English

I.V.Edirisinghe

Why I read the WSWS

I am a 68-year-old retired lecturer in Sociology from the University of Colombo, after teaching the subject for 41 years. In my first year (1965), as a student in the same university, I was elected as a member of the Arts faculty’s student union, representing the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP). By then I was a sympathiser of that party.

Later, as the LSSP’s role evolved within the coalition government of Sirimavo Bandaranayake (1970–1977), I got disillusioned with the LSSP and began to sympathise with the Revolutionary Communist League, forerunner of the SEP (Socialist Equality Party).

Once the WSWS was inaugurated by the SEP in 1998, I started reading it as and when time permitted me. As a university teacher, I was much impressed with the critical articles on sociological theories such as modernism and post-modernism, and identity politics published by the website. Critical perspectives put forward by the website on such widely prevalent sociological theories helped me to be critical of my university colleagues who were blind followers of such theories.

Since retirement in 2010, I keep on reading the website and I am very much impressed with its contribution to building up the Marxist revolutionary party internationally—to usher in international socialist revolution, which is sine qua non to redeem humanity from its current quagmire.

The website’s impact on me is multifaceted. I am trained to think of the other human being who comes into contact with me as my equal. Training imparted to me by the website as a reader has empowered me to think of global capitalism quite contrary to established academia both locally and internationally.

Being influenced by the website, I have been able to differentiate the pseudo-left from the Marxist revolutionary organization which is the SEP based on ICFI’s [International Committee of the Fourth International] perspectives. This positive impact of the website helps me to live a decent but arduous life, with a conviction that humans have no alternative other than getting rid of global capitalism through working class revolution—to have a life with basic needs—to march forward along the path of development socio-economically and culturally.

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