June 30, 2013, 9:25 pm


by Dew Gunasekara


General Secretary


Communist Party of Sri Lanka


July 3rd is our Party’s birthday. Our Party has turned 70 years. It also coincides with the 80th Anniversary of the anti-Imperialist Suriya Mal Movement of 1933. It is a reasonable period of time in the life span of a man, but not at all in the life of a movement like ours which is committed to changing a society, particularly so in view of its long-term objectives.


Our Party was formed in colonial days. Though it was founded formally in 1943, its origins go so far back as 1930s when our Founding Leaders conceived the idea of forming a Socialist Party. It was a process through stages of development in the struggle for total independence as against reforms.


The process passed through:


The Colombo Youth League (1929).


The All-Ceylon Youth Congress (1931).


Suriya Mal Movement (1933


The Lanka Samasamaja Party (1935).


Colombo Workers Club (1940).


United Socialist Party (1940) (Proscribed by the Colonial; Rule). Communist Party of Sri Lanka (1943)


Comrades Dr. S.A. Wickremasinghe, Pieter Keuneman, M.G. Mendis, Rev. Udakendewela Sri Saranankara, and A. Vaidyalingam were the pioneering leaders of our Party, who provided us with philosophy, vision, knowledge, strength and discipline to form and build the Party – We dip our Red Banner and salute them.


On the occasion of our 70th Anniversary, we remember also with great respect and honour the founding leaders of the Suriya Mal Movement and the Lanka Samasamaja Party (the first Socialist Party of Sri Lanka), Dr. N.M. Perera, Philip Gunawardena, Dr. Colvin R. de Silva, Leslie Gunawardena and many others who fought with our Leaders as comrades-in-arms.


Their friendship and fraternal relations go as far back as their student days in Colombo and London. Their spirit of patriotism and internationalism grew, nourished and developed in their struggles in the anti—Imperialist Movement, the movement for Total Independence, Trade Union Movement, anti-Malaria Campaign and struggles against feudalism, colonialism and capitalism.


We salute with deep debt of gratitude all others who gave their lives, languished in jail, remand prison, subjected to repression and suffered in many ways in their struggle for the cause of our Party, our Movement, and our Country during these 70 years. We salute those both dead and living who devoted their lives, energies and talents for the cause of our Party.


We make special mention of Comrades Dr. S.A. Wickremasinghe, Rev. Udakendawala Sri Saranankara, M.G. Mendis, V.A. Samarawickrama, D.P. Yasodis, Bennet Silva, and W.S. de Silva who languished in jail for long years with hard labour.


Our Party was formed under illegal conditions for its precursor — the United Socialist Party formed in 1941 had been banned by the British Colonialists. It had been working both under legal and illegal conditions, in Parliament in the Opposition for 47 years and 23 years as coalition-partners in three Administrations.


Ours is a Party which suffered defeats, setbacks, retreats and proscriptions. Ours is a Party which was subjected to slanders, vilifications, violence and reprisals. Self- critically, ours was not a Party devoid of errors or mistakes. We have made mistakes in our subjective assessments of situations but we have never caused tragedies to the people. Even at the cost of our political fortunes, we stood firmly and resolutely by our convictions and by our principled positions.


We have never, not in the least contributed to communal violence, terrorism, or anarchy as evidenced by our history and life. We are proud of the fact that our position on the ethnic question has been fully vindicated. Every other Party in the political life of our Country has by realization come nearer or is coming nearer to our position. We are indeed happy about it. Many of our precious lives had to be sacrificed both in the North and the South for the cause of Tamil people’s genuine and legitimate grievances.


Our Party, alone or collectively with our Sister Left Parties have contributed our share in the social development of our Country. We have never formed our own Governments but being in the Opposition mostly and also sharing power in the Coalition Governments, we have contributed enormously and lavishly by way of our knowledge, experience, energies, talents, innovations, intellectual inputs, conceptions, thinking towards the greater good of the Country. We as Sri Lankans are proud of our literacy rate, education levels, health and social security net works, as compared with our Sister Nations in the South Asia or the developing world. Why and How? If you leaf through the pages of Handsards of the two State Councils and Parliaments, you can arrive at the answers - the contribution made by our Left Leaders towards social thinking.


