{"id":113345,"date":"2021-04-07T16:33:02","date_gmt":"2021-04-07T23:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=113345"},"modified":"2021-04-07T16:36:04","modified_gmt":"2021-04-07T23:36:04","slug":"the-general-election-of-1956-part-5c-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/04\/07\/the-general-election-of-1956-part-5c-2\/","title":{"rendered":"THE GENERAL ELECTION OF 1956 Part 5B"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Philip\nGunawardene returned to Sri Lanka in 1932 after ten hectic years abroad. Of all the socialist politicians in the\nisland, Philip Gunawardene is the only politician to have had close contact with\nsocialist movements abroad, observed Ananda Meegama.   He had met with\nrevolutionaries and freedom fighters in four continents. Philip said he\nhas associated with socialists of different brands from pale pink to dark red\nin various parts of the world.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His\nfather got to know something of his son\u2019s activities when Queen\u2019s<\/em> Counsel R.L. Pereira returned\nfrom New York. Pereira had watched a massive demonstration by the Hotel Workers\nUnion in New York.  The hotel staff had\ntold him that the leader was Philip Gunewardene from your country.\u201d  On his return, Pereira    reported the matter to my grandfather, recalled\nDinesh Gunawardena. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip\nGunawardene claimed that he was the first informed socialist to arrive in Sri\nLanka. There was not a single socialist when I returned. I had to teach most of\nthem the elements of Socialism and Marxism.\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip was the\nfirst to disseminate the idea of socialism in Sri Lanka said analysts. Philip was the most powerful exponent of\nMarxist ideas in the country, said Wiswa Warnapala. People were attracted by\nhis firebrand speeches that mesmerized the audience. Philip   wanted to adjust and adapt Marxism to suit\nthe political culture of the country, said Wiswa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip on his\nreturn home immediately joined the South Colombo Youth League  started by  \nby AE Goonesinha, in the 1920s. NM recalled that Philip split the   Youth movement into a Left and a Right and\nwhile the Right decayed, the left developed in his hand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip then   launched on his fiery political career\nwhich   spanned 1932-1972.  Philip was selected to lead the Wellawatte Spinning\nand Weaving Mills strike in 1932.   The strike\nfailed but Philip and his party got an important base of support in the Mills.\nThey published a paper, \u2018Kamkaruwa\u2019, opened reading rooms for the workers, and\nstarted a Workers education League. Erwin observed,\u2019 the experience Philip had\ngot in London was paying off.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip\nopposed Goonesinha on the matter of the settlement of for the workers at\nWellawatte Spinning and Weaving Mills  In\n1933, at a meeting at St. Peters College, Philip and Lesley Goonewardene were\nphysically attacked by harbor workers attached to Goonesinghe’s union. They were\nsaved by the arrival of the police. Philip oozing blood had got on the platform\nand defended the attackers saying they were not to blame, it was Goonesinghe. He\nurged the police to release those arrested. He was cheered and had won over the\nworkers, said Meegama. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nGoonesinghe unions were slowly supplanted by the LSSP workers unions. A series\nof Goonesinghe strikes failed.  His\nunions were less militant, and tried to come to terms with the employers. Goonesinghe\nwas pushed out as a leader and his historical role forgotten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was the\nstart of the most enduring, nevertheless ugly characteristic of the Left\nmovement in Sri Lanka. Its readiness to engage in power struggles among\nthemselves, forgetting workers and capitalists alike.  Most of the time they were busy setting the\nworkers against each other in their rival unions. The rest of the time, they\nwere splintering into rival Marxist parties, to the delight of the watching\npublic. The Left movement eventually  \nsplintered itself out of existence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But before\nany of this happened, Philip together with other leading Leftists started the\nLanka Sama Samaja Pakshaya, LSSP. During his idealist communist days, Philip\nhad envisioned forming a Leninist party in Sri Lanka with an iron discipline\nand a crystal clear ideology, said Ervin  But after he returned home, he realized that\nthe conditions for this did not exist. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The LSSP\nstarted as a radical populist party based on a network of local branches, youth\nleagues, Suriya mal organizations, and other groups. The work of Leftist\nleaders, including Philip, in social welfare and humanitarian activities during\nthe depression and the Malaria epidemic which followed brought them rewards. With\nPhilip at the helm the LSSP sharpened its programme and tightened its\norganization over the years, concluded Ervin.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip pushed\nColvin R de Silva to be first president of LSSP, but all were aware that the\nreal leader was Philip, said WTA Leslie Fernando. Colvin was the president but\n\u2018Philip was the undisputed leader\u2019, said CW Ervin.