ARMED police have raided the headquarters of the NSSP in Sri Lanka. The Nava Sama Samaja Party's leadership were meeting when about thirty police armea with automatic rifles, grenades and sub-machine guns broke in under the pretext of suspecting illegal activities.
The NSSP, the section of the Fourth International in SriLanka. is the principal organisation supporting the electricity workers' strike which began on May 29. The raid is clearly linked.
The 14,000 strong workforce are demanding that the government gives up its plan to privatise the electricity board.
I he state has moved against the NSSP earlier this month-with a violent police attack on the NSSPled May Day demonstration.
The electricity chairperson Chandrika Kumaratunga vowed at a press briefing that she will resort to any means "short of killing" to get the workers back after the four day back out.
She declared the strike illegal and ordered the mass arrest of strikers.
Within hours of the threat gunmen opened fired at the telecommunication leader |BP Dissanayaka. Although he escaped unhurt it was a clear act of intimidation. Several members of the NSSP have also received death threats.
There have been some attempts by pro-government Sinhala forces (Sri Lanka's ethnic majority) to mobilise the population against the strike on he basks that iris hinder. ing the war against the Tamils.
Significantly, the Deputy Minister of Defence Major General Anuruddha Ratwatte as well as being the uncle of the President is the minister for power and energy.
The NSSP is calling for a campaign against state terrorism, war and privatisation. A picket will be held on May 5 in Colombo. • Write or fax letters of protest to: The president of Sri Lanka HE Chanrika Kumaratunga, Colombo 0I, Sri Lanka. Fax 0094 | 334822. Send a copy to the NSSP fax 0094 | 334822.