CEYLONESE STRIKERS WIN TOUGH BATTLE
By Rohini Dunuwille
COLOMBO, Jan. 20 -= An important section of Ceylon's working class, organized in the Ceylon Mercantile union (whose general secre tary is Bala Tampoe, a leading figure of the Lanka Sama Samaja party), has just emerged triumphant after a protracted struggle lasting seven-~ ty days. This marks the first significant victory of the organized working class in Ceylon since the Bandaranaike government began opera ting its wage-freeze policy two years ago.
Besides being a great display of solidarity among the striking _ workers, it brought a huge response from the rest of the working class, whose threat of intervention was largely instrumental in forcing the government to capitulate.
Early in November 1963, some 1, 500 employees of the Ceylon Port Cargo Corporation [pcc] came out: on strike, Their two main demands, among others, were (a) the granting of two increments which had. been awarded to all employees of the commercial sector and which would have been granted to the employees of the PCC had the Port not been nation= alized; (b) an investigation into the appointment of certain government officials on fantastically inflated salaries.
The management of the PCC and the Minister of Communications refused to discuss the issues until the strikers: went back to work, After a deadlock which lasted nearly two months, the 15,000 strong _ membership of the Ceylon Mercantile union [om]? to which the employ= ees of the PCC belong, came out on a sympathy strike December Sl, At this stage the government was compelled to climb down from its pedes-= tal and agree to negotiate through a mediator, the Commissioner of Labour,
On January 4 the CMU and the Commissioner. of Labour agreed on a formula for settlement. However, this was not acceptable to the government, Instead, a compromise formula was handed down, The General Council of the CMU rejected this unanimously end refused to accept anything less than the January 4 formula,
The government then issued an ultimatum which stated that if the strikers did not return to work by 8:30 a.m. on January 11, it would be compelled "to adopt such measures as would be necessary to free the public from inconvenience and difficulty."
The 1,500 employees of the PCC met and took a unanimous decision to defy the ultimatum,
The government alerted all police stations, An army guard was positioned outside Radio Ceylon. The army was requested to stand by. in case of emergency.
At this point, several other big unions, among them the Ceylon
- Trade Union Federation, the Ceylon Bank Employees! union, the Petrol. Corporation, the Insurance Corporation and the United Motor Workers union expressed their complete solidarity and support to the general strike of the CMU and were ready to rise to its defense should the government attempt to crush the strike by using emergency powers.
Meanwhile the strike had crippled the port and the export-import trade. Long lines of freighters were waiting to unload cargo while ethers were by~passing Colombo,
Members of parliament, including backbenchers of the government party, were now bringing pressure on the Minister of Labour to settle “the strike, On the evening of January 11, the government forwarded aset of proposals to the CMU which amounted in fact to complete capitu-— ‘lation, The strike was ended January 13. ‘
This is the first time in Ceylon that a general strike has been launched by any section of the trade-union movement, not in support of their own demands but in support of the demands of a section of its: members, It is a demonstration of the readiness of the workers to fight the wage-~freeze policy of the government in face of the steadily deteriorating economic and financial situation which has brought the cost of living index to the highest point on record,
The repercussions of this strike on the working-class movement as a whole can be immense, particularly since it is the first significant _ strike victory in the island for well nigh two years. Fresh waves of militant working-class struggles are on the order of the day in Ceylon.
MAITAN SPEAKS IN BRUSSELS
BRUSSELS, Jan. 24 -- Livio Maitan, a member of the United Seore-~ tariat of the Fourth International, spoke here last night on the Sino- Soviet conflict,
He explained the critical support accorded by the Fourth International to the Chinese side in this dispute. He scored a series of rightist positions taken by the Khrushchevist leadership. At the same time, he said, the Fourth International has sharply criticized the Chinese leaders, who likewise represent a workers! state bureau» cracy. He spoke particularly forcefully against the attitude displayed by we Chinese leaders on de-Stalinization and their apologies for _. talin,.
The audience was composed of young militants or sympathizers of organizations of the left, including the pro=Chinese Communist organization headed by Grippa,.
After a discussion period, Georges Vereeken took the floor to. speak in the name of the Belgian section of the Fourth International on current problems faced by the workers of Belgium,,
A Background Article
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