Inter University Students' Federation (Sinhala: අන්තර් විශ්වවිද්යාලයීය ශිෂ්ය බලමණ්ඩලය) aka anthare is a students' union affiliated to Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a Marxist-Leninist political party in Sri Lanka.[1][2][3][4]
Contents |
IUSF comprises student unions representing four main universities in Sri Lanka. They are University of Peradeniya, University of Kelaniya, University of Sri Jayewardenepura and University of Ruhuna. Several student unions from other universities also come under the IUSF. The sole official of the union is known as the convener. Convener carries out all administrative and legal work on behalf of the union. Inter University Bhikku Federation is an affiliated organization to IUSF.
Before 1970s, Sri Lankan university student unions were mainly affiliated with left-wing political parties such as Lanka Sama Samaja Party, Communist Party and Sri Lanka Freedom Party. But with the JVP led marxist youth rebellion in 1971, JVP secured a dominant position among university students in the country.[5] This position was further strengthened by the police-killings of university students such as Rohana Weerasuriya - a student union leader of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya in 1976, Padmasiri Abeysekera, student of University of Peradeniya in 1984 and Rohana Ratnayake - a student of University of Colombo in 1984[6] with university students degressing from main stream politics. In this context, Inter University Students' Federation was established in 1978 amalgamating the student unions that already supported the political views of JVP. Shantha Bandara of University of Peradeniya was the first convener of IUSF.
Students affiliated to the Inter University Students' Federation have been accused for the assassination of Daya Pathirana, the leader of the Independent Students Union (ISU) of Colombo University on 15 December 1986. He, along with a colleague Somasiri were abducted to a lonely spot off the Bolgoda Lake in Piliyandala and tortured. Although the latter was survived, Pathirana succumbed to his wounds.[7][8] This assassination is considered as the first targeted casualty of 1987–89 JVP Insurrection.[9][10]
First campaign of the union was against the revoking of rice welfare given to people who suffered from poverty. Then it conducted similar protests against the infamous "White Paper on Education" in 1981, prohibition of May day and plans to set up North Colombo Medical College in early 1980s. Due to these protests, it was prohibited in 1984. The ban was lifted few years later. IUSF states its mission is ..to save free education and [act] against the privatization of education that turns education in to a commodity. In recent times, most of its campaigns were against the plans to set up private higher educational institutions on the grounds of destroying free education which existed in the country since 1 October 1945.[11] It claims that it is the front in saving free education and acadamic and welfare matters in education.
Although IUSF has never admitted this in public, it is widely regarded as a wing organization of JVP. Many former IUSF leaders have later become JVP parliamentarians and activists.[12] Thus it is often criticized as acting for the needs of the Marxist political party.[13]
Conduct of the student union has drawn much criticism in media and university administrations. As a result, University of Jaffna banned IUSF from entering to the university premises in June 2010.[21] Previously, University of Colombo and University of Moratuwa have taken steps to ban the student group from the university. IUSF has been accused of the murder of Samantha Vithanage, a third year Management student of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, who pioneered an anti-ragging campaign in the university.[22]
IUSF admits that it uses strikes as the primary method to meet their demands as it sees no other plausible way.[23] This has raised number of issues regarding the student discipline. Boycotting lectures has caused delays in student graduation time and cancellation of studentships in number of occasions.[24]
IUSF is also criticized for not being able to take necessary action to prevent ragging in Sri Lankan universities. Instead, rival groups such as International Students for Social Equality have suggested that IUSF uses ragging as a means of attracting a following among more backward students.[25] At the beginning, ragging served as a social equalizer in the universities. But with the emergence of JVP-backed student unions such as IUSF, ragging has served primarily to ensure the continuing domination of JVP political power within the universities, academics suggest.[26]
Violence inside universities has steadily increased due to political intolerance. IUSF has been accused for obstructing and engineering clashes with rival political groups inside universities.[27][28] In 2009, Prof. Nalin de Silva - Dean of the faculty of Science at the University of Kelaniya - complained that pro-JVP IUSF students have threatened him with death for not agreeing to their political ideologies.[29]
Picketing is another form of protest employed by IUSF to meet their demands. Picketings around Lipton Circus, Maradana and the country's busiest urbs has become common in the recent times. These picketings usually cause traffic jams and chaos in the city with police using tear gas and water cannons to disperse the gathering. This has resulted in public inconvenience regularly.[30][31][32]