Socialist Equality Party (Sri Lanka)
Encyclopedia
The Socialist Equality Party is a Trotskyist political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...

 in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

. It was founded in 1968 as the Revolutionary Communist League by former student members of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Revolutionary)
Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Revolutionary)
Lanka Sama Samaja Party was a Trotskyist political party in Sri Lanka. LSSP was formed in 1964 when the Lanka Sama Samaja Party was expelled from the Fourth International. LSSP was constituted by the ideological hardliners who opposed LSSP joining the national government and wanted to preserve the...

 who joined the International Committee of the Fourth International
International Committee of the Fourth International
The International Committee of the Fourth International is the name of two Trotskyist internationals; one with sections named Socialist Equality Party which publishes the World Socialist Web Site and another linked to the Workers Revolutionary Party in Britain.-Foundation:The International...

. They remained loyal to Gerry Healy
Gerry Healy
Thomas Gerard Healy, known as Gerry Healy , was a political activist, a co-founder of the International Committee of the Fourth International, and, according to former prominent U.S. supporter David North, the leader of the Trotskyist movement in Great Britain between 1950 – 1985...

 until the majority of the International split from his organisation. Since the death of its founder leader Keerthi Balasooriya in December 1987, Wije Dias assumed the leadership. In the 1990s, it changed its name to the Socialist Equality Party, in line with other members of the surviving ICFI. In the Sri Lankan presidential election, 2005
Sri Lankan presidential election, 2005
The Sri Lankan presidential election of 2005 was the fifth presidential election of Sri Lanka. Nominations were accepted on 7 September 2005, and the election was held on 17 November 2005. Electoral participation was 73.73%...

, the party's candidate, Wije Dias, came 11th of 13 candidates, with 3,500 votes (0.04%).

It publishes their analysis on political and economic as well as other issues and run election campaign on World Socialist Web Site
World Socialist Web Site
The World Socialist Web Site is the online news and information center of the International Committee of the Fourth International . The site publishes articles and analysis covering a wide range of topics and events all around the world. The daily 'Perspective' article presents the position of the...

.

On War in Sri Lanka

It has consistently opposed the war in Sri Lanka and according to its own words it opposes "racism, capitalism, imperialism and terrorism". It maintains that the civil war
Sri Lankan civil war
The Sri Lankan Civil War was a conflict fought on the island of Sri Lanka. Beginning on July 23, 1983, there was an on-and-off insurgency against the government by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam , a separatist militant organization which fought to create an independent Tamil state named Tamil...

can only be end by uniting working people regardless of their ethnic origin and demanding the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of armed forces from the North and East. Its political program calls for a Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and Eelam as part of the Union of Socialist Republics of South Asia.

On Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)

It has consistently opposed the LTTE’s demand for a separate state, insisting that the democratic rights of the Tamil masses can only be defended through a united struggle of the Sinhala and Tamil workers for genuine social equality. It maintains that the LTTE's demand for separate state of Tamil Eelam in North and East of Sri Lanka will only gives the LTTE leadership the opportunity to further the interests of a thin layer of the Tamil middle class whose ambition is to act as local agents for investors of major economies in a capitalist statelet and which will not improve the living conditions of masses.

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