The detention of student activists under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act is part of President Wickremesinghe’s broad class-war assault on the working class and the poor.
Wickremesinghe’s denunciations of anti-government protesters as “fascists” and “terrorists,” and the ongoing arrests, are not isolated actions but preparation for far broader attacks on democratic rights.
The unions are pledging their support for Wickremesinghe and his government, even as it prepares to unleash the savage austerity program demanded by the International Monetary Fund.
The SEP in Sri Lanka calls on workers and rural toilers to build their own independent action committees to fight for their rights in opposition to President Wickremesinghe’s effort to consolidate the entire Colombo political establishment behind the ruling class agenda of austerity and repression.
The Wickremesinghe regime has over the past two days arrested trade union leaders, extended essential services orders banning strikes in the health, electricity and fuel distribution sectors, and threatened a new wave of arrests against Galle Face protestors.