Since 1930s, we have won so much for the working class, peasantry, public servants, teachers, women, youth and students. They were through struggles of our Trade Union Movement, Peasant Movement, Women Movement, Youth and Students Movement. We never distorted or incapacitated their latent talents and energies but in fact raised their intellectual capacities - The Left Movement through its Students Movement made our schools and universities, genuine seats of learning unlike today. They were never seats of terrorism, hooliganism, plunder and squander as they appear to be so today.


We inculcated into the minds of our people true spirit of patriotism and internationalism - They are two sides of the same coin. Even today, our people’s feelings of solidarity with the people the world over remain intact and vibrant.


We are proud of the pioneering role it has played in developing friendship between our people and those of socialist and anti-imperialist countries. This has helped to sharpen and raise the anti-Imperialist, patriotic and internationalist consciousness of our people. Our Party has also contributed towards evolution of beneficial national policies on the spheres of industrialization, irrigation, agriculture, hydropower, education, housing, environment and health services etc.


We proudly say that in the past 70 years of our glorious history our Party is not stained with blood in its hands. We never resorted to terrorism. Even in armed struggles for national liberations, Communists the world over never resorted to terrorism even though enemies might have got killed in combat. That was the sacred rule rigidly enforced by Cuban Communists even in the jungle of Sierra Maestra. It was so in the case of Vietcong guerillas because Communists were humanists and stood for the cause of humanity. They want the people to live and then die.


In the ideological plane, it was a Herculean task to face anti-Communist hysteria, at the beginning of our Movement. Myths, mysteries, superstition, obscurantism had pervaded the broader spectrum of the society. Through our newspapers, publications, which were often proscribed, we were able to inculcate into the minds of the younger generation of a scientific world outlook. I must with deep respect remember a galaxy of social-oriented journalists with scientific world outlook nourished by our Party. Rev. Udakendawala Sri Saranankara, Pieter Keuneman, Hedy Keunaman, K. Ramanathan, E.S. Ratnaweera, Premalal Kumarasiri, Harry Abeygunawardena, N. Shanmugathasan, H.G.S. Ratnaweera, Nimal Karunathilaka, Ratna Deshapriya Senanayaka, Hema de Silva, B.A. Siriwardena, H.M.P. Mohideen, Surath Ambalangoda, P. Malalgoda, P. Ramanathan, S. Kandasamy, Basil Perera, Maud Keunaman, A.A. Latiff - all who are no longer with us. Of our editors and publishers, Dr. S.A. Wickremasinghe, Rev. Udakendawala Sri Saranankara thero, Bennet Silva, D.P. Yasodis were convicted and imprisoned for periods of one to five years. Even a provision under Sec. 13(3) f. was introduced into the first (Soulbury) Constitution of our Country in order to deprive our founding leader, Dr. S.A. Wickramasinghe who edited Janashakthi of his civic rights denying his right to contest the 1st. Parliamentary Election of 1947. In fact, the Law was enacted with retrospective effect. Dr. Wickremasinghe was the first media man in Sri Lanka convicted and sentenced to jail. Even under the 1978 Constitution, there was an attempt to tamper with the Constitution to prevent comrade Sarath Muttettuwegama for entering the Parliament.


Our Party Congresses nineteen in all had always been land-marks not only in the history of our movement but also in the political history of our Country. They changed or influenced the course of our political history.


Through our 2nd. Congress in 1948, our Party called upon a broad Democratic National Front in order to complete our Independence and consolidate our national independence. The 4th. Congress of 1950 clearly defined the stage of Sri Lankan Revolution and identified the political and social forces for a broad Progressive Front - The theory of broad fronts was then an anathema to the Left. Our Party had to carry out a deep ideological struggle against Left sectarianism. All subsequent broad front Governments whatever form they assumed, were the outcome of an intensive ideological struggle initiated by the Communist Party from its inception. The socio-economic transformation carried out by Progressive Governments since 1956 were significant results of that ideological struggle.


 To be continued tomorrow