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Sri Lankan Uprising: Struggles against neoliberal austerity

10 June 2022 - by Nagesh Rao, Nimanthi Rajasingham

Sri Lanka is in the throes of political upheaval as a spiraling economic crisis has sparked widespread mass protests and strikes against the government. On May 9th, then prime minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned and was forced to take refuge in (...)
The Crisis of Neoliberalism and the Progressive Alternative

28 May 2022 - by Devaka Gunawardena

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. (...)
The IMF in Debt Restructuring, the Resurgence of Austerity, and the Urgency of Fiscal Justice

27 May 2022 - by Bhumika Muchhala

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 (...)
The making and masking of Sri Lanka’s debt crisis

17 May 2022 - by Matt Withers

Sri Lanka is in the grip of its worst economic crisis since Independence. Behind recent headlines, the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed structural problems that were decades in the making. The origins of today’s foreign exchange crisis are rooted in (...)
Is Sri Lanka burdened by ‘odious’ debt?

16 May 2022 - by Akalanka Thilakarathna

The current economic situation in the country can be linked to its political instability. While economic and political instability goes hand in hand, the current dilemma facing the country can be attributed to bad planning and decision making, (...)
The Argentinian (2001) and Sri Lankan (2022) Financial Crises: Ways Forward from a Feminist Perspective

27 April 2022 - by Corina Rodriguez

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 (...)
Sri Lanka: No agreement with the IMF!

15 April 2022 - by Eric Toussaint, Sushovan Dhar

A Sri Lankan delegation will travel to Washington next week to try to secure up to $4 billion from the International Monetary Fund and other lenders to help the island nation pay for food and fuel imports as well as stem defaults on its debt. (...)
Urgent plea by Sri Lankan feminists to address the unfolding humanitarian crisis caused by the economic collapse in Sri Lanka

6 April 2022 - by Collective

Sri Lanka is facing the worst economic crisis in its post-independence history. Widespread food and fuel shortages are crippling the lives of people. Such a situation that has already lasted several weeks is now resulting in widespread protests (...)
Frying Pan of Shortages to the Post-IMF Fire

4 April 2022 - by Ahilan Kadirgamar

The scorching heat in April and May is going to fry our working people as food and medicines are in short supply, oil shortages lead to transport disruption and power cuts shut down shop floors. What does one make of the mismanagement of an (...)
Averting the Looming Food Crisis

27 March 2022 - by Sandun Thududgala

A food crisis is inevitable. Food prices are soaring; shortages in essential food items are creating long queues, affecting people’s ability to work and get on with productive lives; the foreign reserve crisis has restricted the country’s ability (...)
Government Mortgages Women on Behalf of the Microfinance Companies

8 March 2022 - by Collective of Women Affected by Microfinance

The statement was issued by the Collective of Women Affected by Microfinance, Sri Lanka to commemorate International Women’s Day. March 08, 2022 The government that came into power pledging to abolish all microfinance debt has failed to keep (...)
Debt, development and the future

6 March 2022 - by Amali Wedagedara

The Satyagraha initiated by the Collective of Women Affected by Microfinance on 8 March 2021 in Hingurakgoda, Polonnaruwa, narrates a particular story of development in Sri Lanka – a dystopic one where the development aspirations of women have (...)
‘There is no money left’: Covid crisis leaves Sri Lanka on brink of bankruptcy

2 February 2022 - by Minoli de Soysa, Hannah Ellis-Petersen

Sri Lanka is facing a deepening financial and humanitarian crisis with fears it could go bankrupt in 2022 as inflation rises to record levels, food prices rocket and its coffers run dry. The meltdown faced by the government, led by the (...)
Why Not Default: A Subaltern Perspective

2 February 2022 - by Sumanasiri Liyanage

Having read many opinions over the issue about what should be done with regard to the debt crisis in Sri Lanka, I think even a scary task of summarising the argument of a book of 384 pages in 1,000 to 1,200 words column would be a useful (...)
Budget 2022: Brace for Austerity

18 January 2022 - by B. Skanthakumar

“… we must at least now, stop, groping in the darkness” Basil Rajapaksa (12 November 2021) Basil Rajapaksa’s maiden Budget for 2022 received parliamentary approval on 10th December 2021, as to be expected in a legislature comfortably controlled by (...)
Submission of the Collective of Women Affected by Microfinance to the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery

8 December 2021 - by Collectif

Debt is the most prevalent source of slavery. In contemporary Sri Lanka, unpayable debt accrued through microfinance loans has been driving exploitation, dispossession, and conditions resembling debt peonage. A chain of high-risk loans disbursed (...)
[VIDEO] FESTIVAL SESSIONS: Growing private debt, vulnerability and inequality in South Asia

7 September 2021 - by Farooq Tariq , Sushovan Dhar, Amali Wedagedara, Nalini Ratnarajah

Presented by: South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE), Progressive Plantation Workers Union (PPWU) India, Manitham Trust India, Bangladesh Nari Progati Sangh (BNPS), South Asia Tax and Fiscal Justice Alliance (SATaFJA). Session is (...)
Stop blaming the victims of the microfinance crisis!

24 May 2021 - by Amali Wedagedara, Nedha de Silva

The exponential growth of the microfinance industry in Sri Lanka does not correspond with its contribution to reducing poverty. Instead, it has escalated indebtedness among women, pushed them below subsistence and made victims of both personal (...)
Sri Lanka: Microfinance debt trap: Still awaiting reprieve

4 May 2021 - by Maheesha Mudugamuwa

Thousands of innocent villagers, especially in the Northern, Eastern, and North Central Provinces are holding protests to raise a collective cry against the longstanding issues related to the microfinance debt trap that had claimed the lives of (...)
A grim new year for debt-trapped rural women in Sri Lanka

16 April 2021 - by Meera Srinivasan

M. Champa Irangani is in no mood to celebrate ‘Avurudu’, or New Year, the biggest annual festival that Sri Lanka’s majority Sinhalese community observes mid-April, while Tamils celebrate the Tamil New Year around the same time. “The New Year will (...)
Debt-driven suicides continue unabated in Sri Lanka

3 April 2021 - by Piyumi Fonseka

Sometimes a loan obtained to save a life can end up taking another life, in the debt-stricken villages of Sri Lanka. A 24-year-old mother killed her child and committed suicide two months ago due to her inability to repay a loan of Rs. 400, 000 (...)
The bitter realities behind the Hingurakgoda satyagraha

2 April 2021 - by Amalini de Sayrah

On International Women’s Day (IWD) 2021, in a small tent located at the Polonnaruwa Raja Sabha Mandapaya, women sat down to begin a satyagraha against the microfinance debt that has crippled rural economies and left them helpless. Current (...)
Sri Lanka’s household debt and the pound of flesh

15 March 2021 - by Amali Wedagedara

The complexity of the agrarian debt problem and the attractiveness of the idea of debt abolition made the cancellation of microfinance debt a popular campaign slogan during the Sri Lankan presidential election in November 2019. Women affected by (...)
Development or Underdevelopment?

4 February 2021 - by Amali Wedagedara

The Sri Lankan economy revealed a principal contradiction during the last two weeks. The Colombo Stock Market was becoming one of the best performing stock markets in the world. In parallel, the real Sri Lankan economy is collapsing. A suicide (...)
Sri Lanka: An argument for cancelling the household debt

23 November 2020 - by Amali Wedagedara

Women affected by microloans in Sri Lanka have been mobilising for debt cancellation since a couple of years. The complexity of the agricultural debt problem and the attractiveness of the idea of debt abolition made it a popular campaign slogan (...)