Gripping stories that stay with the reader; adding much to what we think we know (and lesser understand) of #war and #peace in #SriLanka through the prism of conflict-related sexual violence. Thanks to Radhika Hettiarachchi for sharing them with @politylk.bsky.social

Mountain at a Center of the World destabilises the dominant anthropocentric gaze on #Siripāda in #SriLanka. Anushka Kahandagamage hails Alex McKinley's urging of humans to re-examine our position on Earth. polity.lk/anushka-kaha...

"Liberties of expression, association and assembly once taken-for-granted, are in rapid retreat. The liberal firewall has fallen. The traditional parties of the right, centre and even left, embrace anti-immigrant, misogynist, anti-DEI, prejudices, and language..." #Ecocide #Liberalism #IMF #PolityLK

The editorial for the forthcoming print issue of @politylk.bsky.social (Vol 13 No 1, June 2025) is online <www.polity.lk>. It is about the new world disorder. #SriLanka #liberalinternationalism

#PolityLK calls for short pieces on the life, work, and legacy of Gananath Obeyesekere. Send your pitch (under 300 words) to [email protected] before 25 August 2025.

SBD de Silva was among #SriLanka's most original Marxist political economists. Seven years since his death this month, there is renewed interest in the significance of his thought, explains Shiran Illanperuma. polity.lk/shiran-illan...

While we are right to be suspicious of the politics of foreign aid, Trump's defunding of #USAID should be seen for what it is -- and his co-thinkers in #SriLanka know it, writes Sandunlekha Ekanayake. polity.lk/sandunlekha-...

Too often exhibiting misrepresentation and bad journalism, queer representation in Sri Lankan media is a double-edged sword, writes Kasun Kavishka in #PolityLK this week. #SriLanka #PrideMonth polity.lk/kasun-kavish...

The Gaza Tribunal declares its collective moral outrage at the continuing genocide in Palestine, solidarity with Palestinians, commitment to ensure accountability, redress, a more just international order, & a free Palestine. polity.lk/the-sarajevo...

"Dangerous. Monstrous. A threat to the nation." Themal Ellawala writes on how LGBTQ+ communities experience the surveillance, interrogation, and violence of the security state in #SriLanka #PrideMonth polity.lk/themal-ellaw...

The #NPP's idée fixe on #corruption irritated me into reading the #IMF and #CSO governance reports on #SriLanka, to understand the politics behind their respective diagnostics and prescriptions. The link is available here linktr.ee/politylk

Diagnostics of corruption in #SriLanka by the IMF, NGOs, and the NPP are reviewed by @bskanthakumar.bsky.social. Their assumption of a technical (including digital) fix to a problem of political economy is found wanting. polity.lk/b-skanthakum...

In the aftermath of #LGElection2025, @HarindraBD and @Rajni_Gamage dissect the state of political parties in #SriLanka. Politics has been polarised along the axis of 'thieves' and 'liars'. polity.lk/harindra-b-d...

Noura Erakat offers an invaluable resource to those interested in the modern political history of #Palestine, the roots & residues of the international legal system, & limits & possibilities of using law in emancipatory politics, writes @kirankgrewal.bsky.social #NakbaDay77 polity.lk/kiran-grewal...

Whatever happened to the populism of the #NPP? Pradeep Peiris asks whether, in politics as well as economics, #SriLanka's progressive political movement is more committed to stabilising than changing what the #Aragalaya rejected. polity.lk/pradeep-peir...

#Trump’s #LiberationDay2025 tariffs shook the #NPP government’s reliance on export revenue. Taniya Silvapulle unpacks the combined effect of US protectionist policies and the #IMF’s neoliberal debt restructuring plan on #Sri Lanka’s economy. polity.lk/taniya-silva...

#Budget2025 #SriLanka passed on 21 March with the NPP's massive majority. President Dissanayake's opening remarks call for inclusive economic growth. But do the proposals walk the talk? @bskanthakumar.bsky.social unpacks #AKD's 17 February speech, and what drives it. polity.lk/b-skanthakum...

Budget2025 easily passed in parliament on 21 March. I discuss President #AKD's speech opening the debate in @politylk.bsky.social What can be gleaned on the #NPP government's handling of #SriLanka's economic crisis, within #IMF "guardrails"? polity.lk/b-skanthakum...

Sumanasiri Liyanage's magisterial lecture disputes neoclassical explanations of #SriLanka's economic crisis. #Marx's critique of political economy is invoked to differentiate between the conjunctural/cyclic and the organic/structural elements of crisis in #capitalism polity.lk/sumanasiri-l...

Polity Volume 12, Issue 2 available in print now! Purchase for LKR 500, from the Social Scientists' Association and Barefoot Bookshop, Colombo 3

Out now! Latest print issue of #PolityLK with analyis and commentary on and from #SriLanka, and lots to read and discuss. Get your copy now.

The #privatisation of state-funded #HigherEducation in #SriLanka takes many guises. As commercialisation creeps and burrows with consent and collusion by the #state, Kaushalya Perera (@kauship.bsky.social) & Hasini Lecamwasam unmask a few. polity.lk/unveiling-pr...

#PolityLK thanks all who contributed to remembering Richard de Zoysa on the 35th anniversary of his death. See their contributions and read more at polity.lk

"What appears on screen influences what is remembered and what is forgotten”, write Prasanna Pitigala Liyanage & Malithi Liyanage in a searing critique of Asoka Handagama’s Rani (2025) for #PolityLK, 35 years since the abduction and murder of Richard de Zoysa polity.lk/rani-the-pol...

