Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Revolutionary) was a

Trotskyist Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...

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, ...

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, ...

, formed in 1964 when the

Lanka Sama Samaja Party The Lanka Sama Samaja Party, often abbreviated as LSSP ( literally: Lanka Equal Society Party, Sinhala: ලංකා සම සමාජ පක්ෂය, Tamil: லங்கா சமசமாஜக் கட்சி), is a major Trotskyist po ...

was expelled from the

Fourth International The Fourth International (FI) was a political international established in France in 1938 by Leon Trotsky and his supporters, having been expelled from the Soviet Union and the Communist International (also known as Comintern or the Third Inte ...

. LSSP(R) was constituted by the ideological hardliners who opposed LSSP joining the national government and wanted to preserve the bonds to the Fourth International. The United Secretariat recognised it as the Sri Lanka section of the Fourth International. The founders of LSSP(R) had 14 LSSP Central Committee members, and two members of parliament,

Edmund Samarakkody Edmund Peter Samarakkody (19 April 1912 – 4 January 1992) was a Ceylonese lawyer, trade unionist, politician and Member of Parliament. Early life and family Samarakkody was born on 19 April 1912, the fifth of seven children to Charles Peter ...

and

Meryl Fernando Weerahennedige Theodore Wilfred Meryl Fernando (18 April 1923 – 27 May 2007) was a Ceylonese teacher, trade unionist, politician and Member of Parliament. Early life and family Fernando was born on 18 April 1923. He was educated at Prince ...

. Other significant leaders were V. Karalasingham and P. Bala Tampoe.Meryl Fernando stood for working class
- Prof Tissa Vitharana (Daily News), Retrieved 01 November 2015 LSSP(R) later disintegrated in internal strife. A source of discontent was the issue of parliamentary tactics. On December 3, 1964, the parliamentary fraction of LSSP(R) voted alongside the right-wing

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 ...

and dissidents of the

Sri Lanka Freedom Party The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP; ; ) is a centre-left political party in Sri Lanka. Founded by S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike in 1951, the party was one of Sri Lanka's two main parties from the 1950s to the 2010s, serving as the main rival of the c ...

for an amendment to second throne speech of the SLFP-led government. The amendment was passed and the government defeated. The action of the LSSP(R) parliamentarians made V. Karalasingham and the Sakthi fraction leave LSSP(R) and return to the LSSP. In 1966 Samarakkody started a left opposition against Bala Tampoe and the rest of the leadership. Samarakkody and his supporters left the LSSP(R) following a Special Conference (18–19 April 1968) and formed the Revolutionary Samasamaja Party. The 1969 World Congress of the Fourth International appointed a Ceylon Commission to discuss with both Samarakkody's group and the LSSP (R), but was unable to resolve the differences. A Healyite splinter group, formed amongst students in 1968, is now called the Socialist Equality Party. LSSP(R) published ''Fight'' (around 1966) and ''Samasamajist'' (1968-1970) in English.

References

External links

* Edmund Samarakkody
The Struggle for Trotskyism in Ceylon
{{Sri Lankan political parties 1964 establishments in Ceylon Communist parties in Sri Lanka Defunct political parties in Sri Lanka Fourth International (post-reunification) Political parties established in 1964 Trotskyist organisations in Sri Lanka