By Sugeeswara Senadhira/Ceylon Today
Colombo, December 20: The oldest political party in Sri Lanka, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), once a most-powerful kingmaker and an essential partner in a coalition government, held its 86th anniversary on Saturday, 18 December. But it was a pathetic remnant of the once “champion of the working class.”
As the LSSP holds its anniversary under the theme ‘Development towards the elimination of poverty and for social justice’, the party activists must be recalling that the party was founded in 1935 for the same noble cause and the progress made during the last eight decades is nothing to crow about.
Subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates from around the world
The LSSP was established with a bang as the pioneer leaders were from the London School of Economics’. N.M. Perera had a double doctorate. Revolutionary firebrand Philip Gunawardena had returned from America after a guerrilla fighting stint in Spain. Colvin R. de Silva was a legal luminary; Leslie Gunawardane and a few others had already etched a mark in dedicated social service during the malaria epidemic in early 1930s.
Other top leaders included Dr Sugiswara A. Wickremesinghe, Pieter Keuneman, son of a Judge, British-born Australian socialist Mark Anthony Bracegirdle, Doric de Souza, Cholomondeley Goonewardene, Bernard Soyza, Vivienne Goonewardena, Robert Gunawardena and Anil Moonasinghe who proved their mettle during the ‘Suriya Mal Campaign’ to help the downtrodden people of the country.
READ: R.Premadasa speaking to international journalists
The services rendered by the socialist leaders during the Malaria pandemic won them the hearts and minds of the poorest of the poor in Sri Lankan villages. Then they became heroes of the working class by organizing very effective trade unions to win the rights of the workers from the capitalist elite establishment.
Their campaign against imperial rule got a boost from the Bracegirdle affair, during which the might of the people’s power against a powerful colonial government became evident. When British Governor Sir Reginald Stubbs declared Bracegirdle persona-non-grata and issued expulsion orders in 1937, the LSSP activists kept him hidden. Finally, rubbing salt into the wound, Bracegirdle addressed an LSSP May Day rally at Galle Face and vanished again before the hundreds of policemen present at the venue could arrest him. Finally, it was Governor Stubbs who was recalled to Britain.
READ: Vintage car rally in Colombo
With such a heroic revolutionary background, when LSSP was formed, the workers and peasants flocked to the new party. In addition to known Marxists, youthful leaders like Wilmot A. Perera from Horana, H.A.C. Wickramaratne from Galle and M.Chiththamparam from Jaffna too joined the new party.
In the first election the LSSP faced in 1936, N.M. Perera won in Ruwanwella and Philip Gunawardena won the Avissawella electorate. Those who extended support to the LSSP without joining the party included MPs D.M. Rajapaksa of Hambantota and Handy Perimpanayagam from Jaffna.
The LSSP’s first split was due to ideological differences between Stalinists and Trotskyites. Philip Gunawardena left the LSSP to form Viplavakari LSSP and Dr. Wickremesinghe and Keuneman formed the Ceylon Communist Party.
READ: ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ set to web the Sri Lankan box office
In the first General Election in 1947, the LSSP won 10 seats, while Bolsheviks Leninist and Socialist Alliance won 5 and the Communist Party won three seats. The UNP won 42 of the 95 seats. Independent member Sri Nissanka held a discussion at his Yamuna residence to explore the possibility of forming a non-United National Party (UNP) government and 51 MPs took part in the first round of talks. However, it dropped to 45 in the second round as LSSP leader Colvin R.de Silva;s ‘three-headed donkey’ remark was considered an insult to other groups. The talks ended in failure.
Subsequently, the UNP, with 42 seats, formed the government and within three years, the government disenfranchised the Indian-origin upcountry workers. Thus, the leftists lost a substantial number of votes in the following election.
However, the LSSP’s power had extended all over the country. A. Vaithyalingam and V. Kandaiah worked in the Tamil areas and M.G. Mendis, Premalal Kumarasiri and others spread the party’s wings in the South. The LSSP also attracted top intellectuals like Doric de Souza, Senaka Bibile, Osmund Jayaratne, Wickremabahu Karunaratne, Hector Abhayawardane, Carlo Fonseka, Reggie Siriwardane and Batty Weerakoon. The LSSP captured power in the Colombo Municipality and N.M. Perera became Mayor of Colombo.
READ: India-Lanka ties complicated since the Ramayana, but tensions are low now: Envoy Moragoda
In 1956, the LSSP entered into a “no-contest” pact with SWRD Bandaranaike’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP)-lead Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP) and won 14 seats to become the main opposition and N.M.Perera became the Opposition Leader. That was the LSSP’s biggest achievement as a single entity.
The decline of LSSP began in 1964, when the party joined the Sirimavo Bandaranaike’s Government. Two staunch LSSPers, Edmond Samarakkody and Merril Fernando, left the party protesting against the decision to join the SLFP Government. Much to the disappointment of socialists, Philip Gunwardena’s MEP ended up with the UNP alliance.
In 1970, SLFP-LSSP-CP alliance won a landslide victory and N.M.Perera, Colvin R. de Silva, Leslie Gunawardene and Pieter Keuneman got important cabinet portfolios. The first crisis the LSSP faced was the Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) insurrection in 1971. N.M.Perera and other leaders had to denounce the revolutionary youths who, in fact, were followers of the ideology professed by the party since its inception. Radical youth leader Vasudeva Nanayakkara also left the party due to differences with the old leadership.
Gradually, the LSSP lost its hold in the student unions and trade unions to the JVP and other radical groups as hardliners joined the new revolutionary groups. The moderates in the LSSP abandoned the party to join the SLFP and UNP. Recently, the LSSP split again when Jayanpathy Wickremaratne and 13 leading members left the party.
READ: Sri Lanka’s registered taxpayers decreased by 33%
In a back to the wall fight to revive the LSSP, the party leader Prof Tissa Vitarana said on the eve of the 86th anniversary that the LSSP is continuing its anti-imperialist and anti-big capitalist policies to solve the problems of the people.
“It is necessary to go in a socialist direction by strengthening state participation in the agricultural, industrial, and marketing sectors of the economy. In addition, the move towards a solidarity economy should be intensified. All loss-making institutions, both public and private, should be run on solidarity principles,” he said.
However, the general opinion is that these noble ideas will not cut ice with today’s generation and without the latter’s support the chances of revival are rather dim.
END
For similar articles, join our Telegram channel for the latest updates. – click here
