Edmund Samarakkody was a leading Trotskyist in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

 and at one time a member of that country's parliament

Parliament

A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...

. He was a leader of the Fourth International

Fourth International

The Fourth International is the communist international organisation consisting of followers of Leon Trotsky , with the declared dedicated goal of helping the working class bring about socialism...

's section, the LSSP, and a supporter of the establishment of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International in 1963. After the LSSP was expelled from the International, he co-founded the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Revolutionary)

Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Revolutionary)

Lanka Sama Samaja Party was a Trotskyist political party in Sri Lanka. LSSP was formed in 1964 when the Lanka Sama Samaja Party was expelled from the Fourth International. LSSP was constituted by the ideological hardliners who opposed LSSP joining the national government and wanted to preserve the...

 (LSSP(R)), which was the section of the Fourth International. After disagreements with Bala Tampoe

Bala Tampoe

Bala Tampoe is Sri Lankan lawyer and trade unionist. He was the General Secretary of the Ceylon Mercantile, Industrial and General Workers Union in Sri Lanka.-Early life and education:...

, he left the International after its1969 World Congress. After attempting to gain recognition for his new group, he courted the iSt, now International Communist League

International Communist League

The International Communist League can refer to several Trotskyist political parties:*The Left Opposition, led by Trotsky from 1933 until 1936*The International-Communist League, a short-lived alliance of British groups in the mid-1970s...

 but did not end up merging. He worked alongside the Italian GOR for a period following this.

In 1960 he was elected as LSSP Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for the Bulathsinhala constituency. However, in 1965, contesting from the LSSP(R), he received only 278 votes in the same electorate - the LSSP's Mangala Moonesinghe

Mangala Moonesinghe

Mangala Moonesinghe is a Sri Lankan lawyer, politician and diplomat. He was Sri Lankan High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 2000 to 2002 and Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India from 1995 to 2000...

was elected MP with 14,023 votes.http://www.slelections.gov.lk/past_election/Results_1965%20GENERAL%20ELECTION.PDF

External links

• Edmund Samarakkody, The Struggle for Trotskyism in Ceylon
• Obituary by 'What Next'