Wickremesinghe says the country will have to repay an average $7 billion in foreign loan debts annually until 2029, making clear that the regime functions as a direct agent of global finance capital.
Striking workers have voiced their anger with the Wickremesinghe government and the unions, insisting on the necessity for a unified working-class struggle to fight the escalating social attacks.
The JVP-NPP is putting itself forward as an alternative government to implement the deeply unpopular austerity measures demanded by the IMF and support the rising anger of broad layers of working people.
The unions are fearful that the rising wave of strikes and protests will lead to a major confrontation with the Wickremesinghe regime and the bourgeois state.