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The LSSP made\nits debut in Parliamentary politics in the 1936 State Council elections. Philip\nwas elected to Avissawella defeating the sitting member Forrester Obeyesekera. NM\nPerera was elected from Ruwanwella and this was a turning point in the\ncountry\u2019s politics, said Bandu de Silva.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NM said in a\nmoving tribute to Philip on the day of Philip\u2019s funeral said that he contested\nonly because of Philip and Philip was the leader of the movement.  If not for Philip he would not have contested\nand if not for Philip he would not have won. \nAt this time NM took his lead from Philip whom he admired, said WTA\nLeslie Fernando. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In State\nCouncil Philip had the consistent support of several progressives, the chief\nbeing DM Rajapakse of Hambantota who was from a leading family in Giruwa Pattu\nand was known as the Lion of Ruhuna. DM formed a front of peasant and parties\nconsisting of viridhu singers and raban players for the   1936 elections. He had come to fore as a\nradical and a peasant leader. He worked in the Suriya mal campaign and was a\nfirm friend of the two LSSP leaders.  His\nbrother DA Rajapakse, father of Mahinda, crossed with SWRD when he left the UNP\nin 1951 to form the SLFP.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip and NM\nmade their presence felt in the State Council.\n They were relentless in their\ncriticism of British rule and commented on a wide range of subjects.  They studied a subject thoroughly before they\nspoke. They raised the standard of debate to a high level.  They commented on health, unemployment, labor\nlegislation, flood control etc, said Meegama. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Philip\nand NM introduced high debating principles and skill into the State Council and\nParliamentary debate, said Bandu de Silva. Philip and NM had always come fully\nprepared for State Council debates. They studied in-depth any subject they\nspoke on.  They had also gained much\nvaluable practical knowledge through their journeys to every nook and corner of\nthe country and by their association with the common people. They spoke on a\nrange of subjects and over five years the State Council received a\ncomprehensive education in the problems facing the country, concluded Bandu de\nSilva.    There was far reaching\nlegislation in the State Council, in health, education, land settlements,\nbanking and welfare of workers, said Meegama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LSSP had\nlinks with the Congress Socialist Party in India started by Jayaprakash Narayan.\nIn 1936 the LSSP sent delegates to the CSP annual session. These visits helped\nthe Sri Lanka group establish links with the Indian group.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

S Piyasena,\nwho was a student at Calcutta University, recalled that Philip went on a\nwhirlwind of meetings at the Indian National Congress meeting at Ramgarh, in\n1940. He met Aung San and Subhas Chandra Bose there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip made\nit clear that LSSP did not take orders from Moscow.  He steered the LSSP on an independent course\nsaid Ervin.  LSSP\ntook note of the Spanish Civil War of 1936. Philip\nvisited Spain in 1937 and returned with an eye witness report. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Leftists\nin Sri Lanka now had to decide between Stalin and Trotsky. The Stalinists\nformed a party which later became the Ceylon Communist Party in 1943.  LSSP was for Trotsky.  LSSP was one of the few Trotskyite parties\nto  achieve a mass following that lasted\nfor a long period of time, said Ervin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On June 18, 1940, the LSSP was banned and its four leaders, Philip\nGunawardena, N.M. Perera, Colvin R. de Silva and Edmund Samarakkody, were\narrested and jailed in Kandy. My father, Dr.S.D. de Silva, had formal access to\nthem as their doctor. He had known Colvin and NM in London. I think he knew\nwhat this lot were up to, including the jail break, but we never asked. D.M.\nRajapakse moved a motion in State Council to get give leave of absence from SC\nfor Philip and NM.     <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In May 1940,\nthe LSSP, which continued to function in Sri Lanka throughout the war, sent members\nto India to contact Trotskyite sympathizers and lay the groundwork for an\nall-India party. The LSSP convened two secret meetings in Kandy in December\n1940 and March 1941 to lay the basis for a single Trotskyite party of India,\nBurma and Ceylon. Both meetings were attended by the jailed LSSP leaders. The second\nwas attended by delegates from India. Philip and NM   authored a document \u2018The India struggle, the\nnext phase \u2018and smuggled it out to India. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On April 7\n1942, the four LSSP leaders including Philip, broke jail and escaped to India. Philip\nwent to Bombay.  In May 1942 these\nCeylonese set up a new party in Bombay, the Bolshevik Leninist Party of India. