Lanka Sama Samaja Party
Encyclopedia
The Lanka Sama Samaja Party (literally Ceylon Equal Society Party, in Sinhala: ලංකා සම සමාජ පක්ෂය, in Tamil
: லங்கா சமசமாஜக் கட்சி) is a Trotskyist
political party
in Sri Lanka
.
The party was founded in 1935 and emerged as a major political force in the 1940s. It joined a coalition government in 1964, and was then expelled from the Fourth International
. It peaked in political strength in the 1970s, but has declined gradually during the last 30 years.
In the parliamentary election
held on 2 April 2004, the party was part of the United People's Freedom Alliance
, which won 45.6% of the popular vote and 105 out of 225 seats. One of those 105 seats belongs to LSSP.
term samadharmam was used to translate 'socialist', but nowadays the English term is used.
At its core was the 'T-group', a groupuscule of Trotskyists motivated by Philip Gunawardena
, who had been active in Comintern
politics, being expelled for Trotskyism and who had built up links with the Left Opposition
on the continent.
, in which a nucleus of Marxists had developed. The leaders were mainly educated returnees from London, youth who had come into contact with the ideas of the European Left and were influenced by Harold Laski
. Dr S.A. Wickremasinghe, an early returnee and a member of the State Council
from 1931, was part of this group. The Youth Leagues campaigned for independence from Britain, notably organising opposition to the so-called 'Ministers' Memorandum', which essentially only begged the colonial authorities for more power to the ministers and not even Dominion status.
The group, through the South Colombo Youth League, became involved in a strike at the Wellawatte Spinning and Weaving Mills. It published an irregular journal in Sinhala, Kamkaruwa (The Worker). In 1933 the group got involved in the Suriya-Mal movement
, which had been formed to provide support for indigenous ex-servicemen by the sale of Suriya (Portia tree
) flowers. The Suriya-Mal movement surged as a reaction to the fact that at the time Poppy Day funds went solely to British ex-servicemen. The movement was honed by volunteer work among the poor during the Malaria Epidemic of 1934-1935. The volunteers found that there was widespread malnutrition
, which they helped fight by making pills of 'Marmite
' yeast extract.
and N.M. Perera, proved to be a thorn in the side of the British Colonial government.
The LSSP began fraternal relations with the Congress Socialist Party
(CSP) of India. Mrs Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya of the CSP was invited by the LSSP for a highly successful political tour of the island. Simultaneously, the LSSP maintained a clear distance from the Indian radical left, and considered the Communist Party of India
to be an extremist force.
In 1937, the British Colonial Governor Sir Reginald Stubbs attempted to deport a young Anglo-Australian planter, Mark Anthony Bracegirdle
, who had joined the LSSP. He went into hiding in defiance of the Governor and the LSSP started a campaign to defend him. He made a dramatic appearance on the platform at that year's May Day
rally. Bracegirdle won his case in the courts and the deportation order was quashed. The Governor was isolated and the cause of independence was very much strengthened, as the Bracegirdle incident had brought almost the entire State Council into opposition to the colonial government.
Bracegirdle had been working among the plantation labourers, who were treated inhumanely, receiving very little health care, even less education and living in 'line rooms' which were worse than cattle sheds in England. Militancy among these workers was increasing at the time. In 1940 the Lanka Estate Workers' Union (LEWU) intervened in a strike at Mooloya. This became the harbinger of a wave of trade-union action on the plantations.
Meanwhile in the LSSP a number of members had become influenced by the ideas of the Left Opposition led by Leon Trotsky
. Individual LSSPers, notably Philip Gunawardena, had encountered Trotskyist groups during stays in Britain and the USA. The Trotskyists within the LSSP came together and formed a secret fraction known as the "T" (after Trotsky) group. Its original members were Philip Gunawardena, N. M. Perera, Colvin R. de Silva, Leslie Goonewardene, Robert Gunawardena and Vernon Gunasekera, the Party Secretary. It was later joined by Edmund Samarakkody
and V Karalasingham.
and A. Vaidialingam . The expelled members formed the United Socialist Party (USP) which later evolved into the Communist Party of Ceylon (CPC). The LSSP was thus confirmed as a Trotskyist-led party.
At the outbreak of the Second World War the party was forced to go underground due to its opposition to the British war effort. The experience gained in hiding Bracegirdle proved valuable for the illegal and underground activities of the war years. The two State Council members of the party and others on its Central committee were arrested and jailed.
On 20 April 1941, a secret conference, attended by 42 delegates, was held. Leslie Goonewardene, who was in hiding, attended this conference at which the new programme and constitution were adopted. An openly functioning section of the party was established, led by Robert Gunawardena, S.C.C. Anthonipillai, V. Karalasingham, K.V. Lourenz Perera and William de Silva
. The 'open' section of the party led a strike wave in May 1941 and strikes in 1942 and 1944.
Following the Japanese
raid on Colombo on 5 April 1942, the imprisoned leaders escaped and fled to India. In India, the emigre LSSPers merged their party into the Bolshevik-Leninist Party of India, Ceylon and Burma
(BLPI). LSSP thus became the Ceylon section of BLPI. Through the BLPI, the Lankan trotskyists attained their formal membership in the Fourth International
.
During the war there was a split in the movement. N. M. Perera and Philip Gunawardena opposed a merger into the BLPI and formed the 'Workers' Opposition'. After the war, they reconstructed LSSP as an independent party. Members of the other section, formed out of the exiled BLPI nucleus, effectively maintained a separate party, the Bolshevik Samasamaja Party
. The latter group functioned as the Ceylon section of BLPI and was led by Colvin R de Silva, Leslie Goonawardena and Edmund Samarakkoddy, who had been the second tier of the party leadership at the beginning of the war.
The relation between the two groups was often antagonistic. The BSP accused the LSSP of 'organisational Menshevism'. The LSSP accused the BSP of being introvert doctrinaires. LSSP wanted to build a mass-based party, whereas the BSP concentrated on building a cadre party. On 25 October 1945 fist-fights broke out at between the two groups at a meeting of the BSP. http://www.whatnextjournal.co.uk/Pages/Back/Wnext8/Reviews.html http://www.whatnextjournal.co.uk/Pages/History/Edmund.html
) of Natesa Iyer, which had 6 members in Parliament and of various independent members. However, SWRD Bandaranaike and his Sinhala Maha Sabha
backed the newly formed United National Party
(UNP), which was thus able to form a government under DS Senanayake.
The BLPI-affiliated BSP became an independent party in 1948, and was recognised as the Lankan section of the Fourth International, when the BLPI was dissolved.
In 1948, the country was granted Dominion status by the British. The armed forces continued to be commanded by British Officers and the Royal Navy
and the RAF
continued to have bases on the island (at Trincomalee
and Katunayake
). The Government was heavily pro-British and anti-Soviet
.
The new government proceeded to disenfranchise the plantation workers of Indian descent, the Indian Tamils, using the Ceylon Citizenship Act
of 1948 and the Parliamentary Elections Amendment Act of 1949. These measures were intended primarily to undermine the Left electorally. Of these acts Dr. N. M. Perera said: 'I thought racialism of this type died with Houston Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler
. I do not believe that anyone claiming to be a Statesman would ask us to accede to a bill of this nature ... We cannot proceed as if we were God's chosen race quite apart from the rest of the world; that we and we alone have the right to be citizens of this country.'http://www.uthr.org/BP/volume1/Chapter1.htm
The split between the LSSP and the BSP had weakened the movement, and in particular the BSP which was clearly the smaller of the two parties. A process of reunification was initiated, and in 1950 the BSP merged into the LSSP. Through the reunification LSSP became the Lankan section of the Fourth International
. However, Philip Gunawardena opposed the reconciliation with the BSP. Thus he left LSSP and formed a new party, Viplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja Party
(VLSSP).
At the 1952 general election, there was a setback for the party. The country was relatively prosperous due to the price of natural rubber being driven up by the Korean War
. Also, the disenfranchisement the Indian Tamil estate workers by the UNP government deprived the LSSP of one of its main bases. Moreover it damaged the electoral fortunes of its ally, the CIC, which went unrepresented.
. The immediate cause for the Hartal was a hike in the price of rice
from 25 cent to 70 cent per measure by the UNP government. At the time J.R. Jayawardena was the finance minister of the country. Maintaining the price of rice at 25 cent had been an electoral promise given by UNP in the 1952 elections, and when the new rates were introduced to the public there was a massive anger against it. Other harsh ingredients of the 1953 budget included suspension of the meals given to schoolchildren and hikes in rail ticket fares and postal fees.
