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$Unique_ID{COW03392}
$Pretitle{296}
$Title{Sri Lanka
Appendix B. Political Parties and Groups}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Peter R. Blood}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{tamil
party
liberation
founded
front
political
eelam
group
congress
united}
$Date{1990}
$Log{}
Country: Sri Lanka
Book: Sri Lanka, A Country Study
Author: Peter R. Blood
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date: 1990
Appendix B. Political Parties and Groups
All Ceylon Tamil Congress--also known as the Tamil Congress. Founded in 1944
to champion the cause of the Tamils against Sinhalese Buddhist domination. A
faction broke away in 1949 to form the more aggressive Tamil Federal Party.
Ceylon Equal Society Party (Lanka Sama Samaja Party--LSSP)--
Trotskyite-oriented party founded in 1935. Though touted as the world's only
successful Trotskyite party, in recent years the LSSP has been considered
politically spent.
Ceylon Indian Congress--founded in 1939. Political group representing Indian
Tamils that sought to revive Buddhism.
Ceylon Workers' Congress--a minority-oriented party which enjoyed the support
of the Indian Tamils and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress in the late 1980s.
Communist Party of Sri Lanka (CPSL)--began as a Stalinist faction of the LSSP,
but was later expelled and founded as a separate party in 1943, remaining
faithful to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Deshapremi Janatha Viyaparaya (DJV)--Patriotic Liberation
Organization--emerged in 1987 as a splinter group of the JVP.
Eelam National Liberation Front (ENLF)--a united front organiza- tion formed
in March 1985 by the LTTE, EPRLF, TELO, and EROS, which became largely
inoperative by mid-1986 when LTTE quit, although the other groups sought to
form a front without LTTE participation.
Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF)--a guerrilla group that
emerged in the early 1980s, part of the ENLF.
Eelam Revolutionary Organization of Students (EROS)--militant Tamil guerrilla
group that emerged in the early 1980s, part of the ENLF.
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP--People's Liberation Front)-- insurgent
extremist political group founded in the late 1960s by Rohana Wijeweera. A
Maoist and primarily rural Sinhalese youth movement based in southern Sri
Lanka, it initially sympathized with the "oppressed" of both the Tamil and
Sinhalese communities, but by the early 1980s, became increasingly a Sinhalese
nationalist organization opposing any compromise with the Tamil insurgency.
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)--strongest of Tamil separatist groups,
founded in 1972 when Tamil youth espousing a Marxist ideology and an
independent Tamil state established a group called the Tamil New Tigers; name
changed in 1976. Competitors include People's Liberation Organization of Tamil
Eelam, Tamil Eelam Liberation Army, and the Tamil Eelam Liberation
Organization. Membership generally drawn from the Karava or fisherman caste.
By late 1986 LTTE had eliminated TELO and established itself as the dominant
spokesman of the Tamil insurgency.
New Equal Society Party (Nava Sama Samaja Party--NSSP)--a breakaway faction of
the LSSP.
People's Democratic Party (PDP--Mahajana Prajathanthra)-- Sinhalese, founded
in 1977 by six members of the SLFP.
People's Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE, also PLOT)--insurgent
political group with large percentage of members belonging to elite Vellala
caste; a rival of the LTTE, from whom it broke away in 1981 claiming a purer
form of Marxist orthodoxy.
People's United Front (Mahajana Eksath Peramuna--MEP)--political party founded
by Dinesh P.R. Gunawardene in 1955 that has attracted Sinhalese support with
its appeals to militant Buddhist and Sinhala chauvinist sentiments. Originally
opposed to the UNP, it is basically an SLFP-Marxist coalition.
Sinhala Maha Sabha--Great Council of the Sinhalese. It was founded in 1937 to
represent the interest of Sinhala-language speakers in the Ceylon National
Congress and to mobilize popular support for the liberation of the country
from foreign rule.
Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP)--first major non-Marxist left-of- center
political party to oppose the UNP; founded in July 1951 when S.W.R.D.
Bandaranaike's left-of-center bloc split with D.S. Senanayake and seceded to
form the SLFP.
Sri Lanka People's Party (Sri Lanka Mahajana Pakshaya--SLPP)-- political party
formed in 1984 by a daughter of Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Chandrika Kumaratunge,
and her husband Vijay Kumaratunge, who claimed that the original SLFP, under
the leadership of Bandaranaike's son, Anura, was excessively right wing and
had become an instrument of the Jayewardene government.
Tamil Eelam Army (TEA)--insurgent group.
Tamil Eelam Liberation Army (TELA)--insurgent group.
Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO)--guerrilla group decimated in 1986
by repeated LTTE attacks.
Tamil Federal Party--also known as the Federal Party. Formally established in
December 1949. Competitor of the more conciliatory Tamil Congress, also known
as the All Ceylon Tamil Congress, the party desired a federal system of
government and the right to political autonomy--an independent Tamil state.
Renamed the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) in 1971.
Tamil New Tigers--guerrilla group, formed in 1972, that abandoned the
political process and geared itself for violence. The New Tigers espoused
Marxist ideology and claimed to represent the oppressed of all ethnic groups
despite its obvious ethnic affiliation; see also LTTE.
Tamil Tigers--Tamil separatist underground of rival and sometimes violently
hostile groups based in the Northern and Eastern provinces and known
collectively as Tamil Tigers.
Tamil United Front--founded in May 1972 as a reaction against the 1972
constitution, a coalition of Tamil interest groups and legal parties including
the Tamil Congress and the Federal Party; united by the goal of Tamil autonomy
and espousing nonviolent means, called the Tamil United Liberation Front
(TULF) in 1976. Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF)--political party spawned
by the Tamil United Front.
Three Stars--insurgent Tamil coalition.
United Front (Samagi Peramuna)--three-party political coalition (LSSP, CPSL,
and SLFP), formed in 1968 by Sirimavo Bandaranaike to prepare for the 1970
general election and to oppose the UNP.
United National Party--conservative, umbrella party founded by Don Stephen
Senanayake in 1946 as a partnership of many disparate groups--including the
Ceylon National Congress, the Sinhala Maha Sabha, and the Muslim League.
Political party in power in Sri Lanka for ten years beginning in February 1948
when the new constitution went into effect, and again from 1977 to 1988;
nickname is "uncle-nephew party" because of kinship ties among the party's
top leadership.