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1956 Ceylonese Parliamentary Election
Parliamentary elections were held in Ceylon in 1956. They were a watershed in the country's political history, and was the first elections fought to realistically challenge the ruling United National Party. The former Leader of the House, S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike who was passed over after the death of the first Prime Minister D. S. Senanayake, crossed over to the opposition to form the Sri Lanka Freedom Party to launch his bid for Prime Minister. Background The UNP government of John Kotelawala had been rapidly losing steam. It faced widespread criticism over Ceylon's poor economic performance. Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party now championed a popular socialist platform, calling for English to be replaced by Sinhala as the island's official language. The UNP resisted this out of deference to Ceylon's Tamil minority, but changed its position in early 1956. This only served to cost the UNP its Tamil support while gaining it little among the Sinhalese. The Lanka Sama Sa ...
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House Of Representatives Of Ceylon
The House of Representatives was the lower chamber of the parliament of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) established in 1947 by the Soulbury Constitution. The House was housed in the old State Council building in Galle Face Green, Colombo and met for the first time on 14 October 1947. The First Republican Constitution of Sri Lanka, adopted on 22 May 1972, replaced the House of Representatives (and Parliament of Ceylon) with the unicameral National State Assembly. Membership The House of Representatives initially consisted of 101 members, of whom 95 were elected by the electors of the 89 electoral districts and six appointed by the Governor-General, on the advice of the Prime Minister. The members were known as "''Members of Parliament''". The six appointed members represented important interests which were not represented or inadequately represented in the House, they were usually from the European and Burgher communities and on occasions from the Indian Tamils and Muslim (Moors or Mala ...
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Lanka Sama Samaja Party
The Lanka Sama Samaja Party, often abbreviated as LSSP (Literal translation, literally: Lanka Socialist Party, Sinhalese language, Sinhala: ලංකා සම සමාජ පක්ෂය, Tamil language, Tamil: லங்கா சமசமாஜக் கட்சி), is a major Trotskyism, Trotskyist political party in Sri Lanka. It was the first political party in Sri Lanka (then British Ceylon), having been founded in 1935 by Leslie Goonewardene, N.M. Perera, Colvin R. de Silva, Philip Gunawardena and Robert Gunawardena. It currently is a member of the main ruling coalition in the government of Sri Lanka and is headed by Tissa Vitharana. The party was founded with Leninism, leninist ideals, and is classified as a party with Socialism, Socialist aims. The LSSP emerged as a major political force in the Sri Lankan independence movement during the 1940s, during which time the party was forced to go underground due to its opposition to the British war effort. The party played an ...
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Working Class
The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colour") include blue-collar jobs, and most pink-collar jobs. Members of the working class rely exclusively upon earnings from wage labour; thus, according to more inclusive definitions, the category can include almost all of the working population of industrialized economies, as well as those employed in the urban areas (cities, towns, villages) of non-industrialized economies or in the rural workforce. Definitions As with many terms describing social class, ''working class'' is defined and used in many different ways. The most general definition, used by many socialists, is that the working class includes all those who have nothing to sell but their labour. These people used to be referred to as the proletariat, but that term has gone out of ...
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Middle Class
The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Common definitions for the middle class range from the middle fifth of individuals on a nation's income ladder, to everyone but the poorest and wealthiest 20%. Theories like "Paradox of Interest" use decile groups and wealth distribution data to determine the size and wealth share of the middle class. From a Marxist standpoint, middle class initially referred to the 'bourgeoisie,' as distinct from nobility. With the development of capitalist societies and further inclusion of the bourgeoisie into the ruling class, middle class has been more closely identified by Marxist scholars with the term 'petite bourgeoisie.' There has been significant global middle-class growth over time. In February 2009, ''The Economist'' asserted that over half of the ...
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Members Of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members often have a different title. The terms congressman/congresswoman or deputy are equivalent terms used in other jurisdictions. The term parliamentarian is also sometimes used for members of parliament, but this may also be used to refer to unelected government officials with specific roles in a parliament and other expert advisers on parliamentary procedure such as the Senate Parliamentarian in the United States. The term is also used to the characteristic of performing the duties of a member of a legislature, for example: "The two party leaders often disagreed on issues, but both were excellent parliamentarians and cooperated to get many good things done." Members of parliament typically form parliamentary groups, sometimes called caucuse ...
