Socialist Labour Party of Croatia ( hr, Socijalistička radnička partija Hrvatske or SRP) is a

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 ...

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

, also known as Socialist Workers' Party of Croatia. url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120717003705/http://www.nacional.hr/clanak/11031/rh-ce-biti-zemlja-4-milijuna-staraca-i-jos-toliko-europljana-s-vikendicama Their youth wing are the Young Socialists of Croatia ( hr, Mladi Socijalisti Hrvatske).

Ideology

The party identifies as the meeting point of many different

leftist 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 ...

ideologies.
It emphasizes the importance of

worker self-management Workers' self-management, also referred to as labor management and organizational self-management, is a form of organizational management based on self-directed work processes on the part of an organization's workforce. Self-management is a def ...

and

participatory democracy Participatory democracy, participant democracy or participative democracy is a form of government in which citizens participate individually and directly in political decisions and policies that affect their lives, rather than through elected rep ...

. Socialist Labour Party supports

new social movements The term new social movements (NSMs) is a theory of social movements that attempts to explain the plethora of new movements that have come up in various western societies roughly since the mid-1960s (i.e. in a post-industrial economy) which are cl ...

; party delegates have supported

Zagreb Pride Zagreb Pride () is the annual LGBTIQ+ pride march in the city of Zagreb, Croatia, which first took place in 2002, as the first successful pride march in Southeast Europe. Zagreb Pride organizers say their work was inspired by the Stonewall Rio ...

and

the union The Union may refer to: Politics * The Union (Germany) or CDU/CSU, the partnership of the German political parties the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union * The Union (Italy), a former coalition of political parties in Ital ...

protests. Defending the good name of Yugoslav resistance movement during the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

is also one of the key issues. The Party also considers the

Croatian War of Independence The Croatian War of Independence was fought from 1991 to 1995 between Croat forces loyal to the Government of Croatia—which had declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY)—and the Serb-controlled Yugosl ...

to have been one of the Yugoslav

civil war A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

rather than a

war of independence This is a list of wars of independence (also called liberation wars). These wars may or may not have been successful in achieving a goal of independence. List See also * Lists of active separatist movements * List of civil wars * List of o ...

, which is a unique position among parties in Croatia. The youth section of SRP is called Young Socialists.

Publications

The official paper is called (''Socialism Today''). Party organization in

Split Split(s) or The Split may refer to: Places * Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia * Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay * Split Island, Falkland Islands * Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua Arts, enterta ...

publishes its own paper (''The Carnation'').

History

The Party was formed in 1997 by a group of leftists gathered around the magazine called ''

Hrvatska ljevica ''Hrvatska ljevica'' ( en, Croatian Left) was a left-wing monthly magazine in Croatia issued from 1994 to 2005. It was published by the independent publishing house Razlog. It was discontinued following the death of its main editor and owner, Stip ...

'' (''Croatian Left'') and its chief editor

Stipe Šuvar Stipe Šuvar (17 February 1936 – 29 June 2004) was a Croatian politician and sociologist who was regarded to have been one of the most influential communist politicians in the League of Communists of Croatia in Socialist Republic of Croatia d ...

. SRP filled a hole on the Croatian political left after the Social Democratic Union had lost influence and members and the Social Democratic Action moved more to the center. The first election it contested was the 2000 parliamentary election. The party won 18,863 votes (0.66%). After the elections, a group of members from the Socialist Youth, the party's youth wing, left to form Green Left of Croatia. In the 2001 local elections SRP won some seats in smaller, ethnically mixed communities, such as

Daruvar Daruvar ( cz, Daruvar, german: Daruwar, hu, Daruvár, sr, Дарувар, la, Aquae Balissae) is a spa town and municipality in Slavonia, northeastern Croatia with a population of 8,567. The area including the surrounding villages (Dar. Vino ...

Donji Lapac Donji Lapac ( sr-Cyrl, Доњи Лапац) is a settlement and a municipality in Lika, Croatia. Geography Donji Lapac is located a region of eastern Lika called ''Ličko Pounje'', by the river Una that flows near the town in the valley betwe ...

and

Vrhovine Vrhovine ( sr-Cyrl, Врховине) is a town and a municipality in Lika-Senj County, Croatia. The municipality is part of Lika. Languages and names On the territory of Vrhovine municipality, in addition to Croatian which is official in ...

. The party ran in the following 2003 parliamentary election and got 15,515 votes (0,59%). In 2004

resigned as party president and was replaced by Ivan Plješa. Shortly after, a minority of members left to form Socialist Party of Croatia - Left Alternative, mostly due to personal disputes. The activist core, including the youth wing and the entire editorial board of ''

'' (which worked beside the late

) is still a part of the SRP. On the local elections in 2005, SRP formed a joint list with Social Democratic Union, New Alternative Party - Green Movement, Green Left of Croatia and

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

but did not win any seats in local or regional assemblies, although it came close in several cities such as

Šibenik Šibenik () is a historic city in Croatia, located in central Dalmatia, where the river Krka flows into the Adriatic Sea. Šibenik is a political, educational, transport, industrial and tourist center of Šibenik-Knin County, and is also the ...

Rijeka Rijeka ( , , ; also known as Fiume hu, Fiume, it, Fiume ; local Chakavian: ''Reka''; german: Sankt Veit am Flaum; sl, Reka) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia (after Zagreb and Split). It is located in Primor ...

and

Pula Pula (; also known as Pola, it, Pola , hu, Pòla, Venetian language, Venetian; ''Pola''; Istriot language, Istriot: ''Puola'', Slovene language, Slovene: ''Pulj'') is the largest city in Istria County, Croatia, and the List of cities and town ...

). For the 2007 election it formed an alliance with the

Left of Croatia The Left of Croatia ( hr, Ljevica Hrvatske) was a marginal leftist Croatian political party with no parliamentary representation. Origins Left of Croatia was created in 2007 by the merger of several parties: *Vladimir Bebić – Third Block *Gre ...

. The alliance got 9 884 votes (0.4%). The party contested the 2011 election alone and won 5 177 votes (0.22%).

Foreign relations

The Party attended several

International Communist Seminar The International Communist Seminar (ICS) was an annual communist conference held in May in Brussels, Belgium. It was organized by the Workers' Party of Belgium (WPB). In 1992, Ludo Martens, leader of the WPB initiated the conference, which gat ...

s hosted by 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 ...

and International Conference of Communist & Workers' Parties. It also contains a group called Workers' Struggle (''Radnička borba'') that is close to the

reunified Fourth International The Fourth International (FI), founded in 1938, is a Trotskyist international. In 1963, following a ten-year schism, the majorities of the two public factions of the Fourth International, the International Secretariat and the International Comm ...

Electoral history

Legislative

European Parliament

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1997 establishments in Croatia Communist parties in Croatia Democratic socialist parties in Europe Marxist parties Labour parties Political parties established in 1997 International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties