨论政治意识形态时，已经开始探讨新自由主义经济政策的替代物即具体的政策措施；兰卡平等社会党更具体地提出“团结经济”理念，来助力社会主义运动。

During the current period of crisis, the "policy politics" of the socialist movement in Sri Lanka mainly includes two aspects: first, formulating targeted plans to escape the crisis, in order to save the country and advance the socialist process; second, constructing a feasible future framework for socialist development.

当前危机时期，斯里兰卡社会主义运动的“政策政治”主要包括两个方面：一是制定有针对性地摆脱危机的方案，以求拯救国家，推动社会主义进程；二是构建可行的社会主义未来发展框架。

First, exploring measures to extricate from the current predicament. On October 26, 2021, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna proposed initiating changes in all fields including education, economy, law, health, and agriculture, and proposed rapid debt management and reassessment of the national development plan, in order to seek solutions to the country's current social, economic, and political crisis. The prerequisite for overcoming the crisis is to resolve two long-standing major problems in Sri Lanka: first, to shift the country from "corrupt politics" to "clean politics"; second, to solve the problem of "collective participation," that is, uniting the government, private entrepreneurs, agricultural communities, working people, migrant workers, and Sri Lankans living abroad to participate together in building the nation. In the view of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, the politics of a socialist Sri Lanka should be based on "public service"; therefore, for the purpose of building the country, politicians must work side by side with ordinary people.

第一，探索摆脱当前困境的措施。2021年10月26日，人民解放阵线提出启动包括教育、经济、法律、卫生和农业在内的所有领域的变革，提出迅速进行债务管理，重新评估国家的发展计划，以寻求解决该国当前社会、经济和政治危机的办法。而战胜危机的先决条件是解决斯里兰卡存在已久的两大问题：一是要把这个国家从“腐败政治”转向“廉洁政治”；二是要解决“集体参与”的问题，即团结政府、私人企业家、农业社区、劳动人民、移民工人和移居国外的斯里兰卡民众一起参与建设国家。在人民解放阵线看来，社会主义的斯里兰卡，其政治应该立足于“公共服务”，因此，本着建设国家的目的，政治家们必须与普通人并肩工作。

On December 20, 2021, the National People's Power (NPP) under the leadership of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna held a congress with the theme "A Promise to Rebuild a Broken Country." At the congress, the National People's Power put forward proposals including "a comprehensive national plan for short-term, medium-term, and long-term economic development goals," "attracting industries with new technologies and foreign investment to promote the economic growth needed to achieve our economic goals," and "restructuring debt and obtaining debt relief," as strategies to save the country, in order to address 20 major issues, resolve the Sri Lankan crisis, and lay the foundation for socio-economic transformation.

2021年12月20日，人民解放阵线领导下的国家人民权力（NPP）举行了主题为“重建破碎国家的承诺”的代表大会。会上，国家人民权力提出了包括“关于短期、中期、长期经济发展目标的综合性国家计划”“吸引拥有新技术的产业和外国投资，以促进实现我们的经济目标所需的经济增长”“重组债务并获得债务减免”等建议在内的救国策略，以应对20个重大问题，解决斯里兰卡危机，为社会经济转型奠定基础。

Second, constructing a future socialist "solidarity economy." Traditional left-wing parties such as the Communist Party of Sri Lanka and the Lanka Sama Samaja Party are not as radical as the new left-wing parties on the issue of revolutionary propositions, but their long-standing positions of opposing imperialism, opposing the government's neoliberal policies and its privatization practices are consistent with the new left, and the "solidarity economy" they propose is more specific and feasible. The traditional left-wing parties also place great hopes on economic change, seeking to change the domestic situation in Sri Lanka, weather the difficulties, and achieve the transition to socialism. Similar to the "participatory system" proposed by the new left-wing parties for realizing the socialist process in Sri Lanka, the traditional left more clearly expresses this as a "solidarity economy."

第二，构建未来社会主义“团结经济”。传统左翼政党斯里兰卡共产党、兰卡平等社会党在革命主张问题上没有新左翼政党那么激进，但它们长期以来坚持反对帝国主义、反对政府新自由主义政策及其私有化做法的立场与新左翼一致，而且它们提出的“团结经济”更为具体可行。传统左翼政党也寄厚望于经济变革，希求改变斯里兰卡国内形势，度过难关，实现向社会主义转型。与新左翼政党就实现斯里兰卡社会主义进程提出的“参与制”类似，传统左翼更加明确地将其表述为“团结经济”。

On 17 December 2021, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party proposed that the state must strengthen its participation in the agricultural, industrial and market economy sectors, shape a “solidarity economy”, and push the country to develop in a socialist direction in the economic sphere. The traditional left’s “solidarity economy” aims to transform the ownership of all currently crisis-ridden public and private loss-making enterprises, giving employees ownership of the enterprises they work for, thereby turning both managers and employees into masters of the enterprise and ensuring that the enterprise operates in accordance with the principle of solidarity. One focus of the “solidarity economy” concept is to restrict the ownership of enterprises by private investors. Traditional left-wing parties advocate limiting the scope of rights of private business owners, preventing them from fully owning enterprises (companies). The “solidarity economy” advocates learning from the approach of the left-wing government in Kerala, India, to rescue plantation economies in a loss-making state: taking back tea gardens that have been operating at a loss for a long time and handing them over to plantation workers to manage according to the principle of solidarity. The “solidarity economy” is a partial adjustment to the capitalist ownership structure, proposing to lease enterprises to collectives of employee-owners for operation, thereby improving the efficiency of enterprise management. During the operation, the state, on behalf of the government, provides corresponding assistance. For example, during the lease period, the state can consider whether to renew the lease later based on how they operate the enterprise; in terms of financial support, external special loans from development banks can be used to provide low-interest loans to institutions that conform to the principle of solidarity. The “solidarity economy” concept and policy of traditional left-wing parties advocate that workers establish “workers’ administrative councils” during operation, and through these “workers’ administrative councils”, select professional management and technical personnel on merit to guide the enterprise’s operations. The “solidarity economy” will not only give workers a sense of ownership but also encourage them to strive to improve the performance of their institutions, ensuring that they receive an equal share of profits in the operation.

