page_title: Lanka Sama Samaja Party
section_title: Proscription and move to India
hierarchical_section_title: Lanka Sama Samaja Party / History / Proscription and move to India
caption_attribution_description: Photo taken by me using B &amp; W film camera.Photo shows another Procession view at Bangalore during Quit India movement by Indian National Congress.
context_page_description: The Lanka Sama Samaja Party, often abbreviated as LSSP is a major Trotskyist political party in Sri Lanka. It was the first political party in Sri Lanka, having been founded in 1935 by Leslie Goonewardene, N.M. Perera, Colvin R. de Silva, Philip Gunawardena and Robert Gunawardena. It currently is a member of the main ruling coalition in the government of Sri Lanka and is headed by Tissa Vitharana. The party was founded with Marxist-Leninst ideals, and is classified as a party with Socialist aims.
  The LSSP emerged as a major political force in the Sri Lankan independence movement during the 1940s, during which time the party was forced to go underground due to its opposition to the British war effort. The party played an instrumental role in the Indian independence and later Quit India Movement through the Bolshevik–Leninist Party of India, Ceylon and Burma. Through its efforts, India gained Independence from Britain in 1947, followed by Sri Lanka in 1948.
  In the late early 1950s, the LSSP took the lead in organising the Hartal strike, caused by vast food price inflation by the UNP government. At the time, J.R. Jayawardena was the finance minister of the country.
context_section_description: Following the Japanese raid on Colombo on 5 April 1942, the imprisoned leaders escaped and fled to India. In India, the proscribed LSSPers merged their party into the Bolshevik-Leninist Party of India, Ceylon and Burma (BLPI). Preparatory work had been done in this connection by Leslie Goonewardene, Doric de Souza and Bernard Soysa. The LSSP thus became the Ceylon section of BLPI. Through the BLPI, the Ceylonese trotskyists attained their formal membership in the Fourth International. The Ceylonese Samasamajists who went to India participated actively along with the BLPI in the struggle for independence that commenced in August 1942 in India. It was generally realised that the impending open revolt against imperialism in India was going to be decisive for the future not only of India but of Ceylon as well. Their property and assets back home were confiscated. Various other members were arrested. Only Colvin R. de Silva, Leslie Goonewardene, Vivienne Goonewardena and Selina Perera succeeded in evading arrest up to the end.
  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 Goonawardene and Edmund Samarakkoddy.
  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-based (revolutionary) party. On 25 October 1945 fist-fights broke out at between the two groups at a meeting of the BSP.
caption: Procession in Bangalore.
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