24 November 2022

Deepal Jayasekera,
General Secretary,
Socialist Equality Party,
Sri Lanka,

Dear Comrade,

I am perturbed, but not surprised, to receive your email dated 19 November 2022
(10.50am), along with the attached document, communicating to me a Central
Committee (CC) decision expelling me from the membership of the Socialist Equality
Party-Sri Lanka (SEP). Please be informed that I do not agree with the said decision
of the CC and PC to expel me, and vehemently object to the positions taken by the
Party leadership and communicated to me as aforesaid.

This letter is to briefly communicate my immediate response to your decision and I

will write more for further clarifications, whenever required.

Once again, this decision of the CC and PC shows the continuation of the party
leadership's undemocratic and bureaucratic approach to avoid and suppress serious
political questions and organizational matters of the Party, and to cover it up with fake
assertions of democratic centralism.

The procedure adopted to expel me from the membership is flawed and anti-
democratic. According to your letter, the decision to expel has been taken by the CC
at a meeting held on 12 November 2022. You provide no report as to what were the
issues debated, what were the salient points of issues for and against the proposal to
expel, and which Comrade made which submission. As with my previous suspension
of membership for delivering a lecture in GotaGoGama during recent mass struggles,
once again, you have not issued me any charges and time to respond, and no
disciplinary inquiry has been held. On top of that, you have continuously rejected any
discussion with me and Comrade Nandana (or Wakkumbura) on the disputed issues,
though such a discussion was repeatedly requested by us and other concerned
comrades.

Tragically, your letter also fails to mention anything discussed with the other members
of the International Committee, including Comrade David North, about the disciplinary
measures taken against myself, comrades Nandana and Wakkumbura and what
political clarifications made during such discussions, in relation to our previous
suspensions or instant expulsions.

Your letter is intended to misdirect and suppress very material facts and therefore is
dishonest. While mentioning about my suspension - which suspension was extended

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by the Party leadership including yourself for a period of five months without
communicating to me any decision taken by the Party and not giving me any
discussion with the party, and intended to keep me politically dead and inactive for an
indefinite time - your letter suppresses the material fact that I sent a 20-page long letter
(dated 15 August 2022) to you against my suspension, with all facts and
correspondence. Not even a word uttered in your letter about this important letter,
where I deny all your allegations, and you do not mention whether it was discussed in
the PC or CC and with IC, and among the membership. However, I am aware that just
one or two days after you sent me your 19 November letter, you had already shared
your letter with the membership. Not even natural justice!

Failing to mention the aforesaid, in order to falsify facts and hoodwink gullible
membership, you only mention that " Sanjaya has not so far openly admitted that he
has breached party discipline, and is continuing to justify his act" (translation mine). If
I was supposed to accept your allegation that I had breached party discipline, what is
the purpose of requesting by your letter dated 25 July 2022 to respond to your letter
of suspension? Does that mean the suspension and its confirmation were already
decided, whatever be my reply and objections? Also, why do you fail to mention where
and how I have justified my act and how you dispute my justification?

Now, the new allegations against me for expelling me from the membership is sharing
two Facebook posts of Colombo Action Committee (CACPS)! The party leadership
had no reason to object to me being elected as Chairperson of the Action Committee,
but raised guns when I shared, as I should, two Facebook posts of the action
committee. Your so-called warning had no merit, and did not contain any responses
to the issues raised by the relevant document of the action committee, and it was
solely intended to silence dissent.

It is my best knowledge that Comrade Nandana, for a number of times, even at a CC

meeting where I and Nandana last attended early this year, requested to have a
discussion on the political matters at issue, but the leadership continuously failed to
provide it. Instead, on fabulous allegations, the leadership suspended his membership,
extended it, permitted some members of the party leadership to spread lies against
us, closed all room for free discussion in Locale meetings, and forced comrade
Nandana to resort to openly defend himself and his revolutionary personality within
the party membership and among the working class at large.

