pasan retweeted
Dr. Vindhya Buthpitiya and I are running a workshop in Colombo in December to support prospective PhD applicants to UK institutions.
Details in the CfP below! Please share with anyone who might be interested. It is free of charge.
Apply here: forms.gle/XkzZvBVeJpHcYCDK9
@vindib_
pasan retweeted
Yatharthan has a detailed writeup of what happened on his blog at yatharthan.com/23101-2/
pasan retweeted
Mining #SriLanka's rare earth elements are neither short-cut nor sustainable for industrialisation and the 'green transition', argues @kokobanis. The profits will flow out. The losses will land on affected communities.
polity.lk/mining-heavy-miner…
pasan retweeted
We are humbled to present the largest oral archive of testimony from Gaza produced since the genocide began, a collective memorial to the journalists who gave their lives to tell their people’s stories. LISTEN: bit.ly/livingrecord
pasan retweeted
A new low in academic publishing? An article accepted for publication in The Manchester School now has a required authors agreement from @wileypublishing to hand over all rights for use by AI companies! Authors please read your agreements carefully to prevent such appropriation!
pasan retweeted
Nine years ago, S Anitha became the first victim of NEET in Tamil Nadu, and one of the most prominent faces of Tamil Nadu’s fight against NEET.
In 2017, the 17-year-old from Ariyalur had scored 1,176 out of 1,200 marks in her Class 12 Tamil Nadu State Board exams. Her medical cut-off score was 196.75 out of 200 — marks that would have placed her among medical aspirants under Tamil Nadu’s earlier admission system.
But that year, NEET became mandatory for medical admissions. Anitha, who had prepared through the state-board syllabus, could not secure a medical seat through the national entrance exam. She became one of the earliest voices opposing NEET in Tamil Nadu, arguing that a common entrance test would disadvantage students from rural areas, government schools and marginalised communities.
Anitha’s brother S. Manirathnam, who has now joined the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) protest in Delhi, says her fight was deeply personal.
He says Anitha was raised by their father, a daily wage labourer, after their mother died when she was seven. He recalls that Anitha wanted to become a doctor because their mother’s death due to an illness had shaped her dream of entering medicine.
“She wanted to become a doctor because she had seen the suffering caused by the lack of medical care,” Manirathnam said, recalling his sister’s journey.
Anitha joined the legal battle against NEET and became one of the petitioners before the Supreme Court, seeking relief for Tamil Nadu students. The Court did not grant the exemption sought by the state, and days later, on 1 September 2017, Anitha died by suicide at her home in Ariyalur.
Speaking about the impact of NEET on his family, Manirathnam said, “NEET has destroyed my family.”
Years later, he has joined the CJP protest, saying Tamil Nadu’s opposition to NEET began with students like Anitha, who questioned whether a single national entrance exam could account for the inequalities faced by students across the country.
@hey_eshwar reports.
pasan retweeted
While visiting a photo exhibition in Colombo on Saturday (18), Sri Lanka's opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, the son of former president R. Premadasa (1989-1993), looks at photographs on display,depicting mothers of disappeared in southern Sri Lanka, during his father's tenure.
pasan retweeted
BOMBSHELL reporting finds Princeton climate researchers took tens of millions of dollars from BP to publish research, shaped and edited by BP, promoting carbon capture & storage and fossil fuels.
Landmark "Wedges" climate paper promoting CCS now confirmed to be BP propaganda.
Princeton greenwashed fossil fuels and essentially lied about carbon capture in return for cash from BP. propublica.org/article/wedge…
pasan retweeted
Sri Lanka: A new Amnesty International report finds that Malaiyaha Tamil workers on private tea estates in Southern Sri Lanka are facing labour abuses that may amount to forced labour under International Labour Organization (ILO) standards.
