The Gotha Program ( German: ''das Gothaer Programm''), also called the Gotha Programme, was the

party platform A political party platform (American English), party program, or party manifesto (preferential term in British and often Commonwealth English) is a formal set of principal goals which are supported by a political party or individual candidate, t ...

adopted by the nascent

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together w ...

(SPD) at its initial party congress, held in the town of Gotha in 1875. The program called for

universal suffrage Universal suffrage or universal franchise ensures the right to vote for as many people bound by a government's laws as possible, as supported by the " one person, one vote" principle. For many, the term universal suffrage assumes the exclusion ...

freedom of association Freedom of association encompasses both an individual's right to join or leave groups voluntarily, the right of the group to take collective action to pursue the interests of its members, and the right of an association to accept or decline membe ...

, limits on the working day, and for other laws protecting the rights and health of workers. The Gotha Program was explicitly

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

: "The Socialist Labor Party of Germany endeavors by every lawful means to bring about a free state and a socialistic society, to effect the destruction of the iron law of wages by doing away with the system of

wage labor Wage labour (also wage labor in American English), usually referred to as paid work, paid employment, or paid labour, refers to the socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer in which the worker sells their labour power under ...

, to abolish exploitation of every kind, and to extinguish all social and political inequality." It was superseded by the Erfurt Program in 1891.

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

famously attacked the platform, which he had read in draft form, in his '' Critique of the Gotha Programme''.

References

External links

Text of the ''Gotha Program'' in English at GHDI

{{Authority control Social Democratic Party of Germany Party platforms program 1875 documents 1875 in politics 1875 in Germany