Jananthan Thavarajah

[Mari @EmDeeS11]

Energy Min had met with ppl from Santhipuram-South Bar, Thalvupadu, Thoddaveli, Olaithoduwai & Pesalai yesterday (6).

Ppl had asked why the President had made election promises to stop the windpower project, if he was not going to keep his promises!

[Mari @EmDeeS11]

@swasarul A 22 yr old #Muslim man who was arrested on March 22, has been detained for 90 days under the draconian #PTA for allegedly pasting a sticker against Israel

Police now claim that he is "mentally unstable" & could be "prone to terrorism". This is a very dangerous narrative to spin

[Dhanusha Gihan Pathirana @Dhanusha]

@factchecklka is childishly fabricating stuff. Post restructure weighted I.R. from 2028 is 6.8% n weighted average for total 16 years is way higher than 4%.
@NCdeMel
endorsed even April agreement that both IMF n OCC rejected, they are coopted by vulture creditors. Ranoutspace

[Carlos @agent_of_change]

Anyone that considers themselves pro-Palestine but is celebrating the seeming victory of HTS in Syria is either extremely confused or they're just a radical poser with nothing whatsoever to offer.

The forces in West Asia working for Palestinian liberation and against imperialism and Zionism are: the Palestinian resistance, Hezbollah, Iran, Syria and Yemen.

All are essential. You think a takfiri regime in Syria will allow the flow of Iranian weapons to Lebanon and Palestine? Maybe you think Turkiye or Jordan will pick up the slack?! Hardly. All the other states in the region sometimes talk the talk, but they very carefully avoid walking the walk.

If Syria has fallen, it's a serious loss for Palestine and for humanity.

[Shen Shiwei 沈诗伟 @shen_shiwei]

China’s big move!
🇨🇳China granted ZERO-tariff treatment for 100% tariff lines to all the least developed countries that have diplomatic relations with China from 1st December.
China is the first major developing country to implement such an initiative.
The world's second-largest economy opens up its vast market and shares growth opportunities.

[Shiran Illanperuma @shiranperuma]

2024 was not the first time Sri Lanka🇱🇰 experienced a cultural and generational shift away from established political elites.

Here's what Trotskyist and former Finance Minister of Sri Lanka, N.M. Perera, had to say about the post-1956 transformation of Sri Lankan politics:

"The far-reaching transformation of the composition of the Chamber occurred in 1956. In that year, only 25% of the old faces of 1952 could be seen. The vast majority of members were newcomers, that is over 75%.

A good proportion of the membership was what might be termed small-time men: teachers, journalists and small businessmen. These people generated a different atmosphere. They were dependent entirely on Parliament allowances with no resources of their own to fall back upon and maintain the high expectations of a Member of Parliament.

The aura of Parliamentary prestige was dying. Sir John Kotelawala after he relinquished his office as Prime Minister, giving way to Mr. S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike left parliament in disgust with a characteristic quip: 'I don't want to sit with tree climbers.' ...

The change that occurred in 1956 was reflected in the quality of the debates that took place in the House. Sonorous speeches eloquently delivered spiced with generalities were rarely heard after 1956. Economic issues dominated most debates. Down-to-earth speeches elaborating matters of fact, details of life as affecting the rural poor in particular, figured most prominently in the discussions.

Up to 1956 Sinhalese and Tamil speeches were a rarity. Actually, Standing Orders provided for speeches in English and prior permission from the Speaker had to be obtained if a member desired to make his contribution in either Sinhala or Tamil. A noticeable change came in 1956. More and more speeches came to be made in Sinhalese. More stenographers were recruited for recording speeches in Sinhalese in particular. The Standing Orders were changed enabling members to speak in any one of the three languages without any prior notification as to the medium he wished to speak in. This also contributed to a change in the substance and content of the speeches delivered in the Assembly. Speeches in English are now a small proportion in the proceedings of the House...

The last 40 years also saw the gradual eclipse of the big families that previously bestrode the narrow political world of Sri Lanka. Obeyesekeras, Senanayakes, Bandaranaikes and the big feudal families, Panabokkes, Ratwattes, Molamures all of them have yielded pride of place to the middle and lower classes. Even though they still hold some sway, they do so less by their feudalness than by their ability to comply with the radical changes demanded by the mass pressure of a live and kicking democracy.

This is not a trend that can be halted."

—N.M. Perera (The Nation, 1978)

[Shiran Illanperuma @shiranperuma]

//Should it choose to take on these tasks, the NPP will have to tap into the insurgent multipolar movement in the Global South in order to build a united front against debt and imperialism. They will need to rekindle the Bandung Spirit and restore Sri Lanka’s leading position in the Non-Aligned Movement. Time will tell if the NPP is up to this task.//

[Shiran Illanperuma @shiranperuma]

In 2019, Marco Rubio published a report on the CPC's Made in China 2025 national industrial policy.

This one graph on the difference in responses to the 2008 financial crisis says it all.

China invested in real industries, while the West spiraled further into financialization.

