Teacher, NUT member and Socialist Party member, Martin Powell-Davies visits Parliament Square to speak to student protesters.
Recently the Sri Lankan government has asked the IMF for a $2 billion loan. Stop the Slaughter of Tamils – Campaign to end the war and fight for democracy in Sri Lanka (SST) protest against any fund or aid being given directly to the chauvinist government as it believes the warmongering Rajapakse regime will spend it on war.
Any resources available for development in Sri Lanka should go in to the hands of genuine and trusted representative of the people. The SST campaign meeting held on 18 April SST agreed to organise protests against IMF money being given to Sri Lanka. The first stage of this protest was organised outside the Department for International Development (DfID).
All who came down to DfID to raise their voice against the IMF loan then participated in the protest organised by outside the Treasury against the budget cuts and then walk to the Parliament Square to give support to the students who have been organising a protest their for the last 16 days continuously.
Martin Powell-Davies spoke in all these protests and was very well received by the students in Parliament Square.
Martin introduced himself as a supporter of SST, a teacher and a member of the teachers union, the NUT. He explained that he had been able to raise the plight of the Tamil people and the campaign against the war in Sri Lanka at the NUT national conference. The general secretary and the conference, which represents hundreds of thousands of teachers, gave support. Martin suggested that school students, when they return to school, ask to see the trade union representative for the NUT and ask them to support the campaign and to help to arrange a meeting or an assembly to bring the issues of the war and the suffering of the Tamil people to all the students.
He made the point that trade unions have a strong record of opposing war, such as the Iraq and Gaza wars, and that they must be approached now to give their support to the Tamil population.
He praised the students for their courage and seriousness of their protests. Martin also spoke to Paramesweran Subramaniyam, who is on hunger strike for 16 days