Socialist Students Union of Sri Lanka (SSU), also known as Samajavadi Shishya Sangamaya, is a students' union in Sri Lanka that operates as the students' wing of the Marxist-Leninist

Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP; , PLF) is a Marxist–Leninist political party in Sri Lanka. The party was formerly a revolutionary movement and was involved in two armed uprisings against the government of Sri Lanka: once in 1971 JVP ins ...

. It is currently a member of the Inter-university Students' Federation. The SSU was formed in 1968 by Marxist

Rohana Wijeweera Patabendi Don Jinadasa Nandasiri Wijeweera (; 14 July 1943 – 13 November 1989), better known as Rohana Wijeweera, was a Sri Lankan Marxist–Leninist political activist, revolutionary, and founder of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP; ). W ...

, initially called Samajawadi Shishya Sangamaya (සමාජවාදී ශිෂ්‍ය සංගමය), the SSU is the oldest student union in Sri Lanka, and promotes

Communism Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...

. It was able to start recruiting youths from both universities and independent student councils; by 1970 the SSU was dominant in student politics and was able to operate as the armed wing of the JVP in 1970 especially during the ruling period of The

United Front A united front is an alliance of groups against their common enemies, figuratively evoking unification of previously separate geographic fronts or unification of previously separate armies into a front. The name often refers to a political and/ ...

. Shantha Bandara was the founding general secretary of the Socialist Students Union. All the general secretaries who succeeded him (before 1990) were killed in the struggle by the

United National Party The United National Party (UNP; , ) is a Centre-right politics, centre-right political party in Sri Lanka. Founded in 1946, the party was one of Sri Lanka's two main parties for several decades. The UNP has served as the country's ruling party ...

government that was in power at that time, this included Lalith Wijeratne, H. B. Herath, D. M. Ananda, Upali Jayaweera, Ananda Idamegama, D. R. Nissanka, and Athula Senaratne. The SSU together with the Patriotic Students' Union were banned in 1988. After 1990, the Socialist Students Union was again reformed.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake Anura Kumara Dissanayake (born 24 November 1968), commonly referred to by his initials AKD, is a Sri Lankan politician who has been the tenth and current president of Sri Lanka since 2024. Dissanayake is the first Sri Lankan president to be ele ...

was its founding general secretary. Sunil Handunnetti, Bimal Rathnayake and Mangala Kuruppu became general secretaries after him.

References

External links

Official website
{{JVP Communism in Sri Lanka 1965 establishments in Ceylon 1971 JVP insurrection Students' unions in Sri Lanka Student wings of communist parties