The party leadership showed its extensive sectarian attitude to recent April-July
struggles, by turning its back to these struggles and not taking adequate measures to
actively engage the party, its student movement or action committees to fight for the
revolutionary programme within the mass movement. The 20 July Statement calling
for a Democratic and Socialist Congress of Workers and the poor cuts across this
sectarianism of the Party leadership.

The Colombo Action Committee was established by delegates, in compliance with this
20 July statement, to wage struggles ahead to build a mass anti-capitalist movement.

2
Sanjaya, Nandana, Nihal , Udayaprema, and a number of other comrades of the Party
are fighting for ICFI's revolutionary perspective within the Action Committee.

Two statements sent by CACPS to WSWS Sri Lanka Editor were not published in
WSWS, and I am aware that the Sri Lankan editor has communicated to the Action
Committee no valid reason for not publishing the statements. CACPS asked for any
such reasons from the Editor, but no reply was received. Subsequently, the CACPS,
in order to respond to the quarries of its members and to tell the truth to the working
class, published two posts in its social media (fb) page that the statements have not
been published, and expressed its willingness to work hand-in-hand with the WSWS
in the future.

None of the political issues raised by the CACPS or its members or any issue with the
CACPS itself were addressed by the party leadership (relevant documents are
available at fb.com/colomboacps page). It adamantly decided to ignore and not to
reply to the several questions raised or to explain its opposition regarding the Action
Committee, which is gaining momentum within sections of the working class, urban
poor and youth.

Instead of explaining these political issues for the political clarification of the working
class and the youth, the leadership of our party decided to witch-hunt those who
shared these posts and 'purge' the party of them. Sanjaya and Nandana are victims
of that 'purge'. The party leadership seems to have assumed that its decision of non-
replying to the several political questions raised by CACPS is not detrimental to the
health of the Party, but retaining members connected to the Action Committee is more
harmful and should be expelled. The leadership has thus decided not to tackle the
political issues politically, but to administratively 'purge' those who the leadership think
are instrumental in raising those questions. How pathetic!

A sectarian leadership of a revolutionary party would be best characterized, in

Trotsky's words, by identifying it with 'alienism to great historical movements, a
hardened conservative mentality, smug narrowness, and a most primitive political
cowardice'. Taking all matters into consideration, this description aptly suits the
character of the present leadership of our party.

The Leadership which asserts centralism without democracy that makes room for free
discussion and criticism, stops at the dead end of bureaucratism and
opportunism. Organizational centralism that is not subject to internal democratic
debate in the party pushes the leadership towards this retrogression. Then, centralism
is another cover for bureaucracy. Party discipline is the unity of action thus subjected
to democratic free discussion and criticism. Otherwise, subjecting party membership
to a so-called discipline of centralism is to strengthen bureaucracy. This is fatally
inimical to the class struggle.

Lenin reiterated:

3
"We have more than once already enunciated our theoretical views on the importance
of discipline and on how this concept is to be understood in the party of the working
class. We defined it as: unity of action, freedom of discussion and criticism. Only
such Discipline is worthy of the democratic party of the advanced class." [Party
Discipline and the Fight Against the Pro-Cadet Social-Democrats, 1906]

In 'I stake my Life'(1933), Trotsky, referring to Stalinist party bureaucracy, aptly stated,
"fear of criticism is fear of the masses. The bureaucracy is afraid of the people." The
present leadership of our party is afraid of democratic criticism and therefore fears the
masses, so the class struggle. It then wishes to be seperate from the mass
movement. It even feared to call the working class for the preparation of a political
general strike. That is why the leadership considers criticism is hostile to itself, and
uses administrative measures to keep criticism and discussion within the party
suppressed.

