The Lanka Sama Samaja Party, often abbreviated as LSSP, a major Trotskyist political party in Sri Lanka, and the first political party in Sri Lanka (then British Ceylon) was founded on this day in 1935, by Leslie Goonewardene, N.M. Perera, Colvin R. de Silva, Philip Gunawardena and Robert Gunawardena. Currently a member of the main ruling coalition in the government of Sri Lanka and headed by Professor Tissa Vitharana. founded with Leninist ideals, it 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 (BLPI). Through its efforts, India gained Independence from Britain in 1947, followed by Sri Lanka in 1948.
In the early 1950s, the LSSP took the lead in organizing the Hartal strike, caused by vast food price inflation by the United National Party (UNP) government. At the time, J.R. Jayawardena was the finance minister of the country. Maintaining the price of rice at 25 cents had been an electoral promise given by UNP in the 1952 elections, and when the new rates of 70 cents were introduced to the public there was a massive anger against it.
From the late 1940s to the 1960s, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party served as the opposition Party in Sri Lanka, whilst being recognized as the Sri Lankan wing of the Fourth International, an organization characterized by Trotskyism. During this period, the party was able to use its considerable political influence to reform the former British Colony of Ceylon into a socialist republic by nationalizing organizations in the banking, education, industry, media and trade sectors. In 1964, the party joined the United Front (Sri Lanka), and formed the Socialist Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) government, leading to its expulsion from the Fourth International. Through their election landslide in 1964, they brought the world’s first non-hereditary female head of government in modern history, Sirimavo Bandaranaike to power as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. The party peaked in political strength in the 1970s, when it was again leading a coalition government with multiple of its leaders in key cabinet roles.
-Wikipedia
Photo Caption – The formal ceremony marking the start of self-rule, with the opening of the first parliament at Independence Square by Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester in the presence of D.S. Senanayake as first Prime Minister of Ceylon –Wikipedia
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