Socialist Labour Party of Croatia
Encyclopedia
Socialist Labour Party of Croatia ( or SRP, alternatively translated as "Socialist Workers' Party of Croatia") is a far left
Far left
Far left, also known as the revolutionary left, radical left and extreme left are terms which refer to the highest degree of leftist positions among left-wing politics...

 Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

n political party with no parliamentary representation. It is often considered to be the leftmost
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...

 of all registered parties in Croatian politics.

Ideology

In theory, the Party is the meeting point of many different leftist
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...

 ideologies.

The Party emphasizes the importance of worker self-management and participatory democracy
Participatory democracy
Participatory Democracy, also known as Deliberative Democracy, Direct Democracy and Real Democracy , is a process where political decisions are made directly by regular people...

.

Defending the good name of Yugoslav resistance movement
Partisans (Yugoslavia)
The Yugoslav Partisans, or simply the Partisans were a Communist-led World War II anti-fascist resistance movement in Yugoslavia...

 during the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 is also one of the key issues.

The Party also considers the war in the Nineties
Croatian War of Independence
The Croatian War of Independence was fought from 1991 to 1995 between forces loyal to the government of Croatia—which had declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia —and the Serb-controlled Yugoslav People's Army and local Serb forces, with the JNA ending its combat...

 to be a civil war
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....

 rather than a “Homeland war
Wars of national liberation
In Marxist terminology, wars of national liberation or national liberation revolutions are conflicts fought by oppressed nationalities against imperial powers to establish separate sovereign states for the subjugated nationality. From a Western point of view, these same wars are called insurgencies...

” which is a unique position among parties in Croatia.

Publications

The official paper is called (Socialism Today).

Party organization in Split
Split (city)
Split is a Mediterranean city on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea, centered around the ancient Roman Palace of the Emperor Diocletian and its wide port bay. With a population of 178,192 citizens, and a metropolitan area numbering up to 467,899, Split is by far the largest Dalmatian city and...

 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 (Croatian Left) and its chief editor Stipe Šuvar
Stipe Šuvar
Stipe Šuvar was a leading Croatian and Yugoslav politician and sociologist. He entered top politics in 1972 being co-opted to the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Croatia . Two years later he became Croatian minister of education and performed a controversial educational reform in...

. SRP filled a hole on the Croatian political left after the Social Democratic Union had lost influence and members and the Social Democratic Action
Social Democratic Action of Croatia
Social Democratic Action of Croatia is a Croatian left-wing political party.It was founded by 1994 by members of Social Democratic Party of Croatia dissatisfied with the centrist policies of SDP leader Ivica Račan and his lack of criticism towards Franjo Tuđman.The party had high hopes of...

 moved more to the center.

First election it entered was the 2000 parliamentary election
Croatian parliamentary election, 2000
Elections for the Chamber of Representatives of the Croatian Parliament were held on January 3, 2000. These were the first elections to be held after the expiration of a full term of the previous Chamber....

. The party won 18,863 votes (0.66%).

After the elections, a group of members from the Socialist Youth (Croatia)
Socialist Youth (Croatia)
Young Socialists of Croatia is a left-wing youth organization in Croatia. It was formed in 1998 and is the largest socialist youth organization in Croatia.An elected member of the Young Socialists sits in the Presidency of Socialist Labour Party of Croatia....

, the Party youth wing, left to form Green Left of Croatia.

In the 2001 local elections SRP managed to win some seats in smaller, ethnically mixed communities, such as Daruvar
Daruvar
Daruvar is a town in central Croatia, population 9,815 , total municipality population 13,243 ....

, Donji Lapac
Donji Lapac
Donji Lapac is a small town and municipality in Lika, Croatia. The majority of the population are Serbs.-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 between mountain Plješevica and Una on the altitude of 582m...

 and Vrhovine
Vrhovine
Vrhovine is a town and a municipality in Lika-Senj County, Croatia. The municipality is part of Lika.-Population/Demographics:According to 2001 census, Vrhovine had 905 inhabitants of which 55.03% were Serbs and 38.45% were Croats. The majority of the population of the municipality is elderly...

.

The party ran in the following 2003 parliamentary election
Croatian parliamentary election, 2003
-External links:*...

 and got 15,515 votes (0,59%).

In 2004 Stipe Šuvar
Stipe Šuvar
Stipe Šuvar was a leading Croatian and Yugoslav politician and sociologist. He entered top politics in 1972 being co-opted to the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Croatia . Two years later he became Croatian minister of education and performed a controversial educational reform in...

 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 (which worked beside the late Stipe Šuvar
Stipe Šuvar
Stipe Šuvar was a leading Croatian and Yugoslav politician and sociologist. He entered top politics in 1972 being co-opted to the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Croatia . Two years later he became Croatian minister of education and performed a controversial educational reform in...

) 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
Šibenik
Šibenik is a historic town in Croatia, with population of 51,553 . It is located in central Dalmatia where the river Krka flows into the Adriatic Sea...

