The leader of the nationalist Ceylon National Congress party and future Prime Minister of Ceylon, D.S. Senanayake tabled a resolution in the State Council, which was the unicameral legislature for Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), established in 1931 by the Donoughmore Constitution, suggesting an approach of “whole-hearted support” to the British government. Leaders of the LSSP – notably Philip Gunawardena who was seen as 'father of Ceylonese Socialism' – denounced the war between the Allies and Axies, who he regarded as imperialist powers, declaring that: “We refuse to be a part of any imperialist war. We are against all imperialist wars and exploitation. The class struggle has refused to stop because a country is at war.” During the early war period, the LSSP served in a key position in a series of worker action and strikes among tea plantation workers, stemming from the Mool Oya Estate incident (December 1939), in which an Indian tea factory worker was fatally shot by police.