2021年12 月 17 日，兰卡平等社会党提出，必须加强国家对农业、工业和市场经济部门的参与，塑造“团结经济”，促使国家在经济领域朝着社会主义方向发展。传统左翼的“团结经济”旨在对当前处于危机中的所有公共、私人的亏损企业进行所有制改造，让雇员拥有所属企业的所有权，从而将经营者和雇员都转变成为企业的主人，保障企业能按照团结一致的原则运作。“团结经济”理念的焦点之一是对私人投资者拥有企业所有权进行限制。传统左翼政党主张限制私营企业主的权利范围，避免其完全拥有企业（公司）所有权。“团结经济”倡导借鉴印度喀拉拉邦左翼政府拯救处于亏损状态的种植园经济的做法：收回长期处于亏损运营状态的茶园，按照团结原则交给种植园工人经营。“团结经济”是对资本主义所有权结构的局部调整，建议通过租赁方式把企业交给由员工组成的所有者来经营，从而提升企业经营的效率。在经营过程中，政府代表国家给予相应的帮助。例如，在租赁期间，国家可以根据他们经营企业的情况考虑后期是否续租；在资金支持方面，可以利用开发银行的外部专项贷款，为符合团结原则的机构提供低息贷款。传统左翼政党“团结经济”的理念与政策提倡工人在经营中成立“职工行政会议”，通过“职工行政会议”择优选择专业的管理和技术人员来指导企业的运作。“团结经济”不仅会给工人以主人翁感，还能促使他们致力于提高所属机构的绩效，确保自己在经营中平等地获得利润份额。

III. Trends in Ideological Struggle within the Socialist Movement in Sri Lanka

三、斯里兰卡社会主义运动中意识形态斗争的动向

For Sri Lankan left-wing parties to achieve their socialist goals, they need to overcome two major obstacles that have long been formed: first, the stigmatisation of the radical left as “violent” and “bloody” parties, creating an obstacle to identification; second, the restriction of traditional left-wing ideology by the framework of parliamentary politics, resulting in a narrow space for survival, and the submergence of ideology under the halo of “strongman” politics.

斯里兰卡左翼政党要实现社会主义目标，需要克服长期形成的两大障碍：其一，激进左翼被污名化为“暴力”和“流血”的政党并由此形成认同的障碍；其二，传统左翼意识形态受议会政治格局限制而造成生存空间狭小，意识形态淹没于“强人”政治光环下的障碍。

Therefore, for Sri Lankan left-wing parties to achieve socialist transformation, they must consolidate a broad mass base and increase the recognition of the socialist movement of left-wing parties among all ethnic groups and strata. After the emergence of multiple crises in Sri Lanka in 2020, the ideological struggle of left-wing parties has developed towards a broader mass base and alliance base, moving towards expanding a “shared ideological space”. That is, left-wing parties establish an ideological type with socialist ideology as the core ideological foundation, while also encompassing values that are acceptable and shareable by all ethnic groups, thereby attracting broad participation.

因此，斯里兰卡左翼政党要实现社会主义变革，必须夯实广泛的群众基础，提高各民族、各阶层对左翼政党社会主义运动的认同度。2020年斯里兰卡出现多重危机后，左翼政党的意识形态斗争向着更加广泛的群众基础和联盟基础发展，朝着拓展“共享意识形态空间”（A shared ideological space）迈进，即左翼政党建立以社会主义意识形态为核心思想基础、同时又涵盖各民族皆可接受、可共享的价值观、从而吸引广泛参与的意识形态类型。

1. Socialism

1.社会主义

The question of political power is the core issue of the current socialist movement in Sri Lanka, and also the goal of the ideological struggle of left-wing parties. Marxism holds that the capitalist crisis originates from the fundamental contradictions inherent in capitalism, which it cannot resolve on its own. In the “Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy”, Marx, starting from the internal contradictions of the mode of production, states: “At a certain stage of development, the material productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production or property relations... within which they have been moving.” And when the relations of production “change from forms of development of the productive forces into fetters of the productive forces”, then “the era of social revolution begins.” [6]6 Karl Marx, “Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy”, in Marx and Engels Collected Works, vol. 29 (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1987), p. 263. In Sri Lanka, which is in deep crisis, left-wing parties in their ideological struggle must both educate the masses that the crisis originates from the capitalist system and lead the masses with the goal of achieving socialism.

政权问题是斯里兰卡当前社会主义运动的核心问题，也是左翼政党意识形态斗争的目标。马克思主义认为，资本主义危机源于资本主义根深蒂固却又无法依靠自身解决的基本矛盾。马克思在《〈政治经济学批判〉序言》中从生产方式内在矛盾出发提出, “社会的物质生产力发展到一定阶段，便同它们一直在其中运动的现存生产关系或财产关系……发生矛盾”，而当生产关系“由生产力的发展形式变成生产力的桎梏时”“社会革命的时代就到来了”。在深处危机之中的斯里兰卡，左翼政党在意识形态斗争中既要以危机根源于资本主义制度来教育民众，又要以实现社会主义目标引领民众。

In May 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in Sri Lanka, the General Secretary of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, Tilvin Silva, linked the capitalist system with state governance to educate the masses, and bluntly pointed out that the capitalist system had produced Sri Lanka’s “cheap leaders”, who were utterly incapable of responding to the crisis. Sri Lankan left-wing parties exposed the capital logic of the novel coronavirus, arguing that to facilitate the sale of medicines, capitalist multinational corporations, while investing in the production of medicines, were also producing disease. In the view of Sri Lankan left-wing parties, the current capitalist system is an anti-human, anti-humanitarian social system led by imperialism, and only by overthrowing capitalism can humanity escape the crisis.

