The Sri Lankan economy contracted by 7.8 percent in 2022 with the destruction of half a million jobs, mainly concentrated in construction, transport, food and accommodation.
In June 1964, amid a massive crisis pregnant with revolutionary possibilities, the Pabloite LSSP entered into Madame Bandaranaike’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party government. This was the first time that a party claiming to be Trotskyist and historically associated with the Fourth International had entered into a bourgeois government.
The political lessons of the 1953 Hartal are critical for the working class not only in Sri Lanka but internationally as class struggles around the world intensify. The events of 70 years ago have a direct relevance to workers in Sri Lanka in the aftermath of last year’s April-July uprising.