A hartal is a form of general strike
, which attempts to bring all commercial activity to a standsstill for a limited period. Prior to 1953 it was a relatively unknown concept in Ceylon. But the LSSP leaders who had been in exile in India during the war had witnessed the immense impact of the hartals during the Quit India Movement
.
The Communist Party and VLSSP supported the Hartal. SLFP and CIC expressed sympathy for the demand of the Hartal, but did not actively support the call for strike. The Ceylon Mercantile Union
supported the demands of the strike, but in not take part in it. Rather CMU encouraged their members to go to work wearing black armbands as a means to protest.
The Hartal took the country to a complete standstill. Afraid of a revolution in the making, the government cabinet sought refuge on the HMS Newfoundland, a Royal Navy
warship offshore. The mass upsurge that accompanied the action of the strikers caused Dudley Senanayake
to resign from the premiership. The Hartal emoboldended LSSP to start to consider that the party might be able to seize state power.
In 1956 the LSSP went into a no-contest pact with the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (People's United Front) of SWRD Bandaranaike, which he had formed with Philip Gunawardena and the VLSSP. The MEP won a landslide in the polls held that year. The LSSP once again became the main opposition party, and N. M. Perera became the Leader of Opposition. LSSP supported the reforms initiated by the new government, but opposed the policy of 'Sinhala Only'. In July 1959 both LSSP and the Communist Party withdrew their support for the government, as inner-party feuds within the SLFP had resulted in a temporary victory for the right-wing and expulsions of leftist ministers like Philip Gunawardena.
In March 1960, the LSSP contested the general elections on the slogan 'forward to a Sama Samaja Government'. The votes won by the LSSP, the Communists and the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna
(a new party, not the 1956 front) of Philip Gunawardena, were sufficient to have made them the biggest bloc in Parliament. However, due to their contesting separately, the LSSP and the MEP won just 10 seats each, the CP a mere 3. Elections were held again in July and the LSSP had a no-contest pact with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party
(SLFP) of Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike
, which was thus able to form a government. The Fourth International was highly critical of the electoral tactics of LSSP, and the LSSP chose not to attend the World Congress of FI the following year.
In 1962, officers of the Army and Police attempted a coup d'état
aimed at overthrowing the government and bringing the UNP to power. This plot was foiled, and the SLFP lurched left-wards. The local branches of the petroleum
companies was nationalised, leading to a boycott of the country by the oil multi-nationals; the boycott was broken with help from the Kansas Oil Producers Co-operative and the Romania
n Government.
A parallel process was one of increasing self-confidence and unity amongst the Lankan left-wing. In the parliament they were in the opposition. On May Day
1963 the three main left parties (LSSP, CP and MEP) held a massive joint rally. That was followed by the launching of United Left Front on August 12, the tenth anniversary of the 1953 Hartal. ULF launched agitations on issues like bring down the prices of essential commodities. ULF represented an immediate threat to the governance of SLFP, and SLFP were not late in reacting to it. It began to offer the left parties ministerial posts and worked intensively to break the unity of ULF.
The 1950s and 1960s were in many ways the "Golden era" of LSSP. At the time the most powerful trade unions in the country supported LSSP politics. The most prominent trade union in the public sector in this period was the Government Clerical Service Union
, which gave the a great support to the political struggle of LSSP. The forefront leader of GCSU, I. J. Wickrema, openly appealed for support to the LSSP-CP coalition in order to defeat imperialism. The GCSU publication Red Tape constantly criticized the UNP government and asked the people to support the left.
as a petty bourgeois party, leaving the door open to a united front
with it. A minority faction, led by Colvin R de Silva and Leslie Goonewardena, opposed the move but opted to stay within the Party. Another minority faction led by Edmund Samarakkody
, Merryl Fernando, V Karalasingham and Bala Tampoe
, left the party and formed the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Revolutionary)
- LSSP(R).
Later that year, the LSSP joined the coalition government of Sirimavo Bandaranaike. Three of its MPs became Ministers; Dr N. M. Perera (Finance), Cholomondely Goonewardena (Public Works) and Anil Moonesinghe
(Communications). The LSSP was expelled from the Fourth International, and the membership was passed on to LSSP(R).
The Coalition Government fell in 1965, due to the desertion of several members. However, the number of votes won by the LSSP increased at the general election held that year. After the election, supporters of the party were subject to a vicious campaign of victimisation by the new seven-party coalition led by the UNP. In 1968, the LSSP joined the SLFP and the CP in a United Front (Sri Lanka)
. That year's joint May Day rally was said to be the biggest ever to take place in Sri Lanka.
In 1970, the United Front, of which the LSSP was part, was elected to power in landslide. The LSSP had 18 MPs in the House of Representatives. Dr NM Perera, Dr Colvin R de Silva and Leslie Goonewardena became Ministers of Finance, Constitutional Affairs with Plantation Industries and Transport, respectively.
The Party was able to advance parts of its programme considerably: Foreign-owned plantations were nationalised, democratically elected workers' councils were established in state corporations and government departments under the purview of its ministries (and of that of a sympathiser, T.B. Subasinghe), and measures were taken that narrowed the gap between the rich and poor.
Several LSSP members were appointed to important posts in which they could press forward the party programme: e.g. Anil Moonesinghe became Chairman of the Ceylon Transport Board
and theoretician Hector Abhayavardhana was made Chairman of the People's Bank
and Doric de Souza was appointed permanent secretary to the Ministry of Plantations.
Dr Seneka Bibile
, a member of the LSSP, became the founder Chairperson of the State Pharmaceuticals Corporation
(SPC) - which distributed drugs at affordable rates, by generic name instead of by trade name. The SPC, which became a model for the Third World and remains so today, was based on a report on Pharmaceuticals in Sri Lanka of the which the authors were Dr S. A. Wickremesinghe and Seneka Bibile.
The Congress of Samasamaja Youth Leagues and the other bodies affiliated to the party (membership of the party proper was still restricted to a small cadre, on a Leninist model) saw unprecedented growth at this time. The leadership looked to Salvador Allende
's Chile
as a model of revolution through parliamentary means. Leslie Goonewardene, easily the most cosmopolitan of the party's leaders, established contact with the 'Captains' of the Movement of the Armed Forces ('Movimento das Forças Armadas' - MFA) of Portugal, after the Carnation Revolution
of April 1974; he also became a theoretician of Eurocommunism
and its application to Sri Lanka, writing a pamphlet 'Can we Get To Socialism This Way'.
In 1975, the United Front broke up with the expulsion of the LSSP ministers. The party then pursued a line of forming a new socialist alliance, the Socialist United Front (SUF). This was finally formed in 1977 with the CPSL and with the People's Democratic Party (PDP), made up of leftist elements from the SLFP led by Nanda Ellawela.
. The party and its allies received
over 8% of the vote, but this was not sufficient to win any seats under the first-past-the-post system then in place in Sri Lanka.
The same year the LSSP suffered another split, as a group led by the youth leader Vasudeva Nanayakkara
broke away and formed the Nava Sama Samaja Party
(NSSP).
In 1979, Dr N. M. Perera died. His funeral was one of the largest ever seen in Colombo.
In 1980, an even worse catastrophe occurred. The UNP Government provoked a strike in the Railway Department. The strike became a general strike
. The government cracked down on the trade unions, jailing many labour leaders, including Anil Moonesinghe and G.E.H. Perera of the Government Workers' Trade Union Federation, and introducing thousands of blacklegs from the lumpen
elements of Colombo's slums. The strike was crushed and with it the LSSP trade union movement.
In 1982 the LSSP split over the question of a coalition with the SLFP. Anil Moonesinghe, Cholomondely Goonewardena, G. E. H. Perera, Wilfred Senanayake and others formed the Sri Lanka Sama Samaja Party
(SLSSP), which dissolved the next year and merged with the SLFP. Moonesinghe charged that the LSSP had been taken over by the BSP faction. Scuffles broke out between the LSSP and the SLSSP at the joint May Day
procession that year.
At the Presidential election held that year, the LSSP put forward Dr Colvin R de Silva as its candidate, the SLSSP backed Hector Kobbekaduwa of the SLFP. Dr Colvin R de Silva was beaten into 5th place.