[Radhika Desai @RadDesai]

Do you know the realities about Xinjiang? Did you know that Xinjiang is also a hub of technological innovation?

Listen to those we recently returned from there...

Londoners can attend this important event in person!!!

https://t.co/xK4myg2nN1 @eventbritehelp

[Radhika Desai @RadDesai]

Losurdo's work is so profound it requires many 'takes' to appreciate it: please add ours to your journey through his latest, Western Marxism

Radhika Desai, John Bellamy Foster & Gabriel Rockhill on Losurdo's "West... https://t.co/AvP7olavDK via @YouTube

[Shiran Illanperuma @shiranperuma]

Whenever I write about industrialization from a Global South perspective, I often get the well-meaning question, "What about climate change?"

While I'm not a climate change denier, I do think climate change is being used to derail conversations about sovereign industrial development in the Global South.

After all, imperialism has often cynically used "progressive" causes to justify its interventions. Feminism, minority rights, and pro-democracy have all been invoked in the name of imperialist wars.

In this historical context, I think it is reasonable to suggest that there is an agenda to use climate change to bludgeon the developmental aspirations of the global majority.

What is insidious about this is that it is the imperialists themselves who are the biggest contributors to climate change. The US military alone emits more carbon than many underdeveloped nations combined.
In per capita terms, there is simply no comparison between the minuscule emissions of the Global South and those of the Global North. This reflects in the vast gap in living standards too.
From a historical perspective, the Global North's contribution to carbon emissions is unparalleled. After over 500 years of colonialism and imperialism, are we in the Global South meant to pay twice over for the development of the North?
Despite these facts, you have imperialist leaders like Barack Obama who try to gaslight us: "If everybody is raising living standards to the point where everybody's got a car... air-conditioning... and a big house... the planet will boil over."

On the other hand, there exists a kind of utopian expectation that the solution to climate change is to revert to a pre-industrial era. As if the working people in both the Global North and South would accept such a setback in living standards.

The dialectic of history is such that industrial civilization has given us the technologies to address the environmental externalities it has caused. In other words, the solution to climate change is more industrialization, not less.

It is no surprise that much of the potential for future industrialization lies in the development of new energy infrastructure and technologies. From EVs and high-speed trains to photovoltaic panels and semiconductors, all these industrial sectors are part of the solution.

To paint industrialization as being fundamentally opposed to the environment is not only in bad faith but plays right into the hands of imperialists who have long sought to maintain their technological monopolies while suppressing the development of the Global South.

[Shiran Illanperuma @shiranperuma]

I can think of several groupuscules in Sri Lanka, mainly academic and NGO-adjacent leftists, who would do well to read this.

//As Mariátegui said, "We are anti-imperialists because we are Marxists"//
https://t.co/c5O4ZgFK79

[Shiran Illanperuma @shiranperuma]

In a guest column for @FTSriLanka, I argue that Sri Lanka's economic dependence on tourism is toxic and shortsighted, as it is incapable of driving structural transformation and exposes the country to external shocks.

https://t.co/tKcSTxdjkQ

[Manolo De Los Santos @manolo_realengo]

Cuba has restored electricity against all the odds put in place by 60+ years of blockade & Trump’s 243 sanctions kept by Biden. We must stand with Cuba as they overcome this genocidal policy & aftermath of Hurricane Oscar.

Donate to send urgent aid!
https://t.co/OCQc847yFy

[Vindhya Buthpitiya @vindib_]

nothing more cringe than Sri Lankans and their obsession with where people went to school. Has your life not progressed since? Tch.

[pasan @pasanghe]

Using #lka district/division level results maps to make generalisations (such as racist insinuations about non-Sinhala voters, or allusions to Tamil Eelam etc.) is of especially limited utility this time because #PresPollSL2024 was a three, and in some places four, horse race...

[pasan @pasanghe]

An election something from me, about the hypocrisy, illiteracy and degeneracy of Lanka's elites & their mouthpieces, all on display (*gestures around wildly at #lka twitter*) with the anti-NPP Red Scare they have, quite needlessly, created for themselves.

https://t.co/WB6io5rQwV

[Inosha Alwis @AlwisInosha]

Next President and Health of Sri Lanka🧵
During this presidential election, health has been overshadowed by a focus on economy. But our health IS the biggest wealth! As opposed to the majority perception SL health is not doing well atm 👇 1/n https://t.co/h6ZOg8jT4T

[Prasad Welikumbura @Welikumbura]

This is the same man who claims they can't afford to pay teachers their rightful salaries due to 'economic hardship'—yet somehow finds a way to accommodate the cost of attending election meetings using helicopters.

#lka #SriLanka #Election2024 #PoliticsLk #EconomicCrisis

[PolityLK @Polity_LK]

#SouthAsia must respond collectively to address the new global #debt crisis, holding the #IMF and the #WorldBank accountable for #austerity policies that exacerbate debt distress writes @kokobanis #SriLanka
https://t.co/ViSt0Ky9Vt