Workers' Party (Sweden)

Workers' Party
Arbetarpartiet
LeaderJan Hägglund
Founded2010
Split fromSocialist Justice Party
HeadquartersUmeå
IdeologyDemocratic socialism
Marxism
Secularism
Political positionLeft-wing
ColoursRed
Website
arbetarpartiet.se

The Workers' Party (Swedish: Arbetarpartiet) is a democratic socialist political party in Sweden. It was founded in 2010, when almost the entire Västerbotten County section of the Socialist Justice Party (RS) broke off ahead of the 2010 general election.[1][2] 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 (since 2014). The Workers' Party publishes the Weekly News (Veckans Nyheter).

Politics

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The party labels itself democratic socialist. The goal is to participate in building a new workers' party that establishes democratic control over the capitalist financial institutions and corporations that direct the economy.[3]

Party members have a history of conducting policies that benefit workers employed in public services such as healthcare and elderly care. 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.[4][5][6]

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.[7]

References

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  1. ^ Split document (short version in Swedish)
  2. ^ RS view on the split (in Swedish)
  3. ^ Our politics (in Swedish)
  4. ^ "Grön industriutveckling i Umeå". Sveriges Radio. 20 August 2010.
  5. ^ [1]}
  6. ^ "Alternativbudget för Umeå år 2012". Archived from the original on 2012-05-25. Retrieved 2011-08-09.
  7. ^ "Umeå behåller två valkretsar". 25 September 2017.