2020年5月，斯里兰卡新冠肺炎疫情暴发初期，人民解放阵线总书记提尔文·席尔瓦把资本主义制度与国家治理联系起来教育民众，并直言不讳地指出资本主义制度造就了斯里兰卡“廉价的领导人”，而他们根本无力应对危机。斯里兰卡左翼政党揭露新冠病毒的资本逻辑，提出为便于销售药品，资本主义跨国公司在投资生产药品的同时，也在生产疾病。在斯里兰卡左翼政党看来，当前资本主义制度体系是由帝国主义领导的反人类、反人道的社会制度体系，只有推翻资本主义才能使人类摆脱危机。

The current crisis has once again ignited the socialist revolutionary fervour of left-wing political forces. On the one hand, left-wing parties use their own websites and other propaganda tools and social mobilisation channels to expose the decadence of the capitalist system; on the other hand, they use public gatherings such as May Day International Labour Day rallies to guide and gather various positive social currents of thought, forming an ideological synergy for the socialist movement. At the May Day International Labour Day rally in 2020, the New Left proposed that when capitalism is in crisis around the world and appears powerless, it is the time to organise for the struggle to overcome capitalism and build a new socialist society.

当前危机再次点燃了左翼政治力量的社会主义革命热情。一方面，左翼政党利用自己的网站等舆论工具和社会动员渠道揭露资本主义制度的腐朽性；另一方面，通过“五一”国际劳动节集会等公众集会来引导、汇集各种积极的社会思潮，以形成社会主义运动的思想合力。在2020年“五一”国际劳动节集会上，新左翼提出，资本主义在世界各地陷入危机并表现得无能为力的时候，正是组织起来为战胜资本主义、建设社会主义新社会进行斗争的时机。

The current crisis has strengthened the socialist struggle goals of left-wing parties. On 20 March 2022, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna stated to the media that it was preparing to mobilise the people to overthrow the current regime that oppresses the people, establish a people’s government, and create a new socialist society. The Front Socialist Party has consistently adhered to the socialist revolutionary struggle. The party’s leader, Gunaratnam, pointed out at the 2022 May Day rally that socialism is a real movement, mobilising the masses to “pull themselves together” to achieve socialism. In February 2022, on the eve of its 22nd Congress, the Communist Party of Sri Lanka reiterated that the struggle for socialism is the ultimate goal of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka. The propaganda and mobilisation of left-wing parties led to the 2022 protests in Sri Lanka developing into large-scale “50-day” and “100-day” strikes and mass marches, ultimately leading to a change of government. In June 2022, as the strike movement entered its climax, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna proposed to the Gotabaya government that the National People’s Power, led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, along with inviting 15 to 20 members of the current parliament to form a new cabinet to establish a government, thereby advancing towards the socialist goal.

当前危机坚定了左翼政党的社会主义斗争目标。2022年3月20日，人民解放阵线向媒体表示，准备动员人民推翻压迫人民的现行政权，建立人民的政府，创建一个新的社会主义社会。阵线社会主义党一直坚持社会主义革命斗争。该党领导人古纳拉特南在2022年的“五一”集会上指出，社会主义就是现实的运动，动员民众“打起精神来”实现社会主义。2022年2月，斯里兰卡共产党在其二十二大召开前夕重申为社会主义而斗争是斯里兰卡共产党的最终目标。左翼政党的宣传动员促使2022年斯里兰卡抗议活动发展为“50日”“100日”大规模的罢工和大游行，最终导致了政权更迭。2022年6月，罢工运动进入高潮时期，人民解放阵线向戈塔巴雅政府提出，由人民解放阵线领导的国家人民权力以及邀请现任议会的15至20名成员组成新内阁来组建政府，从而向社会主义目标前进。

2. Patriotism

2.爱国主义

Patriotism is essentially consistent with socialist ideology. Patriotism, as a spirit and value, once played an important role in the socialist movement in Sri Lanka. The Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord signed with India during the Sri Lankan Civil War in 1987 aroused strong resistance from Sri Lankan patriots and sparked the National Salvation Movement led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna. [7]7 The Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord, signed on 29 July 1987, aimed to end the Sri Lankan Civil War by devolving power to the provinces and disarming Tamil militant groups; it was widely opposed by Sinhalese nationalists, who saw it as a concession to Indian influence.

爱国主义本质上与社会主义意识形态是一致的。爱国主义作为一种精神和价值观，曾经在斯里兰卡社会主义运动中发挥过重要作用。1987年斯里兰卡内战期间与印度签署的《印度-斯里兰卡和平协议》，激起斯里兰卡爱国人士的强烈反抗，并爆发了人民解放阵线领导的救国运动。

After the current crisis emerged in Sri Lanka, the masses were agitated, and the passion for social change was palpable. In the ideological struggle, left-wing parties need to break away from narrow nationalism, avoid negative impacts on socialist values and practical movements, and guide positive national consciousness and patriotic fervour in Sri Lanka to serve the socialist movement’s practice of opposing capitalism. To this end, Sri Lankan left-wing parties are committed to clarifying patriotic behaviour, uniting patriotic individuals, and launching patriotic struggles.

当前斯里兰卡危机出现后，民众群情激奋，社会变革激情呼之欲出。在意识形态斗争中，左翼政党需要跳出狭隘民族主义，避免对社会主义价值观念与实践运动产生负面影响，引导斯里兰卡积极的民族意识和爱国热情，使其服务于反对资本主义的社会主义运动实践。为此，斯里兰卡左翼政党致力于厘清爱国行为、团结爱国人士、发动爱国斗争。