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They arranged\nfor funds to come in to Madras from their assets in Sri Lanka, said Vernon\nBotejue. They had taken money for the purpose hidden in their sarongs, said\nErvin.. Philip had valuable contacts in India, in Congress, Socialist and Communist\ncircles, many going back to his days in London, Ervin added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip played\na significant role in the Indian Trotskyite movement. This is not widely known,\ncommented Ervin. When he was arrested\nand brought before the Magistrate\u2019s court of Kandy in 1944 Philip said, We\ntimed our escape to be in India at a critical time, to help the   Fourth\nInternational in India to build a party. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the BLPI\nwas being formed in Bombay, some wanted to form a committee of young people\nwith no trade union experience to carry out mass work. The Ceylonese who\nactually had experience in mass work recommended, not committees but smaller\nbranch executive to direct the work, said Ervin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip was\nimpatient and contemptuous. At a time when we needed to find a base in Bombay,\nthese people are discussing the organization best suited to twenty odd members,\nhe said. He fell out\nwith  Chandravadan Shukla , the Bombay\nleader of the BLPI.  He grabbed Shukla by\nthe shoulders and shook him. He had apologized later. Shukla was\nfurious, reported Ervin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip and NM\nthought that the Bolshevik Leninist Party of India, BLPI alone could not\nmanufacture a revolution in India and wanted a broad force created with the\nother revolutionary groups in India. Philip urged the BLPI in India to join the\nSocialist party without delay. Leslie Goonewardene\nsaid that the problem with Philip\u2019s various proposals for regrouping was that\nhe was the master of the big bold move, but  he never spelled out how the BLPI should\nexecute these  risky maneuvers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bolshevik\u2013Leninist\nParty of India, Ceylon and Burma\u201d was a revolutionary Trotskyite party which\ncampaigned for independence and socialism in South Asia. The party was formed\nas a unification of two Indian groups, with the Lanka Sama Samaja Party of\nCeylon.  The BLPI had groups in Madras,\nBombay and Calcutta, but it did\nnot last long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip and Co\ndid not last long in India either.  The\nCommunist Party of India was only too ready to track them down and hand them\nover.  They had a spy in Bombay, a\nstudent named Kulkarni. Philip and Co were arrested and jailed, said Vernon\nBotejue.  The others hated the jail,\nwhere they were 14 were packed into a cell 18 feet by 15, with lepers, TB\npatients, and VD victims.  The cell was\ncrawling with bugs. But Philip took it in his stride. He fraternized with the\npimps, taunted the guards and remained feisty, said Vernon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip and Co\nwere sent back to Ceylon and put in prison again and kept there from 1944-45. They\nwere sentenced to six months rigorous imprisonment. Philip had husked coconut\nand learned to rattan chairs in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1945 the\nBritish government transferred them to jail at Badulla. The LSSP staged a huge\nshow and they went via Colombo in a motorcade, passing crowd after crowd of\nwaving villagers, who had been mobilized for the event. In Colombo thousands\nturned out to wildly cheer the two leaders, Philip and NM.  When war ended they were unconditionally\nreleased. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\npartnership between the two founders of the LSSP, Philip and NM broke up in\n1950, when the party split on various theoretical issues. However NM had a\ngreat affection and regard for Philip, and wrote a moving and generous tribute\nwhen Philip died in1972.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1950 Philip\nleft the LSSP with his supporters, who were mainly harbor workers, peasants and\nSwabhasha teachers, and started a new party, Viplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja\nPakshaya, VLSSP.  The VLSSP  was a \ncomponent of the MEP, which won the 1956 election .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip was\nforced to resign from the MEP coalition in 1959 and the MEP alliance fell\napart. Philip  took   the\nname of the coalition,  Mahajana Eksath\nPeramuna  with him and founded a new\npolitical party called Mahajana Eksath Peramuna<\/a> in 1959 .  He \nprobably did so hoping to continue the 1956 momentum. Otherwise why take\nthe name of  another party. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1963  this MEP formed the United Left front with the\nLSSP and CP but this did not last long.  Philip\njoined the Dudley Senanayake  government\nin 1965 and was Minister for Industries in the 1965-70 cabinet.  He  set\nup the Plywood factory as Avissawella.  (\ncontinued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS Philip Gunawardene returned to Sri Lanka in 1932 after ten hectic years abroad. Of all the socialist politicians in the island, Philip Gunawardene is the only politician to have had close contact with socialist movements abroad, observed Ananda Meegama.   He had met with revolutionaries and freedom fighters in four continents. Philip said he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113345\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}