Intervention

Experts keen to endorse the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) tentative programme for Sri Lanka have attempted to highlight the supposedly progressive aspects of its intervention to try and rescue the country from economic collapse. The IMF’s prescriptions for structural economic reform in Sri Lanka will likely include “increasing female labour force participation”. On the face …

What Does Increasing the Participation of Women in the Economy Mean? Devaka Gunawardena Read More »

Dr. Ahilan Kadirgamar made this presentation at an online discussion on the current economic crisis in Sri Lanka, organised by the Kuppi Collective on April 26, 2022. It was transcribed by Treshan Fernando and edited for publication by Polity. In this talk, I wish to address three questions: One, what kind of crisis is this? …

What is this Crisis? Ahilan Kadirgamar Read More »

As Sri Lanka officially defaults on its sovereign debt repayments, and enters negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for access to loans in return for structural macro-economic change in response to the ongoing economic crisis, the Women and Media Collective, the Social Scientists’ Association, and the Feminist Collective for Economic Justice jointly organised an online …

The IMF in Debt Restructuring, the Resurgence of Austerity, and the Urgency of Fiscal Justice – Bhumika Muchhala Read More »

In response to Sri Lanka’s ongoing economic crisis, and the consensus across the political spectrum and even social classes that an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bail-out and structural adjustment programme is the only short-to-medium term exit or at least breathing space for citizens, the Women and Media Collective and the Social Scientists’ Association organised an …

The Argentinian (2001) and Sri Lankan (2022) Financial Crises: Ways Forward from a Feminist Perspective – Corina Rodriguez Read More »

The current crisis in Sri Lanka is not only a political crisis of the regime of Gotabaya Rajapaksa. It is also a structural breakdown of the way in which neoliberalism has historically attempted to legitimise its own regime of accumulation. According to one framing of the debate, while the Rajapaksa regime is going backward, neoliberal …

The Crisis of Neoliberalism and the Progressive Alternative – Devaka Gunawardena Read More »

The last United States (US) security contingent left Afghanistan at midnight on 30th August 2021, ending a 20-year long occupation. George W. Bush along with his Western allies sent their forces to invade Afghanistan in the wake of the ‘9-11’ terror attacks in 2001, in order to wipe out the Al-Qaida and remove the Taliban …

US Withdrawal from Afghanistan and Its Impact on Sri Lankan Democracy – Pradeep Peiris Read More »

Source Among elite policy makers and experts, there is an unshakeable belief that going to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will provide a pathway for Sri Lanka out of crisis. The IMF, however, applies its policy in a fragile global economy: one entirely different from the dawn of the neoliberal era when global trade was …

The IMF Can’t Save Sri Lanka – Devaka Gunawardena Read More »

The Left in Sri Lanka—currently more of an aspirational idea, than an active movement—is once again at the crossroads. Those people who at least explicitly self-identify as Left appear to be split between those who see the current regime in power as heading down a dangerous path, versus those who wish to expose the imperial …

Sri Lanka’s Left isn’t ‘Taking Democracy Seriously’ – Devaka Gunawardena Read More »