The Workers' Party ( sv, Arbetarpartiet) is a

democratic socialist Democratic socialism is a left-wing political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-management within a ...

political party in Sweden. It was founded in 2010, when almost the entire

Västerbotten County Västerbotten County ( sv, Västerbottens län) is a county or ''län'' in the north of Sweden. It shares the borders with the counties of Västernorrland, Jämtland, and Norrbotten, as well as the Norwegian county of Nordland and the Gulf of Bot ...

section of the

Socialist Justice Party The Socialist Justice Party ( sv, Rättvisepartiet Socialisterna, RS) is a Trotskyist political party in Sweden. RS is the Swedish section of International Socialist Alternative (ISA). The forerunner organization of RS was called ''Arbetarförb ...

(RS) broke off ahead of the 2010 general election. It adopted the name ''Rättvisepartiet Socialisterna, enhetslista för jobb - mot nedskärningar'' (Socialist Justice Party, Unity list for jobs - against cutbacks) for its party list. In early 2011, it was renamed to the Workers' Party. It currently holds two seats in the municipal assembly 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� ...

(since 2014). The Workers' Party publishes the ''Weekly News (Veckans Nyheter)''. Since the 2018 elections, the "Umeå section" has maintained an equal footing with the national organisation, maintaining its two seats in

city council, while the Socialist Justice Party had lost its seats except for the less populated

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 ...

, where it maintains two seats.

Politics

The party labels itself

. The goal is to participate in building a new workers' party that establishes democratic control over the capitalist

financial institution Financial institutions, sometimes called banking institutions, are business entities that provide services as intermediaries for different types of financial monetary transactions. Broadly speaking, there are three major types of financial insti ...

s and

corporation A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and r ...

s that direct the economy. Party members have a history of conducting policies that benefit workers employed in

public services A public service is any Service (economics), service intended to address specific needs pertaining to the aggregate members of a community. Public services are available to people within a government jurisdiction as provided directly through pub ...

such as

healthcare Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profe ...

and

elderly care Elderly care, or simply eldercare (also known in parts of the English-speaking world as aged care), serves the needs and requirements of senior citizens. It encompasses assisted living, adult daycare, long-term care, nursing homes (often called re ...

. Elderly care workers and party members cooperated in organising four waves of warning strikes against cutbacks in 2000, 2001 and 2005. Since the 2010 elections, a regular part in the party's policies has been to push for the need for investment in green industrial production. Before the 2018 municipal election, the city of Umeå introduced a mandatory 3% electoral threshold, labeled by critics as an attempt to target particularly the Workers' Party and the Feminist Initiative, which both held under 4% of electoral support. The party, however, strengthened its electoral support with nearly 3,6 % and held its two seats.

References

2010 establishments in Sweden Political parties established in 2010 Socialist parties in Sweden Västerbotten County {{Sweden-party-stub