{"id":144181,"date":"2024-09-15T16:55:03","date_gmt":"2024-09-15T23:55:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=144181"},"modified":"2024-09-15T16:55:03","modified_gmt":"2024-09-15T23:55:03","slug":"the-noisy-scholarly-silence-on-deindustrialization-at-the-heart-of-imperialism-in-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2024\/09\/15\/the-noisy-scholarly-silence-on-deindustrialization-at-the-heart-of-imperialism-in-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"The Noisy Scholarly Silence on Deindustrialization at the Heart of Imperialism in Sri\u00a0Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"

e-Con e-News<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

blog: eesrilanka.wordpress.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Before you study the economics, study the economists!<\/em>\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

e-Con e-News 08-14 September 2024<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1721 England\u2019s Parliament passed the Calico Act that banned<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

the import from Asia of calicoes for clothing or domestic purposes.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These calicoes threatened English manufacturers. In 1774 this Calico<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act was repealed. England\u2019s invention of machines had now enabled<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

English manufacturers to compete with Eastern fabrics. However,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

in 1774 the English also banned the export of cotton machinery.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This 335th<\/sup><\/strong> weekly ee<\/em><\/strong> blows our own conch for our 6th<\/sup> anniversary on 21 September 2024. This solar congruence coincides with yet another expensive English farce<\/strong> bestowed upon us \u2013 expensive elections<\/strong>. However, this ee<\/em><\/strong> focuses on what the capitalist elections & joined-at-the-hip media refuse to divulge about our merchant & money-lender-strangled economy: the lack of modern machine production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     This ee<\/em><\/strong> examines: how \u2018nowhere is the international power imbalance more prominent than in the area of industrial policy<\/strong>\u2019. And nowhere is the silencing of any conversation about industrialization more blatant than within our cultural cosmos, and among our sell-out intellectuals \u2013 mimic women & men, yes, but mimics of the worst kind, who do not know that the word \u2018English<\/em>\u2018 really means: \u2018Industrial Revolution\u2019<\/strong>. &<\/em> \u2018Industrial Counter-Revolution\u2019<\/strong>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     As this ee Focus<\/em><\/strong> records, England imposed \u2018a strong set of policies intended to prevent the development of manufacturing in the colonies\u2019. They encouraged \u2018primary production in the colonies\u2019, and a comprador import-export plantation class that now runs the country. They also outlawed certain manufacturing activities, sabotaging the construction of new steel mills. They also banned exports from the colonies that competed<\/strong> with English products. Worse, this production culture has been banished from our historical memory\u2026 And our latest colonial wannabe<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 the USA<\/strong> \u2013 has since 1948 at least, continued such Anglo-Saxon vandalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not just a question of how we once (in times ancient) produced the finest steel. The more recent story of dismantling of the Ceylon Steel Corporation (CSC)<\/strong>, one of 3 famous industrial projects along with Ceylon Tyre Corporation<\/strong> and Ceylon Sugar Corporation,<\/strong> adds to the real white mischief. The CSC, established in Sri Lanka with the support of the USSR, was one of the first victims of the so-called \u2018Open Economy\u2019. The CSC was sold to and dismantled by a foreign competitor. The setup of a front that claimed to continue its production has added to the farce. Steel is the rice of industry, and we remain hungry.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