Following the signing of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord
in 1987, the party was at the receiving end of the terror campaign which also took the life of Vijaya Kumaratunga
, the leader of the Sri Lanka Mahajana Party and a former LSSP member.
, the front led by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party
in 1994. It had three members elected to Parliament that year. Bernard Soysa was Minister of Science and Technology in the PA Government, being succeeded by Batty Weerakoon on his demise.
In 1999 LSSP Member of Parliament Vasudeva Nanayakkara
was expelled after having publicly criticized the PA government. Nanayakkara had joined LSSP from the NSSP in 1994 and been elected MP from Ratnapura
. After his expulsion Nanayakkara floated the Democratic Left Front
.
When the SLFP shelved the PA and formed the United People's Freedom Alliance
together with Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna
ahead of the 2004 elections, the CPSL and LSSP initially stayed out. They did however, sign a memorandum with the UPFA at a later stage and contested the elections on the UPFA platform. LSSP won one parliamentary seat. Its lone MP, Tissa Vitarana, was named Minister of Science and Technology.
The LSSP has gradually decreased in strength. The Congress of Samasamaja Youth Leagues has been disbanded. The party celebrated its 70th anniversary in December 2005, with a well-attended rally in Colombo.
on May 1, 2008.
The LSSP operated as a cadre party on the Leninist model. In order to become a member one had first to be active in the peripheral organisations such as the trade unions, women's organisations and youth leagues. Thereafter it was necessary to serve several months' apprenticeship as a candidate member before being elevated to full membership with voting rights. The basic unit of the Party is the Local, consisting of only full- and candidate-members.
Locals also exist inside trade unions.
The LSSP is internally very democratic. The supreme body is the conference, which is summoned every few years. The conference decides on policy and elects a Central Committee
(CC) to preside over its implementation. The CC appoints members to bureaux to look after specific area, such as the Educational Bureau (EB), Organisational Bureau (Orgburo
) and Trade Union Bureau (TUB); The Political Bureau (Politburo
) is appointed to deal with day-to-day political matters and effectively provides leadership. The CC also appoints an Editorial Board for running the Samasamajaya newspaper.
The Party also has regional groupings, which have conferences and appoint office bearers for the Regional Committees (RCs). Internationally, there was just one Local, the London Branch. This was also known as the Lanka Socialist League, and was anchored around Wesley Muthiah.
, but a Secretary to the Central Committee, assisted by a Deputy and an Assistant. Secretaries have been:
and, in 2004, on the lists of the United People's Freedom Alliance
.
The LSSP has never had a formal leader. In the period immediately after its formation, Dr Colvin R de Silva was elected President, but the post was done away with later. For many years, NM Perera was the leader of the LSSP Parliamentary Group and was recognised by the public as the party leader. However, the actual leadership has always been that of a group represented in the various bureaux of the Central Committee.
A large proportion of the leadership of the Left in Sri Lanka started their political lives in the LSSP. This is even true of the political right; for example, Esmond Wickremasinghe (the father of Ranil Wickremasinghe
) was a leading member of the party - before marrying the daughter of the wealthy press baron D. R Wijewardena and being appointed editor-in-chief of Lake House
. W. Dahanayake, the later prime minister, was associated with the LSSP before gravitating right-wards (finally ending up in the UNP).
The names in brackets were the pseudonyms used by V. Karalasingham, and S. C. C. Anthonypillai while underground during the Second World War http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/pseud.htm which continued to be used as nicknames long after they were no longer required for secrecy; and the nicknames given to the trade unionists G. P. Perera and D. G. William, from their original places of work, the Elephant cigarette factory and the Galle Face Hotel
.
Samadharmam which was commenced in 1938. Its first editor was K. Ramanathan, later succeeded by T. E. Pushparajan.
In the period of underground struggle, the Kamkaruwa, was revived as a legal Sinhalese weekly the 'open' section of the Party and published until banned by Admiral Sir Geoffrey Layton
. The 'open' section also brought out Straight Left in English.
In 1960 a special magazine was brought out to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the LSSP, Visi Pas Vasrak. The large number of members of the Ceylon Mercantile Union
(CMU) who had been sacked from Lake House
that year collaborated in its production.
In 1965, in response to the need for a broad-left popular newspaper to counteract Lake House's Dinamina, the LSSP and members of the SLFP began the Janadina daily and the Janasathiya weekly newspaper, later supplemented by the poetry periodical Janakavi. The CMU members sacked from Lake House were prominent in these publications as well. A similar task was carried out in English by The Nation ; however, when this weekly was taken over by the SLFP, the LSSP started the Socialist Nation, edited by Hector Abhayavardhana.
A press, the 'Star Press', was begun as a semi-commercial venture, to print the LSSP's publications and still operates.
In 1975 a theoretical journal, Rajaya was published, edited by a board led by Osmund Jayaratne. This and its English version State, were suspended after a few issues.
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
: லங்கா சமசமாஜக் கட்சி) is a Trotskyist
Trotskyism
Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...
political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
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...
.
The party was founded in 1935 and emerged as a major political force in the 1940s. It joined a coalition government in 1964, and was then expelled from 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...
. It peaked in political strength in the 1970s, but has declined gradually during the last 30 years.
In the parliamentary election
Sri Lankan parliamentary election, 2004
Parliamentary elections were held in Sri Lanka on 2 April 2004. The ruling United National Party of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was defeated, winning only eighty two seats in the 225-member Sri Lankan parliament. The opposition United People's Freedom Alliance won 105 seats...
held on 2 April 2004, the party was part of the United People's Freedom Alliance
United People's Freedom Alliance
The United People's Freedom Alliance is a political alliance in Sri Lanka. The current leader of the United People's Freedom Alliance is Mahinda Rajapaksa and Susil Premajayantha is the general secretary of UPFA.The alliance was formed by:...
, which won 45.6% of the popular vote and 105 out of 225 seats. One of those 105 seats belongs to LSSP.
Name
The Lanka Sama Samaja Party was the first modern political party in Sri Lanka and the first party to have an indigenous name rather than an English one. The Sinhala term samasamajaya was one coined by Dally Jayawardena in the Swadesa Mitraya to translate the term 'socialist'. However, the usage of samasamajaya has since been superseded by samajavadaya (which corresponds to similar usage in various Indian languages) in everything but in the names of the LSSP and various of its splinter-groups. The TamilTamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
term samadharmam was used to translate 'socialist', but nowadays the English term is used.
History
The Lanka Sama Samaja Party was founded on 18 December 1935 with the broad aims of Independence and Socialism, by a group of young people who had gathered together for that purpose.At its core was the 'T-group', a groupuscule of Trotskyists motivated by Philip Gunawardena
Philip Gunawardena
Don Philip Rupasinghe Gunawardena introduced Trotskyism to Sri Lanka, where he is a national hero, known as 'the Father of Socialism' and as 'the Lion of Boralugoda'.-Early life & education:...
, who had been active in Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
politics, being expelled for Trotskyism and who had built up links with the Left Opposition
Left Opposition
The Left Opposition was a faction within the Bolshevik Party from 1923 to 1927, headed de facto by Leon Trotsky. The Left Opposition formed as part of the power struggle within the party leadership that began with the Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin's illness and intensified with his death in January...
on the continent.
Origins
The LSSP grew out of the Youth LeaguesYouth Leagues
The Youth Leagues were societies of young people, mainly intellectuals, who wanted independence for Sri Lanka.The first of these organisations was the Jaffna Students’ Congress, founded in 1924 and renamed the Jaffna Youth Congress in 1926...
, in which a nucleus of Marxists had developed. The leaders were mainly educated returnees from London, youth who had come into contact with the ideas of the European Left and were influenced by Harold Laski
Harold Laski
Harold Joseph Laski was a British Marxist, political theorist, economist, author, and lecturer, who served as the chairman of the Labour Party during 1945-1946, and was a professor at the LSE from 1926 to 1950....
. Dr S.A. Wickremasinghe, an early returnee and a member of the State Council
State Council of Ceylon
The State Council of Ceylon was the unicameral legislature for Ceylon , established in 1931 by the Donoughmore Constitution. The State Council gave universal adult franchise to the people of the colony for the first time...
from 1931, was part of this group. The Youth Leagues campaigned for independence from Britain, notably organising opposition to the so-called 'Ministers' Memorandum', which essentially only begged the colonial authorities for more power to the ministers and not even Dominion status.
