Organisers out to break all previous records with May 6 hartal to send govt. home

By Saman Indrajith

Arrangements were underway to make the May 6 hartal a record success so that it would leave all previous hartals in the country in limbo, the organisers said yesterday.

Member of the Trade Union Coordinating Committee (TUCC), Chandana Sooriyarachchi, told The Island that more than 1,000 unions from the government, semi-government, estate and private sector would participate in the hartal campaign demanding the government to step down immediately.

The TUCC leaders who met at the auditorium of the Public Library in Colombo yesterday said: “We call on people to hoist black flags in their houses and hope that shops and offices will close. The people have a constitutional right, and we call on them to exercise their rights. We want this government to go home. Hartal is the second step after our countrywide token strike on April 28. The government seems to show that it is not bothered by the people’s call. Let us see how long it could go on in this manner. This hartal will break all the records of former hartals by the numbers as well as intensity. In the 1953 hartal, the then Prime Minister and the Cabinet of Ministers had to hide aboard a British ship HMS Newfoundland in the Colombo Harbour in fear of the people. The present-day leaders are already hiding in bunkers in Colombo. Let’s see how they would react this time,” Sooriyarachchi said.

TUCC Committee Member Mahinda Jayasinghe said that the unions had brought the country to a near standstill last Thursday with over 1,000 government and private sector trade unions, representing all sectors from transportation to banking, striking work to demand that the government quit.

“We issued a seven-day ultimatum to the government to step down. There has been no response yet. Next Friday, workers will stay away from work and take to the streets, demanding the government’s resignation. Transportation will come to a complete halt with no trains running and private bus owners keeping their vehicles off the road.

Trade unions, representing banks, railways, education, harbour, electricity, postal, apparel industry and tea estate workers joined the protests on 28 April while doctors and the medical sector will join Friday’s hartal, Jayasinghe said.

Ravi Kumudesh of the Collective of Trade Unions and Mass Organisations said: “We gave the government time till 06 May to resign and if the government does not listen to the people, we will have to have a hartal.”

General Secretary, Ceylon Teachers’ Union, Joseph Stalin said: “If the government is not willing to leave, we will have to kick it out. People are asking the Rajapaksas to go home and they do not have a mandate to govern the country anymore.”