The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) in Sri Lanka will hold a public meeting on March 24 as part of its campaign for the Colombo district in the Western Provincial Council election.

The speakers will address the central issues confronting working people: how to end the government's criminal war against the Tamil minority and the never-ending assault on the democratic rights and living standards of the working class as a whole.

While hundreds of civilians are being killed by the military's relentless war in the North, working people throughout the island are confronting layoffs, cuts to essential services and deteriorating pay and conditions. Government and opposition parties all agree that the burden of the deepening economic crisis produced by the war and the worst global recession since the 1930s should be placed on the working class.

Increasingly, police-state measures are being used to silence any opposition. Hundreds of people, including journalists and politicians, have been abducted or murdered by pro-government death squads. Protesting students and striking workers are being treated as the enemy. The huge apparatus of state repression developed over 25 years of war is being marshalled to suppress social unrest.

The SEP will outline its socialist and internationalist alternative to the nightmare created by capitalism and its politicians, and lay bare the historic roots of the economic and political crisis. We urge workers, intellectuals and all our supporters to attend. We make a particular appeal for young people to take this opportunity to discuss the critical issues that will determine their future.

Venue: Public Library Auditorium, Colombo 7.
Time: Thursday, March 24 at 4 p.m.