"In locating the film #Rani within circuits of capital and money flows, it is important to consider how meanings created by artists, the subjects they consider, and the way they express those subjects contribute to specific public conversations about art.." #JanakaBiyanwila

The circulation of Richard de Zoysa's poems in English kept aflame the memory of his life, his work, and his death. Vihanga Perera explores the distance his poetry has travelled in #SriLanka schools and universities, 35 years on. Image: Minal Wickrematunge polity.lk/richard-de-z...

polity.lk/wp-content/u... Struggles against injustice must channel into a movement for social change, spoke Manorani Saravanamuttu, before relatives of the disappeared in 1992 #SriLanka #polityandpravadaarchive Image: Minal Wickrematunge Source: Melani D’Almeida Photo: Harin Katipearachchi 2/2

Richard de Zoysa's assassination by state agents may be understood as "ritual sacrifice" of an insider/outsider, argues Dhanuka Bandara in #PolityLK's series this month, marking 35 years since his abduction, torture, and murder #SriLanka polity.lk/the-ritual-s...

Richard de Zoysa's abduction and killing is an emblematic case of the many thousands of others in #SriLanka writes Manikya Kodithuwakku in her retelling of the magisterial inquiry into his death based on lawyer ‘Batty’ Weerakoon's documentation. polity.lk/richard-de-z...

polity.lk/wp-content/u... "Justice for the Dead" demanded #Pravada (Vol 1 No 1, Nov 1991, Social Scientists’ Association) in a commentary on the judicial inquiry into the enforced disappearance and death of Richard de Zoysa by #SriLanka state security. #polityandpravadaarchive 1/2

To remember Richard de Zoysa, is to remember all who were killed, writes Prabha Manuratne, reflecting on his poetry as socio-political criticism; and his manifesto for an alternative world, against majoritarian nationalism and liberal multiculturalism #SriLanka polity.lk/prabha-manur...

"How, really, do you value a human life against the value of his or her work?" asks Kanya D’Almeida of her uncle 🇱🇰 Richard de Zoysa, journalist and activist; and her friend 🇺🇸 political prisoner, Russell Maroon Shoatz. Image: Minal Wickrematunge polity.lk/words-to-kil...

Question – கேள்வி by Cheran Rudhramoorthy (trans. Anushiya Ramaswamy) polity.lk/question-che... part of @politylk.bsky.social’s series on Richard de Zoysa #SriLanka

"What happened to our children?" is the question Cheran Rudramoorthy leaves us with in his poem for Richard de Zoysa and the tens of thousand of other mostly young people whose lives were snuffed out by state violence in #SriLanka

Richard de Zoysa was abducted and murdered by agents of the state on 18 February 1990. The SSA's first issue of #Pravada (Nov 1991) reprinted his last story in outrage and protest against enforced disappearances and killings in #SriLanka polity.lk/wp-content/u... Image: Minal Wickrematunge

Richard de Zoysa was abducted and killed 35 years ago next week (18 Feb). In his memory, and the unfinished struggle for truth and justice for all victims of enforced disappearances in #SriLanka, #PolityLK will publish 9 pieces. For updates follow us linktr.ee/politylk 1/4

Tom Brass, former editor of the Journal of Peasant Studies, makes a concise statement against what he calls the "hidden politics" of #CriticalAgrarianStudies in a response to Urs Geiser's review of studies on agrarian society in #SriLanka

It's not a demolition site it's a mass grave. It's not a demolition site it's a crime scene. It's not a demolition site its a homeland. It's not a demolition site it's Palestine. It's not a demolition site it's a genocide.

To right-wing glee, left-wing scorn, and until now majority acceptance, the coalition of “left and democratic forces” as JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva describes the NPP, has embraced ‘stability’ as statecraft.

Today. 5pm.

A great talk by Dr Sumangala Damodaran (formerly professor of economics at Ambedkar university, Delhi) at the Social Scientists' Association in Colombo on the musical tradition of people's movements in pre- and post-partition India youtu.be/tRaN4aaHclA?...

Profile of #BapsiSidhwa for #PolityLK, to mark one month since her passing. Arif Azad captures facets of the life and contribution of a Southasian literary icon and women's rights activist.

Tomorrow at 5.00pm! ‘People’s Music – Understanding the Relationship Between Music and Social Movements in South Asia’ given by Sumangala Damodaran at the SSA Office, No. 380/86, Sarana Road, Colombo 07.

Amilcar Cabral was assassinated on this day (in 1973). Comrades of @vientosur.info have kindly translated to Castilian for print and online, a longer version of an english-language essay I wrote on his life and thought for his birth centenary last year. vientosur.info/nuestro-pueb...

Polity Vol. 12 No. 1 (released June 2024) is now available online. This issue covers a range of theses, including Zionism and Palestinian liberation, Sri Lankan education, plantation worker rights, and reviews of literary and cultural productions. Access this issue at, polity.lk/polity-vol-1...

Two months ago, the @NPPSLOfficial was elected into #parliament on a mandate to modernise and democratise #SriLanka. Can it keep its promise? In #PolityLK’s first publication for 2025, Jayadeva Uyangoda reviews the NPP’s promise on #democracy. polity.lk/the-npp-gove...

"China's approach to the global governance of sovereign debt distress" Talk by Prof Shahar Hameiri (UQ, Australia) in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Tuesday 28 January 2025, 5pm at the Social Scientists' Association.