Having long been stuck in its comfort zone, immune from mass struggles and moving
away from deep-root social dialectics, the Party has been suffering from a severe
leadership crisis and is rotting within. Its general membership lacks in-depth
understanding of the theoretical nuances necessary for political clarity and largely
avoids political debates among the masses. I have succinctly pointed out these
developments in my 15 August letter. The analyses of the articles published originally
in the World Socialist Web Site Sinhala section have been lacking theoretical depth
for a considerable time (raising these issues in the Locale meetings has been
prohibited ). I once again wish to reiterate my statement (attached hereto) I made at
the third Congress of the Party, as a Central Committee member of the party since
2015 till the last Congress.

The party leadership never wished to face these challenges, but wished to 'purge'
those who raised the issues. Regrettably, this reactionary approach will not help to
build revolutionary leadership within the mass movement.

The all-time panacea used against political dissidents within the party is once again
used against Sanjaya and Nandana: being subject to middle class pressures. What is
the political content of these middle class pressures ?; What is its political
characteristic, natue?; What political deviations these pressures have manifested in ?;
Is this middle class tendency 'purged' finally when these two comrades Sanjaya and
Nandana are expelled? The CC has to seriously explain these questions, inter alia.

I hereby request to revoke my expulsion immediately, and open the floors for a
discussion. Once again I wish to request such a discussion, preferably under the
supervision and guidance of the IC, with the Party, to discuss all the political issues
upon which, it's no secret, that there is an open and well-known rift grown between the
party leadership and a faction of comrades within the party including myself, comrade
Nandana and others. Our expulsion is intended to intimidate and threaten the known
members of this group within the party and suppress the political issues we have been
raising.

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The future is an epoch of intense class struggles. I reiterate I have one and only bias,
a bias to the working class. As such, I do not hesitate to risk my life to defend the true
heritage which the ICFI has been long fighting for, to complete the unfinished tasks of
the past century in ours.

Comradely,

Sanjaya Jayasekera,
Colombo.

Attachment below.

5
To the SEP-SL Third Congress
සහ ෝදරවරුනි, සහ ෝදරයිනි,

සමාජවාදී සමානතා පක්ෂය තම තුන්වත ජාතික සම්හම්ලනය පවත්වන්හන් හකාතරම් බරපතල හලෝක
ආර්ථික ා හේශපාලන අර්ථුදයක් මධ්‍යහේද යන්න හම් සම්හම්ලනය තුල දැනටමත් ඇතිතරම් සාකච්ජා
වී තිහේ. සම්හම්ලනය තුලදී ජාතයන්තර කමිටුහේ නායක හේවිේ හනෝත් සහ ෝදරයා තම කථාහේදී
හමම සම්හම්ලනහේ වැදගත් කම පැ ැදිලි කහේ එය හබෝේෂවික් පක්ෂහේ 1917 අහේේ මස පවත්වන
ලද සම්හම්ලනයට අනුරූප කරමිනි. අප පක්ෂහේ කාර්ථයභාරයන් සම්බන්ධ්‍ව හමම ප්‍රකාශය ද සකුත්
කාරනා සම්ින්ඩනය කර ඉදිරිපත් කරයි. එය ැඟවුම් කරන්හන්, ජාතයන්තර සමාජවාදී ඉදිරිදර්ථශනය
තුලින් කම්කරු පන්තිය පීඩිත ජනහකාටස් රැලිකරනිමින් තමන් අතට හේශපාලන බලය ඩැ ැ ගැනීම
සඳ ා බලමුලු ගැන්වීහම් ඓති ාසික විප්ලවවාදී කාර්ථයභාරය අප පක්ෂය අභිමුඛව ඇති බවත්, හම්
සම්හම්ලනහේත්, පක්ෂහේ ඉදිරි වැඩකටයුතුවලත් දිශානතිය ඒ එේලය හවත ිහිටුවා ගත යුතුව ඇති
බවත්ය.

