Socialist Labour Party of Croatia


Socialist Labour Party of Croatia is a communist party in Croatia, also known as Socialist Workers' Party of Croatia. It is considered to be one of the more authentically left-wing parties in Croatian politics. Their youth wing are the Young Socialists of Croatia.

Ideology

The party identifies as the meeting point of many different leftist ideologies. It emphasizes the importance of worker self-management and participatory democracy. Socialist Labour Party supports new social movements; party delegates have supported Zagreb Pride and the union protests.
Defending the good name of Yugoslav resistance movement during the World War II is also one of the key issues. The Party also considers the war in the Nineties to be a civil war rather than a “Homeland war” which is a unique position among parties in Croatia.
The youth section of SRP is called Young Socialists.

Publications

The official paper is called Socijalizam danas.
Party organization in Split publishes its own paper - Gariful.

History

The Party was formed in 1997 by a group of leftists gathered around the magazine called Hrvatska ljevica and its chief editor Stipe Šuvar. 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.
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, Donji Lapac and Vrhovine.
The party ran in the following 2003 parliamentary election and got 15,515 votes.
In 2004 Stipe Šuvar 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 Hrvatska ljevica is still a part of the SRP.
On last 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 but did not win any seats in local or regional assemblies, although it came close in several cities such as Šibenik, Rijeka and Pula).
For the 2007 election it formed an alliance with the Left of Croatia. The alliance got 9 884 votes. The party contested the 2011 election alone and won 5 177 votes.

Foreign relations

The Party attended several International Communist Seminars hosted by the Workers' Party of Belgium and International Conference of Communist & Workers' Parties. It also contains a group called Workers' Struggle that is close to the reunified Fourth International.

Electoral history

Legislative

European Parliament