SP Newsletter No.262
Hundreds of Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka were killed last weekend as a result of heavy artillery shelling in the war zone - a few square kilometres of coastal strip containing around 100,000 Tamil civilians and LTTE guerrillas.

A doctor in the zone recorded 378 dead bodies at the hospital where he is working. He estimates that as many as 1,000 people have been killed and over 1,000 injured in two days of heavy bombardment.

People in the zone are desperately short of water, food and shelter. Medical facilities are being overwhelmed. Those Tamils who have fled the conflict have been interned in military run government detention camps.

The Sinhala chauvinist government of President Mahinda Rajapakse has denied responsibility for what the United Nations has termed a “bloodbath”, claiming instead that the Tamil separatist LTTE deliberately fired on the trapped civilians.

The government will not allow independent journalists into the area. Moreover it has been attempting to tightly control the country’s media.

Government and military leaders have labelled left parties (including the Socialist Party’s counterpart in Sri Lanka - the United Socialist Party), trade union activists, human rights campaigners, journalists and media organisations as ‘traitors to the nation’. Physical attacks and threatening calls are carried out to intimidate such people.

Human rights are violated openly and armed groups closely working with the military are abducting people, mainly Tamils, for ransom. Disappearances, abductions and extra-judicial killings are reported almost every day. However, the government and the police have turned a blind eye to the situation.

Ordinary Sinhala people will increasingly pay a heavy price in terms of the crippling cost of the war to the economy, the destruction of democratic rights and the ongoing threat to their security.

The Socialist Party has consistently campaigned to stop the slaughter of Tamils and for an immediate ceasefire and an end to the war.

Only through independent struggles of Tamil, Sinhalese and Muslim workers can the conditions be created for a democratic workers’ government to come to power, which would allow a peaceful resolution of the decades-long national question in Sri Lanka.

SP Public Meeting in Melbourne - Sri Lanka: Stop the slaughter of Tamils

7pm Wednesday May 20 @ Trades Hall, corner of Lygon & Victoria Streets Carlton South. All welcome. For more information phone 96399111.

For more background material on Sri Lanka visit the CWI website: www.socialistworld.net or the ‘Stop the Slaughter of Tamils’ campaign website: www.stoptheslaughteroftamils.org

Upcoming SP meetings

The Melbourne Branch of SP meets every Wednesday at 7pm in Trades Hall on the corner of Lygon & Victoria Streets Carlton South. Upcoming meetings include:

20/5/09 – The war against the Tamils in Sri Lanka
27/5/09 – The CPA in the 1930s
3/6/09 – Tiananmen Square 20 years on
10/6/09 – The Irish struggle
17/6/09 – Education under capitalism

For more information or for details of meetings in other parts of Australia contact our National Office on 03 9639 9111.

News links

Britain: Sweep away the thieves and their system
http://socialistworld.net/eng/2009/05/1201.html

Iceland: “Left” election victory but no left policies
http://socialistworld.net/eng/2009/05/0803.html

Chinese socialist interviewed by German press
http://www.chinaworker.org/en/content/news/729/

Join the Socialist Party

If you agree with what you have read in our newsletter or on our website you should consider joining SP. The Socialist Party has branches in Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle and Perth as well as members and supporters in all other states.

We are involved in trade union work and student work. We also run community, anti-war and environmental campaigns. But most of all we want to build a party that will fight to get rid of the capitalist system, the system that is at the root of all of these problems. We fight for socialism - a system that will bring an end to wars, poverty and environmental destruction. To join SP contact our National Office on 03 9639 9111 and we will send you a membership application form.

Subscribe to ‘The Socialist’ newspaper!

Support the Socialist Party by subscribing to our monthly newspaper ‘The Socialist’. Subscription rates are only $10 per year or $20 solidarity price. You will receive 11 copies per year delivered to your door every month. You will also receive our email newsletter every week and you will know that you are supporting an organisation that is at the fore of fighting against the capitalist system. To subscribe to ‘The Socialist’ contact our National Office on 03 9639 9111 and we will send you a subscription form.

Socialist Party contact details

Melbourne: Phone Anthony on 0396399111.
Sydney: Phone Gary on 0297287727.
Newcastle: Phone Samantha on 0249681545.
Perth: Phone John on 0894020728.
Rest of Australia: Phone our National Office on 0396399111.
Rest of the world: Phone our International Office on ++ 44 20 8988 8760.

The Socialist Party is the Australian section of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI). The CWI is organised in over 40 countries across the world.

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