Socialist Labor Party
| |
| Established | 1866 |
| Economic ideology | Planned economy |
| Social ideology | Social liberalism |
| Party leader | Henry Ulbricht |
| Motto | Workers of the world, unite! |
The Socialist Labor Party (often abbreviated to SLP) is a democratic socialist and communist party in the Democratic Republic of Patricania. It holds twenty-one seats in the Senate and one-hundred seventy-five seats in the House of Delegates. The SLP is the second-largest party in Patricania, following the Liberal Party. Most of its supporters can be found in poor urban neighborhoods and in rural areas.
History
The Socialist Labor Party was founded in 1866. Patricanian socialists, attending Karl Marx's First International, were inspired by the congress and returned to Charlestown to establish the Party in the town's slums and working class tenements. The support for the party grew slowly over the years as the other larger parties in control of the government attempted to surpress the party, sometimes violently. With the establishment of the Soviet Union, the Socialist Labor Party was granted representation in the Parliament under the assumption that this would calm the revolutionary tendencies of the party.
This theory was partly true, and the SLP began a program of reform before revolution. However, with the Cold War growing, the Party was viewed with suspicion, and the events of May 1968 caused some to think that perhaps French communists would infiltrate the country throught the large French population and incite revolution. A civil war was fought, allowing a fascist movement to acquire power and brutally persecute the SLP and other suspected socialists. The Party managed to operate somewhat throughout the fascist administration and worked in league with members of the Liberal Party to overthrow the fascists. In 2005, they were successful, and the Socialist Labor Party is now the second-largest party in Patricania, and is continuing to grow.
Platform
The platform of the Socialist Labor Party is similar to many other socialist parties around the world. The SLP advocates as much representation in the government as possible for the proletariat before leading the proletariat in a socialist revolution to overthrow capitalism completely. The Party struggles to reinstate welfare and other social programs abandoned by the Liberal administration. Along with the Liberal Party and Green Party, the SLP secured gay and women's rights which had been denied by the previous fascist government. The Socialist Labor Party frequently sides with the Green Party and may form a red-green alliance with it sometime in the future.