සම්හම්ලනහේ ඉදිරි දර්ථශන හයෝජනාව පක්ෂහේ හමම ඉදිරි කර්ථතවයයන් සඳ ා අවශය ඉදිරිදර්ථශනය
සම්පාදනය කර තිහබනවා. සම්හම්ලනයට සූදානම් වීම සඳ ා රැස්කරන ලද මධ්‍යම කාරක සභා
රැස්වීහම්දී එය වඩා ශක්තිමත් ා නිවැරදි කිරීම සඳ ා මා ඉදිරිපත් කරන ලද කරුනු ගනනාවක් අතුරින්
'ජාතික විහේදනයන් ර ා කම්කරු පන්තිය එකමුතු කිරීහම්' හේශපාලන වැඩිලහවල ා විප්ලවවාදී
පක්ෂහේ ආස්ථානය ිලිබඳ කාරනාව ප්‍රධ්‍ාන එකකි. හේඛනයට පසුව එකතු කරන ලද හේද කිහිපය
අවශය කිසිවක් වැඩිදුර පැ ැදිලි හනාකරනු ලැබ ඇති නමුත් එම එකතුකිරීම් කිසිවකට විරුේධ්‍
ආස්ථානයක් කිසිහවකුට ගත හනා ැක. ජාතික පරපීඩනය අවසන් කල ැක්⁣හක් සමාජවාදී
විප්ලවහේ අතුරු ඵලයක් හලස පමනක්ය යන්න පක්ෂ⁣හේ කිසිවකු ප්‍රතික්හෂ්ප කරන්හන් නැත. එහස්
තිබියදී, ආරම්භහේ සිටමත්, ඉන් පසු දිගින් දිගටමත් 'ජාතික පීඩනයට විරුේධ්‍වීහම් ප්‍රජාතන්ීය
අන්තර්ථගය' හලස වට ාගත යුතු ස්වයංනීර්ථන අයිතිය ිලිබඳව මතු කරනු ලැබඇති වයාකූලත්වය
අතිශයින්ම හප්‍රෝඩාවකි. මා මතුකල තවත් මුඛය කරුනක් වූහේ ඉන්දියාව ඇතුලු දකුනු ආසියාව තුලම
අප වයාපාරය හගාඩනැගීම සඳ ා අප පක්ෂහේ කර්ථතවයන් ඒකාග්‍ර කිරීම ිලිබඳ කාරනාව
සම්හම්ලනහේ ඉදිරි දර්ථශනය තුල ප්‍රධ්‍ානහකාට ගැනීම යි.

රුසියානු-යුහර්න යුේධ්‍ය තුලින් පුපුරා හගාස් ඇති හලෝක අධිරාජයවාදී ධ්‍නපති පේධ්‍තිහේ
ප්‍රතිවිහරෝධ්‍තා පසුබිහමහි ලංකාව තුල අත්දකින හගෝලීය ආර්ථික අර්ථුදහේ ප්‍රකාශනය, හලෝක
කම්කරු පන්තිහේ අරගල මාලාවක තීරනාත්මක වර්ථධ්‍නයක් සනිටු න් කරඇති බව හලෝක සමාජවාදී
හවේ අඩවය තුල අි සංලක්ෂනය කරගනු ලැබීමු. ලංකාව තුල පන්ති අරගල විප්ලවවාදී හලස දිශාගත
කරගැනීම ා පක්ෂය කම්කරු පීඩිත ම ජනතාවහේ ම ජන පක්ෂය හලස හගාඩනැගීහම් කර්ථතවයහේ
අතයවශයම පදනම් හලස ධ්‍නපති සංහශෝදනවාදයට, ජාතිකවාදයට ා වෘත්තීය සමිතිවාදයට කිසිදු
සමාවක් හනාදීමට ා වයාජ වමට එහරහිව නයායික ා හේශපාලනික අරගලය අි ඉ ල තලයකට
හගන ඒමට උත්සා කර ඇත්හතමු. ස්වාධින ක්‍රියාකාරී කමිටුවල ජාතයන්තර සන්ධ්‍ානයක් ිලිබඳ
වැඩිලහවල අි ඉදිරියට හගන ඇත්හත් හමම සටහන් ප්‍රාහයෝගික හේශපාලන ක්‍රියාමාර්ථගය හලසයි.

