The Democratic Workers Congress is a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

and

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

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, ...

. It was founded by Abdul Aziz and was formally registered on 1 January 1956.

History

The party's origins relate back to the founding of the Ceylon India Congress (CIC) on 25 July 1935, with V. R. M. V. A. Lechumanan Chettiar as its president and Abdul Aziz and H. M. Desai as joint-secretaries. In 1942 Aziz was elected as president of the CIC and

Savumiamoorthy Thondaman Savumiamoorthy Thondaman (30 August 1913 – 30 October 1999; also spelled ''Saumyamurthy Thondaman'' or ''Saumiyamoorthy Thondaman'') was a Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known his ...

as its secretary. In 1945 Thondaman defeated Aziz for the presidency of the CIC and in 1948 Aziz regained the presidency. In 1950 the CIC was renamed to the Ceylon Workers' Congress (CWC). In November 1955 the leadership clashes between Aziz and Thondamon came to a head, with Aziz's election as the president of the CWC and Thondaman's candidate, S. Somasundaram, appointed as party secretary, with Thondaman's loyalists voting on 22 November to expel Aziz and his supporters from the CWC. The Aziz faction subsequently formed the Democratic Workers Congress (DWC) registering the party on 1 January 1956. The DWC then joined the

World Federation of Trade Unions The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) is an international federation of trade union, trade unions established on October 3, 1945. Founded in the immediate aftermath of World War Two, the organization built on the pre-war legacy of the Int ...

. In 1962 a number of key DWC leaders left the party to join the Communist Party workers' union and one of the party's stalwarts, K. G. S. Nair, died of a heart attack. In 1968 M. A. Thangavel and A. K. Kandasamy left the DWC and formed the Agricultural Plantation Workers Congress. Following Aziz's death in June 1990 there was another split in the DWC, with Aziz's son,

Ashraf Sharīf or Sherif (, 'noble', 'highborn'), also spelled shareef, feminine sharīfa (), plural ashrāf (), shurafāʾ (), or (in the Maghreb) shurfāʾ, is a title used to designate a person descended, or claiming to be descended, from the famil ...

, forming the Aziz Democratic Workers Congress while the leadership of the DWC was held by V. P. Ganeshan. The DWC is currently led by Ganeshan's son,

Mano Mano may refer to: People * Mano people, an ethnic group in Liberia * Mano (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname * Mano (Mozambican footballer), Celso Halilo de Abdul (born 1984) * Mano (Portuguese footballer), Luís Migu ...

, who is a member of

parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

, representing the Colombo electorate.

References

Political parties in Sri Lanka 1956 establishments in Ceylon Political parties established in 1956 Political parties of the Indian diaspora Indian Tamils of Sri Lanka {{SriLanka-party-stub