The Socialist Justice Party ( sv, Rättvisepartiet Socialisterna, RS) is a

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 ...

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 ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. RS is the Swedish section of

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 ...

(ISA). The forerunner organization of RS was called ''Arbetarförbundet Offensiv'' (Workers' League - Offensive). The group developed out of the ''Offensiv'' group that had practiced

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 ...

in the

Swedish Social Democratic Party The Swedish Social Democratic Party, formally the Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party ( sv, Sveriges socialdemokratiska arbetareparti ; S/SAP), usually referred to as The Social Democrats ( sv, link=no, Socialdemokraterna ), is a social-d ...

during the 1970s and 1980s. Ahead of the 2010 elections internal divisiveness resulted in the Västerbotten faction forming its own party, which adopted the name the Workers' Party in 2011.

History

The group who were later to start Offensiv were students at Umeå University and members of

Swedish Social Democratic Youth League The Swedish Social Democratic Youth League ( sv, Sveriges Socialdemokratiska Ungdomsförbund ; SSU) is a branch of the Swedish Social Democratic Party and the Swedish Trade Union Confederation in Sweden. The president has been Lisa Nåbo, since ...

(SSU, Sveriges Socialdemokratiska Ungdomsförbund: the youth organisation of the Swedish Social Democratic Party). At the 1972 SSU conference, two members of this group; Anders Hjelm and Arne Johansson; met representatives of the

Labour Party Young Socialists The Labour Party Young Socialists (LPYS) was the youth section of the Labour Party in Britain from 1965 until 1991. In the 1980s, it had around 600 branches, 2,000 delegates at its national conferences and published a monthly newspaper, ''Socia ...

in Britain, where supporters of the left wing

Militant The English word ''militant'' is both an adjective and a noun, and it is generally used to mean vigorously active, combative and/or aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in "militant reformers". It comes from the 15th century Latin " ...

had won control of that organisation, and began discussing with them. As Arne Johansson puts it "One conclusion of the discussions with the British Trotskyists was that we should start publishing a paper as a rallying point for a Marxist left within the labour movement, something we then did ahead of the election in 1973".CWI 30th Anniversary - The Swedish Perspective
- Retrieved 24/08/07 In the early 1980s SSU initiated expulsions against young socialists associated with Arbetarförbundet Offensiv and their newspaper, named Offensiv. Activists of Offensiv defined these expulsions as witchhunts arranged by the right-wing leadership of SSU. On the other hand, the leadership of SSU saw the Offensiv-tendency as an ambition to carry out a communist take-over of SSU. In the early 1990s, ''Arbetarförbundet Offensiv'' started to relinquish their former tactics of

into other movements. The organisation also gradually distanced themselves from the Swedish Social Democratic Party and even further from SSU, whose members often saw them as infiltrators. The newspaper, Offensiv, ran harsh criticism on the Social Democratic Party's policies, claiming that this party no longer represented the interests of the working class. Instead they started to promote the building of a new labour party to take this role. In 1997, ''Arbetarförbundet Offensiv'' changed name to ''Rättvisepartiet Socialisterna'' (''Socialist Justice Party'' or ''Justice Party - the Socialists'') and began publishing Offensiv weekly instead of monthly.

Elections and breakaway

RS first won seats on the municipal council of Umeå in 1991, winning 3 seats. In 2002 the party had three seats in the municipal council in Umeå and also won two seats in Luleå. In the 2006 elections, the RS won representatives in the municipal councils of

Umeå Umeå ( , , , locally ; South Westrobothnian: ;). fi, Uumaja; sju, Ubmeje; sma, Upmeje; se, Ubmi) is a city in northeast Sweden. It is the seat of Umeå Municipality and the capital of Västerbotten County. Situated on the Ume River, Ume� ...

(3 seats),

Luleå Luleå ( , , locally ; smj, Luleju; fi, Luulaja) is a city on the coast of northern Sweden, and the capital of Norrbotten County, the northernmost county in Sweden. Luleå has 48,728 inhabitants in its urban core (2018) and is the seat of Lu ...

(3 seats) and

Haninge Haninge Municipality (''Haninge kommun'') is a municipality in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. Its seat is located in Handen, a part of the Stockholm urban area. Haninge Municipality was formed in 1971 when ''Västerhaninge'' and ''Öst ...

(2 seats). In 1994 RS won a seat in

Västerbotten Västerbotten (), known in English as West Bothnia or Westrobothnia, is a province (''landskap'') in the north of Sweden, bordering Ångermanland, Lapland, North Bothnia, and the Gulf of Bothnia. It is known for the cheese named after the provi ...

county council A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries. Ireland The county councils created under British rule in 1899 continue to exist in Irela ...

but upon re-election in 1998 failed to again reach the 3% threshold required for representation. Before the 2010 elections, the party was divided between a national faction representing all but

and a new party, Rättvisepartiet Socialisterna - enhetslista för jobb, mot nedskärningar (''Socialist Justice Party - Unitary list for jobs, against cut-downs''). RSE, unlike the mother party, did not campaign for the

Riksdag The Riksdag (, ; also sv, riksdagen or ''Sveriges riksdag'' ) is the legislature and the supreme decision-making body of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral legislature with 349 members (), elected proportionally and se ...

but won one municipal council seat in Umeå (retained by an incumbent RS councillor). Consummating as well as simplifying the divisions, it was renamed the Workers' Party in 2011. In Haninge and Luleå the RS retained five seats with neither gains nor losses.

Campaigns

Kobane

RS have taken the initiative in organizing demonstrations in support of Kurds in the town of Kobane, Syria, besieged by the Islamic State.

Electoral results

Parliament

References

External links

Official WebsiteInternational Socialist Alternative website
{{Authority control 1973 establishments in Sweden Communist parties in Sweden Far-left politics in Sweden Political parties established in 1973

Trotskyist organizations in Sweden