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Reminisce Trots’ of 50s, 60s and 70s in 80 years of Island’s Marxism
Comrade Colvin R. de Silva, was elected the President at the inaugural meeting of Lanka Sama Samaja Party on 21st December, 80 years ago. The 28-year old young advocate in his address referred to a public meetings held simultaneously by the new coalition of Ceylon National Congress [CNC], and A. E. Goonasinghe’s Ceylon Labour Party [CLP], he said,
“…and with the Senanayakes and Jayatillakes travel the remnant that is miscalled the Ceylon National Congress; the organisation of landowners had acted in the name of the people for the founding of its own exclusive power. The meeting of the CLP and the Trade Union Congress reminds me of nothing so much as a travelling circus in which the central turn is always played by the same clown”.--
-Ceylon Daily News of -23/12/1935
In contrast to the type of people in today’s politics, I reminisce, of three LSSPers, who I was privileged to witness in active politics during the good old days of late 1940s up to the mid 1970s.
All of them belonged to either middle-class or below, but were men of principles and high integrity. They never betrayed the trust placed by the voter or the party ‘comrades’. Contradicting George Orwell, they engaged in politics free of, not only ‘lies, folly, evasions, hatred and schizophrenia’, but winning elections without spending a red cent; not accumulate wealth and finally retired as destitute ordinary men.
‘Mal Sahodaraya’ of Kollupitya
The meagerly dressed staunch Trotskyite and former MMC, who lived among the ‘Watte’ population of Kollupitya in a temporary plank-walled shanty, threw the money away and screamed,
“I say, comrade Banda, give that letter back..., you seem to have lot of money, why don’t you hire a lawyer and get a draft?” Bandaiya was a senior porter employed in the Transport section of Shaw Wallace and Hedges in early 1970s at the European managed multinational, where most of our labour were members of LSSP’s blue-collar Union led by D. S. Mallawaarachchi, the one time City Father at Colombo Municipality, (In late 1950s or early 60s; not sure) : believe me, he represented the Kollupitiya Ward, which included the elite voter of Cinnamon Gardens.
"Lesley Goonewardene, son of a famous General Practitioner in Panadura was a leader of LSSP, and an equally wealthy man as Sir Susantha lost to Susantha de Fonseka in 1936 State Council elections, which forced him to abandon the home seat in search of greener pastures in Colombo North, another strong hold of Marxists."
Ninety percent of Colombo’s shanty dwellers were with Marxists prior to 1970s and long before they were spoiled and bought over by ‘throw money about’ UNP/SLFP politicians in the late 60s and 70s.
Banda, who was a member of another union, went to ‘Mal’ seeking his help to get an explanation letter drafted, [As he had no confidence in his union’s leadership] in response to a dispute he had with the management. After listening to his story, ‘Mal’ typed the letter in duplicate and got our man to sign it spending nearly two hours on the job. Bandaiya, who felt sorry for the man, instead of thanking him, attempted to palm a five rupee note over which Mal lost his cool. (Banda’s wages).
Bandaiya, back at work with the letter was cautioned by his colleagues, who knew Mal. One of them later told me:
“Sir, whenever he appeared before Labour Tribunal in our cases, we invite him for lunch; Mal’s usual response was Buy me a toffee.
Unwrapping it he would walk up to the bus stop wearing his badly worn-out pair of rubber slippers.”
Merrill Fernando of Moratuwa
In the early 1960s, while I was travelling by bus to Dehiwela, at the Moratuwa stand, a lean fair gentleman dressed in a white suite, and wearing a RED tie, and his white drill coat hanging on his left arm, entered the same CTB bus. A passenger who recognised him offered him his seat, ‘Wadivenna, Merrill Sahodharaya’(Comrade Merrill, take a seat). Merrill Fernando, from the coastal fishing village of Koralawella, Moratuwa, was one of the rebellious fighters of 1953 Hartal. He won the 1960 March and July elections under LSSP beating business magnate, Ruskin Fernando of Velona fame.
My next meeting with him was in 1967; returning from work [My first job], a somewhat familiar person travelled with me in the same compartment in the train, but I failed to make out him until he got off the train at Koralawella, to be greeted by two fisher folk women saying, ‘Merrill apita, Api Merrilta..., Viplavayak langa enava-Ekata api serasenwa’. (We are for Merrill and Merrill for us; Revolution round the Corner! We are working towards it’), there was no scarcity for slogans.
Merrill, the Marxist ideologist broke away along with Edmond Samarakkody and other revolutionaries on principle, when the LSSP leadership decided to coalesce with ‘Capitalist Sirimavo’, in 1964. He had to ‘pay the price’ in 1965 when he lost his Moratuwa seat in Parliament to his former colleague Wimalasiri de Mel [LSSP].
Henry Peiris, Panadura MP ‘47-’52
Mahathelge Henry Peiris, the father of the late Janadas Peiris, the respected Public Servant and senior journalist, travelled around his constituency using the only precious vehicle he possessed, a push bicycle, during the 1947 election campaign.
My home became a hive of political activity during the General Elections 1952. Aged eight years though, it was a unique experience, with two older siblings, both staunch supporters of Comrade Henry, the sitting MP and editor of the party’s news bulletin, who beat Deputy Speaker in the 1947 State Council Election. Sir Susantha de Fonseka of UNP, was a member of Panadura’s affluent plantations-owner families and former Ambassador to Japan.
While Sir Susantha, according to my father, used to tour his constituency riding his horse followed by his driver and the limousine, ‘Henry Sahodharaya’, the candidate of the LSSP’s breakaway group Bolshevik-Leninists, would drop in to discuss campaign strategies with party men in the area. He would park his Humber push bicycle on a side and discuss ideological as well as general politics with the people.
Lesley Goonewardene, son of a famous General Practitioner in Panadura was a leader of LSSP, and an equally wealthy man as Sir Susantha lost to Susantha de Fonseka in the 1936 State Council elections, which forced him to abandon the home seat in search of greener pastures in Colombo North, another strong hold of Marxists.
I remember, my brothers telling me how our MP, Henry Peiris Sahodaraya attended Parliament, representing the voters of Panadura using only public transport.
He did so until he lost to the UNP at the 1952 General elections.
Sir Susantha knew by name not only his supporters but most of his opponents too. During the 1947 elections, one morning he had stopped opposite our house, seeing my father around, and had inquired, “Albert, your children seem to be very busy!...working hard eh ...? Very good, very good”,
A sarcastic remark sighting the Red flag flying with the ‘lamp’ symbol, across the road in front of the house. There were no party symbols then: Flags and display of posters were not violations of Election Law.
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