The group, through the South Colombo Youth League, became involved in a strike at the Wellawatte Spinning and Weaving Mills. It published an irregular journal in Sinhala, Kamkaruwa (The Worker). In 1933 the group got involved in the Suriya-Mal movement
Suriya-Mal Movement
The Suriya-Mal Movement was formed in British ruled Ceylon to sell Suriya flowers on Poppy Day for the benefit of Sri Lankan ex-servicemen. The movement became anti-imperialist in character...
, which had been formed to provide support for indigenous ex-servicemen by the sale of Suriya (Portia tree
Portia tree
Thespesia populnea, commonly known as the Portia Tree , is species of flowering plant in the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is a small tree or arborescent shrub that has a pantropical distribution, found on coasts around the world. However, the Portia Tree is probably native only to the Old World,...
) flowers. The Suriya-Mal movement surged as a reaction to the fact that at the time Poppy Day funds went solely to British ex-servicemen. The movement was honed by volunteer work among the poor during the Malaria Epidemic of 1934-1935. The volunteers found that there was widespread malnutrition
Malnutrition
Malnutrition is the condition that results from taking an unbalanced diet in which certain nutrients are lacking, in excess , or in the wrong proportions....
, which they helped fight by making pills of 'Marmite
Marmite
Marmite is the name given to two similar food spreads: the original British version, first produced in the United Kingdom and later South Africa, and a version produced in New Zealand...
' yeast extract.
Early period
In 1936 the LSSP contested the State Council elections in four constituencies and won two of them, Avissawella and Ruanwella. The two new members, Philip GunawardenaPhilip Gunawardena
Don Philip Rupasinghe Gunawardena introduced Trotskyism to Sri Lanka, where he is a national hero, known as 'the Father of Socialism' and as 'the Lion of Boralugoda'.-Early life & education:...
and N.M. Perera, proved to be a thorn in the side of the British Colonial government.
The LSSP began fraternal relations with the Congress Socialist Party
Congress Socialist Party
The Congress Socialist Party was founded in 1934 as a socialist caucus within the Indian National Congress. Its members rejected what they saw as the anti-rational mysticism of Mohandas Gandhi as well as the sectarian attitude of the Communist Party of India towards the Congress Party...
(CSP) of India. Mrs Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya of the CSP was invited by the LSSP for a highly successful political tour of the island. Simultaneously, the LSSP maintained a clear distance from the Indian radical left, and considered the Communist Party of India
Communist Party of India
The Communist Party of India is a national political party in India. In the Indian communist movement, there are different views on exactly when the Indian communist party was founded. The date maintained as the foundation day by CPI is 26 December 1925...
to be an extremist force.
In 1937, the British Colonial Governor Sir Reginald Stubbs attempted to deport a young Anglo-Australian planter, Mark Anthony Bracegirdle
Mark Anthony Bracegirdle
Mark Anthony Lyster Bracegirdle , was an Anglo-Australian Marxist revolutionary, who played a key role in Sri Lanka's independence struggle. He was one of the handful of European Radicals in Sri Lanka...
, who had joined the LSSP. He went into hiding in defiance of the Governor and the LSSP started a campaign to defend him. He made a dramatic appearance on the platform at that year's May Day
May Day
May Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures....
rally. Bracegirdle won his case in the courts and the deportation order was quashed. The Governor was isolated and the cause of independence was very much strengthened, as the Bracegirdle incident had brought almost the entire State Council into opposition to the colonial government.
Bracegirdle had been working among the plantation labourers, who were treated inhumanely, receiving very little health care, even less education and living in 'line rooms' which were worse than cattle sheds in England. Militancy among these workers was increasing at the time. In 1940 the Lanka Estate Workers' Union (LEWU) intervened in a strike at Mooloya. This became the harbinger of a wave of trade-union action on the plantations.
Meanwhile in the LSSP a number of members had become influenced by the ideas of the Left Opposition led by Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
. Individual LSSPers, notably Philip Gunawardena, had encountered Trotskyist groups during stays in Britain and the USA. The Trotskyists within the LSSP came together and formed a secret fraction known as the "T" (after Trotsky) group. Its original members were Philip Gunawardena, N. M. Perera, Colvin R. de Silva, Leslie Goonewardene, Robert Gunawardena and Vernon Gunasekera, the Party Secretary. It was later joined by Edmund Samarakkody
Edmund Samarakkody
Edmund Samarakkody was a leading Trotskyist in Sri Lanka and at one time a member of that country's parliament. He was a leader of the Fourth International's section, the LSSP, and a supporter of the establishment of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International in 1963...
and V Karalasingham.
Fourth International
In 1940 the LSSP split with the expulsion of the pro-Moscow fraction led by S. A. Wickremasinghe, M. G. Mendis, Pieter KeunemanPieter Keuneman
Pieter Gerald Bartholomeusz Keuneman was a Sri Lankan politician and a Marxist. He was the Cabinet Minister of Housing and Local Government and prominent Member of Parliament and a leading figure in the Lanka Sama Samaja Party .-Early life and education:Pieter Keuneman came from a Dutch Burgher...
and A. Vaidialingam . The expelled members formed the United Socialist Party (USP) which later evolved into the Communist Party of Ceylon (CPC). The LSSP was thus confirmed as a Trotskyist-led party.
At the outbreak of the Second World War the party was forced to go underground due to its opposition to the British war effort. The experience gained in hiding Bracegirdle proved valuable for the illegal and underground activities of the war years. The two State Council members of the party and others on its Central committee were arrested and jailed.
On 20 April 1941, a secret conference, attended by 42 delegates, was held. Leslie Goonewardene, who was in hiding, attended this conference at which the new programme and constitution were adopted. An openly functioning section of the party was established, led by Robert Gunawardena, S.C.C. Anthonipillai, V. Karalasingham, K.V. Lourenz Perera and William de Silva
William de Silva
Peduru Hewage William de Silva was a 20th century Ceylonese politician with Marxist/Trotskyist leanings.P. H. William de Silva was born at Kahatapitiya in Batapola, Ambalangoda, Ceylon, to a wealthy land-owning family...
. The 'open' section of the party led a strike wave in May 1941 and strikes in 1942 and 1944.
Following the Japanese
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes...
raid on Colombo on 5 April 1942, the imprisoned leaders escaped and fled to India. In India, the emigre LSSPers merged their party into the Bolshevik-Leninist Party of India, Ceylon and Burma
Bolshevik-Leninist Party of India, Ceylon and Burma
Bolshevik-Leninist Party of India, Ceylon and Burma was a revolutionary Trotskyist party which campaigned for independence and socialism in South Asia.-History:...
(BLPI). LSSP thus became the Ceylon section of BLPI. Through the BLPI, the Lankan trotskyists attained their formal membership in 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...
.
During the war there was a split in the movement. N. M. Perera and Philip Gunawardena opposed a merger into the BLPI and formed the 'Workers' Opposition'. After the war, they reconstructed LSSP as an independent party. Members of the other section, formed out of the exiled BLPI nucleus, effectively maintained a separate party, the Bolshevik Samasamaja Party
Bolshevik Samasamaja Party
The Bolshevik Samasamaja Party was the Ceylon section Bolshevik-Leninist Party of India, Ceylon and Burma after 1945 and of the Fourth International in 1948-1950, after the dissolution of the BLPI....
. The latter group functioned as the Ceylon section of BLPI and was led by Colvin R de Silva, Leslie Goonawardena and Edmund Samarakkoddy, who had been the second tier of the party leadership at the beginning of the war.
The relation between the two groups was often antagonistic. The BSP accused the LSSP of 'organisational Menshevism'. The LSSP accused the BSP of being introvert doctrinaires. LSSP wanted to build a mass-based party, whereas the BSP concentrated on building a cadre party. On 25 October 1945 fist-fights broke out at between the two groups at a meeting of the BSP. http://www.whatnextjournal.co.uk/Pages/Back/Wnext8/Reviews.html http://www.whatnextjournal.co.uk/Pages/History/Edmund.html
Main party
The LSSP and the BSP were both at the helm of the strike waves that occurred in the post-war period. In 1946 there was a brief reconciliation between the two factions. At the general election of 1947 the LSSP emerged as the main opposition party, with 10 seats. The BSP obtained 5 seats. They also had the support of the Ceylon Indian Congress (CIC - which later became the Ceylon Workers' CongressCeylon Workers' Congress
The Ceylon Workers' Congress is a political party in Sri Lanka that has traditionally represented Tamils working in the plantation sector of the economy .- History :...
