The Left Socialist Party - Socialist Party of Struggle ( nl, Linkse Socialistische Partij, french: Parti Socialiste de Lutte, LSP-PSL) is a Belgian

Trotskyist Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...

party, affiliated to

International Socialist Alternative International Socialist Alternative is an international association of Trotskyist political parties. The group was founded in 1974 as the Committee for a Workers' International, by supporters of Militant from 12 countries. In August 2019, a f ...

. The party publishes monthly newspapers in Dutch and French, entitled ''Linkse Socialist'' and ''Lutte Socialiste'', respectively.

Origins

The LSP-PSL was founded in 1992 as Militant Left (''Militant Links''), an offshoot from the Spark (''Vonk'') which operated as a Marxist tendency within the Belgian

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

. Following the Socialist Party’s swing to the right, discontent within the Spark culminated in a split, largely over the strategy of

entryism Entryism (also called entrism, enterism, or infiltration) is a political strategy in which an organisation or state encourages its members or supporters to join another, usually larger, organization in an attempt to expand influence and expand the ...

under the changed circumstances. One group continued as the Spark, working within the Socialist Party, whilst another left to form Militant Left, later renaming themselves the Left Socialist Party (''Linkse Socialistische Partij''). The LSP was at first active only in the cities of Ghent and Geraardsbergen, but has since grown into a national party. In 1999 the party formally gained its francophone section, Movement for a Socialist Alternative (''Mouvement pour une Alternive Socialiste''), renamed Socialist Party of Struggle (''Parti Socialiste de Lutte'') in 2009.

Electoral alliances

The LSP-PSL aims to build left unity around a common minimum programme, while maintaining the right of groups to organise and campaign on their own platforms. To this end, the party has sought to engage with other radical left parties and has met with some success in creating electoral alliances with the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

, Humanist Party and Revolutionary Communist League. The LSP-PSL contested the 2007 federal elections as part of a new political movement, the

Committee for Another Policy The Committee for Another Policy ( nl, Comité voor een Andere Politiek, french: Comité pour une Autre Politique), abbreviated to CAP, was a Belgian left-wing political movement that was established in 2005, and became a political party in 2006. ...

, though it subsequently left at the end of the year. Later, it participated in the Left Front, with which it stood in the federal elections in 2010. In the 2014 federal elections, the LSP/PSL did not participate, calling for a vote for the

Workers' Party of Belgium The Workers' Party of Belgium (french: Parti du Travail de Belgique, PTB; nl, Partij van de Arbeid van België, PVDA; ) is a Marxism, Marxist and Socialism, socialist political parties in Belgium, political party in Belgium. It is one of the few ...

or other small left parties instead, despite the PTB/PvdA having rejected the LSP-PSL's proposal for a common list.

Young people

The party emphasises youth work and in universities has a youth network named Active Left Students (''Étudiants de Gauche Actifs - Actief Linkse Studenten'', EGA-ALS). EGA-ALS takes up issues concerning education, but also campaigns on wider social issues such as sexism and racism, including forming organised opposition to the far-right Nationalist Student Association. In 2010, along with trade union and leftwing youth groups

Comac , type = State-owned limited company , industry = Aviation , founded = , founder = , location_city = Pudong, Shanghai , location_country = China , area_served = Worldwide , products = Commercial airliners , services = , key_people ...

, Écolo j, Jeunes-FGTB and JOC, the PSL launched ''Jeunes en Lutte pour l'Emploi'' to campaign on the issue of youth unemployment, taking as its inspiration the

Youth Fight for Jobs Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ) is a campaigning youth organisation based across England, Scotland and Wales backed by 7 national British trade unions the PCS, RMT, the CWU, Unite, UCU, TSSA and BECTU as well as individual trade union branches, stu ...

campaign in Great Britain.

Election results

Federal Parliament

Chamber of Representatives Senate

European Parliament

{{International Socialist Alternative Communist parties in Belgium

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

Trotskyist organizations in Europe Political parties established in 1992 1992 establishments in Belgium