Philip Gunawardena

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Don Philip Rupesinghe Gunawardena (b. 11th January 1901) was a politician from Sri Lanka. Philip was the founder of the LSSP in 1935, and led the Suriya-Mal Movement in 1934-1935. Later he was engaged both as a Trade Unionist, a State Councillor and a Parliamentarian. He was widely known as the 'Father of Socialism in Sri Lanka'.

He successfully contested the Avissawella constituency in the 1936 State Council election. After his election, he and Dr N. M. Perera (the other LSSP member of the State Council), acting as people's tribunes used the State Council as a platform to carry forward the party's struggle to gain full independence for the country from the British. At the time only people like N.M. Perera and the LSSP stood for complete independence for Sri Lanka: the leaders of the Ceylon National Congress were only concerned with obtaining concessions from the British. He was a standard bearer for socialism and the anti-imperialist struggle outside as well as inside the house.

He was instrumental in founding the 'T' Group of Trotskyists in the LSSP, which later expelled the pro-Moscow faction.

He was imprisoned in 1940 during World War II, but succeeded in escaping on 5 April 1942. He secretly went to India and worked with the Bolshevik-Leninist Party of India, Ceylon and Burma (BLPI) in that country's independence struggle.

After the war, when the LSSP split, Gunawardena was co-leader of the faction that retained the party name. He regained his seat in the 1947 general election.

On the reunification of the LSSP with the Bolshevik Samasamaja Party (BSSP), Philip Gunawardenahe split off, forming the Viplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja Party (VLSSP).