May Day Message of the National People’s Power

Leading Sri Lankan Political party, National People’s Power (NPP) has issued its official message for May Day.

May Day Message of the National People’s Power (NPP)

On this occasion of celebrating International Workers’ Day 2024, the National People’s Power joins hands in brotherhood with the general public, including the working masses worldwide.

International Workers’ Day commemorates the 1886 Chicago workers’ struggle to demand an 8-hour workday. It pays tribute to the leaders of the working masses who sacrificed their lives for workers’ rights when the ruling class suppressed that struggle.

This year, the general public, including the working masses around the world, is commemorating International Workers’ Day while the people on this Earth, including the working masses, are confronted with the most severe crises and pressures in history.

The imperialist regimes and their bankrupt and unjust neoliberal policies imposed on the world have left a very oppressive and catastrophic situation for the ordinary people, including the working masses.

Even though the world has moved into the 21st century, poverty has made the majority of the world’s population poor. The world’s starving population and those dying of hunger are huge. Children are being excluded from education all over the world. Youths have been denied jobs. The rights the working people have struggled and won throughout history are being taken back.

Despite fighting for an 8-hour working day and winning it, the current crisis has forced the working masses to work beyond 8 hours again. A wage adequate for living is still only a dream. Small and medium-scale business industries are regularly collapsing.

The pressure on women who work as wage labourers and women who toil in the domestic economy has increased. They are made insecure. Also, social disasters such as the destruction of the environment, conflicts, wars, epidemics, and drugs are the products of the current system, and the world has made it impossible for human beings to live. We are all forced to fight to change this situation.

The ordinary people, led by the working people of Sri Lanka, commemorate May Day this year in the face of many crises and challenges. Sri Lanka is now an economically bankrupt country pushed to the brink of disaster.

The country has been saddled with unpayable debt for generations. People have not been able to bear the burden of taxes. The rising prices of goods and crumbling living conditions have caused the people to fall into crisis after crisis.

In this terrible crisis, all the working people, youth, children, women, artists, professionals, small-scale industrial enterprises and producers suffer. The country has not progressed under the predatory economy, which is full of fraud and corruption, which the current regime follows. The country has become anarchic.

Therefore, this evil regime and the wrong socio-economic system must be defeated immediately. As the National People’s Power, we commemorate this year’s International Workers’ Day fully aware of this challenge.

This year, we are commemorating May Day in anticipation of a presidential election that could change power. This year is not only an election year but also the year of rewriting the history of our country with the determination of the majority of the people.

It has also become the year of winning true national independence, ending 76 years of wrong and corrupt rule, and leading the country to a new economic system and a national renaissance. It is the purpose and determination of the National People’s Power on this May Day.

There is only one path now to the people’s forces led by the working masses of our country. There is no point in demanding rights from the existing regime. These ruling gangs do not even give rights to the people but are also taking away even the rights won by the working people daily.

Therefore, it is the responsibility of the progressive, leftist people’s forces in this country, including the working masses, to end this evil regime immediately and create a new people’s administration in its place.

The current administration has neither the desire nor the ability to build the country. They continue to destroy the country and the economy. Debt and tax burdens are increasing. The country’s valuable resources are being sold, defrauded, and wasted by theft.

We must establish a new people’s government to defeat that situation and lead the country to a new economic and political path.

A new administration’s primary action is to build a stable, strong economy based on production, make all people participate in building the economy, and set up a system that distributes the benefits of economic production fairly to everyone.

Also, it is our responsibility to stop fraud, corruption, and theft, build a new political culture, and create a society with discipline, collectivity, and humanity. For that, people should get power. It is our intention this May Day.

Therefore, this time, we strongly believe that the ordinary people, including the working masses and all the leftist, progressive, democratic, and patriotic forces, should get organized and join hands for the above purpose.

On this International Workers’ Day, we ask you to come forward for a profound positive change in society, economy, and politics.