Army, Cannons & The Constitution
By TU Senan –March 12, 2016
TU Senan
“You see, gentlemen, a king whom the army and cannons obey – this is part of a constitution!” Ferdinand Lassalle once said.
Lassalle, writing in 1862, was theorising at the time of the newly-born modern constitutions. They were begat by the bloody battle between the two then competing systems, decaying feudalism, and emerging capitalism. The democratic demands and the revolutionary steps forward contained within the constitutions that developed out of the French revolution and from the US civil war were part and parcel of what made bourgeois class victorious. However, under the capitalist system, all these “high demands” have been undermined and the bourgeoisie, the capitalist class, came to disown their own revolutions. Many principled ideas, such as freedom of speech that is held within the first amendment in US, have either been amended out of existence or practically made impossible to realise.
Now, there is no constitution in the world that reflects the interest of the majority working population. There is no law in any country in the world that completely reflects the aspiration of the toiling masses and serves their interests.
Lassalle was right to point to the role of the state and ruling class interests in any constitution. He says that a constitution reflects the “actual relation of forces existing in a given society”. At times struggle on the ground between the opposing class interests can push forward the formation of this or that law which could protect certain interests of the masses. However, the implementation of that law or those parts of the constitution that benefit the working class are always subject to the strength of the class forces on the ground. Historical proof is in evidence throughout Sri Lanka’s past.
