The brutal government of Sri Lanka is undoubtedly behind the abduction of two activists, Premakumar Gunaratnam and Dimuthu Attygalle of the Frontline Socialist Party.

After three days of interrogation at some kind of camp to which they had both been taken separately, they were released yesterday. Dimuthu Attygalle was dropped by her captors from one of the infamous white vans, only when the Sri Lankan police had put Premakumar Gunaratnam onto a plane. He was deported to Australia where his wife and children live. Premakumar has since reported that he was tortured and abused.

Mr Gunaratnam and Ms Attygalle were abducted on the eve of the formation of a new party – the Frontline Socialist Party.

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December 2011 saw yet more asylum seekers tragically drown as their boat sank on the journey to Australia. The response of both major parties has been to descend into a vile contest of who can out do the other as the toughest on people smugglers.

The Greens refugee spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young, simply stated that “accidents happen”. Such a statement distorts the reality of asylum seeker deaths at sea. These tragedies are not accidents, but the direct result of inaccessible, punitive and inhumane refugee policies supported by both Labor and Liberal.

In the media frenzy suggesting that Australia is being ‘flooded’ by refugees, both major parties want to be seen as keeping the number of boat arrivals down. This means making it as difficult as possible for refugee boats to find a route to Australian shores. The direct result of this is desperate people being forced to take the most dangerous routes to Australia, many not surviving the journey.

By David Suter, Socialist Party

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CWI’s Zhang Shujie speaks out at hearing in Sweden’s parliament

“I was warned that I could get several years in prison for ‘contact with a banned organisation’ and for ‘crimes related to national security’ ”. Zhang Shujie, a socialist from China, explained his ordeal at a hearing at the Swedish parliament on Thursday. He and subsequent speakers underlined how repression in China increased sharply early in 2011, when the regime was alarmed by the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia.

By Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI) reporters

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Government debt soars to ‘European’ levels following massive stimulus programme

As the global economy lurches towards renewed recession and financial turmoil, concerns are growing over the state of China’s largely state-owned banking system. For more than two years an unprecedented surge of bank credit has powered the biggest construction boom in history, sucking in raw materials from around the globe and ‘supersizing’ GDP (gross domestic product) growth rates for commodity exporters. But the chickens are now coming home to roost as Beijing’s mega-stimulus also sent debt levels soaring.

For over a year the government has imposed a credit squeeze to rein in rising debts especially at local government level, and to bring inflation under control. But Beijing’s clampdown has in turn led to a dramatic growth of the shadow banking system – of so-called underground banks (which are illegal) but also ‘off-balance sheet’ lending by state-owned banks.

By Vincent Kolo, chinaworker.info

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The recent New Zealand general election played out with few surprises. Throughout the campaign period polling consistently showed an increased majority for the incumbent conservative National Party government. This came to fruition on polling day with National winning 48% of the Party vote across the country.

New Zealand’s Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) voting system (where voters are allocated both a candidate vote and a party vote), makes it difficult for any one party to achieve an outright majority, yet National came very close. National won 60 seats, one seat short of achieving the 61 seat majority needed to govern outright.

All of National’s coalition partners going into the election (ACT, United Future and the Maori Party) lost seats, but retain a presence in the new parliament.

By Mel Gregson, Socialist Party

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Interview with Sri Lankan socialist leader

Siritunga Jayasuriya is the leader of our sister party in Sri Lanka, the United Socialist Party. He is also the President of the Samastha Lanka Free Trade Union and has been active in the labour movement for over 40 years. Siritunga is well known in Sri Lanka for his opposition to the government’s war against the Tamil people.

The Socialist Party’s Mel Gregson recently spoke to Siritunga about the situation in Sri Lanka and why people continue to seek asylum in Australia.

MG: What is the situation facing Tamil people in Sri Lanka now that the civil war has ended?

SJ: Outside of Sri Lanka, countries like Australia, have created the idea that Sri Lanka is safe now after the war. This is not true at all. Now, two and a half years after the war the army still occupies the north of the country and controls every aspect of human life. Everything has to go through the army commander. In Jaffna, people still fear for their life. There are many people who are trying to leave Sri Lanka because of these reasons.

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Mass support to bring airline back into public hands

Management of Australia’s biggest airline, Qantas, announced on Saturday 29 October the grounding of its entire fleet and a plan to lockout workers from three unions This vicious attack is squarely aimed at smashing workers resistance to management plans to gradually move operations to Asia.

Qantas management have been pursuing a long-term strategy over years to move operations to their non-Qantas-branded subsidiary airlines. This is in order to break union organisation and drive down wages so they can boost the profits of their major shareholders like J.P. Morgan, HSBC and Citicorp. These global financial giants are amongst the biggest shareholders of the major Australian banks and mining companies.

By Kirk Leonard, Socialist Party

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By an Australian oil industry worker

I knew before I went to Singapore to do work on a rig in a shipyard that foreign workers were exploited but the actual experience was eye opening. By comparison the standards we worked under were positively regal compared to the Indian and Bangladeshi foreign workers.

The Indian and Bangladeshi workers don’t see their families for two years. They work five and a half to six days a week, 12 hours a day, and receive the princely sum of about $400-600 (Singapore dollars) a month for their sweat. Time is so short for these workers you can see hundreds of them sleeping on the lawn or under the job in the pre-dawn hour before the lift home. The project managers were appalled when the Australian workers demanded to go home after a month. They are too used to exploiting the workforce for the entire project without a break.

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By CWI reporters

The 12th National Congress of the United Socialist Party (CWI Sri Lanka) took place in Colombo on October 8 & 9 in extremely difficult circumstances.

Since the end of the war in 2009 President Mahinda Rajapaksa has moved towards creating a dictatorial regime. Repression has in many ways been increased and the police and military play a key role in the running of the country.

As preparations were being made on October 7 the police visited the Congress venue and questioned whether the USP had permission to hold the meeting. They said that the meeting would be deemed illegal given that Council elections were also being held in many parts of the country on October 8.

Despite this intimidation the meeting went ahead with delegates travelling from right across the island. Many delegates travelled by bus for more than 10 hours.

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Process refugees in the community and provide jobs, homes & services for everyone!

Julia Gillard’s plan to send 800 refugees to Malaysia has hit a major hurdle. While Labor boasts about it’s ‘tougher-than-Howard’ credentials, refugee protests, a successful High Court challenge and the discontent of detention centre workers is impacting on public opinion and exerting unwanted pressure on this already weak government.

The so-called Malaysia solution would see hundreds of refugees thrown into a country that affords asylum seekers next to no human rights. Refugees risk beatings and arrest if they venture outside despite the fact that most have to work to survive.

By Chris Dite, Socialist Party

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