CEYLON COMMUNIST PARTY ON VERGE OF SPLIT
By Sydney Wanas inghe
. COLOMBO «- The Ceylon Communist party Locp], which did not feel even the slightest impact of events like the Hungarian Revolution, Poznan and the Twentieth Congress, has cracked wide open in the current crisis facing the international Communist movement. The split in this party, which has hitherto remained monolithic, is almost complete. It has only to be regularized at the "rebel" convention which is to be held shortly. ©
About two months back the Central Committee LCC] of the CCP adopted by majority vote a resolution condemning the Chinese position in the current international dispute. The minority in the CC led by N.Shanmugathasan, secretary of the Ceylon Trade Union Federation LCTUF] and Premalal Kumarasiri, editor of the Sinhalese language weekly of the CCP, declared that the CC. had no legal right to take this decision because its term of office should have expired in December 1962, Therefore, they claimed, the present CC did not represent the views of the party; and they started a campaign within the party for an immediate conference to discuss this problem and to elect a new leadership.
In spite of the 0C decision, the Sinhalese and Tamil weeklies of the party continued to publish articles which supported the Chinese position, The majority in the CC acted swiftly and removed Premalal Kumarasiri and H.M.P.Mohideen from their posts as editors of these papers. Subsequently notices were served on the two, requesting them to show cause why disci~ plinary action should not be taken against them for violating a CC deci-~ ‘sion, Shortly after this, Premalal Kumarasiri left for Djakarta to attend the Afro~Asian Trade Union conference, The CC of the CCP thereafter poste poned action on him and decided by a majority vote to expel N. Shanmugathasan. .
This led to: an intensive campaign by N,Shanmugathasan inside the party against the leadership. He was later joined by Premalal Kumarasiri,. after the latter returned to the island from Djakarta. Party cell meetings and public meetings were held in a number of places in the city and the oute stations, At .these meetings the policy of the CP leadership came in for Severe criticism, Attempts of the CP leadership to ban these meetings to the members and prevent them from being held proved futile. Shanmugathasan alleges that the CP leadership even resorted to bribery to disrupt his meetings. Most of them were very well attended. CP members took a prominent part in organizing them, but as yet have met with no disciplinary action.
The displaced editors of the party papers were immediately taken in as editors of the Sinhalese and Tamil papers of the CTUF. These papers, which are utilized to attack the CP leadership directly, were fortnightlies. Now they have been reorganized as weeklies and steps are being taken tobring.out the Sinhalese paper as a daily from January 1964. The CTUF has set up a well-equipped printing press with modern machinery obtained from the German Democratic Republic.
So far the only rebels to be expelled are N.Shanmugathasan and T,°
alQu
Moorthy. Both of them belong to the Tamil-speaking minority. This, and the failure on the part of the CP to take disciplinary action against a single Sinhalese-speaking rebel, together with the virulent communalist attacks levelled at N,Shanmugathasan and other Tamil~speaking revolution» ists who reject the reformist perspective of winning power through parlia~ ment proves beyond doubt that the CP leadership has followed communal Lines in acting in this matter.
The pro-Peking secretary and treasurer were removed from office by the pro=Soviet minority of the Central Committee of the Communist party and Progressive Youth Leagues. Subsequently the majority in the Youth League cc (nineteen out of thirty) met and expelled seven pro=Soviet members, including the President, This majority claims that the president, Sarath Maththetuwagama, who was in agreement with the Chinese position earlier, is now a prisoner in the hands cf the Soviet wing. .
‘The. OTUF, which is the trade-union organization of the COP, forms the © main base of the Peking wing. All attempts on the part of the Gp leader-~ ship to take the trade unions away from Shanmugathasan'ts influence have. failed, A few meetings summoned by the leadership in the branch unions to rally support for the official line of the CCP proved to be miserable fiascos, This gave rise to a spate of meetings in a number of branch unions which reaffirmed their faith in the Peking line leadership. As. yet the. CCP leadership has made no attempt to form a separate trade-union organization, Attempts to capture the CTUF from within have proved futile. A few of the Moscow supporters in the leadership of branch unions have. been removed. from office at the branch level. B.M,G.Mendis, a Moscow supporter, still remains in the leadership of the CTUF. . At the annual general meeting of the Afro=Asian Solidarity League the two wings of the party clashed openly. An attempt by the CCP leader= ship to oust Mrs, Theja Gunawardena from the post of president of the league failed, The Peking wing also alleges that the party leadership maneuvered to get her out of the press commission, They accuse the CCP leadership of serving the interests of the bourgeois press in attempting this. Mrs, Theja Gunawardena is a prominent supporter of the Chinese position. in the Sino-Soviet and Sino~Indian disputes. She is the author of a book entitled Khrushchevism, a strong attack on Soviet policy. She has been very active in many of the front. organizations of the CCP, such as friendship associations and solidarity leagues, etc, © . The Cuban Solidarity League has also become inactive. This is partly due to the factional fights in the CCP and partly due to admission of petty-~bourgeois comnunalist careerists into its ranks.
Eighty-seven leading members of the CCP, who met November 17, decided to summon the Seventh National Conference of the party. These eighty-seven members signed an appeal addressed to "the real Marxist-Leninists in the cop." They elected an organizing committee of thirty-five to make the ~ necessary preparations for the conference. Premalal Kumarasiri was elected secretary of this committee, ~
Addressing the meeting, he stated: "The present reformist trend is not only a deviation from Communism, It is a deadly enemy destined to
omer
destroy the Communist movement, It is a treacherous current which betrays the proletarian revolution, It is the historically assigned duty of the. real Marxist-Leninists to smash the current reformism,."
Speeches - ‘made at this meeting, reported in the Worker, ‘the weekly organ of the CTUF, show clearly the determination of this hard core of members to form a * party of their own. The eighty-seven members who were present at this meeting and the twenty-nine others who subsequently added their signatures to this appeal are drawn from the leadership of factories, Youth Leagues, district committees and party locals, Ten of them are mem= bers of the CC of the CCP. In the appeal they levelled a number of_damag= ing charges against the leadership. See World Outlook December 6,
The factional struggle in the CCP has brought to light the corruption that existed in it. Building up "yes men" by granting favors like jobs in embassies and firms engaged in trade with countries of the Soviet bloc, organizing. trips abroad for henchmen, racketeering in commissions for Trade with Socialist Countries, covering up embezzlement of party and tradeunion funds and thereby building up corrupt stooges, victimization of those who disagreed with the leadership -~- all these things are in process of being unravelled,
‘The "rebels" in the CCP, like their co-thinkers in the Chinese Com-~ . munist party, have come cut in defense of Stalin. In this, they merely repeat what the Chinese are saying.
. -- The Ceylon Communist party is thus faced with a serious crisis, Hitherto there had been only isolated cases of expulsions and resignations, But in none of these instances has there been a challenge to the leadership that can be compared to the present one. This is not a revolt but a rebellion of the first order, The bankruptcy of the leadership is seen from their helpless attitude -- allowing things to pass by without intervening, They cannot afford to intervene because that will only strengthen the tide against them, The inevitable split is only a matter of time.
SINO-SOVIET CONFLICT