On the one hand, left-wing parties expose the essence of various social currents of thought existing in all spheres of Sri Lanka as serving the bourgeois regime; on the other hand, they strive to attract positive emotions and patriotic ideas closely related to the fate of the nation and the state into the orbit of the socialist movement, thereby preventing them from sliding into sectarianism and racism. The terrorist attack that occurred in April 2019 reignited the ethnic conflict issues that had lain dormant since the end of the civil war in 2009. Concerns over the fate of the Sri Lankan state and the desire for a stable and harmonious ethnic relationship ignited a Sinhalese patriotic enthusiasm tinged with racism. In this context, the "One Country, One Law" slogan of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna helped it secure electoral victory after the Easter Sunday bombings. The appointment by Gotabaya Rajapaksa after taking office of the radical Buddhist monk Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara, who holds anti-Muslim tendencies, to lead the Presidential Task Force for Legal Reform is an example of patriotic enthusiasm being racialized. Sri Lankan left-wing parties have repeatedly accused Gotabaya of using popular patriotic sentiment for personal gain in parliament and at rallies. Furthermore, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna also condemned the "pseudo-patriotism" of the Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka. This party believes that true patriotism lies in making sacrifices for national sovereignty, because this patriotic spirit writes history based on the principles of historical materialism. When capitalism is already deeply mired in crisis and beyond repair, left-wing parties advocate uniting progressives, patriots, and other leftist forces to defeat capitalism and imperialism and create a new socialist society.

左翼政党一方面揭露存在于斯里兰卡各领域的各种社会思潮服务于资产阶级政权的本质，另一方面争取把与国家、民族命运紧密相关的积极情绪和爱国主义思想吸引到社会主义运动范畴中来，从而避免其滑向宗派主义和种族主义。2019年4月发生的恐怖袭击事件，将2009年内战结束后本已沉寂的民族冲突问题再次激发出来。对斯里兰卡国家命运的担忧和建立稳定、和谐的民族关系的渴望，激发了僧伽罗人带有种族主义的爱国主义热情。在此背景下，人民阵线党的“一国一法”口号在复活节爆炸事件后帮助其获得选举胜利。而戈塔巴雅执政后任命具有反穆斯林倾向的激进佛教僧侣戈纳那萨拉来领导法律改革总统工作组的做法，便是爱国主义热情被种族主义化的一个例证。斯里兰卡左翼政党在议会、集会等场合，多次指责戈塔巴雅利用民众爱国情绪谋取私利。此外，人民解放阵线还谴责斯里兰卡宪法第20修正案的“伪爱国主义”。该党认为，为争取国家主权而作出牺牲才是真正的爱国主义，因为这种爱国主义精神以历史唯物主义原则来书写历史。在资本主义已经深陷危机、无可救药时，左翼政党主张联合进步派、爱国者和其他左翼力量，战胜资本主义和帝国主义，创建一个新的社会主义社会。

In a crisis situation, patriotism also plays a direct role. Left-wing parties have warned that seeking a $3 billion bailout loan from the International Monetary Fund to resolve the Sri Lankan crisis would create conditions for Western countries to interfere in Sri Lanka's internal affairs and pursue their strategic interests. To prevent imperialism from taking advantage of the Sri Lankan crisis, left-wing parties such as the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, and the Communist Party of Sri Lanka have, through open letters and street protests, resolutely opposed the US attempt to sign the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) agreement and the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with Sri Lanka through negotiations with the IMF.

在危机形势下，爱国主义也在直接发挥作用。左翼政党曾警告，在解决斯里兰卡危机问题上，向国际货币基金组织寻求30亿美元的救济贷款将为西方国家干涉斯里兰卡内政、谋求其战略利益创造条件。为防止在斯里兰卡危机中帝国主义乘虚而入，斯里兰卡人民解放阵线、兰卡平等社会党、斯里兰卡共产党等左翼政党以公开信和街头抗议等形式，坚决反对美国借国际货币基金组织的谈判与斯里兰卡签署MCC（千年挑战公司协议）和SOFA（军队地位协议）的企图。

3. Ethnic Equality

3.民族平等

In the socialist movement, Marxist ideology is the basic prerequisite for uniting the working class and attracting progressive social forces. Sri Lanka's historical chronic problem of ethnic conflict and the electoral democracy of the parliamentary system can easily lead to the racialization of ethnic issues and the populist tendency of social conflicts. For Marxist parties, promoting the identification of the masses with Marxist theory requires dealing with various non-socialist currents of thought and opposing the populist tendency in ethnic issues with policies advocating ethnic equality.

在社会主义运动中，马克思主义意识形态是团结工人阶级，吸引社会进步力量的基本前提。斯里兰卡民族冲突的历史痼疾、议会制度的选票民主，极易造成民族问题种族主义化、社会冲突民粹主义化倾向。对马克思主义政党而言，推动马克思主义理论在民众中的认同，需要应对各种非社会主义思潮，用民族平等的政策主张反对民族问题民粹化倾向。

In the current socialist movement, the ethnic policy positions of Sri Lankan left-wing parties exhibit two tendencies.

在当前社会主义运动中，斯里兰卡左翼政党的民族政策主张表现出两种倾向。

First, the Equal Rights Movement dilutes populism. The Frontline Socialist Party, which aims to revive the socialist movement, insists on upholding the practical struggle of the "Equal Rights Movement." On March 12, 2021, the Equal Rights Movement organization held a protest near Colombo Fort Railway Station, demanding justice for all disappearances; on August 13, 2021, the Frontline Socialist Party demanded that the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) immediately investigate an incident where members of the Federation of University Teachers Associations (FUTA) faced threats from the police for preventing the private mercenary activities of the police force. This struggle is a practical application of the Marxist concept of ethnic equality by the Frontline Socialist Party, completely different from the populist approach of bourgeois parties that blindly cater to Sinhalese nationalism and incite ethnic sentiment. According to the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, the Sri Lankan bourgeoisie habitually uses the method of populizing ethnic issues to gain political resources, whereas, in contrast, only socialism can achieve national unity and truly treat all religions equally, rather than inciting racism and religious extremism.

