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| Sunday, 1 January 2006 |
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LSSP: 75 years by Somachandre Wijesuriya
In mid twentieth century, during the Second World War, a group of Ceylonese political activists left the shores of the island to India to escape persecution by the British. They had a dream of uniting the separated countries of Indu peninsula India, Sri Lanka, and Burma under one socialist regime. Had their dreams come true the course of history in this part of the world would have taken a different path. India would not have been divided. LTTE would not have a political program to fight. This group was popularly known as Samasamajists, members of the oldest political party in this country. 1917
The birth of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) in 1935 in Ceylon was not an isolated event divorced from world events. In anecdotal history such things are presented so but the event itself was connected to a series of worldwide political forces. It was connected to the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917. There was only an interval of eighteen years between the two events. The Russian Revolution was the culmination of the start of the decay of imperialism which V.I. Lenin described as the highest stage of capitalism. Marxian analysis of revolutions and wars is based on materialist interpretation of history. Lenin as a dialectician was able to come into that conclusion. One bizarre historical fact that was not understood is why a revolution took place in backward Russia, whereas the industrial proletarians proliferated in European countries. This has been explained by Leon Trotsky in his 'History of the Russian Revolution'. On the eve of the revolution Russia was a developed country because it occupied fourth place in industrial production. Vast factories were producing steel and textiles in the main cities and an industrial proletariat was prominent. The contradiction is that wealth was concentrated among a few who ruled with the support of a despotic Tsar. The masses were hungry, landless and were driven to the First World War. LSSP LSSP was a political party connected to the Fourth International and that matter can not be explained without talking about Internationals. There have been three Internationals and the history of those Internationals culminated in betrayals which buried them in history. The worst betrayal was by the Second International. The German Socialist Democratic party, a member of the Second International voted in favor of war credits to save its 'motherland'. That started the First World War which was the first in human history that used mechanical methods of mass murder. Third International betrayed socialist principles when the Soviet bureaucracy brought out a theory named 'socialism in one country'. The theory was based on the assumption that first socialism has to be built in Russia and later transferred to other countries in the world. To any servant of God this seems to be a trivial preoccupation in left politics. Yet, this theory engulfed planet earth in the Second World War twenty three years after the first one. This confirmed Lenin's prophesy that unless socialism as a social order was established, twentieth century is going to be a century of wars and revolutions. In that context, the importance of LSSP politics was it had an international basis and was theoretically correct in its heyday. The break with Stalinists and formation of the Bolshevik Leninist Party of India (BLPI) was the outcome of the intense theoretical struggle that was going in the Forth International. LSSP was not alone in its opposition to the imperialist war. American Trotskyites led by James P. Cannon were prosecuted by the government in 1944 and served prison sentences. The jail break in Ceylon was to fulfill LSSP's international aspirations of establishing socialist regimes in this part of the world and ending wars undertaken to realise imperialist ambitions. If that happened we would be living in a world with lesser problems in our daily lives. Betrayals The reasons why it did not happen has to be discussed in the background of betrayals of principles that took place in the world socialist movement and that task is beyond the space given for this article. LSSP was possibly the largest Trotskyite party in the world with a mass backing. In fact it had the credit of expelling from its ranks, Stalinists who were supporting the imperialist powers during the Second World War. In other countries Stalinists sacked Trotskyites. In a sense the birth of LSSP was prophesized in the Communist Manifesto written in 1848. It said that in a revolutionary upheaval a section of the bourgeoisie will join the ranks of the oppressed. In Ceylon, that section comprised giants with intellect and organizing power. They aged and perished in the twentieth century. In the twenty first century the same political forces occupy world arena. American imperialism has replaced the Russian, German and Japanese varieties in the second half of the twentieth century. Wars and rebellions are still with us. The work begun by LSSPers is not yet over. (The writer directed 'Ugandaraya' teledrama, awaiting release, which depicts colorful LSSP involvements in post politics of '56 era) |
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