) of Natesa Iyer, which had 6 members in Parliament and of various independent members. However, SWRD Bandaranaike and his Sinhala Maha Sabha
Sinhala Maha Sabha
The Sinhala Maha Sabha was a political party in Sri Lanka founded by Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike in 1934-35, in order to promote Sinhalese culture and community interests. Backing the United National Party from 1946, it left the UNP with Bandaranaike in 1951 to form the Sri Lanka...
backed the newly formed United National Party
United National Party
The United National Party, often referred to as the UNP ), , is a political party in Sri Lanka. It currently is the main opposition party in Sri Lanka and is headed by Ranil Wickremesinghe...
(UNP), which was thus able to form a government under DS Senanayake.
The BLPI-affiliated BSP became an independent party in 1948, and was recognised as the Lankan section of the Fourth International, when the BLPI was dissolved.
In 1948, the country was granted Dominion status by the British. The armed forces continued to be commanded by British Officers and the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
and the RAF
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
continued to have bases on the island (at Trincomalee
Trincomalee
Trincomalee is a port city in Eastern Province, Sri Lanka and lies on the east coast of the island, about 113 miles south of Jaffna. It has a population of approximately 100,000 . The city is built on a peninsula, which divides the inner and outer harbours. Overlooking the Kottiyar Bay,...
and Katunayake
Katunayake
Katunayake , is a town situated on the west coast of the island of Sri Lanka near Negombo and close to the commercial capital of Colombo. It is the site of Bandaranaike International Airport, the primary international air gateway to Sri Lanka...
). The Government was heavily pro-British and anti-Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
.
The new government proceeded to disenfranchise the plantation workers of Indian descent, the Indian Tamils, using the Ceylon Citizenship Act
Ceylon Citizenship Act
The Ceylon Citizenship Act No. 18 of 1948 was a controversial law passed by the Ceylon Parliament which denied citizenship to 11% of the population.-Background:...
of 1948 and the Parliamentary Elections Amendment Act of 1949. These measures were intended primarily to undermine the Left electorally. Of these acts Dr. N. M. Perera said: 'I thought racialism of this type died with Houston Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
. I do not believe that anyone claiming to be a Statesman would ask us to accede to a bill of this nature ... We cannot proceed as if we were God's chosen race quite apart from the rest of the world; that we and we alone have the right to be citizens of this country.'http://www.uthr.org/BP/volume1/Chapter1.htm
The split between the LSSP and the BSP had weakened the movement, and in particular the BSP which was clearly the smaller of the two parties. A process of reunification was initiated, and in 1950 the BSP merged into the LSSP. Through the reunification LSSP became the Lankan section 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...
. However, Philip Gunawardena opposed the reconciliation with the BSP. Thus he left LSSP and formed a new party, Viplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja Party
Viplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja Party
Viplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja Party was a group that broke away from the Trotskyist Lanka Sama Samaja Party, since Philip Gunawardena refused to reconcile with the Bolshevik Samasamaja Party...
(VLSSP).
At the 1952 general election, there was a setback for the party. The country was relatively prosperous due to the price of natural rubber being driven up by the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
. Also, the disenfranchisement the Indian Tamil estate workers by the UNP government deprived the LSSP of one of its main bases. Moreover it damaged the electoral fortunes of its ally, the CIC, which went unrepresented.
Hartal and after
In 1953 the LSSP took the lead in organising the HartalHartal 1953
Hartal 1953 was a country-wide demonstration, commonly known as a hartal, held in Ceylon on August 12, 1953. It was organized to protest of the policies and actions of the incumbent United National Party government, and resulted in the resignation of the Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake...
. The immediate cause for the Hartal was a hike in the price of rice
Rice
Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...
from 25 cent to 70 cent per measure by the UNP government. At the time J.R. Jayawardena was the finance minister of the country. Maintaining the price of rice at 25 cent had been an electoral promise given by UNP in the 1952 elections, and when the new rates were introduced to the public there was a massive anger against it. Other harsh ingredients of the 1953 budget included suspension of the meals given to schoolchildren and hikes in rail ticket fares and postal fees.
A hartal is a form of general strike
General strike
A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region, or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants...
, which attempts to bring all commercial activity to a standsstill for a limited period. Prior to 1953 it was a relatively unknown concept in Ceylon. But the LSSP leaders who had been in exile in India during the war had witnessed the immense impact of the hartals during the Quit India Movement
Quit India Movement
The Quit India Movement , or the August Movement was a civil disobedience movement launched in India in August 1942 in response to Mohandas Gandhi's call for immediate independence. Gandhi hoped to bring the British government to the negotiating table...
.
The Communist Party and VLSSP supported the Hartal. SLFP and CIC expressed sympathy for the demand of the Hartal, but did not actively support the call for strike. The Ceylon Mercantile Union
Ceylon Mercantile Union
The Ceylon Mercantile Union is one of the largest trade unions in the commercial sector in Sri Lanka.The Ceylon Mercantile, Industrial and General Workers Union was originally built in 1928 as a white-collar union in the mercantile sector. Victor Corea and A.E...
supported the demands of the strike, but in not take part in it. Rather CMU encouraged their members to go to work wearing black armbands as a means to protest.
The Hartal took the country to a complete standstill. Afraid of a revolution in the making, the government cabinet sought refuge on the HMS Newfoundland, a Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
warship offshore. The mass upsurge that accompanied the action of the strikers caused Dudley Senanayake
Dudley Senanayake
Dudley Shelton Senanayake was a Ceylonese politician, who became the second Prime Minister of Ceylon and went on to become prime minister on 2 more times during the 1950s and 1960s.-Early life:Dudley was born on 19 June, 1911 as the eldest son to Molly Dunuwila and Don Stephen Senanayake, who...
to resign from the premiership. The Hartal emoboldended LSSP to start to consider that the party might be able to seize state power.
In 1956 the LSSP went into a no-contest pact with the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (People's United Front) of SWRD Bandaranaike, which he had formed with Philip Gunawardena and the VLSSP. The MEP won a landslide in the polls held that year. The LSSP once again became the main opposition party, and N. M. Perera became the Leader of Opposition. LSSP supported the reforms initiated by the new government, but opposed the policy of 'Sinhala Only'. In July 1959 both LSSP and the Communist Party withdrew their support for the government, as inner-party feuds within the SLFP had resulted in a temporary victory for the right-wing and expulsions of leftist ministers like Philip Gunawardena.
In March 1960, the LSSP contested the general elections on the slogan 'forward to a Sama Samaja Government'. The votes won by the LSSP, the Communists and the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna
Mahajana Eksath Peramuna
The Mahajana Eksath Peramuna is a left-wing political party in Sri Lanka. Today the party is led by Dinesh Gunawardena, son of Philip Gunawardena....
(a new party, not the 1956 front) of Philip Gunawardena, were sufficient to have made them the biggest bloc in Parliament. However, due to their contesting separately, the LSSP and the MEP won just 10 seats each, the CP a mere 3. Elections were held again in July and the LSSP had a no-contest pact with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party
Sri Lanka Freedom Party
The Sri Lanka Freedom Party is one of the major political parties in Sri Lanka. It was founded by S.W.R.D Bandaranaike in 1951 and, since then, has been one of the two largest parties in the Sri Lankan political arena. It first came to power in 1956 and since then has been the predominant party in...
(SLFP) of Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike
Sirimavo Bandaranaike
Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike was a Sri Lankan politician and the world's first female head of government...
, which was thus able to form a government. The Fourth International was highly critical of the electoral tactics of LSSP, and the LSSP chose not to attend the World Congress of FI the following year.
In 1962, officers of the Army and Police attempted a coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
aimed at overthrowing the government and bringing the UNP to power. This plot was foiled, and the SLFP lurched left-wards. The local branches of the petroleum
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
companies was nationalised, leading to a boycott of the country by the oil multi-nationals; the boycott was broken with help from the Kansas Oil Producers Co-operative and the Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n Government.
A parallel process was one of increasing self-confidence and unity amongst the Lankan left-wing. In the parliament they were in the opposition. On May Day
May Day
May Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures....
