[The following statement on the repression launched by the Sri Lanka regime against striking workers was issued September 6 by the Communist League of India, the Indian section of the Fourth International. A letter of protest to Sri Lanka President Junius Jayewardene was also sent by the Communist League. It demanded in particular the release of Vasudava Nanawakara, secretary of the United Federation of Workers, and G. Mahanama, secretary of the Government Clerical Service Union.]
Faced with a galloping inflation rate of nearly 42 percent, the working class of Sri Lanka demanded a wage increase, to which the dictatorial Jayewardene regime replied with brutal repression. To fight
repression, to support striking railway workers, and to claim wage increases, the large majority of the trade-union organisations, grouped together in a united front known under the name of the JTUAC (Joint Trade Union Action Committee), decided to launch a general strike. More than 100,000 workers responded to the call.
To precipitate confrontation and to brutally crush the strike, on July 16, the government declared a state of emergency. All news of the strike was censored, all meetings of political parties or organisations were banned, trade-union offices were closed, the funds of unions on strike or sympathising with the strike were frozen, and police were given powers to arrest persons, etc. With this, the regime unleashed a campaign of intimidation and declared that it won't take back to work
the public sector workers who are on strike.
The Communist League-Indian Section of the Fourth International-strongly opposes the repression let loose by the Jayewardene regime on the Ceylonese working class. We demand the end of anti-union repression, the reestablishment of the right to strike, the abrogation of the state of emergency and censorship, the reintegration of suspended or sacked workers, and the immediate liberation of imprisoned militants (in particular Comrades Vasudava and G. Mahanama). The Communist League appeals to all working-class organisations and their allies to solidarise with the Ceylonese working class in defence of their rights. International solidarity action by the working class is always an effective weapon against political repression.