සමාජවාදී විප්ලවහේ දශකය තුල පක්ෂය එලහෙන විප්ලවවාදී අරගලවලට නායකත්වය සැපයීම
සඳ ා, අරගල ා වර්ථධ්‍නයන් ිලිබඳ ඒවායින් හවන්ව හනාව සෑම තැන්හිම ා හනාපමාව අරගලයට
ිවිහසන කම්කරු පන්තියට අවශය නයායික , ඉදිරිදර්ථශනාත්මක හමන්ම අවශයහයන්ම එහි ප්‍රාහයෝගික
නායක කාර්ථයභාරය ඉටුකරීම සඳ ා එම අරගලවලට හඵන්ියවම බේධ්‍වීහම් අවශයතාවය රාජපක්ෂ
ආන්ුවට එහරහි ම ජන අරගලවල අත්දැකීම පක්ෂයට උගන්වා තිහේ. ඊජිප්තු විප්ලවය තුල අහප්
පක්ෂහේ ශාඛාවක් තිුහන් නම් එම විප්ලවහේ දිශානතිය හවනස් වනු ඇති බවට අප ජාතයන්තර
වයාපාරය කල පැ ැදිලි කරගැනීම ලංකාහේ අප පක්ෂයට එක එේහේම අදාල එකකි.

6
සමාජ හේශපාලන අහපෝ කයන් ස කම්කරු පන්තිය, තරුනයන්, ශිෂයයින් තුල වර්ථධ්‍නය
වන මතවාදයන් හමන්ම පක්ෂහේ ඉදිරිදර්ථශන ා වැඩිලිහවල, ප්‍රාහයෝගික ක්‍රියාකාරකම් තියුනු
විශ්හේෂනයන්ට ා විහේචනාත්මක සාකච්ජාවන්ට පක්ෂ අභයන්තරහේ සෑම මන්ඩලයකම පක්ෂහේ
සහ ෝදරවරුන් විසින් කරනු ලැබීම සම්හම්ලනහේ ⁣ඉදිරිදර්ථශනයතුල අප ඉදිරියට ගනු ලබන පක්ෂ
කර්ථතවයයන් මුදුන්පමුනුවා ගැනීහම් අතයවශයම අංගයයි. එනම් පක්ෂ අභයන්තර ප්‍රජාතන්රවාදය
ත වරු කිරීම යි. විප්ලවවාදී පක්ෂහේ ප්‍රජාතන්රවාදී මධ්‍යගතභාවහේ සංවිධ්‍ානාත්මක රමහේදය
හලනින් විස්තර කරනු ලැුහේ, "freedom to criticise, unity in action (විහේචනය කිරීමට
නිද ස, ක්‍රියාහේ එක්සත්කම)”යනුහවනි.

සම්හම්ලන හයෝජනාවලින් පැ ැදිලි කරන පක්ෂයට පැවරී ඇති ඓති ාසික හේශපාලනික
කර්ථතවයයන් ක්‍රියාවට දැමීමට, පක්ෂය තුල කාලාන්තරයක් තිස්හස් මුේ බැස ඇති 'ුේධි විහරෝධ්‍ය'
හමන්ම අප සහ ෝදර සහ ෝදරියන්හේ "නයායික ා විහේචනාත්මක දුප්පත්කම" පරදා ඔවුන්හේ
අධ්‍යපනය ා විහේචනාත්මක ුේධිය ඉ ලට හගහනමින් පක්ෂය නව ජවයකින් ඉදිරියට ගැනීම සඳ ා,
හමම සම්හම්ලනහයන් ඉක්බිති, පක්ෂ නායකත්වය ා සාමාජිකත්වය කැපවී ගත යුතු යැයි මම
හයෝජනා කරමි.

ස්ූතියි!
සහ ෝදරත්වහයන්,
සංජය ජයහස්කර
15.05.2022 (Day 2)