THE LEFT MOVEMENT IN SRI LANKA 27 when the Lanka Sama Samaja Party was formed by the militant young nationalists and 'socialists' who had led the struggles of the early thirties. In conclusion, brief mention can be made of the way in which these two roles interacted with each other. In the absence of an anti-imperialist struggle led by the bourgeoisie, the LSSP took on this role and attempted to 'broaden' the party to include non-revolutionary elements. But in doing so its ability to function as a revolutionary cadre-based party was blunted. On the other hand the LSSP leadership included several Marxists equipped with a revolutionary theory, whose outlook was international. Such an outlook prevented the LSSP from taking a purely nationalist stand on issues such as race, religion and language. An understanding of the background events leading to the formation of the LSSP and the dual task it had to perform provides some clues to analysing the subsequent history of the party, including the illegal period during the war, the post-war upsurge of general strikes, the setback after the 1953 hartal, the decision in 1964 to enter a coalition with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the presence today of the LSSP in the 'United Front' government. (This is a slightly modified version of an article published by Modern Ceylon Studies,, (Vol 2, No 2), a journal of the Perandeniya Campus, University of Sri Lanka. The author is grateful to Hector Abhayavardhana^ Neil Kuruppu, NRam, Michael Roberts, Doreen Wickremasinghe and A J Wilson for their help and comments, Further research is being done on the reasons for the rise of a Trotskyist movement in Ceylon and the extent to which Trotskyist policies were followed by the LSSP in subsequent years.) 1 For the details on industry and trade, see the Times of Ceylon Green Book, 1933; The Revieuu of Important Events Relating to the British Empire, 1944-45, quoted in S U Kodi-kara, Indians in Ceylon, Problems and Prospects, Ceylon Studies Seminar, 68/69, Series No 7, University of Ceylon; also N Ramachandran, Foreign Plantation Investment in Ceylon, 1889-1958, Central Bank of Ceylon, 1963. 2 For the article on Lenin in Goonesinha's paper, see Kamkaru Handa, September 13, 1925, "Lenin Viraya." For the report from the Department of State, Washington, see Department of National Archives File (Conf.) p (53) Vol II, Report of June 16, 1925. 3 The Comrade, May 19, 1929 and Ceylon Daily News, September 17, 1928. ^ For a detailed account of the years 1880-1930, see Visakha Kumari Jayawardena, The Rise of thp Labour Movement in Ceylon, Duke University Press, 1972. 5 For de Mel's Memorandum May 28, 1928, see Department of National Archives, File CF 492/1928, see Ceylon Daily News, February 19, 1929 for the quotation from The Times; and for the details of the tramways strike and for the quotation in the text see Ceylon Independent, January-February, 1929. 6 Resolutions of the General Council (December 1927) and the Executive Committee (1931) of the League Against Imperialism; Resolutions of the Seventh World Congress of the Comintern, (pamphlet), 1935. The importance of joint trade union activity was stressed by Georgi Dimitrov thus: "We must base our tactics not on the behaviour of individual leaders of the Amsterdam unions no matter what difficulties their behaviour may cause in the class struggle, but on the question of where the masses are to be found.. .and make the question of struggle fof trade union unity the