The Leftist Movement and the Catholic community in Sri Lanka:

Dissensions in the LSSP

W. T. A. Leslie FERNANDO

In 1945, when the proscription of the LSSP was lifted the LSSP leaders in jail were released and others in India returned, there was a major split in the party. Leslie Gunawardena in `A Short History of the LSSP’. (1960) simplifies this dissension that divided the party into two camps, as a difference mainly centred round organisational questions and not in regard to program or the policy. However, Prof. Y. Ranjith Amerasinghe in his research work `Revolutionary Idealism and Parliamentary Politics’ (2000) shows that it was a more serious dispute that reflected at least in part, the clash between the rightist and leftist tendencies of the leadership at the time.

Although the LSSP was a Marxist-orientated organisation, Philip Gunawardena initiated it as a broadbased progressive movement. When leaders like Philip, N. M. and Colvin were taken into custody, Doric de Souza became the theoretician of the party. Doric was critical of the pre-war LSSP which he characterised as a Menshevic organisation. He wanted to re-organise the party with professional revolutionaries with an in-depth knowledge of Marxist theory which he termed `Bolsheviczation’.

Leslie Gunawardena	Vivienne Gunawardena	Doric de Souza

Doric wanted to bring forth university students in place of the working class and this was resented by the trade union leaders. They questioned “Who is Doric de Souza, a snooty professor to exclude working comrades? In 1942 when the LSSP leaders fled to India, Doric wanted to fill the vacancies in the central committee with university students. Over this Robert Gunawardena had remarked “This man will end up by destroying the party”. He tried to assault Doric but was held back by others.

Wrong direction

With the senior leaders in India, the matters went from bad to worse. A few months later a significant section of the party rebelled against `Petty bourgeois intellectuals’ in the LSSP. It was not a matter of few dissidents here and there but included a strong group with founding members like Susan de Silva. Most of the trade unionists too backed them and they felt that Doric and his circle had hijacked the party in the wrong direction.

When the news of this situation reached LSSP leaders in India, they stood in solidary with the workers’ faction and formed `The Platform of workers’ with Philip, N. M. and Colvin as leading lights. It denounced that “Petty bourgeois intellectuals have turned the LSSP into a narrow conspiratorial sect entirely cut off from the masses.” Colvin as its secretary declared “the Party cannot be restored to health, unity and effectiveness until this faction is smashed.”

In response the group in Sri Lanka led by Doric de Souza formed the Bolshevik Lennist Party. The Bolshevik faction included Doric, William de Silva, Edmund Samarakkody, V. Karalasingham and recent recruits, Lorenz Perera Dick Attygalle, R. S. Baghavan and Regi Siriwardena. Lionel Cooray and Hector Abhayawardena in India backed the Workers’ Platform but Leslie and Vivienne remained neutral.

The LSSP high command in India advised rank and file in Sri Lanka to overthrow the Bolshevic faction and elect a new regional committee. However there was no effective means to implement it and the Bolshevic faction continued to command the party. In the meantime a factional dispute arose in the party leadership in India. Philip-NM faction formed one group and Colvin-Leslie faction formed another. The Bolshevik faction in Sri Lanka took the side of Colvin-Leslie faction and as a result managed to continue as the Bolshevic Lennist Party.

Broad front

Philip-NM faction held that it was too much for a small organisation like the Bolshevic Lennist Party in India to organise a revolution in India and there should be a broad front with other revolutionary groups in India like the Congress Socialist Party, the Revolutionary Communist Party and the Datter Mzundar Party. The other faction argued that this would dilute the Bolshevic revolutionary concept and opposed it. At this time Philip-NM group was arrested in India and brought back to Sri Lanka. Although Leslie Gunawardena reported to the 4th International that the factional dispute was resolved, it was not so because it came to a halt when Philip-NM faction was taken into custody.”

The division in the LSSP continued from 1943 to 1950. Although Philip and N. M. were jailed, their followers continued as the LSSP which was a separate entity from the Bolshevic Lennist Party. W. J. Perera (Hospital

Perera) belonged to this group and since 1943 this faction functioned separately. During the strike wave in Colombo in 1945, W. J. Perera issued a leaflet warning the workers not to trust `Parlour Bolshevics.’

