Bala Tampoe
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Bala Tampoe (23 May 1922 – 1 September 2014General Secretary of the Ceylon Mercantile, Industrial and General Workers Union (CMU) in Sri Lanka.
Early life and education
Born on 23 May 1922 to a prominent family in
Trade union activities
He became a lecturer in Botany and Horticulture in the Department of Agriculture. He came into the limelight after his dismissal from public service, for participating in the strike of public servants in 1947. Soon after he joined the CMU.
The CMU was originally built in 1928 as a
Colombo port that escalated into an all-island general strike and defied the government of Sirima Bandaranaike
when it invoked its emergency powers.
When the LSSP left the Fourth International to join the Bandaranaike government in 1964, Tampoe became a central leader of the
United Secretariat of the Fourth International recognised as its section. Tampoe unsuccessfully contested the March 1960 general election, July 1960 general election and the 1965 general election from the Colombo Central electorate
.
After Tampoe died, Sylvester Jayakody became the current General Secretary of the CMU.[citation needed]
References
- Alexander, Robert Jackson (1991). International Trotskyism, 1929-1985. Duke University Press. pp. 184–193. ISBN 0-8223-1066-X.
- Eriyagama, Nihal (4 November 2007). "Bala Tampoe - the great union leader". Sunday Times.
- ^ "Sri Lanka's veteran trade union leader Bala Tampoe passes away". Archived from the original on 2014-09-03. Retrieved 2014-09-02.
- ^ Comrade Bala Tampoe – an icon of Trade Unionism Archived 2011-08-29 at the Wayback Machine
External links
- Historical Photos of Bala Tampoe
- Bala Tampoe interviewed on the War in Sri Lanka on YouTube, 21 February 2008