Ratnayake has dedicated his entire adult life, encompassing some six decades, to the fight for the socialist emancipation of the working class and the oppressed masses.
The well-attended lectures at Peradeniya University indicate that serious layers are seeking a Marxist analysis of the crisis of Sri Lankan and global capitalism and the socialist program needed to fight.
IYSSE and SEP members campaigned at the campus prior to the event, explaining the growing threat of world war and the international socialist program required to prevent it.
The Frontline Socialist Party and Inter University Student Federation, which posture as champions of democratic rights at press conferences and meetings, violently oppose the IYSSE and students exercising their democratic rights on university campuses.
The IYSSE has issued an open letter opposing attempts by the pseudo-left Inter University Students Federation and student union thugs to ban the Trotskyist youth movement, and any discussion of its program, from the University of Sri Jayawardenepura.