其一，平等权利运动淡化民粹主义。旨在复兴社会主义运动的阵线社会主义党，坚持维护“平等权利运动”的现实斗争。2021年3月12日，平等权利运动组织在科伦坡火车站附近举行抗议活动，要求为所有失踪事件伸张正义；2021年8月13日，阵线社会主义党要求斯里兰卡人权委员会（HRCSL）立即调查大学教师协会联合会（FUTA）人士因阻止警察部队的私人雇佣兵行为而面临来自警方威胁的事件。此次斗争是阵线社会主义党对马克思主义民族平等观念的实践运用，与资产阶级政党一味迎合僧伽罗民族主义、煽动民族情绪的民粹主义做法完全不同。按照人民解放阵线的看法，斯里兰卡资产阶级惯于采用把种族问题民粹化，借此赚取政治资源的方式，而与此相反，只有社会主义才能实现民族团结、真正平等对待所有宗教，而不是鼓动种族主义、宗教极端主义。

Second, exposing the essence of class issues behind religious conflicts, communalism, and localism that undermine ethnic equality. For the socialist movement to promote popular identification with Marxist ideology, it must find ways to reveal the class essence behind various social currents of thought, in order to promote genuine ethnic equality. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, as the most influential and largest Marxist party in parliament, insists on opposing bourgeois political rule under the guidance of Marxist theory. In October 2020, the Sri Lankan parliament passed the Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution, aimed at expanding presidential powers, with a two-thirds majority of 156 votes in favor and 65 against, including the crucial six votes of Muslim MPs. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna wrote articles criticizing the rulers for exploiting Sinhalese anti-Muslim nationalist sentiment before the presidential election and then using minority ethnic groups to achieve their own ends afterwards. In the view of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, communalism is merely a tool for the bourgeoisie to achieve class rule; communalism and religion only divide the people, create social conflicts, and conceal the essence of class differentiation behind various contradictions, and are therefore a fraud. Consequently, the Janatha Vukthi Peramuna proposes that the key to solving all of Sri Lanka's current problems is not to use popular sentiment to patch up the capitalist system, but to unite workers and peasants from all ethnic groups, cultivate their class consciousness, and promote the realization of socialism. Only in this way can a socialist system be established in Sri Lanka, and only then can national unity, economic prosperity, and social stability be achieved.

其二，揭露破坏民族平等的宗教冲突、社群主义、地方自治主义背后阶级问题的实质。社会主义运动要促进民众对马克思主义意识形态的认同，必须设法揭示各种社会思潮背后的阶级本质，才能促进真正的民族平等。斯里兰卡人民解放阵线作为议会中最有影响力和最大的马克思主义政党，坚持以马克思主义理论为指导反对资产阶级政治统治。2020年10月，斯里兰卡议会以156票支持、65票反对的2/3多数，通过了旨在扩大总统权力的宪法第20修正案，其中包含关键的穆斯林议员的6票支持。人民解放阵线撰文批判执政者在总统大选前借助僧伽罗人反穆斯林的民族主义情绪，之后利用少数族裔达成自己目的的行径。在人民解放阵线看来，社群主义只是资产阶级达到阶级统治的工具；社群主义、宗教只会分裂民众，制造社会冲突，掩盖各种矛盾背后阶级分化的实质，所以是骗局。因此，人民解放阵线提出，解决斯里兰卡当前所有问题的关键不是利用民众情绪来对资本主义制度进行修补，而是团结所有民族中的工人、农民，培养他们的阶级意识，来促进社会主义的实现，只有这样，才能在斯里兰卡建立社会主义制度，才能实现斯里兰卡的民族团结、经济繁荣与社会稳定。

IV. New Trends in the Development of the Political Foundation of the Socialist Movement in Sri Lanka

四、斯里兰卡社会主义运动政治基础发展的动向

1. Uniting the Left, Broadening Political Alliances

1.团结左翼，拓宽政治联盟

Forming broad alliances is a necessary condition for parliamentary struggle. For a long time, left-wing parties in Sri Lanka have exhibited a tendency towards fragmentation, often engaging in internal strife. After experiencing the crisis, Sri Lanka's radical left and traditional left-wing parties have shifted from division to moving forward hand in hand, showing two tendencies in the construction of political alliances: first, political alliances formed for electoral purposes have emerged and gained widespread support; second, traditional left-wing parties and radical left parties show a tendency towards cooperation.

形成广泛联盟，是议会斗争的必要条件。长期以来，斯里兰卡左翼政党都存在碎片化倾向，内部往往兄弟阋墙。经历危机后，斯里兰卡激进左翼与传统左翼政党由分立转变为携手并进，在政治联盟建设上出现两种倾向：其一，以选举为目的的政治联盟出现，并获得广泛的支持；其二，传统左翼政党与激进左翼有展开合作的倾向。

The National People's Power is a political alliance formed for electoral purposes, established in 2019, which played an important role in political struggles during the crisis period. Headquartered in Battaramulla, the National People's Power is a political organization led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna that broadly unites people from all walks of life. With the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna as its core, it also includes 27 political parties and organizations such as the "National People's Power Youth" and the "Progressive Women's Collective." Since its establishment, the National People's Power has gained the support and participation of the United Left Front. The National People's Power aims to achieve communism and resist imperialism, advocating the overthrow of the current bourgeois government and the establishment of a socialist state. The leader of this alliance is Anura Kumara Dissanayake, and the general secretary is Lakshman Nipuna Arachchi. The alliance won three parliamentary seats in the 2020 general election and led the major Sri Lankan strike in 2022, which toppled the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government.

