The Ceylon Labour Party (CLP) was a political party in

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

History

The Ceylon Labour Party was formed in October 1928, with A. E. Gunasinha as president and Proctor Marshall Perera as secretary. Its executive committee included C. H. Z. Fernando, A. Mahadeva,

C. W. W. Kannangara Dr. Cristopher William Wijekoon Kannangara (Sinhala language, Sinhala ආචාර්ය ක්‍රිස්ටෝෆර් විලියම් විජේකෝන් කන්නන්ගර; 18 October 1894 – 23 September 1969) was a ...

Victor Corea Charles Edward Victor Seneviratne Corea (born 29 January 1871 – 6 June 1962) was a Sri Lankan lawyer, legislator, politician, civil rights activist, and anti-colonial nationalist. As a lawyer, Corea was an Advocate of the Supreme Court of ...

, George E. de Silva and Satiyawageswera Iyer and women members were included for the first time in Ceylon.Traversed new paths making History
Ananda E. Goonesinha (The Island) Its foundation followed contact between Gunasinha and the British Labour Party; when

Ramsay MacDonald James Ramsay MacDonald (; 12 October 18669 November 1937) was a British statesman and politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The first two of his governments belonged to the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party, where he led ...

, the British Labour Party leader and Prime Minister visited Ceylon in 1926, Gunasinha had received him on behalf of the Ceylonese labour movement. Having already set up the Ceylon Labour Union, Gunasinha modelled the new party on the British Labour Party after a visit to the UK in 1927 when he was encouraged to set up a new party by Labour Party members.Haruhiro Fukui (1985) ''Political parties of Asia and the Pacific'', Greenwood Press, p1013–1014 Gunasinha had also appeared on behalf of the labour movement at the

Donoughmore Commission The Donoughmore Commission (DC) was responsible for the creation of the Donoughmore Constitution in effect between 1931 and 1947 in British Ceylon, Ceylon (now called Sri Lanka). In 1931 there were approximately 12% Sri Lankan Tamils, Ceylonese T ...

for

universal suffrage Universal suffrage or universal franchise ensures the right to vote for as many people bound by a government's laws as possible, as supported by the " one person, one vote" principle. For many, the term universal suffrage assumes the exclusion ...

and represented Ceylon at the British Empire Labour Conference held in London in 1928.Ceylon's battle

The Straits Times ''The Straits Times'' (also known informally by its abbreviation ''ST'') is a Singaporean daily English-language newspaper owned by the SPH Media Trust. Established on 15 July 1845, it is the most-widely circulated newspaper in the country and ...

, 13 November 1929 In the 1931 State Council elections Gunasinha was elected on the Labour Party ticket as Member for Colombo Central. He was re-elected in the 1936 elections. In 1940, he was elected to

Colombo Municipal Council The Colombo Municipal Council is the municipal governing body of Colombo, the largest city and financial centre in Sri Lanka. It consists of a directly elected executive Mayor of Colombo, and elected 119 municipal councilors. The council was f ...

and in 1943 became the first Ceylonese

Mayor of Colombo The Mayor of Colombo is the elected head of the Colombo Municipal Council. The post was created in 1866 when the Colombo Municipal Council was established by the Legislative Council of Ceylon. The mayor is assisted by the deputy mayor and a Munic ...

. In the 1947 parliamentary elections, the CLP won a single seat, with Gunasinha elected as the first Member for Colombo Central. He was subsequently appointed as Chief Government Whip in the

United National Party The United National Party (UNP; , ) is a Centre-right politics, centre-right political party in Sri Lanka. Founded in 1946, the party was one of Sri Lanka's two main parties for several decades. The UNP has served as the country's ruling party ...

coalition government, Minister without Portfolio and Minister of State of the First Parliament of Ceylon by Prime Minister D. S. Senanayake.Parliament of Sri Lanka: Chief Government Whips
Gunasinha was re-elected in the 1952 parliamentary elections as the party's sole MP. After failing to win any seats in the

1956 elections The following elections occurred in the year 1956. Africa * 1956 Gold Coast legislative election * 1956 Italian Somaliland parliamentary election * 1956–1957 Kenyan legislative election * 1956 Nyasaland general election Asia * 1956 Burmese gene ...

, the party did not contest any further elections.

References

{{Sri Lankan political parties Defunct political parties in Sri Lanka 1928 establishments in Ceylon Political parties established in 1928 Political parties with year of disestablishment missing Labour parties