Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna
The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna 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, and another in 1987–1989. The motive for both uprisings was to establish a socialist state. Since then the JVP has entered mainstream democratic politics and has updated its ideology, abandoning some of its original Marxist policies such as the abolition of private property, and moderating its rhetoric. The JVP has been led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake since 2014.
The JVP was initially a small organisation that became a well-organised party that could influence mainstream politics. Its members openly campaigned for the left-wing coalition government of the SLFP-led United Front; however, following their disillusion with the coalition, they began an insurrection against the Dominion of Ceylon in early 1971. The JVP's military wing, the Red Guard, captured over 76 police strongholds throughout the island of Ceylon.
The JVP entered democratic politics in 1977 when President J. R. Jayewardene released JVP leader Rohana Wijeweera from prison. Wijeweera contested in the 1982 presidential elections and was the third most successful candidate, winning 4.16% of the votes cast. Before the elections, he had been convicted by the Criminal Justice Commission for conspiring to overthrow the state violently. The JVP launched a more organized insurrection for the second time in 1987 after the signing of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord.
Following Operation Combine and Wijeweera's death, the JVP returned to elections as the National Salvation Front. The surviving JVP members campaigned in the 1994 elections, but eventually withdrew and supported the nationalist Sri Lanka Freedom Party, the main opposition party at the time. In 2004, it joined the government as a part of the United People's Freedom Alliance and supported the government in its war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, but subsequently left the coalition government following disagreements over the 2002 ceasefire agreement and distribution of aid following the 2004 tsunami.
Since 2019, the JVP has contested elections under its own national coalition, the National People's Power and has since been a prominent party in Sri Lankan politics. In the 2024 presidential election, JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake was elected President of Sri Lanka. In the 2024 Sri Lankan parliamentary elections, the JVP led NPP alliance won with 159 seats in the parliament, winning a supermajority. It was the second-highest proportion of seats in the nation's history and the NPP succeeded in winning a majority of seats in every district except Batticaloa.
History
The JVP was founded in 1965 to provide a leading force for a communist revolution in Sri Lanka. In 1965, there were four other leftist political parties in Sri Lanka: the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, established in 1935 as the first political party in Sri Lanka; the Communist Party of Sri Lanka, which broke away from the LSSP and formed their own party in 1943 due to differences of opinion on supporting Britain during the 2nd World War; the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna ; and the Peking Left.Since the country's independence, the two main parties, the United National Party and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, governed the country for eight years each, and the country's economic outlook worsened. According to the JVP's founders, neither party had been able to implement even a single measure to resolve the crisis. The JVP considered the entry of three leftist parties into the United Front in 1964 as a conscious betrayal of the aspirations of the people and the working class. Inflation, unemployment, and food prices increased despite government efforts to prevent it.
Rohana Wijeweera
Rohana Wijeweera's father was a political activist of the CPSL. During an election campaign in the 1960s, he was severely assaulted by UNP members and was paralysed; Wijeweera was likely emotionally affected, which may have changed his views and caused his hatred against the UNP. When Wijeweera's further education was threatened as a result of his father's incapacitation, the CPSL arranged a scholarship for him to study medicine at the Patrice Lumumba Friendship University in Moscow, where he read the works of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Lenin, and became a committed Marxist.Effects of the Sino–Soviet split
By this time, the United Socialist Party was divided into two factions: the Chinese faction and the Soviet faction. Wijeweera broke away from the CPC which was aligned with the USSR and joined the Ceylon Communist Party.After a visit to Sri Lanka in 1964, he was not permitted to return to the USSR: his student activism in favour of Maoism while in Moscow displeased the Russians. The Chinese faction was led by Premalal Kumarasiri. Through his father's political activities, Wijeweera contacted Kumarasiri and joined the party's staff and became part of the trade union office.