国家人民权力是以选举为目的成立的政治联盟，组建于2019年，在危机时期的政治斗争中发挥了重要作用。国家人民权力总部位于巴塔拉穆拉，是由人民解放阵线领导的广泛团结各阶层人士的政治组织，以人民解放阵线为核心，另有“民族人民力量青年”“进步妇女集体”等27个政党和组织参与。国家人民权力自成立后，便获得了联合左翼阵线的支持和参与。国家人民权力以实现共产主义、反抗帝国主义为目标，主张推翻现任资产阶级政府，建立社会主义国家。该联盟的领袖是阿努拉·迪萨纳亚克，总书记是拉喀什曼·尼普那·阿拉奇。该联盟在2020年议会选举中共获得3个议会席位，2022年领导了斯里兰卡大罢工，推翻了戈塔巴雅政府。

In 2022, the left launched massive protests, but as a result, political power fell into the hands of others. To form an effective counterbalance to right-wing political opponents, on September 4, 2022, the radical left-wing party National Freedom Front and the traditional left-wing parties Communist Party of Sri Lanka and Lanka Sama Samaja Party, along with other patriotic left-wing parties, established the "Sri Lanka Supreme Alliance." This alliance appointed the leader of the National Freedom Front, Member of Parliament Wimal Weerawansa, as chairman, and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka, G. Weerasinghe, and the General Secretary of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, Tissa Vitharana, as vice-chairmen. The "Sri Lanka Supreme Alliance" acts as a check on bourgeois right-wing parties in parliament, maintains broad connections with the people in social life, and promotes socialist ideas and policies.

2022年左翼发动了声势浩大的抗议活动，结果政治权力旁落他人。为形成与右翼政治对手的有效抗衡，2022年9月4日，激进左翼政党民族自由阵线和传统左翼政党斯里兰卡共产党、兰卡平等社会党等爱国左翼政党成立了“斯里兰卡最高联盟”。该联盟任命民族自由阵线领袖、国会议员威玛尔·维拉瓦萨为主席，斯里兰卡共产党总书记维拉辛哈、兰卡平等社会党总书记蒂萨分别担任副主席。“斯里兰卡最高联盟”在议会中与资产阶级右翼政党形成掣肘，在社会生活中与民众形成广泛联系，宣扬社会主义理念和政策。

2. Mobilizing Peasants, Expanding the Mass Base

2.发动农民，拓展群众基础

The working class is the leading force of the socialist movement. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war, ethnic conflicts and the populism they triggered have absorbed the “centrifugal forces” of society, and coupled with the political alliance between traditional left-wing parties and the ruling authorities, the workers’ movement in Sri Lanka has shown a weakening trend. Professor Tissa, leader of the Lanka Equal Society Party, pointed out that the proportion of the workers’ movement was 70% in 1970 and has now dropped to 8%. Under the circumstances of the decline of the workers’ movement, it is even more necessary to establish a socialist movement alliance with broad social participation. In addition to continuing to consolidate the unity of the working class, it should also strive for more attention and support from the lower strata of society for the socialist movement.

工人阶级是社会主义运动的领导力量。进入21世纪以来，斯里兰卡内战结束，种族冲突及其引发的民粹主义吸附了社会“离心力量”，加之传统左翼政党与执政者的政治盟友关系，导致斯里兰卡的工人运动呈现弱化趋势。兰卡平等社会党领导人蒂萨教授指出，1970年工人运动的比例为70%，现在已经下降到8%。在工人运动呈现颓势的状况下，更需要建立广泛社会参与的社会主义运动联盟，除继续夯实工人阶级群体的团结之外，还应当争取更多社会底层民众对社会主义运动的关注和支持。

Peasants are an important component of Sri Lanka’s social structure and a part that has always been neglected by the socialist movement. Some scholars have commented that Sri Lanka “has a strong workers’ movement and student movement, but has never mobilized the peasants; there has never been a peasant movement.” Sri Lanka has about 2 million peasants, with 27% of the labor force engaged in agricultural labor. In terms of numbers alone, peasants are a force that various social movements cannot underestimate. To strengthen the main force of the workers’ movement, the Sri Lankan socialist movement needs to establish a broader mass base that includes peasants, and must never ignore the existence of peasants. At the same time, Sri Lankan peasants also face a series of problems, such as a low level of political education, relative alienation from political life, a lack of conscious awareness and fighting spirit to integrate into the proletarian movement process, and even a lack of political acumen to “distinguish political facts from political lies and fabrications.” In the Sri Lankan socialist movement, the reality that peasants have a weak cognitive recognition of socialist theory determines the need to educate and cultivate peasants, enabling them to integrate into the ranks of the socialist movement, thereby expanding the ranks of the proletarian struggle.

农民是斯里兰卡社会结构中的重要组成部分，也是一直被社会主义运动所忽略的部分。有学者曾评价说：斯里兰卡“有强大的工人运动和学生运动，但从来没有动员起来农民；从来没有农民运动”。斯里兰卡农民约有200万之众，有27%的劳动力从事农业劳动。仅从数量而言，农民是各种社会运动不可小觑的力量。斯里兰卡社会主义运动要增强工人运动的主体力量，就需要建立包括农民在内的更为广泛的群众基础，决不能忽视农民的存在。同时，斯里兰卡农民还存在受政治教育程度低，与政治生活较为疏远，缺乏融入无产阶级运动过程的自觉意识和斗争精神，甚至缺乏“将政治事实与政治谎言、捏造区分开来”的政治敏锐性等一系列问题。在斯里兰卡社会主义运动中，农民对社会主义理论认知认同较弱的现实，决定了需要对农民进行教育和培养，使其融入社会主义运动的队伍，从而扩大无产阶级斗争队伍。

In 2021, the crisis in Sri Lanka’s agricultural production and peasant survival became a “booster” for the socialist movement. In April 2021, President Gotabaya banned the use of chemical fertilizers and promoted organic agriculture nationwide. This measure directly led to a decline in agricultural output, a reduction in peasant income, and a difficult living situation. Sri Lanka’s grain production is unable to be self-sufficient, and rice relies on imports. The growing complaints and grievances of peasants became an important factor threatening the regime. Left-wing parties began to realize that peasants could become a “new force” in reshaping Sri Lanka’s “new economic-political path.” Starting from November 1, 2021, the People’s Liberation Front launched a mobilization campaign called “Let’s Start from the Villages,” initiating political propaganda in rural areas nationwide, analyzing the current situation and roots of the Sri Lankan crisis for peasants, encouraging peasants to join the National People’s Power led by the People’s Liberation Front, opposing the bourgeois government, and promoting peasants to move to the “front stage” of the political movement. Under the mobilization of left-wing parties, Sri Lankan peasants began to take to the streets in July 2021 to wage struggles and integrated into the general strike movement of 2022.

