Editing Trotskyism (section)

==== Sri Lanka ====
[[File:Lsspoffice.JPG|thumb|right|[[Lanka Sama Samaja Party|LSSP]] main office in [[Colombo]], Sri Lanka]]

In Sri Lanka, a group of Trotskyists (known as the "T Group"), including South Asia's pioneer Trotskyist, [[Philip Gunawardena]], who had been active in Trotskyist politics in Europe, and his colleague [[N. M. Perera]], were instrumental in the foundation of the [[Lanka Sama Samaja Party]] (LSSP) in 1935. It expelled its pro-Moscow wing in 1940, becoming a Trotskyist-led party. After a prison break it helped form the short lived [[Bolshevik–Leninist Party of India, Ceylon and Burma]] (BLPI).

After the war, the Sri Lanka section split into the Lanka Sama Samaja Party and the [[Bolshevik Samasamaja Party]] (BSP). In the general election of 1947, the LSSP became the main opposition party, winning ten seats, the BSP winning a further 5. It joined the Trotskyist Fourth International after fusion with the BSP in 1950 and led a general strike ([[Hartal 1953|Hartal]]) in 1953.<ref name="Ervin">{{cite book |last=Ervin |first=W. E. |title=Tomorrow is Ours: The Trotskyist Movement in India and Ceylon, 1935–48 |location=Colombo |publisher=Social Scientists Association |date=2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Y. Ranjith |last=Amarasinghe |title=Revolutionary Idealism & Parliamentary Politics – A Study Of Trotskyism In Sri Lanka |location=Colombo |date=1998}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Goonewardena |first=Leslie |author-link=Leslie Goonewardene |date=1960 |url=https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/goonewardene/1960/lssp.htm |title=A Short History of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party |magazine=What's Next? |via=[[Marxists Internet Archive]] |access-date=16 February 2019}}</ref>

In 1964, the LSSP joined a coalition government with [[Sirimavo Bandaranaike]], with three members, NM Perera, [[Cholomondeley Goonewardene]], and [[Anil Moonesinghe]], brought into the new cabinet. This led to the expulsion of the party from the Fourth International. A section of the LSSP split to form the LSSP (Revolutionary) and joined the Fourth International after the LSSP proper was expelled. The LSSP (Revolutionary) later split into factions led by [[Bala Tampoe]] and [[Edmund Samarakkody]]. Another faction, the "Sakthi" Group, led by [[V. Karalasingham]], rejoined the LSSP in 1966.

In 1968, another faction of the LSSP (Revolutionary), led by Keerthi Balasooriya split, to form the Revolutionary Communist League – more commonly known as the "''Kamkaru Mawatha'' Group", after the name of their publication – and joined the [[International Committee of the Fourth International]] (ICFI). In 1996, the group changed its name to [[Socialist Equality Party (Sri Lanka)|Socialist Equality Party]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/07/30/seps-j30.html |title=Sri Lankan SEP General Secretary Wije Dias interviewed on national election channel |date=30 July 2015 |website=[[World Socialist Website]] |archive-url= |archive-date=}}</ref> In 2024 with assistance from European comrades, particularly in France, many of who fled the [[Sri Lankan civil war|Sri Lankan Civil War]] a historic Tamil translation of Trotsky’s [[The Revolution Betrayed]] was published, accompanied with public meetings for the book’s launch.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/02/06/ulli-f06.html |title=SEP (Sri Lanka) public meetings to launch Tamil translation of Trotsky's the Revolution Betrayed |website=[[World Socialist Website]] |date=6 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241116022934/https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/02/06/ulli-f06.html |archive-date=16 November 2024}}</ref>

In 1974, a secret faction of the LSSP, allied to the [[Militant (Trotskyist group)|Militant]] group in the United Kingdom, emerged. In 1977, this faction was expelled and formed the [[Nava Sama Samaja Party]], led by [[Vasudeva Nanayakkara]].