Split
Wijeweera increasingly felt that the leftist movement in Sri Lanka that existed until then had not produced enough professional revolutionaries and had never made a meaningful effort to educate the masses on Marxism. Workers accepted the words mouthed by the leaders of the "old left" as the final word. He also believed that the leadership of the "old left", aware of this aspect, utilised it to the fullest to blunt workers' militancy. Wijeweera and others decided in mid-1965 to launch a new party that was explicitly revolutionary in character; it was formed without breaking off from other established parties. The cadres engaged themselves in political activities that consisted mainly of trying to increase the political awareness of the working class.Five classes
Wijeweera felt that one of the more important tasks was to educate the masses politically. After deliberating on the issue, it was decided that an uncomplicated Marxist analysis of the socio-politico-economic problems of the country should be the introductory step. The Marxist analysis was split into five discussions along with five main themes.Throughout the rest of 1968, Wijeweera traveled across the country, conducting political classes for the members of the party. An education camp followed the five basic political classes. Precautions had to be taken to keep this educational camp a secret to avoid alarming the government and the "old left". All conducted by Wijeweera, the classes stretched from 17 to 18 hours a day, interrupted only by meals.
By 1971, the JVP established itself as a political party and offered an alternative to those disillusioned with the politics of the other left organizations. Most of the members and supporters of the JVP at the time were young adults. Alarmed at the JVP's political potential and challenge, the government and its leftist allies levelled a variety of slander against it. Many representatives of the "old left" called the JVP members "CIA agents attempting to overthrow the pro-Eastern bloc party".
Building cells
JVP built cells in multiple countries, including South Yemen, Belgium, the UK, and Ba'athist Iraq; South Yemen also promised to hold some weapon supplies; although the manufacturer later said that there was no possible way to supply weapons, the government congratulated the organisation with a letter that read "Revolutionary Greetings".1971 insurgency
The 1971 uprising led by the JVP was unsuccessful and allegedly claimed nearly 5,000 lives. The JVP drew worldwide attention when it launched an insurrection against the Bandaranaike government in April 1971. Although the insurgents were young, poorly armed, and inadequately trained, they seized and held major areas in the southern and central provinces of Sri Lanka before they were defeated by the security forces. Their attempt to seize power created a major crisis for the government and forced a fundamental reassessment of the nation's security needs. In March 1971, after an accidental explosion in one of the bomb factories, the police found fifty-eight bombs in a hut in Nelundeniya, Kegalle District. Shortly afterward, Wijeweera was arrested and sent to Jaffna Prison, where he remained throughout the revolt. In response to his arrest and the growing pressure of police investigations, other JVP leaders acted immediately, and started the uprising at 11:00 p.m. on 5 April. After two weeks of fighting, the government regained control of all but a few remote areas. In both human and political terms, the cost of the victory was high: an estimated 30,000 insurgents, according to the JVP, many of them in their teens, died in the conflict. The army and police were also widely perceived to have used excessive force. In order to win over an alienated population and to prevent a prolonged conflict, Bandaranaike offered amnesties in May and June 1971, and the top leaders were imprisoned. Wijeweera, who was already in detention at the time of the uprising, was given a twenty-year sentence.Transition to democratic politics
The JVP was not recognised as a political party until its first uprising. The party rejected being a democratic party following the military coup and subsequent purge in Indonesia against the Indonesian Communist Party. It complained that the Ceylonese government would try to militarily defeat the group if it stopped arming itself. The government banned the JVP following an attack on the United States high commission in Ceylon. The government blamed the protests that led to the attack on the JVP members, but it was revealed that the attack was conducted by a Maoist organisation.The brief conflict created turmoil in Sri Lanka's national politics and its international relations. Many countries were blamed for supporting the JVP, including the People's Republic of China and North Korea; China denied supporting the party. As a result of the insurgency, the UF government denounced the JVP in April 1971, and it became an underground organisation, though it participated in the 1978 local government elections.
After the 1978 elections, the organisation's reputation among revolutionaries decreased; however, the public began to recognise it, and it quickly gained members. In 1982 the JVP participated in the District Development Council elections and the presidential elections; it was the only radical party that contested the DDC elections in 1982.
The UNP had introduced the District Development Council as a solution to the ethnic conflict. The Nava Sama Samaja Party, CPSL, and the nationalistic SLFP boycotted the elections, but as the JVP contested, it won a couple of seats in the council's elections. Around this time, the Election Commission of Sri Lanka formally recognised the JVP as a legitimate political party.