The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) in Sri Lanka is holding a series of public meetings to launch the Tamil-language edition of The Russian Revolution and the Unfinished Twentieth Century. The book has been published by Kamkaru Mawatha (Workers Path), the publication house of the Sri Lankan SEP. The meetings will be held in Hatton in the central plantation district on February 24 and in Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka on March 1.

Written by David North, chairman of the US SEP and the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site, this book was published in English in mid-2014 and its Sinhala translation released in Sri Lanka in early 2016. The collection of essays is critical in exposing the many lies perpetrated about the Russian Revolution in 1917 and the subsequent degeneration of the Soviet Union.

The importance of the Marxist analysis in North’s book is highlighted by the international eruption of workers’ struggles against the attacks on social and democratic rights by governments and big business in every country.

The launch of the Tamil version of The Russian Revolution and the Unfinished Twentieth Century in Hatton, is particularly significant. The town is located in the centre of Sri Lanka’s tea plantation industry where the majority of its workforce speaks Tamil. Late last year tens of thousands of plantation workers walked out on strike and held protests to demand increased wages. While these struggles were betrayed by the unions, plantation workers at the Abbotsleigh Estate in Hatton, with the political assistance of the SEP, responded by forming an independent committee to take forward their struggle for better wages, working and living conditions.

Almost a decade after the end of Sri Lanka’s brutal civil war, the north of the island remains under military occupation. Tamil workers, youth and other oppressed layers have been involved in continuous protests in Jaffna and nearby towns to demand the release of political prisoners and the return of land taken over by the military.

Workers, youth, students and intellectuals seeking to understand the vital lessons of the Russian Revolution for the issues facing the international working class today should attend the forthcoming SEP public meetings and participate in the ensuing discussion on this essential book.

Meeting details

Hatton:

Sunday, February 24, at 10.00 a.m.
Hatton Town Hall

Jaffna:

Friday, March 1, at 4.00 p.m.
Weerasingham Hall

Details on future meetings to be announced.