The Socialist Party of Connecticut (SPCT) is a

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 ...

political party in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

. Founded as an affiliate of the

Socialist Party of America The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of Ameri ...

, the party split with the SPA in 1936 and joined the

Social Democratic Federation The Social Democratic Federation (SDF) was established as Britain's first organised socialist political party by H. M. Hyndman, and had its first meeting on 7 June 1881. Those joining the SDF included William Morris, George Lansbury, James Con ...

. In 1957, the Social Democratic Federation reunified with the Socialist Party of America. In 1973, the SPA voted to reform and rename itself

Social Democrats, USA Social Democrats, USA (SDUSA) is a small political association of social democrats founded in 1972. The Socialist Party of America (SPA) had stopped running independent presidential candidates and consequently the term "party" in the SPA's na ...

, which sought to reform the Democratic Party. The current Socialist Party of Connecticut is the state chapter of the

Socialist Party USA The Socialist Party USA, officially the Socialist Party of the United States of America,"The article of this organization shall be the Socialist Party of the United States of America, hereinafter called 'the Party'". Art. I of th"Constitution o ...

. It was reorganized in the 1970s after the formation of the SPUSA by activists who had been members of the

Activities

SPA and SDF affiliation

Jasper McLevy Jasper McLevy (March 27, 1878November 20, 1962) was an American politician who served as mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut from 1933 until 1957. He was a member of the Socialist Party, later leaving in protest to join the Social Democratic Fed ...

served as mayor of

Bridgeport Bridgeport is the most populous city and a major port in the U.S. state of Connecticut. With a population of 148,654 in 2020, it is also the fifth-most populous in New England. Located in eastern Fairfield County at the mouth of the Pequonnoc ...

from 1933 to 1957. Prior to becoming mayor, he had run for office nearly two dozen times. McLevy was a leader in the "Old Guard" faction of the SPA. McLevy successfully lead the SPC in disaffiliation briefly in 1938 and permanently in 1950. Party member

Irving Freese Irving C. Freese (February 19, 1903 – September 11, 1964) was the mayor of Norwalk, Connecticut. Life and family Freese attended a one-room school in East Brunswick, New Jersey, and was graduated from New Brunswick High School. He first cam ...

served as the mayor of Norwalk from 1947 to 1951. Freese was re-elected in 1951 on an independent ticket.

SPUSA affiliation

In 2009, the Socialist Party of Connecticut denounced

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

's troop surge in Afghanistan, claiming that the president was throwing away much needed resources the country needed to get pulled out of the financial crisis. The state affiliate organized a protest in front of the federal building in

Hartford Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

References

External links

Homepage

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 ...

Socialist Party USA by state State and local socialist parties in the United States Socialist Party of America by state {{Connecticut-stub