The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) and the International Youth and Student for Social Equality (IYSSE) in Sri Lanka will hold a public meeting at the Public Library Auditorium in Colombo on May 22 to discuss the critical political situation in the country following the terrorist attacks on April 21.
Seizing on the bomb attacks as a pretext, the government has imposed a draconian state of emergency, granting sweeping powers to the military and police to arrest and detain people. After receiving advanced warnings about the attacks, government leaders and the security forces let them happen and are exploiting them politically to justify these repressive moves.
The main target of these anti-democratic measures is not the Islamic extremist groups that carried out the April 21 bombings, but the working class, youth and farmers who are coming into struggles against the government’s austerity measures. As part of the emerging wave of international class struggles, Sri Lankan workers have come forward to fight back against the attacks on their living standards and basic social and democratic rights.
The government and other parties of the Colombo political establishment are also exploiting the terrorist attacks to whip up anti-Muslim communalism to weaken and divide the working class.
At the same time, the US has seized on the bombings to further integrate Sri Lanka into its war plans against China. The FBI and the US military’s Indo-Pacific Command have sent officials to the island under the guise of “assisting” investigations into the April 21 bombings.
All the parties of the Colombo political establishment and their pseudo-left satellites have lined up to support the government’s authoritarian measures against the working class and oppressed masses.
The urgent task for the working class is to unify across communal lines and mobilise independently to defeat the government’s police-military dictatorial plans and overthrow capitalist rule. A workers’ and peasants’ government must be established, based on socialist policies, as a part of the broader struggle for socialism in South Asia and internationally. This is the only way to put an end to imperialist war, social inequality and dictatorship.
We call upon workers, young people and WSWS readers to attend this important meeting in Colombo to discuss this revolutionary perspective.
Date and time: Wednesday, May 22, 4 p.m.
Venue: Public Library Auditorium, Colombo