| Description | Track 1: test signal 0.28 mins
Interview with unidentified man who continues to discuss politics and government in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). He discusses the formation of the LSSP (Lanka Sama Samaja Party) in 1935 as a Leftist, socialist party for an equal society, its links with the Congress Socialist party, and its Marxist elements, and its policies on the Spanish Civil War and Second World War. He goes on to talk about the party's links with the Trade Union movement, its attempts to organise the plantation workers of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) during the 1940s and the anti-Indian and anti-imperialist campaigns of the Trade Union movement during this period. He talks about the formation of the Ceylon Workers Congress or Ceylon Indian Congress by Nehru in 1939 which gave the leadership a lot of prestige with the Indian workers, enabling them to organise opposition to the Ceylonese left-wing leadership. He goes on to talk about the SFLP (Sri Lanka Freedom Party) as the party of the rural middle classes to utilise the voting power of the Sinhala people in the villages as opposed to the political power of the upper classes in the towns, opposition to the domination of the westernised urban elite, and the raising of cultural slogans and policies to make the Sinhala language the state language, and to make Buddhism the state religion. He discusses the reasons for the extension of the franchise in 1931, the structure of government and some of the other parties in the country, including the Ceylon National Congress, during the period following the Second World War, and the popularity of the LSSP which forced a crystallisation of economic issues. He talks about the general strike in 1953 and the involvement of the LSSP and the Communist party (tracks 2-11).
Track 12: silence 10.05 mins
Total: 32.26 mins
Dubber's reference number: PLA KF565D0363180 |