The Labor Party is a

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

, founded on 29 March 1989 by a striking trade union in Xinpu,

Hsinchu County Hsinchu County (Wade–Giles: ''Hsin¹-chu²'') is a county in north-western Taiwan. The population of the county is mainly Hakka; with a Taiwanese aboriginal minority in the southeastern part of the county. Zhubei is the county capital, where ...

. It is part of the wider labor movement in Taiwan, and advocates for labor reforms and the redistribution of social resources. The party also supports the unification of Taiwan with mainland China, with a high level of autonomy reserved for Taiwan under the "

one country, two systems "One country, two systems" is a constitutional principle of the People's Republic of China (PRC) describing the governance of the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau. The constitutional principle was formulated in the early ...

" principle. Party members often assist in unionizing workers and regularly hold protests against the government's labor policies, as well as perceived

imperialism Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic and ...

from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Notable labor demonstrations that the Labor Party helped organize include the , and 2009 labor dispute against

TSMC Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC; also called Taiwan Semiconductor) is a Taiwanese multinational corporation, multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company. It is the world's most valuable semicon ...

History

The Labor Party was founded on 29 March 1989 by unionized workers of the Far East Synthetic Fiber Company in Xinpu, Hsinchu County. The trade union had been protesting the company's mass layoffs and refusal to increase workers' wages; the protests culminated in the a month later. When establishing the party, the union leadership considered adopting the name "

Taiwanese Communist Party The Taiwanese Communist Party ( zh, t=臺灣共產黨; ja, 台湾共產党) was a revolutionary organization active in Japanese-ruled Taiwan. Like the contemporary Taiwanese People's Party, its existence was short, only three years, but it ...

" but elected not to do so due to the widespread anti-communism in Taiwan at the time. In the years following its founding, the Labor Party grew in size and influence, with its membership consisting mainly of former political prisoners of the

White Terror White Terror is the name of several episodes of mass violence in history, carried out against anarchists, communists, socialists, liberals, revolutionaries, or other opponents by conservative or nationalist groups. It is sometimes contrasted wit ...

, labor movement organizers and the working class. The party, however, did not see electoral success until the 2009 local elections, when Labor Party candidate Kao Wei-kai was elected to the

Hsinchu County Council The Hsinchu County Council (HCC; ) is the elected county council of Hsinchu County, Republic of China. The council composes of 35 councilors lastly elected through the 2018 Taiwanese local elections, 2018 Republic of China local election on 24 No ...

. After Kao was elected, a majority of his monthly salary ( NT$80,000) was put back into the party's treasury to fund future political activities. In the 2018 local elections, Kao was reelected to the Hsinchu County Council, alongside Labor Party veteran Luo Mei-wen. The party won a total of two seats in the county council, representing the townships of

Hukou ''Hukou'' () is a system of household registration used in mainland China. The system itself is more properly called "''huji''" (), and has origins in ancient China; ''hukou'' is the registration of an individual in the system (''kou'' lit ...

and Xinpu.

Ideology

The Labor Party is nominally

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

and views itself as the ideological successor to the Taiwanese Communist Party. The party opposes the electoral system in Taiwan, calling it a bourgeois democracy, but participates in elections nonetheless. The Labor Party opposes

Taiwan independence Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

and supports the unification of Taiwan with mainland China.

Gallery

Notes

References

External links

* {{Taiwanese political parties 1989 establishments in Taiwan Socialist parties in Taiwan Labour parties Political parties established in 1989