The beginning of the left movement in Sri Lanka goes back to 1935. The first leftist political party, Lanka Sama Samaja Party which was founded in that year, became one of the largest national sections of the Fourth International during 1950’s and 1960’s. The birth of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka (CPSL) was due to the split of the LSSP in the year 1943. The CPSL later split into two factions along the lines of Moscow and Beijing after the Soviet Union and The People’s Republic of China fell out.

Birth of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP-People’s Liberation Front) The year 1964, marked the beginning of the end of the old left movement -the LSSP and the CPSL.

The bourgeois government that came to power was caught in a deep economic-political-social crisis for which it had no solution. The people of Sri Lanka, led by workers organised by the trade unions of the left parties were on the verge of bringing down the government and taking the United Left Front to power.

At this critical moment first the LSSP, and soon after that the CPSL, joined the bourgeois government against the will of their trade unions and hundreds of thousands of people who supported them. The betrayal of the workers in particular and the wishes of the people in general created a very favourable situation in which to launch a new left movement.

Rohana Wijeweera

A son of a member of the CPSL, Comrade Rohana Wijeweera had the influence of his father’s politics when he was only 16 years old. Having won a scholarship to study medicine at the Friendship University, he had the opportunity to study Marxism-Leninism at the party school of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).

He was critical of the revisionist line of the CPSU under Khrushchev, and as a result he was refused a visa to re-enter the Soviet Union on his return from Sri Lanka during the vacation in 1964.

Subsequently, Comrade Rohana joined the CPSL (Peking) and became a full time activist in its youth wing. Having convinced himself that the Peking Wing was equally revisionist as the CPSL (Moscow), he led an ideological struggle against the leadership and its opportunist political line.

A New Beginning

Comrade Rohana Wijeweera had enough courage to take the initiative to grab the opportunity and fill the void created by the betrayal of the people by the old left in 1964.

The final outcome of the discussions was a complete agreement of the others with comrade Rohana, to start building immediately a new political party which could lead the people to establish a socialist government in Sri Lanka. He built a formidable political party that shook the very foundation of a system based on deception and exploitation.

Initially the organisation of workers, farmers, students and the youth had to be carried out in a semi-clandestine manner, in order to avoid the suppression of this new political movement by the government of an extreme right political party, the United National Party (UNP) that had come to power in 1965 general election.

Comrade Wijeweera was very successful in organising the University students, then the workers and the farmers. As a result of the betrayal of the old left the workers and the farmers had lost confidence in the Left. It was not difficult to comprehend why the workers and farmers took more time to join Comrade Wijeweera.

On the 12th of May 1970, Comrade Wijeweera was taken into custody without charges, and the government propaganda machine carried out a campaign against Comrade Wijeweera and the new movement. The new movement was labelled as the Che Guevara movement.

The coalition of Sri Lanka freedom party (SLFP) and the old left came to power in May 1970. In the month of July 1970 the courts found Comrade Rohana was not guilty on all charges framed by the government. After his release from custody on the 9th of July 1970, the new political movement achieved a new momentum. The coalition government of the bourgeois SLFP and the old left was perturbed by the progress of the new left movement and started a campaign to tarnish its image.

Comrade Rohana Wijeweera holding a press conference announced that the new political movement named as Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP – Peoples Liberation Front) and it would hold its first ever public rally to announce its existence and educate the people about its policies and future political activities.

The Coalition government, intensifying its repression, took steps to arrest activists of the JVP who carried out political activities such as poster campaigns, conducting educational discussions and camps. These are legal political activities under normal conditions in Sri Lanka. The JVP activists taken into custody were tortured while in custody at Police Stations.

On the 6th March 1971, a group of supporters of the government organised a march against American’s war in Vietnam. While marching in front of the American Embassy someone among the demonstrators hurled a petrol bomb into the premises of the American Embassy. this person was not a JVP member but a supporter of one of the Members of the Parliament who took part in the anti American demonstration.

Within a few hours of this incident, the government declared a state of emergency giving sweeping powers to the armed forces and the police, including disposal of bodies without holding a post-mortem or judicial inquiry. Under emergency regulations Comrade Wijeweera and many other members and sympathisers of the JVP were taken in to custody.

By the 1st of April 1971 more than 500 members and sympathisers of the JVP were taken into custody and kept in prison camps. The leadership of the JVP met on night of the 1st of April 1971 and had a serious discussion about the ongoing repression by the government. Special attention had been given to the powers of the police and armed forces for the disposal of dead bodies without holding post-mortems.

The JVP wanted no repetition of what had happened to the entire Communist Party in Indonesia in 1965. In contrast the JVP wanted to fight back and safeguard its dignity and the right to build their party under the law of the country. The JVP decided to arm itself at the beginning of the year1971 for the purpose of self-defence.

1971 April uprising

The JVP was compelled to take up arms on 5th April 1971 against the unlawful, unjust repression of the government. The government lost control in certain areas when nearly one hundred police stations were attacked and abandoned by police officers. A brutal repression was launched by the Government The April uprising was totally suppressed within one month after killing nearly 10,000 members and sympathisers of the JVP. The people of Sri Lanka have never witnessed the slaughter of people in public before 1971. To quell the JVP, the government had to take in to custody further 20,000 JVP members and sympathisers.

Meanwhile the government faced a dilemma. It was instructed by the Attorney-General that there are no provisions according to the common law of the country to prosecute the JVP members who had been taken into custody without arms.

The government with total support of the opposition passed the Criminal Justice Commission Bill in the parliament. Violating the natural law for the first time in Sri Lanka a bill was passed in the parliament to prosecute those who were alleged to have been responsible for an offence committed in the past. The Criminal Justice Commission conducted its investigation into the 1971 uprising with the intention of deceiving people. In 1975, Comrade Rohana Wijeweera was sentenced to lifetime imprisonment, thus violating even the Criminal Justice Commission Bill. Consequently, it was amended to 20 years rigorous imprisonment. The class character of the CJC was more than clear and visible to everyone.

Not even one year passed after the sentencing before the demand emerged from the people to release all political prisoners unconditionally. The workers and students launched agitations and demonstrations against the emergency laws and demanded the immediate release of political prisoners. In 1976 the emergency laws were lifted and the proscription of the JVP came to an end.

It could once again function as a legal political party. The party could establish itself among the workers, students, and youths and paid attention to spreading its influence in the international arena. The JVP sent a delegation of 5 members to the 11th Festival of Youth and Students held in Havana in 1978. It was a successful move in establishing friendly relations with socialist parties in the world.

Later in the early 80s the conservative goverment would try to suppresed the Tamil separatist movement in the north and this would star an ethnic civil war in the country, the UNP would try to blame the left parties and the USSR for the tamil uprising, this civil war would eventualy become a proxy war between India and the USA

India would eventually forced the UNP to allow the Indian Army to enter Sri Lankan waters and land.

The JVP would launch another armed struggle to save Sri Lankan sovereignty but the UNP would end up supressing the revolt. the UNP would eventually loose all popular support and a coalition of National parties would take away the emergency powers of the state.

Nowdays the JVP acts as a legal communist party in the country.

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