The findings expose not only exploitative labour practices, but systematic failures of enforcement, accountability, and worker protection. Read our report here: amnesty.org/en/documents/ASA…
Workers described to Amnesty International a consistent pattern of abuse, including:
- Intimidation and threats
- Physical violence and harassment
- Debt bondage
- Withheld or reduced wages
- Restrictions on movement
- Degrading housing and working conditions
Taken together, these are recognised indicators of forced labour under international law: amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2…
These abuses unfortunately are part of a long history of structural discrimination. Malaiyaha Tamils are descendants of workers brought by British colonial authorities for plantation labour and they remain among the most marginalised communities in Sri Lanka. Many workers continue to depend on estate owners for housing, income, and access to basic welfare, creating conditions of extreme vulnerability and limited bargaining power.
The economic coercion documented in the report is particularly alarming. Workers on many estates reported being subjected to excessive daily tea-picking targets, with wages reduced or withheld for failing to meet them. Workers described surviving debt, wage advances, and loans to meet basic needs. These practices risk trapping workers in cycles of dependency, even across generations, that may amount to debt bondage, one of the clearest indicators of forced labour.
The report also identifies serious gaps in labour governance. Workers reported barriers to unionization, discriminatory treatment by authorities, lack of access to remedies, and weak labour inspection systems. Many were reportedly misclassified as "casual workers", excluding them from core legal protections such as pensions, maternity benefits, paid leave, and other statutory entitlements guaranteed under Sri Lankan labour law.
Sri Lanka's obligations are not ambiguous. As a member of the ILO and party to international human rights treaties, the state has a duty to prevent forced labour, enforce labour protections, and ensure access to justice without discrimination. That requires urgent action:
- Independent inspections of private estates
- Effective prosecutions
- Protection of union rights
- Enforcement of labour standards
- Meaningful remedies for workers
Sign our global petition demanding the Government of Sri Lanka to protect Malaiyaha Tamil tea workers from forced labour and ensure access to justice and socio-economic rights now: amnesty.org/en/petition/huma…
pasan retweeted
Declassified Documents Detail Israel’s Role at the Start of Sri Lanka’s Civil War m.thewire.in/article/diploma… דרך @thewire_In
pasan retweeted
if you care about the human costs of the war, you should care about people in developing countries most exposed to the economic shocks. Who are those? 1/
pasan retweeted
The continued urgency of envisioning a zone of peace, an Afro-Asian sea, and a Third World Sea, against American imperialism. Pictured: OSPAAAL poster by Alberto Blanco (1980); Boutros Boutros-Ghali, "Al-siyasa wal-istratijiyya fi al-muhit al-hindi," Al-Siyasa al-Dawliyya (1966).
pasan retweeted
BREAKING: "Total victory" for Palestine Action as the first six defendants in the Filton 24 trial are acquitted of Aggravated Burglary –– the most serious charge, which could have resulted in life sentences.
I understand the six will appeal for their release later today.
pasan retweeted
Top economists incl. @JosephEStiglitz @PikettyWIL @Jayati1609 @yanisvaroufakis @StephanieKelton @jasonhickel @kateraworth @FadhelKaboub call for halt to Sri Lanka debt repayments after Cyclone Ditwah.
@YukthiSL @IMFNews @debtjustice @eurodad @AFRODAD2011
theguardian.com/business/202…
pasan retweeted
Our special issue of Labor and Society on the ecomodernist features of imperialism is now online in full. The issue makes a stronger contribution to theorising contemporary imperialism than I could ever have hoped. Here's a thread introducing each contribution. 🧵
Sharing this list of cyclone relief efforts compiled by @Amaliniii. Anything you can give or any reshares of this link would go a long way, thank you! 🙏🏾
tinyurl.com/LKfloods25
pasan retweeted
All of Sri Lanka is being battered by a cyclone right now. Small scale relief efforts are happening all over the country.
@Amaliniii has compliled a list of these here: tinyurl.com/LKfloods25
Please donate if you can. And stay safe!
pasan retweeted
Bashair Ahmed shared: "In Sudan, local responders reach 85-95% of the population, compared to 16-65% for international organisations. Yet only 1.5% of funding reaches local groups and organisations directly." Donate directly to mutual aid organizing:
sudansolidarity.com