2021年，斯里兰卡农业生产、农民生存危机成了社会主义运动的“助推器”。2021年4月，戈塔巴雅总统禁止使用化肥，在全国范围内推动有机农业发展。这项举措直接导致农产品收成下降、农民收入缩减、生活窘迫的局面。斯里兰卡粮食生产难以自给自足，大米依靠进口。农民不断增加的牢骚与怨言成为威胁到政权的重要因素。左翼政党开始意识到农民可以成为重塑斯里兰卡“新经济-政治路径”中的“新力量”。人民解放阵线从2021年11月1日起开启了“让我们从乡村出发”的动员活动，开始在全国范围内的农村地区发动政治宣传，向农民分析斯里兰卡危机的现状和根源，鼓励农民加入人民解放阵线领导的国家人民权力，反对资产阶级政府，促进农民走向政治运动的“前台”。在左翼政党的动员下，斯里兰卡农民于2021年7月开始走向街头，开展斗争，并融入2022年的大罢工运动中。

V. Reasons for the New Trends in the Sri Lankan Socialist Movement

五、斯里兰卡社会主义运动新动向的原因

1. Taking the Salvation of the Nation as the Primary Task

1.以挽救民族命运为首要任务

Multiple crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, economic crisis, and political crisis, have pushed Sri Lanka to the brink of collapse. The Sri Lankan people have to face a series of problems such as soaring prices, shortages of oil and electricity, and unemployment. Even the current President Wickremesinghe admitted: “Our country is facing huge challenges, and we must formulate a new strategy to meet the aspirations of the people.” However, since the end of the civil war in the 21st century, Sri Lanka’s political arena has been alternately controlled by bourgeois political elites, making it difficult to achieve fundamental change.

新冠肺炎疫情、经济危机、政治危机等多重危机，已经将斯里兰卡国家推向崩溃的边缘，斯里兰卡人民不得不去面对高涨的物价、缺油少电以及失业等一系列问题。即使是现任总统维克拉马辛哈也承认：“我们的国家正面临着巨大的挑战，我们必须制定一项新的战略来满足人民的愿望。”然而，21世纪内战结束以来的斯里兰卡政坛，皆由资产阶级政治精英们轮换掌控，难以实现根本性变革。

From the perspective of left-wing parties, bourgeois political elites have never truly resolved the various contradictions within Sri Lanka. Left-wing parties attempt to offer national salvation plans through their own wisdom, clarify their policy content, and embark on actions to transform the state. Left-wing parties realize that to completely change the crisis state of the country, restore national production, and maintain social stability, they must come up with solutions to the Sri Lankan crisis and ultimately carry out a thorough transformation of the capitalist system and development model. As Engels pointed out in “Support for Poland,” when a nation’s internal life falls into paralysis, “it cannot fight for social emancipation.” Rescuing Sri Lanka from multiple crises is an important choice for all parties in the era of parliamentary struggle, and also an important opportunity for left-wing parties to wage struggle and realize socialist ideals. The positions of new left-wing parties and traditional left-wing parties on establishing a future economic system tend to converge: under the current crisis situation, they advocate formulating a scientific, de-capitalized new economic strategy that can build this country. Proposing effective policy plans is a prerequisite for gaining public recognition and a way to demonstrate future governing capacity to the people.

在左翼政党看来，资产阶级政治精英从未真正解决斯里兰卡国内各种矛盾。左翼政党尝试通过自己的智慧给出救国方案，明确自己的政策内容，着手进行国家改造行动。左翼政党意识到，若要彻底改变国家的危机状态，恢复国民生产，维系社会稳定，务必要拿出能解决斯里兰卡危机的方案，并最终对资本主义制度体系、发展模式进行脱胎换骨的改造。正如恩格斯在《支持波兰》中曾指出的那样，当一个民族的内部生活陷入瘫痪的时候，“它是不能为争取社会解放而斗争的”。将斯里兰卡从重重危机中拯救出来，是各政党在议会斗争时代的重要选择，也是左翼政党进行斗争，实现社会主义理想的重要机遇。新左翼政党与传统左翼政党对建立未来经济制度的立场趋于一致：在当前危机形势下，主张制定一个科学的、去资本主义化的、可以建设这个国家的新经济战略。提出有效的政策方案，是获得民众认同的前提，也是向人民彰显未来执政能力的一种方式。

2. The Need for Ideological Struggle

2.意识形态斗争的需要

After the Gotabaya government came to power in 2020, Sri Lanka faced the worst economic and political situation in its history. The ill-fated new regime, after a brief two-and-a-half-year tenure, ultimately lost core political power. Domestic and foreign scholars and media in Sri Lanka, especially right-wing scholars, attribute the root of the crisis to specific factors such as the adverse environment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the authoritarian, arbitrary, and governance-deficient nature of the rulers. Some scholars directly seek causes from populist economic policies and family-based political systems. These evasive interpretations of Sri Lanka’s multiple crises fail to truly apply Marxist theoretical methods and fail to truly grasp the laws of historical development. Marx pointed out: “All the contradictions of bourgeois production erupt concentratedly in the general world market crisis, while in special crises (special in content and scope) they erupt only dispersedly, isolatedly, and one-sidedly.” Marx believed that the world market crisis is “the real synthesis and violent balancing of all contradictions of the bourgeois economy.” It can be seen that the Sri Lankan crisis is a manifestation of the problems of the capitalist system and also a microcosm of the crisis of the world capitalist system. Theoretical analysis of the crisis issues involves ideological differences and struggles, and is a contest between Marxist and non-Marxist explanatory paradigms in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan left-wing parties are in the stage of “new revolution” that “can only occur after a new crisis,” and need to explain the contradictions of the capitalist system from the essence of the crisis, effectively mobilize the Sri Lankan people to participate in the tide of the socialist movement, thereby correcting the stigmatized history of left-wing parties, especially the People’s Liberation Front, further gaining their emotional identification, and transforming it into support for the establishment of a Sri Lankan socialist economic system and social system.