When Philip and N. M. were released from jail in 1945, power in the party was in the hands of the Bolshevics. They did not join the party which had assumed the name `Sri Lankan section of the Bolshevik Lennist Party of India.’ Instead they went in search of former party cadres and revived the LSSP. At this time Philip accused Doric as a police spy. As a result the feud between the two factions worsened.

Police spy

There are two conflicting views expressed by two activists of the underground days of the LSSP on the role of Doric de Souza during the war years. One was by Susan de Silva presented in the book `Wrecking of the LSSP’ released in 1959. The other is by Regi Siriwardena in the book `Working Underground’ published 40 years later in 1999.

Susan de Silva alleges that even before Doric completed his education in England, Marrs an imperialist agents got him down to Sri Lanka and offered a lecturer post in the University. She accuses that when the LSSP leaders broke out of the Bogambara jail, Doric began to conspire against Philip who was the de-facto leader of the LSSP. She wonders how when he was a government servant at that time, Doric dared to have party activity in his house in front of the Bambalapitiya Police. Besides she points out that when Doric failed to get control of the party press, it was raided by the Police.

She draws attention to the fact that in India, Philip and his followers were arrested by the Police but the henchman of Doric and Leslie Gunawardena managed to escape. She also highlights the close connection between Doric and CID officer Algie Perera. She questions why when Algie Perera apprehended both Doric and Karalasingham in India, Doric a public servant was fined Rs. 200 and let go and Karalasingham was taken into custody. She corroborates the allegation of Philip that Doric de Souza was a police spy.

Version

Regi Siriwardena comes out with a different version. He says that Philip made the allegation against Doric for the first time just after the LSSP leaders escaped from jail and when assembled in a house. When Philip made the charge against Doric it has stunned all. But Colvin had taken Regi Siriwardena to a side and had whispered “Don’t let this upset you, too much he is still the one man who could lead us.”

Following Regi Siriwardena, Charles Wesley Ervin in his book `Tomorrow is ours - The Trotskyite Movement in India and Ceylon 1935-48’ (2006) questions if Doric had been a police spy why didn’t he reveal the Police where Leslie Gunawardena was hiding, where the party press was concealed and why did he allow the jail break to occur. Both Regi Siriwardena and Charles Wesley Ervin opine that the allegation against Doric was preposterous and Philip had made it because of a personal grudge. At the same time Charles Wesley Ervin wonders if Philip had a personal grudge, why did he resort to such a serious allegation is an enigma.

Regi Siriwardena was a loyal follower of Doric, who had been in his camp during the disputes in the LSSP. He left the party in 1946 and later was an activist of a NGO funded by foreign agencies with hidden agendas. Besides his story looks very artificial. When Philip revealed that Doric was a police spy, would Colvin had taken such a serious allegation so lightly? Could Regi Siriwardena be relied upon?

Personal grudge

Philip on the other hand was a man of integrity. In a defamation case filed against him by a senior DIG Police, the court not only dismissed the action but declared Philip as a man of honesty and integrity. Surely Philip being such a brave person he would have settled a personal grudge at personal level without making a false allegation at party level!

However Philip agreed to give evidence at the inquiry held by Kamalesh Bannerjee of the Bolshevik Lennist Party of India and presented circumstantial evidence to prove the charge against Doric. Bannerjee gave the verdict that there was no iota of evidence to prove Philip’s accusation. Philip denounced the proceedings and refused to abide by the decision.

Whatever it is from the time Doric joined the LSSP, there was turmoil in the party. The LSSP was set up as a common man’s party appealing to masses but Doric wanted to make it a narrow movement of petti bourgeois intellectuals. In 1941 he had written a letter to Sam Silva that N. M. was a social democrat who did not belong to a revolutionary party.

He tried to distance the working class from the party leadership and thereby created trouble. His outlook destabilised the LSSP.

In this situation, a split in the party became inevitable. Philip-N.M. faction branded Bolshevik faction as `Arm-chair revolutionaries and parlour Bolshevics.’ In September 1945, Philip and N.M. revived the LSSP. In October 1945 Bolshevik Lennist Party expelled Philip and N.M. The LSSP called itself the Ceylon section of the 4th International. Bolshevik faction became the `Ceylon Section of the Bolshevic Lennist Party of India.’