The Frontline Socialist Party is a

communist party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

. It was launched on 9 April 2012 by dissident members of the

Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP; ) is a Marxist–Leninist communist party and a former militant organization in Sri Lanka. The movement was involved in two armed uprisings against the government of Sri Lanka: once in 1971 (SLFP), and anot ...

. The Frontline Socialist Party (FLSP) was launched at the First Convention held on 9 April 2012 by the dissident group of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). The stalwarts of the party claimed that they are in an attempt to the revival of socialist struggle in

. The organizing secteray of the party is

Premakumar Gunaratnam Premakumar Gunaratnam in politics, is a former JVP leader and political activist in Sri Lanka who later became an Australian citizen and the current general secretary of FLSP. Early life Gunaratnam was born on 18 November 1965 to Aadheemoolam P ...

Electoral history

Cause for the Split from the JVP

FLSP claims that the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna has lost its revolutionary thought built by

Rohana Wijeweera Patabendi Don Jinadasa Nandasiri Wijeweera ( si, පටබැඳි දොන් ජිනදාස නන්දසිරි විජෙවීර; 14 July 1943 – 13 November 1989, better known by his ''nom de guerre'' Rohana Wijeweera, was a ...

since the beginning of his campaign. They claim that the JVP now relies on government coalitions rather than Revolutionary Socialism.

was the Trincomalee leader of the

Deshapremi Janatha Viyaparaya Deshapremi Janatha Vyaparaya (abbreviated as DJV) (දේශප්‍රේමී ජනතා ව්‍යාපාරය; Patriotic People's Movement) was a militant organisation in Sri Lanka. It was widely considered to be the military bran ...

and worked as a secondary revolutionary leader of the JVP. He was at the odds of the party for the lack of the revolutionary purpose since Wijeweera's death in 1989. April 2012, internal crisis within the party heated up between the hard core socialist Gunaratnam and the party leader Somawansa Amarasinghe. As a result, the party’s media unit was shut down once a majority of the members extended their support to Gunarathnam. The Women’s wing and a majority of the Student's wing and the Youth wing have extended their support to Gunaratnam group.

2020 Protests

The members of the party with some other left-wing parties held protests in front of the US embassy in Sri Lanka which was later assaulted by Police officers complaining about the breaking of "health regulations". The party members claimed this was a peaceful protest against the murder of

George Floyd George Perry Floyd Jr. (October 14, 1973 – May 25, 2020) was an African-American man who was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest made after a store clerk suspected Floyd may have used a counterfeit twe ...

and against the signing of MCC deal with the United States. The members of the FLSP,

and a group of supporters of the FLSP started marching down the streets mostly wearing

Red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

to represent

Communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

and

Anti-racism Anti-racism encompasses a range of ideas and political actions which are meant to counter racial prejudice, systemic racism, and the oppression of specific racial groups. Anti-racism is usually structured around conscious efforts and deliberate a ...

. The members carried posters that read "Racism is a deadly virus" thus referring to the outbreak of the

Coronavirus Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the com ...

. The police soon crossed the road blocking the road to the U.S Embassy. The police then began to clash with the protesters. No deaths were caused in the combat but may were wounded by the end.

Arrests

FLSP secretary Kumar Guneratnam and some other key members were arrested and some other were hospitalized after getting attacked. Two lawyers who questioned the police about the reason for arrest also were taken into the custody.

References

2012 establishments in Sri Lanka Anti-imperialist organizations Communist parties in Sri Lanka Political parties established in 2012 {{SriLanka-party-stub