Ceylon Communist Party is a political party in Sri Lanka. The party surged in 1964 following a split in the Ceylon Communist Party. Initially the party just called itself 'Ceylon Communist Party' as well, and was distinguished from the main CCP by denominations like 'Ceylon Communist Party ', etc. In the end of the 1960s the party was one of the major leftist parties in the country. Initially Party was led by Premalal Kumarasiri and N. Shanmugathasan. Organising Committee as on November 17, 1963 consisting of Premalal Kumarasiri, N. Sanmugathasan, D. N. Nadunge, D. K. D. Jinendrapala, Higgoda Dharmasena, K. Manickavasagar, N. L. Perera, K. Wimalapala, K. Kulaveerasingham, W. S. de Siriwardene, A. D. Charleshamy, Watson Fernando, W. A. Dharmadasa, S. M. Wickremasinghe, A. Jayasuriya, D. A. Gunasekera, Cyril Kulatunge, Victor Silva, K.A. Subramaniam, Susima, K. V. Krishnakutty, S. Janapriya, Kanti Abeyasekere, E. T. Moorthy, Dharmadasa Jayakoddy, H. G. A. de Silva, S. M. P. de Silva, H. M. P. Mohideen, D. M. J. Abeyagunewardene, O. A. Ramiah, D. B. Alwis, C. S. Manohar, Sangarapillai Sivathasan, Samarasiri de Silva and P. Wijayatileke. From 1965 to 1970 S. D. Bandaranayake was representing Ceylon Communist Party views in the parliament. During the struggles in the North against caste oppression and untouchability, he spoke in support of the struggles in parliament as well as visited the North with N. Shanmugathasan and K.A. Subramaniam to personally express solidarity with the struggling masses. In 1966 S. D. Bandaranayake questioned in the parliament regarding the mass uprising procession held from Chunnakam on 21st October 1966 to protest the caste oppression. Ceylon Communist Party took the decision to carry forward the struggle and to conduct the procession in defiance of the ban by the Police, this gave revolutionary enthusiasm to all the fronts of the Party. The blow struck on the procession opposing casteism in Chunnakam on 21st October 1966, many cadres were brutally assaulted by the Police and received bleeding injuries. Another the time, during a parliamentary debate S. D. Bandaranayake dared to quote Lenin that “the parliament was a den of thieves” and declare that the Parliament of Ceylon too was a den of thieves. As a result he was forcefully removed from the House of Representatives and suspended from parliament for two weeks. He always supported the people and their just struggles. S. D. Bandaranayake, D. K. D. Jinendrapala, and Watson Fernando were arrested on 1st May 1969 in Colombo when the UNP Government banned the May Day rally. The Ceylon Communist Party key leaders were brutally assaulted and arrested by the Police in Jaffna. Among them K.A. Subramaniam bed ridden for months at the residence of N. Sanmugathasan for treatment. S. D. Bandaranayake questioned in the parliament regarding these atrocities against the mass rally held in Jaffna on 1st May 1969 to protest the ban. S. D. Bandaranayake spoke firmly in support of granting the Tamil people their just rights and campaigned for the rights of workers, peasants and plantation workers. As a result of his above political stand, he was a long standing friend of the Ceylon Communist Party and continued to maintain his bond with the Communist Party of Sri Lanka . Following the death of Mao Zedong and the take-over in China by Deng Xiaoping, the party strongly denounced the new line of the Chinese leadership. The party regrouped internationally amongst those who reaffirmed Maoism, and was one of the signatories of the founding declaration of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement. The strength of the party did however decline, and it suffered several splits. In 1964, Rohana Wijeweera became a functionary of the Ceylon Communist Party. Soon he was at odds with party leaders and impatient with its lack of revolutionary purpose and formed his own movement on 14 May 1965 after a discussion with like minded youth. It became known as the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna or JVP. In 1972, some cadres criticized the party leader N. Shanmugathasan's opposition to the United Front government, arguing that UF was a 'progressive force'. Whilst the party leader N. Shanmugathasan was abroad in Albania in April 1972, D. N. Nadunge, Watson Fernando, E.T.Moorthy and V.A. Kandasamy tried to seize control over the party. This faction regrouped and at a meeting on November 12, 1972 it took the name Communist Party of Sri Lanka . They sought to bring the Maoist movement closer to the UF orbit, but this faction remained a minor group compared to N. Shanmugathasan's Ceylon Communist Party which had the strong support from Samal De Silva, Kanti Abeyasekere and K.A. Subramaniam. In 1978, for the reason that the Party, led by N. Sanmugathasan, issued a public statement in defiance of the decision of the Central Committee not to accept the decision of the Tamils self-determination and reject the Three Worlds Theory , many including Samal De Silva, K.A. Subramaniam, S.K. Senthivel left the party and formed a new political party called the Communist Party of Sri Lanka . In 1991 a conference was held which reconstructed it as ' Ceylon Communist Party '. N. Sanmugathasan led the party until his death in 1993. Ajith Rupasinghe Surendra had assumed the leadership of the Ceylon Communist Party as the General Secretary after the death of N. Sanmugathasan . Communist Party of Sri Lanka changed its name to the New-Democratic Marxist-Leninist Party at its 5th All Ceylon Conference held in Colombo in June 2010 and regrouped internationally with ICOR - International Coordination of Revolutionary Parties and Organizations.