1963 the three main left parties (LSSP, CP and MEP) held a massive joint rally. That was followed by the launching of United Left Front on August 12, the tenth anniversary of the 1953 Hartal. ULF launched agitations on issues like bring down the prices of essential commodities. ULF represented an immediate threat to the governance of SLFP, and SLFP were not late in reacting to it. It began to offer the left parties ministerial posts and worked intensively to break the unity of ULF.
Trade union activities
GCSU Sri Lanka
The Government Clerical Service Union is a trade union of clerical workers who work in the public sector in Sri Lanka. This was formed in the 1920s when Sri Lanka was under British colonial rule...
, which gave the a great support to the political struggle of LSSP. The forefront leader of GCSU, I. J. Wickrema, openly appealed for support to the LSSP-CP coalition in order to defeat imperialism. The GCSU publication Red Tape constantly criticized the UNP government and asked the people to support the left.
Coalition politics
In 1964 the LSSP held a conference, at which the majority agreed with a theoretical categorisation of the SLFP by Hector AbhayavardhanaHector Abhayavardhana
Hector Abhayavardhana is a Sri Lankan Trotskyist theoretician, a long-standing member of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party and a founder-member of the Bolshevik-Leninist Party of India, Ceylon and Burma.-Early life:...
as a petty bourgeois party, leaving the door open to a united front
United front
The united front is a form of struggle that may be pursued by revolutionaries. The basic theory of the united front tactic was first developed by the Comintern, an international communist organisation created by revolutionaries in the wake of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.According to the theses of...
with it. A minority faction, led by Colvin R de Silva and Leslie Goonewardena, opposed the move but opted to stay within the Party. Another minority faction led by Edmund Samarakkody
Edmund Samarakkody
Edmund Samarakkody was a leading Trotskyist in Sri Lanka and at one time a member of that country's parliament. He was a leader of the Fourth International's section, the LSSP, and a supporter of the establishment of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International in 1963...
, Merryl Fernando, V Karalasingham and 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:...
, left the party and formed 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).
Later that year, the LSSP joined the coalition government of Sirimavo Bandaranaike. Three of its MPs became Ministers; Dr N. M. Perera (Finance), Cholomondely Goonewardena (Public Works) and Anil Moonesinghe
Anil Moonesinghe
Anil Moonesinghe was a Sri Lankan Trotskyist revolutionary politician and trade unionist. He became a Member of Parliament, a Cabinet Minister, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament and a Diplomat. He authored several books and edited newspapers and magazines. He was Chairperson and General Manager of...
(Communications). The LSSP was expelled from the Fourth International, and the membership was passed on to LSSP(R).
The Coalition Government fell in 1965, due to the desertion of several members. However, the number of votes won by the LSSP increased at the general election held that year. After the election, supporters of the party were subject to a vicious campaign of victimisation by the new seven-party coalition led by the UNP. In 1968, the LSSP joined the SLFP and the CP in a United Front (Sri Lanka)
United Front (Sri Lanka)
The United Front was a political alliance in Sri Lanka, formed by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party , the Lanka Sama Samaja Party and the Communist Party of Sri Lanka in 1968...
. That year's joint May Day rally was said to be the biggest ever to take place in Sri Lanka.
In 1970, the United Front, of which the LSSP was part, was elected to power in landslide. The LSSP had 18 MPs in the House of Representatives. Dr NM Perera, Dr Colvin R de Silva and Leslie Goonewardena became Ministers of Finance, Constitutional Affairs with Plantation Industries and Transport, respectively.
The Party was able to advance parts of its programme considerably: Foreign-owned plantations were nationalised, democratically elected workers' councils were established in state corporations and government departments under the purview of its ministries (and of that of a sympathiser, T.B. Subasinghe), and measures were taken that narrowed the gap between the rich and poor.
Several LSSP members were appointed to important posts in which they could press forward the party programme: e.g. Anil Moonesinghe became Chairman of the Ceylon Transport Board
Ceylon Transport Board
The Sri Lanka Transport Board is a bus service provider in Sri Lanka.Between 1958 and 1978, the Ceylon Transport Board was the nationalised enterprise which handled all public bus transport in Sri Lanka. At its peak, it was the largest omnibus company in the world - with about 7,000 buses and...
and theoretician Hector Abhayavardhana was made Chairman of the People's Bank
People's Bank
People's Bank, or variations such as People's State Bank or People's National Bank Building, may refer to:in Austria*Volksbank, Central European retail bank headquartered in Austriain China...
and Doric de Souza was appointed permanent secretary to the Ministry of Plantations.
Dr Seneka Bibile
Seneka Bibile
Senaka Bibile was a Sri Lankan pharmacologist. He was the founder of Sri Lanka’s drug policy, which was used as a model for development of policies based on rational pharmaceutical use in other countries as well by the World Health Organization, the United Nations Conference on Trade and...
, a member of the LSSP, became the founder Chairperson of the State Pharmaceuticals Corporation
State Pharmaceuticals Corporation of Sri Lanka
The State Pharmaceuticals Corporation is a state-owned enterprise with its headquarters in Colombo, Sri Lanka. It is the largest supplier of drugs in the country, and is tasked with providing quality-assured health care items that are safe and effective, at an affordable price, while educating the...
(SPC) - which distributed drugs at affordable rates, by generic name instead of by trade name. The SPC, which became a model for the Third World and remains so today, was based on a report on Pharmaceuticals in Sri Lanka of the which the authors were Dr S. A. Wickremesinghe and Seneka Bibile.
The Congress of Samasamaja Youth Leagues and the other bodies affiliated to the party (membership of the party proper was still restricted to a small cadre, on a Leninist model) saw unprecedented growth at this time. The leadership looked to Salvador Allende
Salvador Allende
Salvador Allende Gossens was a Chilean physician and politician who is generally considered the first democratically elected Marxist to become president of a country in Latin America....
's Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
as a model of revolution through parliamentary means. Leslie Goonewardene, easily the most cosmopolitan of the party's leaders, established contact with the 'Captains' of the Movement of the Armed Forces ('Movimento das Forças Armadas' - MFA) of Portugal, after the Carnation Revolution
Carnation Revolution
The Carnation Revolution , also referred to as the 25 de Abril , was a military coup started on 25 April 1974, in Lisbon, Portugal, coupled with an unanticipated and extensive campaign of civil resistance...
of April 1974; he also became a theoretician of Eurocommunism
Eurocommunism
Eurocommunism was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties to develop a theory and practice of social transformation that was more relevant in a Western European democracy and less aligned to the influence or control of the Communist Party of the Soviet...
and its application to Sri Lanka, writing a pamphlet 'Can we Get To Socialism This Way'.
In 1975, the United Front broke up with the expulsion of the LSSP ministers. The party then pursued a line of forming a new socialist alliance, the Socialist United Front (SUF). This was finally formed in 1977 with the CPSL and with the People's Democratic Party (PDP), made up of leftist elements from the SLFP led by Nanda Ellawela.
In the wilderness
That year, disaster struck - the LSSP and CP lost all their Parliamentary seats, and the Left was unrepresented - something that had not happened in the 46 years since the introduction of universal suffrageUniversal suffrage
Universal suffrage consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens as a whole, though it may also mean extending said right to minors and non-citizens...
. The party and its allies received
over 8% of the vote, but this was not sufficient to win any seats under the first-past-the-post system then in place in Sri Lanka.
The same year the LSSP suffered another split, as a group led by the youth leader Vasudeva Nanayakkara
Vasudeva Nanayakkara
Vasudeva Nanayakkara is a veteran left-wing Sri Lankan politician, Member of Parliament and a former presidential candidate.-Politics:Nanayakkara joined the Lanka Sama Samaja Party as student in 1958...
broke away and formed the Nava Sama Samaja Party
Nava Sama Samaja Party
The Nava Sama Samaja Pakshaya is a Trotskyist political party in Sri Lanka. It was formed through the expulsion from the Lanka Sama Samaja Party of the Vama Samsamja tendency led by Dr Vickrambahu , Sumanasiri Liyanage and others. Siritunga Jayasuriya and Vasudeva Nanayakkara joined later...
(NSSP).
In 1979, Dr N. M. Perera died. His funeral was one of the largest ever seen in Colombo.
In 1980, an even worse catastrophe occurred. The UNP Government provoked a strike in the Railway Department. The strike became a general strike
General strike
A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region, or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants...
