The Janathā Vimukthi Peramuṇa (JVP) is a Marxist-Leninist, communist party in Sri Lanka. The party was involved in two armed uprisings against the ruling governments in 1971 (SLFP) and 1987–89 (UNP). After 1989, it entered democratic politics by participating in the 1994 parliamentary election.

After Wimal Weerawansa the former Leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) the current Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake took over the party.

The JVP was founded in 1965 with the aim of providing a leading force for a socialist revolution in Sri Lanka. By 1965 there were four other leftist political parties: the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), established in 1935 as the first leftist party in Sri Lanka.

Since the Sri Lanka’s independence the two main parties, the United National Party and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, had governed the country, each for eight years.

According to the founders of the JVP which was led by Rohana Wijeweera, neither party had been able to implement even a single measure to resolve the crisis that Sri Lanka faced. The JVP considered the entry of three left parties into the government in 1964 as a conscious betrayal of the aspirations of the people and the working class.