A unified, unitary party structure is the way for the Left
LSSP Treasurer and WP Provincial Councillor Keerthi Kariyawasam
by Kumar David-March 7, 2015, 3:51 pm
The New Town Hall was full to overflowing, the corridors crowded, the overflow went into the grounds outside; they came from Colombo, they came from the outstations (Sammanthurai, Trincomalee, Hambantota, Anuradhapura, Kandy, Puttalam, Kurunegala, Matale, Kegalle, Galle and Kalutara), young men and women I had never seen before, dozens of old leftists (not just Samasamajists) who I had not met for decades. It was quite something and if the new leaders can hang on to and build on the strategic advantage they have scored, a significant Left entity will surface. While cries of "Samasamaja Pakshayata Jayaweva" and youthful calls for a renewed golden age echoed from speaker to speaker symbolising the enthusiasm of the gathering, I will caution later in this essay that while nostalgia is a tonic, this is the twenty-first century and the tasks of a revitalised LSSP are different from those of a bygone era. Now recalled to life, the Party must reset its targets in ways some readers may find outlandish and different from anything they are accustomed to, but the ‘moving finger writes, and having writ moves on’. There is only one way forward for the Left in Lanka; but before that let me describe the day’s events.