     As for the complicity by the media in this crime, we should also note the regular setting up and advertising of fake establishments claiming to inaugurate \u2018industry\u2019. Note this week\u2019s headline \u2018Western Automobile Launches State-of-the-Art Vehicle Assembly Plant in Kuliyapitiya\u2019. This story replete with color photos of a yet-to-operate factory, taken we know not where (appear alongside repeated and embarrassing promises to allow the import of vehicles. No doubt, to please the Japanese, Indian and German envoys, who also moonlight as secondhand car salesman on commission).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Would we be cynical if we wondered if this Kuliyapitiya kalla, may also surely go the way of other electoral fabulations like that mythical Volkswagen factory of yore, free Google, etc? And what about that incoming Zoom call with the US \u2018espionage cutout\u2019 Elon Musk, etc? Should we vote for that celebrity settler poseur instead? Anyway, such fake \u2018new industry\u2019 stories are standard media fare in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 An Indian \u2018financier\u2019 in Dubai this week also claimed to set up a \u2018<\/em><\/strong>farm to fashion\u2019 garment industry<\/em><\/strong> in Benin<\/strong> (see ee Random Notes<\/em><\/strong>). Benin just happens to sell most of its cotton to Bangladesh\u2019s \u2018garment industry\u2019. This week also saw Bangladesh being warned that \u2018no letter of credit (LC) transactions will be processed if Bangladesh faces sanctions from the US, the UN, the EU and England.\u2019 This, \u2018according to a clause attached by an international clothing retailer<\/strong> while placing order with a local garment supplier<\/strong>.\u2019 Such are the strictures under which \u2018industry\u2019 operates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     We also note the moves by English multinational Unilever, who is demanding the right to mix tea with other chemicals & teas and call it \u2018Ceylon Tea\u2019<\/em><\/strong>. Unilever is setting up with the Pepsi Co, \u2018the Pepsi Lipton Code for Ceylon Tea\u2019. This \u2018new international standard\u2019, which aims to squeeze smallholders, \u2018will supersede all other standards pertaining to sustainability\u2019. Unilever has for over a \u2018celebrated\u2019 150 years refused to mechanize production and upskill workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Meanwhile, a \u2018EU Deforestation Regulation<\/strong>\u2019 also come into effect from December 31, 2024. \u2018EU buyers will have to ensure that their products are free of deforestation<\/strong> and forest degradation<\/strong> as a result of which growers in countries like Sri Lanka will have to provide estate geo mapping<\/strong> and meet certain criteria<\/strong>. Sri Lankan growers would require increased spending in the range of US$8-10,000 to comply with this new regulation<\/strong>\u2019 (see last ee<\/em><\/strong>). Such are the so-called \u2018non-price\u2019 economic tools wielded as \u2018standards\u2019 by multinationals, which no politician can afford to talk about: for MNCs like Unilever control the advertising agencies, and advertisers control the media, and politicians are made by the media. Amen!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Benin also happens to be home to some of the most famous intricate iron sculpture in the world (they apparently also taught the English about toilets & urban sewage systems, which the English then immediately went on to destroy in Benin, while setting it up in London). A close reading of the news story, however, makes absolutely no mention whether Benin would be making any of the \u2018garment\u2019 machinery involved. And just like Sri Lanka, not allowed to make a needle or pin, let alone a sewing machine, after destroying local textile production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes. At the very heart of imperialism in Sri Lanka is the derailing of industrialization<\/em><\/strong>. So how is it that our well-bribed intellectuals (historians, economists, political & social scientists), who shovel out vast tomes on all our various deficiencies and shortcomings, have avoided this plain truth?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Well, this is why they are bribed. And most times they think their accolades, doctorates and dollars are due to their individual brilliance. For example, we reproduce the \u2018plural forum\u2019 Yukthi\u2019s \u2018challenges\u2019 to \u2018Presidential Candidates with 10 Critical Questions on Economic Policies\u2019. But, not one question do they ask these candidates about their plans for industrialization!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     However, not all scholars have been bought up by the house-trained neutered opposition. The Asia Progress Forum<\/strong>\u2019s Natasha Gunawardena & Kavishika Illeperuma examines this silencing in The Political Economy of Sri Lanka\u2019s Debt Crisis<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Industrialization, once seen as the bedrock of liberal democracy, a<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

robust welfare state, & national sovereignty, has all but disappeared<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

from the national discourse in Sri Lanka, regardless of class or political<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

affiliation.<\/strong> In its place is a shallow, socially engineered focus on identity<\/p>\n\n\n\n

politics, welfarism, & anti-corruption \u2013 a narrative that raises<\/p>\n\n\n\n

many questions but offers few solutions.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gunawardena & Illeperuma also point to what lies uneasy beneath the surface and within the teashop:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018While political regimes may come & go, the contradictions<\/p>\n\n\n\n

that brought them to power & the controlling influence<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of international finance capital<\/strong> are here to stay. At the current<\/p>\n\n\n\n

juncture, Sri Lanka remains an experiment, much like a rat<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

or a guinea pig in the Washington laboratory<\/strong>. Subjected to<\/p>\n\n\n\n

decades of subversion & conditioning vis-\u00e0-vis hybrid warfare<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

tactics<\/strong>, its intelligentsia is unimaginative & complicit in the<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

unfolding economic violence & destruction<\/em><\/strong>.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They zero in on our strange estranged species of anti-social scientists:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Sri Lanka\u2019s economists in particular<\/strong>, exhibit a strange<\/p>\n\n\n\n

monolithic thought process that does not reflect that of a<\/p>\n\n\n\n

pragmatic economist that \u2018thinks with both hands\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their view on economy is through a corporate lens<\/strong>, not<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a developmental one. Their reading of society is through<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the lens of identity politics. The deficit in political leadership<\/p>\n\n\n\n

makes some feel safe and secure<\/p>\n\n\n\n

with the old guard, and others wanting a \u2018system change\u2019.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They also note the resort to populist analyses (by anarchists, nihilists & NGOcrats) that yield no profound way forward:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The populace at large appears numb, lacking political & cultural literacy,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and vulnerable to populist tropes & narratives that externalize economic,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

political & social problems. Their vulnerability is leveraged to spew hatred,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

anger & despondency \u2013 a combination that can be effectively manipulated<\/p>\n\n\n\n

to create a recurring state of instability both in the country & in the region,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

making any prospects of recovery & growth a mere dream.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The real issues that challenge Sri Lanka are given no space in bourgeois elections, which offer less & less choice, more & more farce, and incessant destabilization \u2013 therefore always susceptible to crocodile cries of fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A once beautiful Ocean is still a long shameful colonial European lake, and remains Indian in name alone. Perhaps this is why the current Indian ruling regime believe they should remain junior partner in imperialism\u2019s war on China, and at least make a grab for Sri Lanka\u2019s offshore wealth (see ee Focus<\/em><\/strong>, The Political Economy of Indian Sub-Imperialism).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Sri Lanka shall surely rise from this economic mire, refusing the role of a turquoise teardrop lost in a swirling white froth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

___________<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contents:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
The Noisy Scholarly Silence on Deindustrialization at the Heart of Imperialism in Sri Lanka<\/a><\/blockquote>