. The government cracked down on the trade unions, jailing many labour leaders, including Anil Moonesinghe and G.E.H. Perera of the Government Workers' Trade Union Federation, and introducing thousands of blacklegs from the lumpen
Lumpen
Lumpen can refer to:* Lumpen , a Chicago-based art and politics magazine* Lumpenproletariat, a term in Marxist economics* Lumpenbourgeoisie* Swedish slang for military service, adopted by armed forces as a near-formal word....
elements of Colombo's slums. The strike was crushed and with it the LSSP trade union movement.
In 1982 the LSSP split over the question of a coalition with the SLFP. Anil Moonesinghe, Cholomondely Goonewardena, G. E. H. Perera, Wilfred Senanayake and others formed the Sri Lanka Sama Samaja Party
Sri Lanka Sama Samaja Party
The Sri Lanka Sama Samaja Party was formed in 1982, when the LSSP split over the question of a coalition with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party ....
(SLSSP), which dissolved the next year and merged with the SLFP. Moonesinghe charged that the LSSP had been taken over by the BSP faction. Scuffles broke out between the LSSP and the SLSSP at the joint May Day
May Day
May Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures....
procession that year.
At the Presidential election held that year, the LSSP put forward Dr Colvin R de Silva as its candidate, the SLSSP backed Hector Kobbekaduwa of the SLFP. Dr Colvin R de Silva was beaten into 5th place.
Following the signing of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord
Indo-Sri Lanka Accord
The Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord was an accord signed in Colombo on July 29, 1987, between Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President J.R. Jayewardene. The accord was expected to resolve the ongoing Sri Lankan civil war...
in 1987, the party was at the receiving end of the terror campaign which also took the life of Vijaya Kumaratunga
Vijaya Kumaratunga
Kovilage Anton Vijaya Kumaranatunga was a popular Sri Lankan film actor and politician, married to former Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga from 1978 to his assassination in 1988.- Family life :In 1978, Kumaratunga married Chandrika Bandaranaike, daughter of the...
, the leader of the Sri Lanka Mahajana Party and a former LSSP member.
1994 and after
The LSSP joined the People's AlliancePeople's Alliance (Sri Lanka)
The People's Alliance is a front of political parties in Sri Lanka, formed in 1994.It comprises the following parties:* Sri Lanka Freedom Party* Lanka Sama Samaja Party* Communist Party of Sri Lanka* Sri Lanka Mahajana Party...
, the front led by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party
Sri Lanka Freedom Party
The Sri Lanka Freedom Party is one of the major political parties in Sri Lanka. It was founded by S.W.R.D Bandaranaike in 1951 and, since then, has been one of the two largest parties in the Sri Lankan political arena. It first came to power in 1956 and since then has been the predominant party in...
in 1994. It had three members elected to Parliament that year. Bernard Soysa was Minister of Science and Technology in the PA Government, being succeeded by Batty Weerakoon on his demise.
In 1999 LSSP Member of Parliament Vasudeva Nanayakkara
Vasudeva Nanayakkara
Vasudeva Nanayakkara is a veteran left-wing Sri Lankan politician, Member of Parliament and a former presidential candidate.-Politics:Nanayakkara joined the Lanka Sama Samaja Party as student in 1958...
was expelled after having publicly criticized the PA government. Nanayakkara had joined LSSP from the NSSP in 1994 and been elected MP from Ratnapura
Ratnapura
- Floods :The town of Ratnapura is situated in the flooding plain of the river Kalu. The town experiences regular floods usually in the month of May. There is no large dam across the Kalu, so this leaves the city at the mercy of nature's forces every year. Several proposals have been made to reduce...
. After his expulsion Nanayakkara floated the Democratic Left Front
Democratic Left Front
The Democratic Left Front was formed as a non-sectarian and non-authoritarian anti-capitalist front in South Africa. It was formed at the Conference for a Democratic Left held in Johannesburg in January 2011....
.
When the SLFP shelved the PA and formed the United People's Freedom Alliance
United People's Freedom Alliance
The United People's Freedom Alliance is a political alliance in Sri Lanka. The current leader of the United People's Freedom Alliance is Mahinda Rajapaksa and Susil Premajayantha is the general secretary of UPFA.The alliance was formed by:...
together with Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna
The Janathā Vimukthi Peramuṇa is a Marxist-Leninist, Communist political party in Sri Lanka. The party was involved in two armed uprisings against the ruling governments in 1971 and 1987-89...
ahead of the 2004 elections, the CPSL and LSSP initially stayed out. They did however, sign a memorandum with the UPFA at a later stage and contested the elections on the UPFA platform. LSSP won one parliamentary seat. Its lone MP, Tissa Vitarana, was named Minister of Science and Technology.
The LSSP has gradually decreased in strength. The Congress of Samasamaja Youth Leagues has been disbanded. The party celebrated its 70th anniversary in December 2005, with a well-attended rally in Colombo.
May Day parades
The slogans based on the war in the country Communist Party, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, and the Democratic Left Front held their combined Socialist People's Front's May Day Rally at Kirullepone, ColomboColombo
Colombo is the largest city of Sri Lanka. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, the capital of Sri Lanka. Colombo is often referred to as the capital of the country, since Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte is a satellite city of Colombo...
on May 1, 2008.
Organisation
Locals also exist inside trade unions.
The LSSP is internally very democratic. The supreme body is the conference, which is summoned every few years. The conference decides on policy and elects a Central Committee
Central Committee
Central Committee was the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, whether ruling or non-ruling in the twentieth century and of the surviving, mostly Trotskyist, states in the early twenty first. In such party organizations the...
(CC) to preside over its implementation. The CC appoints members to bureaux to look after specific area, such as the Educational Bureau (EB), Organisational Bureau (Orgburo
Orgburo
The Orgburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union existed from 1919–52, until the 19th Congress, when the Orgburo was abolished and its functions were transferred to the enlarged Secretariat....
) and Trade Union Bureau (TUB); The Political Bureau (Politburo
Politburo
Politburo , literally "Political Bureau [of the Central Committee]," is the executive committee for a number of communist political parties.-Marxist-Leninist states:...
) is appointed to deal with day-to-day political matters and effectively provides leadership. The CC also appoints an Editorial Board for running the Samasamajaya newspaper.
The Party also has regional groupings, which have conferences and appoint office bearers for the Regional Committees (RCs). Internationally, there was just one Local, the London Branch. This was also known as the Lanka Socialist League, and was anchored around Wesley Muthiah.
General Secretary
There is strictly no General SecretaryGeneral Secretary
The office of general secretary is staffed by the chief officer of:*The General Secretariat for Macedonia and Thrace, a government agency for the Greek regions of Macedonia and Thrace...
, but a Secretary to the Central Committee, assisted by a Deputy and an Assistant. Secretaries have been:
- Vernon Gunasekera
- Leslie Goonewardena
- Bernard Soyza
- Batty Weerakoon
- Wimalasiri de Mel
Electoral results
In recent elections, LSSP has contested on the lists of the People's AlliancePeople's Alliance (Sri Lanka)
The People's Alliance is a front of political parties in Sri Lanka, formed in 1994.It comprises the following parties:* Sri Lanka Freedom Party* Lanka Sama Samaja Party* Communist Party of Sri Lanka* Sri Lanka Mahajana Party...
and, in 2004, on the lists of the United People's Freedom Alliance
United People's Freedom Alliance
The United People's Freedom Alliance is a political alliance in Sri Lanka. The current leader of the United People's Freedom Alliance is Mahinda Rajapaksa and Susil Premajayantha is the general secretary of UPFA.The alliance was formed by:...
.
Leaders and important members
The LSSP has never had a formal leader. In the period immediately after its formation, Dr Colvin R de Silva was elected President, but the post was done away with later. For many years, NM Perera was the leader of the LSSP Parliamentary Group and was recognised by the public as the party leader. However, the actual leadership has always been that of a group represented in the various bureaux of the Central Committee.
A large proportion of the leadership of the Left in Sri Lanka started their political lives in the LSSP. This is even true of the political right; for example, Esmond Wickremasinghe (the father of Ranil Wickremasinghe
Ranil Wickremasinghe
Ranil Shriyan Wickremesinghe , MP, is a Sri Lankan politician and current Leader of the Opposition in the Sri Lankan parliament. He was Prime Minister of Sri Lanka twice, from May 7, 1993 to August 19, 1994 and from December 9, 2001 to April 6, 2004...