2020年戈塔巴雅政府执政后，斯里兰卡面临着历史上最为糟糕的经济、政治形势。命途多舛的新政权在经历2年半的短暂执政后，最终失去了核心政治权力。斯里兰卡国内外学者、媒体尤其是右翼学者对危机根源的判断，指向新冠肺炎疫情造成的不利环境和执政者威权、独断且缺乏治理能力等具体因素，也有学者直接从民粹主义经济政策与家族政体中寻找原因。对斯里兰卡多重危机的这些避重就轻的解读，未能真正运用马克思主义的理论方法，未能真正把握历史的发展规律。马克思指出：“资产阶级生产的一切矛盾，在普遍的世界市场危机中集中地爆发，而在特殊的（按内容和范围来说是特殊的）危机中只是分散地、孤立地、片面地爆发。”马克思认为，世界市场危机是“资产阶级经济一切矛盾的现实的综合和暴力方式的平衡”。可见，斯里兰卡危机是资本主义制度问题的显现，也是世界资本主义体系危机的缩影。危机问题的理论分析涉及意识形态的差异和斗争，是斯里兰卡马克思主义理论与非马克思主义理论解释范式的一次博弈。斯里兰卡左翼政党正处于“新的危机之后才可能发生”的“新的革命”阶段，需要从危机本质层面阐释资本主义制度矛盾，有效地动员斯里兰卡人民参与到社会主义运动的潮流中来，从而实现民众对左翼政党尤其是人民解放阵线污名化历史的修正，进一步获得他们的情感认同，并使之转化为对建立斯里兰卡社会主义经济制度、社会制度的支持。

3. The Need for Independent Participation in Political Struggle

3.独立参与政治斗争的需要

Since the beginning of the 21st century, Sri Lankan left-wing parties have shown a tendency to break away from alliances with bourgeois parties and participate independently in politics. The Socialist Alliance, to which the Lanka Equal Society Party and the Communist Party of Sri Lanka belong, was previously attached to the Freedom Party before the latter, led by Mahinda Rajapaksa, came to power. With Sirisena winning the presidential election in 2015 and becoming the leader of the Freedom Party, and Mahinda Rajapaksa joining the People’s Front Party, the Lanka Equal Society Party and the Communist Party of Sri Lanka gradually distanced themselves from the Freedom Party and the Rajapaksa family, and gradually moved toward an independent stage of political struggle. This is even more true for the People’s Liberation Front, which has always opposed the Rajapaksa family. In the 2010 general election, the People’s Liberation Front had a brief alliance with Fonseka, who commanded the military to defeat the LTTE. In 2015, the People’s Liberation Front began to independently participate in parliamentary struggle and nominated an independent candidate for the presidential election. The 2020 election continued to participate in politics as an independent political party.

进入21世纪以来，斯里兰卡左翼政党显示出脱离与资产阶级政党的联合、独立参与政治的倾向。兰卡平等社会党和斯里兰卡共产党所属的社会主义联盟，在马欣达·拉贾帕克萨领导的自由党执政前依附于自由党。随着2015年西里塞纳在总统选举中获胜并成为自由党领导人，马欣达·拉贾帕克萨加入人民阵线党，兰卡平等社会党和斯里兰卡共产党与自由党及拉贾帕克萨家族关系日渐疏远，并逐步走向独立的政治斗争阶段。一直反对拉贾帕克萨家族的人民解放阵线更是如此。在2010年大选时，人民解放阵线与指挥军队击败猛虎组织的丰塞卡有过短暂的结盟。2015年，人民解放阵线开始独立参与议会斗争，并提名候选人独立参加总统选举，2020年的选举继续坚持以独立自主政党身份参政。

For a political party to build its voter base within a parliamentary democratic system depends, on the one hand, on the populace’s identification with the party’s ideology, and on the other hand, on the voters’ acceptance of the party’s appropriate and feasible governance concepts and ruling propositions. Regarding the former, long-term cultivation is required, while persuading voters and winning over the populace through the reasonableness of governance concepts and ruling propositions can achieve twice the result with half the effort. The success of the populist policies of former Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in the 2020 presidential election well illustrates this point. In the process of politically de-“attaching” themselves, independently participating in parliamentary political life, and even directly contesting presidential elections, Sri Lankan left-wing parties have increasingly realized that “they should recognize their own class interests and as soon as possible adopt the stance of their own independent party.” [26]26 This quotation reflects a call for left-wing parties in Sri Lanka to break from electoral alliances or dependence on larger parties and assert an independent political identity based on class interests. At the same time, transitioning toward “policy politics” also requires accurately grasping the material conditions of life in Sri Lanka’s social reality and proposing policy propositions that are both realistic and actionable. Only in this way can left-wing parties shape their own distinctiveness and party symbols.

政党在议会民主制度中建立自己的选民基础，一方面取决于民众对政党意识形态的认同，另一方面依赖于选民对政党恰当且可行的施政理念、执政主张的接受。就前者而言，需要长期培养，而通过施政理念、执政主张的合理性来说服选民、争取民众，则能事半功倍。斯里兰卡前总统戈塔巴雅在2020年总统选举中的民粹主义政策取得成功，很好地说明了这一点。斯里兰卡左翼政党在政治上去“依附”化，独立参加议会政治生活甚至直接参加总统竞选的过程中，越发意识到“应该认清自己的阶级利益，尽快采取自己独立政党的立场”。同时，向“政策政治”转变，还需要准确把握斯里兰卡社会现实的物质生活条件，提出符合实际并具有可操作性的政策主张，惟其如此，左翼政党才能塑造自己的独特性和政党符号。

(Author’s bio: Du Min, Professor at the School of Marxism, Yunnan University)

（作者简介：杜敏，云南大学马克思主义学院教授）

Online editor: Tongxin

网络编辑：同心