Country’s poverty rate increase alarming – FSP
Frontline Socialist Party General Secretary Kumar Gunaratnam stated that the World Bank says that the poverty rate in Sri Lanka, which was 11 percent in 2019, has increased to 26 percent today.
He announced this while joining the rally to celebrate the World Labour Day held at the Philip Gunawardena Stadium in Colombo yesterday (1). Gunaratnam said that it has been 138 years since that day in 1886 was celebrated in Haymarket Square. And we know in 1889, according to the proposal of our beloved teacher Engels, the celebration of this May Day was brought together by the world and the working people. That is how the celebration of May 1 took place in 1890. On that day in 2023, we presented a theme on the Nugegoda International Workers’ Day. That is about the IMF death trap and the colonization of India. Also, American interventions were presented as our themes that day. Today we present the same theme. The theme of this year’s 2024 International Workers’ Day rally was prepared with the proposal that the working class people should unite to defeat the tyranny of the International Monetary Fund and Indian colonization.
On the one hand, the things we talked about last year are now becoming a reality. On the one hand, the orders, recommendations and conditions of the International Monetary Fund are being implemented as a complete pressure and coercion on the common people of this country. The tax burden has increased, the VAT has increased, the price of goods has increased, the price of fuel has increased, the electricity bill has increased, and the water tariff has increased. What didn’t go up? All went up. These days, if you think about an election, they are doing different things all over the country to give small concessions. These are the things that have been done in politics throughout history. The people of this country have a long history in this regard. There is a discussion in the world that does not vote for roofing tiles and bricks. But we know that the economic crisis in this country is not a situation that can be saved with such small concessions.
The average people of this country know the extent of the economic pressure. There is no way to send a child to school. On April 2, a report was presented by the World Bank. What was in it? 26 percent of the country’s people, a quarter, are suffering from poverty. This is not us but the World Bank. This is what the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are giving advice on this economic strategy. The income of 60 percent of the country’s people has collapsed. The employment percentage of workers working in urban areas has dropped rapidly. Youth unemployment has risen. Unemployment among the youth has risen to a level of 17 percent. These are not our statistics. Therefore, even though it is like this from these statistics, we know from our lives how much economic pressure we are under today.
Therefore, what we said then in 2023 is being confirmed today. We are the victims of that pressure. Back then, when we talked about the conditions of the IMF, when we talked about its sportsmanship, we were people who were under pressure from it. People who work in all sectors of the public sector and private sector, people who run small businesses, self-employed people, farmers, fishermen, and all the majority of people are victims of this pressure. He said that these IMF conditions are not approved, the tax burden has increased, the state institutions are going to be sold and all this is happening accordingly.
Frontline Socialist Party Campaign Secretary, Duminda Nagamuwa and Education Secretary Pubudu Jayagoda were among those present.
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