, Rijeka
Rijeka
Rijeka is the principal seaport and the third largest city in Croatia . It is located on Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea and has a population of 128,735 inhabitants...

 and Pula
Pula
Pula is the largest city in Istria County, Croatia, situated at the southern tip of the Istria peninsula, with a population of 62,080 .Like the rest of the region, it is known for its mild climate, smooth sea, and unspoiled nature. The city has a long tradition of winemaking, fishing,...

).

For the 2007 election
Croatian parliamentary election, 2007
Parliamentary elections to the Croatian Parliament were held on 25 November 2007 in Croatia and on 24 November and 25 November 2007 abroad. The campaign officially started on 3 November...

 it formed an alliance with the Left of Croatia
Left of Croatia
The Left of Croatia is 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* Green Left of Croatia...

. The alliance got 9 884 votes (0.4%).

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 (Radnička borba) that is close to the reunified Fourth International
Reunified Fourth International
The Fourth International is a Trotskyist international. In 1963, the majorities of the two public factions of the Fourth International, the International Secretariat and the International Committee, reunited, electing a United Secretariat of the Fourth International...

.

Miscellaneous

  • The youth section of SRP is called Young Socialists (Croatia).

  • Party sympathizers include some of Croatia's prominent intellectuals such as Predrag Matvejević
    Predrag Matvejevic
    Predrag Matvejević is a Croatian writer known for his writing as well as for his political activism. His book Mediterranean Breviary: A Cultural Landscape has been a bestseller in many European countries, and has been translated into more than 20 languages.-Biography:Predrag Matvejević was born in...

    , Slobodan Šnajder
    Slobodan Šnajder
    Slobodan Šnajder is a Croatian writer and publicist.Šnajder was born in 1948 in Zagreb, where graduated in philosophy and English studies from the Faculty of Philosophy. He was co-founder and editor of the theatre journal Prolog as well as editor of the edition published by Cekade. His short...

    , Lordan Zafranović
    Lordan Zafranovic
    Lordan Zafranović is currently "the most controversial Croatian cineaste".-First films:After receiving a degree in literature and visual arts at the University of Split, Zafranović enrolled at the famous FAMU in Prague where he studied film directing and where he eventually graduated in 1981...

    , Rade Šerbedžija
    Rade Šerbedžija
    Rade Šerbedžija , occasionally credited as Rade Sherbedgia in some English-language productions, is a Croatian actor, director and musician of Serb origin. He was one of the most popular Yugoslav actors in the 1970s and 1980s. He is now internationally known mainly for his supporting roles in...

    , and Izet Hajdarhodžić. Milan Kangrga
    Milan Kangrga
    Milan Kangrga was a Croatian and Yugoslav philosopher who was one of the leading thinkers in the Praxis school of thought which originated in the 1960s in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia....

     was also a member, but left the party after the death of Stipe Šuvar
    Stipe Šuvar
    Stipe Šuvar was a leading Croatian and Yugoslav politician and sociologist. He entered top politics in 1972 being co-opted to the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Croatia . Two years later he became Croatian minister of education and performed a controversial educational reform in...

    . http://www.blic.rs/stara_arhiva/arhiva/2003-11-22/strane/svet.htm

  • Socialist Labour Party was also the name of the first communist party in Yugoslavia.

  • Socialist Labour Party supports new social movements
    New social movements
    The term new social movements 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 which are claimed to depart significantly from the conventional social movement paradigm.There are two...

    ; party delegates have supported Zagreb Pride
    Zagreb Pride
    Zagreb Pride is the annual pride march and LGBTIQ demonstration of Zagreb, Croatia, which first took place in 2002 and now occurs in June of each year, lasting for a few days. Zagreb Pride is the first successful pride march held in the Balkans, just a year after a bloody showdown at 2001 ...

     and the union
    Trade union
    A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

     protests.

See also

  • Left of Croatia
    Left of Croatia
    The Left of Croatia is 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* Green Left of Croatia...

  • Hrvatska ljevica
  • Novi Plamen
    Novi Plamen
    Novi Plamen is a left-wing magazine for political, social and cultural issues primarily aimed at intellectual audiences on the territory of the former Yugoslavia and the related diaspora. It is a leading publication of its kind in the region, published by the Demokratska misao publishing company...

  • Socialist Labour Party of Yugoslavia (Communists)
  • Serbian Party of Socialists (Croatia)
    Serbian Party of Socialists (Croatia)
    The Serbian Party of Socialists was the branch in Croatia of Serbian President Slobodan Milošević's Socialist Party of Serbia which was created in the areas under the control of rebel Croatian Serbs . In 1993, Milan Martić ran for President of Serbian Krajina and received heavy financial support...

  • Socialist Party of Croatia – Left Alternative
  • Socialist Party of Croatia
    Socialist Party of Croatia
    Socialist Party of Croatia is now defunct left-wing political party in Croatia....

  • Social Democratic Union (Croatia)
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