Socialist Labour Party of Croatia

Socialist Labour Party of Croatia (Croatian: Socijalistička radnička partija Hrvatske, also translated Socialist Workers' Party) is a far left Croatian political party with no parliamentary representation. It is often considered to be the leftmost of registered parties in Croatian politics.

Ideology
In theory, the Party is the meeting point of many different leftist ideologies.

The Party emphasizes the importance of worker self-management and participatory democracy.

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.

Publications
The official paper is called Socijalizam danas (Socialism Today).

Party organization in Split publishes its own paper - Gariful (The Carnation).

History
The Party was formed in 1997 by a group of leftists gathered around the newspaper Hrvatska ljevica (Croatian Left) and its chief editor Stipe Šuvar. SLP filled a hole on Croatian political left after Social Democratic Union lost influence and members and Social Democratic Action moved more to the center.

Fist elections it contested in were the parliamentary elections 2000. It got 18,863 votes (0.66%).

After the elections, a group of members from the Socialist Youth (Croatia), the Party youth wing, left to form Green Left of Croatia.

In local elections in 2001, SLP managed to win some seats in smaller, ethnically mixed communities, such as Daruvar, Donji Lapac, Vrhovine etc..

The party contested again in parliamentary elections 2003 and got 15,515 votes (0,59%).

In 2004 Stipe Šuvar resigned as Party President and Ivan Plješa was elected the new President.

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) is still a part of the SLP.

On last local elections in 2005, SLP 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 a few bigger towns (like Šibenik, Rijeka and Pula).

For 2007 elections it formed an alliance with 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 &amp; Workers' Parties. It also contains a group called Workers' Struggle (Radnička borba) that is close to the reunified Fourth International.

Miscellaneous

 * The youth section of SLP was called Socialist Youth (Croatia). In 2008 it transformed itself into an autonomous organization called Red Action.


 * Party sympathizers include some of Croatian most famous intellectuals such as Predrag Matvejević, Slobodan Šnajder, Lordan Zafranović, Rade Šerbedžija, and Izet Hajdarhodžić. Milan Kangrga was a member, but left the party after the death of Stipe Šuvar.


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


 * Socialist Labour Party supports new social movements; party delegates have supported Zagreb Pride and the union protests.

Party officials

 * President: Ivan Plješa