The Frontline Socialist Party (abbrv. FSP; ; ) is a communist 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, ...

. It was launched on 9 April 2012 by dissident members of the

Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP; , PLF) is a Marxist–Leninist political party in Sri Lanka. The party was formerly a revolutionary movement and was involved in two armed uprisings against the government of Sri Lanka: once in 1971 JVP ins ...

. Stalwarts of the party claim that they are part of an attempt to revive the

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

struggle in Sri Lanka. The secretary-general of the party is Premakumar Gunaratnam.

History

The FSP claims that the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna had lost its revolutionary thought built by

Rohana Wijeweera Patabendi Don Jinadasa Nandasiri Wijeweera (; 14 July 1943 – 13 November 1989), better known as Rohana Wijeweera, was a Sri Lankan Marxist–Leninist political activist, revolutionary, and founder of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP; ). W ...

since the beginning of his campaign. They claim that the JVP now relies on government coalitions rather than

revolutionary socialism Revolutionary socialism is a political philosophy, doctrine, and tradition within socialism that stresses the idea that a social revolution is necessary to bring about structural changes in society. More specifically, it is the view that revo ...

. Premakumar Gunaratnam was the leader of the

Deshapremi Janatha Viyaparaya Deshapremi Janatha Vyaparaya (abbreviated as DJV) (දේශප්‍රේමී ජනතා ව්‍යාපාරය; Patriotic People's Movement) was a militant organisation in Sri Lanka. It was widely considered to be the military bran ...

Trincomalee Trincomalee (; , ; , ), historically known as Gokanna and Gokarna, is the administrative headquarters of the Trincomalee District and major resort port city of Eastern Province, Sri Lanka, Eastern Province, Sri Lanka. Located on the east coast o ...

and worked as a secondary revolutionary leader of the JVP. He was at the odds of the party for the lack of revolutionary purpose after Wijeweera's death in 1989. In April 2012, internal crisis within the party heated up between hardline socialist Gunaratnam and the party leader

Somawansa Amarasinghe Amarasinghe Kankanamlage Somawansa (1 January 1943 – 15 June 2016 as ), commonly as Somawansha Amarasinghe, was a Sri Lankan politician, and the 4th leader of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, after Rohana Wijeweera, Saman Piyasiri Fernando and Lalit ...

. As a result, the party’s media unit was shut down once a majority of the members extended their support to Gunarathnam. The women’s wing and a majority of the students' wing and the youth wing extended their support to Gunaratnam.

2020 protests

In 2020, members of the party along with some other left-wing parties held protests in front of the US embassy in Sri Lanka, but were later assaulted by police officers on the grounds that they were committing violations of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

"health regulations". Party members claimed the protest was a peaceful protest against the murder of

George Floyd George Perry Floyd Jr. (October 14, 1973 – May 25, 2020) was an African-American man who was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest made after a store clerk suspected Floyd had used a counterfeit tw ...

and against the signing of the MCC deal with the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Members of the FSP, Premakumar Gunaratnam and a group of FSP supporters led a street march, with most protesters wearing the color

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–750 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...

to symbolize

communism Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...

and

anti-racism Anti-racism encompasses a range of ideas and political actions which are meant to counter racial prejudice, systemic racism, and the oppression of specific racial groups. Anti-racism is usually structured around conscious efforts and deliberate ...

. The members carried posters that read "Racism is a deadly virus", in reference to the

COVID-19 outbreak The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. Soon after, ...

. Police soon blocked the road to the U.S Embassy, and began to clash with the protesters. No deaths were caused in the combat but many were wounded. FSP secretary Kumar Guneratnam and other key members of the FSP were arrested and some others were hospitalized after the attack. Two lawyers who questioned the police about the reason for arrest also were taken into the custody.

Electoral history

References

2012 establishments in Sri Lanka Anti-imperialist organizations Communist parties in Sri Lanka Political parties established in 2012 {{SriLanka-party-stub