) was a leading member of the party - before marrying the daughter of the wealthy press baron D. R Wijewardena and being appointed editor-in-chief of Lake House
Lake House
Lake House is an Elizabethan country house dating from 1578, in Wilsford-cum-Lake in Wiltshire, England. It is a Grade I listed building. The gardens are Grade II listed in the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest....
. W. Dahanayake, the later prime minister, was associated with the LSSP before gravitating right-wards (finally ending up in the UNP).
- Dr S.A. Wickremasinghe
- Philip GunawardenaPhilip GunawardenaDon Philip Rupasinghe Gunawardena introduced Trotskyism to Sri Lanka, where he is a national hero, known as 'the Father of Socialism' and as 'the Lion of Boralugoda'.-Early life & education:...
- Dr Colvin R de Silva
- Dr N.M. Perera
- Wilmot A. PereraWilmot A. PereraWilmot A. Perera was a Sri Lankan statesman and philanthropist. A Member of Parliament, he was Ceylonese's first Ambassador to China....
- Leslie Goonewardena
- Robert Gunewardena
- Edmund SamarakkodyEdmund SamarakkodyEdmund Samarakkody was a leading Trotskyist in Sri Lanka and at one time a member of that country's parliament. He was a leader of the Fourth International's section, the LSSP, and a supporter of the establishment of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International in 1963...
- V. Karalasingham (Carlo)
- Vivienne GoonewardenaVivienne GoonewardenaViolet Vivienne Goonewardena was a Sri Lankan pioneer socialist and feminist. Her life and politics were shaped by the most interesting times of the Sri Lankan Left and she was in turn one of its more colourful personalities.-Political beginnings:Goonewardena was drawn into politics while still...
- S.C.C. Anthonipillai (Toni)
- Selina Perera
- Mark Anthony BracegirdleMark Anthony BracegirdleMark Anthony Lyster Bracegirdle , was an Anglo-Australian Marxist revolutionary, who played a key role in Sri Lanka's independence struggle. He was one of the handful of European Radicals in Sri Lanka...
- Regi SiriwardenaRegi SiriwardenaRegi Siriwardena was a Sri Lankan academic, journalist, poet, writer, playwright and writer of screenplays.- Early life & education :...
- P. H. William de SilvaWilliam de SilvaPeduru Hewage William de Silva was a 20th century Ceylonese politician with Marxist/Trotskyist leanings.P. H. William de Silva was born at Kahatapitiya in Batapola, Ambalangoda, Ceylon, to a wealthy land-owning family...
- Bernard Soysa
- P.D. Wimalasena
- Hector AbhayavardhanaHector AbhayavardhanaHector Abhayavardhana is a Sri Lankan Trotskyist theoretician, a long-standing member of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party and a founder-member of the Bolshevik-Leninist Party of India, Ceylon and Burma.-Early life:...
- Doric De Souza
- G.P. Perera ('Elephant Perera')
- D.G. William ('Galle Face William')
- Cholomondely Goonewardena
- Wilfred SenanayakeWilfred SenanayakeWilfred Senanayake former MP representing the electorate of Homagama.He was educated at Nalanda College Colombo. Unbeknownst to his parents, he joined the Army....
- Anil MoonesingheAnil MoonesingheAnil Moonesinghe was a Sri Lankan Trotskyist revolutionary politician and trade unionist. He became a Member of Parliament, a Cabinet Minister, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament and a Diplomat. He authored several books and edited newspapers and magazines. He was Chairperson and General Manager of...
- Seneka BibileSeneka BibileSenaka Bibile was a Sri Lankan pharmacologist. He was the founder of Sri Lanka’s drug policy, which was used as a model for development of policies based on rational pharmaceutical use in other countries as well by the World Health Organization, the United Nations Conference on Trade and...
- Osmund JayaratneOsmund JayaratneVidya Jyothi Osmund Jayaratne was Sri Lankan academic and politician. He was the President of the Colombo Campus, University of Sri Lanka , Emeritus Professor of Physics....
- G.E.H. Perera
- Vasudewa Nanayakkara
- I. J. Wickrema
- Batty Weerakoon
- Tissa Vitarana
- DeshabanduDeshabanduDeshabandu is a National Honours of Sri Lanka, a civil honour awarded by the Government of Sri Lanka. It is conventionally used as a title or prefix to the awardees name. Deshabandu ranks lower than Deshamanya.-Awardees:Awardees include:*N. H. Keerthiratne...
Kalasuri Vishvaprasdini Dr. Tissa AbeysekaraTissa AbeysekaraDeshabandu Kalasuri Vishvaprasdini Dr. Tissa Abeysekera was a Sri Lankan filmmaker, writer, critic, presenter, interviewer and political activist.-Early life:... - Carlo Fonseka
- V. S. Rajah ('Raja Sahodaraya')
The names in brackets were the pseudonyms used by V. Karalasingham, and S. C. C. Anthonypillai while underground during the Second World War http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/pseud.htm which continued to be used as nicknames long after they were no longer required for secrecy; and the nicknames given to the trade unionists G. P. Perera and D. G. William, from their original places of work, the Elephant cigarette factory and the Galle Face Hotel
Galle Face Hotel
The Galle Face Hotel, founded in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1864, is the oldest hotel east of Suez. It is located at 2, Galle Road, Colombo 03. The Ceylon Hotels Corporation is now part of the Galle Face Hotel Group. The hotel is a member of Select Hotels and Resorts International. The current chairman...
.
Publications
The LSSP's main organ has always been the Samasamajaya newspaper. Its founder editor was B. J. Fernando, who composed the Sinhala version of the Internationale. Today, its publication is somewhat irregular. For many years it was supplemented by the TamilTamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
Samadharmam which was commenced in 1938. Its first editor was K. Ramanathan, later succeeded by T. E. Pushparajan.
In the period of underground struggle, the Kamkaruwa, was revived as a legal Sinhalese weekly the 'open' section of the Party and published until banned by Admiral Sir Geoffrey Layton
Geoffrey Layton
Admiral Sir Geoffrey Layton GBE, KCB, KCMG, DSO , was a British Royal Navy officer.-Early life and career:...
. The 'open' section also brought out Straight Left in English.
In 1960 a special magazine was brought out to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the LSSP, Visi Pas Vasrak. The large number of members of the Ceylon Mercantile Union
Ceylon Mercantile Union
The Ceylon Mercantile Union is one of the largest trade unions in the commercial sector in Sri Lanka.The Ceylon Mercantile, Industrial and General Workers Union was originally built in 1928 as a white-collar union in the mercantile sector. Victor Corea and A.E...
(CMU) who had been sacked from Lake House
Lake House
Lake House is an Elizabethan country house dating from 1578, in Wilsford-cum-Lake in Wiltshire, England. It is a Grade I listed building. The gardens are Grade II listed in the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest....
that year collaborated in its production.
In 1965, in response to the need for a broad-left popular newspaper to counteract Lake House's Dinamina, the LSSP and members of the SLFP began the Janadina daily and the Janasathiya weekly newspaper, later supplemented by the poetry periodical Janakavi. The CMU members sacked from Lake House were prominent in these publications as well. A similar task was carried out in English by The Nation ; however, when this weekly was taken over by the SLFP, the LSSP started the Socialist Nation, edited by Hector Abhayavardhana.
A press, the 'Star Press', was begun as a semi-commercial venture, to print the LSSP's publications and still operates.
In 1975 a theoretical journal, Rajaya was published, edited by a board led by Osmund Jayaratne. This and its English version State, were suspended after a few issues.
See also
- Cocos Islands MutinyCocos Islands MutinyThe Cocos Islands Mutiny was a failed mutiny by Ceylonese soldiers against British officers, on the Cocos Islands in May 1942, during the Second World War....
- Ceylon Federation of LabourCeylon Federation of LabourThe Ceylon Federation of Labour is an organisation bringing together trade unions in the private, semi-government and co-operative sectors of Sri Lanka.- History :...
- GCSU Sri LankaGCSU Sri LankaThe Government Clerical Service Union is a trade union of clerical workers who work in the public sector in Sri Lanka. This was formed in the 1920s when Sri Lanka was under British colonial rule...
- I. J. Wickrema
- Communist Party of Sri LankaCommunist Party of Sri LankaThe Communist Party of Sri Lanka is a communist political party in Sri Lanka. At the last legislative elections, on 2 April 2004, the party was part of the United People's Freedom Alliance that won 45.6% of the popular vote and 105 out of 225 seats....