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All Ceylon Tamil Congress
All Ceylon Tamil Congress ( ta, அகில இலங்கைத் தமிழ்க் காங்கிரஸ்), is the oldest Tamil political party in Sri Lanka. History The ACTC was founded in 1944 by G.G. Ponnambalam. Ponnambalam asked for a 50-50 representation in parliament (50% for the Sinhalese, 50% for ''all'' other ethnic groups). This was immediately rejected by the British Governor General Lord Soulbury as a "mockery of democracy". Due to the cooperation of the ACTC with the United National Party a group led by S.J.V. Chelvanayakam broke away in 1949, forming the Federal Party (FP). The ACTC was largely discredited when their ally the UNP moved away from bilingual and bicommunal policies towards a pro-Sinhalese stance. Thus the FP emerged as the major Tamil party in 1956. In 1972 the ACTC and the FP formed the Tamil United Front, which later evolved into the Tamil United Liberation Front in 1976. Ahead of the 2001 elections, ACTC joined the LTTE-backed T ...
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Communist Party Of Ceylon
The Communist Party of Sri Lanka ( si, ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ කොමියුනිස්ට් පක්ෂය, ''Sri Lankavay Komiyunist Pakshaya'' ta, இலங்கை கம்யூனிஸ்ட் கட்சி, translit=Ilankai Komyunist Katche) is a communist party in Sri Lanka. In the 2004 Sri Lankan parliamentary election, 2004 legislative election, the party was part of the United People's Freedom Alliance that won 45.6% of the popular vote and 105 out of 225 seats. History The CPSL was founded as the Communist Party of Ceylon in 1943 and was a continuation of the United Socialist Party. The USP had been formed out of the Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist wing of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party. The USP was proscribed by the colonial authorities. The USP and then the CPC was initially led by Dr. S. A. Wickramasinghe. In 1952 Wickremesinghe's wife, the English-born Doreen Young Wickremasinghe, a former leader of the Suriya-Mal Movement, was ...
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Viplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja Party
Viplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Revolutionary Ceylon Equal Society Party, Sinhala; විප්ලවකාරි ලංකා සමසමජ පක්ෂය) was a political group in Ceylon, that broke away from the Trotskyist Lanka Sama Samaja Party, since Philip Gunawardena (one of the principal LSSP leaders) refused to reconcile with the Bolshevik Samasamaja Party. When the BSP and LSSP fused in 1950, Gunawardena split to form VLSSP. In 1952 VLSSP entered into an electoral alliance with the Communist Party. In the parliamentary elections that year, VLSSP won one seat (represented by Gunawardena's wife, Kusumasiri Gunawardena). Philip Gunawardena lead the Viplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja Party (VLSSP) since 1951 and as constituent party formed the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP, Peoples’ United Front) in 1956 under the leadership of Mr.SWRD Bandaranaike to form the first people’s government in 1956 General Election. At that election, VLSSP won five seats in the parliamen ...
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Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (1956)
The Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (People's United Front) was electoral alliance founded in 1956. It consisted of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party led by S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, Viplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja Party led by Philip Gunawardena and ''Sinhala Bhasha Peramuna'' (Sinhala Language Front) led by Wijeyananda Dahanayake and I.M.R.A. Iriyagolla (Independents) The alliance won the 1956 elections and formed the government. The MEP alliance fell apart Mr I.M.R.A. Iriyagolle resigned and joined the opposition, in 1957, May 1959 after Philip Gunawardena and William de Silva resigned from the government. The VLSSP joined the opposition. The Mahajana Eksath Peramuna name was carried forward by Philip Gunawardena who founded a new political party called Mahajana Eksath Peramuna The Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (People's United Front) is a political party in Sri Lanka. The party is currently led by Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, son of Philip Gunawardena, the founder of the party. ...
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Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand Social class, class relations and social conflict and a dialectical perspective to view social transformation. It originates from the works of 19th-century German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. As Marxism has developed over time into various branches and schools of thought, no single, definitive Marxist philosophy, Marxist theory exists. In addition to the schools of thought which emphasize or modify elements of classical Marxism, various Marxian concepts have been incorporated and adapted into a diverse array of Social theory, social theories leading to widely varying conclusions. Alongside Marx's critique of political economy, the defining characteristics of Marxism have often been described using the terms dialectical mater ...
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