Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna

The Janathā Vimukthi Peramuṇa (; "People's Liberation Front") is a Marxist-Leninist, Communist political party in Sri Lanka. The party, however, abandoned recognizing the Marxist-Leninist concept of the right of peoples to self determination in 1980s. The party was involved in two armed uprisings against the ruling governments in 1971 (SLFP) and 1987-89 (UNP). After 1989, JVP entered into the democratic politics by participating the 1994 Parliamentary general election.

History

The JVP was founded in 1965 with the aim of providing a leading force for a socialist revolution in Sri Lanka. By 1965 there were four other leftist political parties of considerable size: the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), the first leftist party in Sri Lanka and established in 1935, the Communist Party of Sri Lanka (CP) which was a break away from the LSSP, the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna (MEP) and the CP-Chinese faction. This was a period when economic crisis in the country was deepening. Since independence from colonialism the main two parties UNP and SLFP had governed the country, each for eight years, but according to the founders of the JVP they had been unable to implement even a single measure to resolve the crises Sri Lanka faced. The JVP considered the entry into the government by three left parties in 1964 as a conscious betrayal of the aspirations of the people and the working class.

Emergence of a Leader

During this period, Rohana Wijeweera was studying medicine at Lumumba......
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