Swiss Labor Party

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Swiss Labor Party
Logo of the Swiss Party of Labor.svg
Establishment date: May 21, 1944
Place of foundation: Basel
Ideology: Communism , Marxism , Democratic Socialism
Presidium: Gavriel Pinson
Members: 2,000
(as of 2009)
Proportion of women: in the National Council: 0%
(as of 2019)
Average age: ~ 37
Share of voters: 0.6%
(as of: National Council election 2019)
National Council:
1/200
Council of States:
0/46
Cantonal parliaments:
11/2609

(As of May 2019)
Cantonal Governments:
0/154

(As of November 2019)
Party structure: 8 cantonal parties
European party: European left
Website: www.pda.ch

The Swiss Labor Party (PdA, French Parti suisse du Travail , PST, Italian Partito Operaio e Popolare , POP, Romansh Partida svizra da la Lavur ? / I , PSdL) is a political party in Switzerland . In the cantons of Jura , Neuchâtel and Vaud it is called Parti Ouvrier Populaire (POP). The party is represented in various canton, city and communal parliaments. Ideologically, it positions itself on the left edge of the political spectrum. Audio file / audio sample

aims

The Labor Party describes itself as communist. One of its declared goals is to «work towards the creation of a large majority to overcome capitalism and towards the development of Swiss society towards socialism». The PdA sees itself as showing solidarity with the socially weak and advocates redistribution and against privatization.

history

The PdA was founded in 1944 as the successor organization of the Communist Party of Switzerland (KPS), which was banned between 1939 and 1941, and the Fédération socialiste suisse (FSS). In 1947 it had a share of 5.1 percent of the vote at federal level and was active in 18 cantons. In the 1950s, the PdA was also represented in the German- Swiss cantons. There she got into isolation because of the Cold War and became a splinter group. Only in the canton of Basel-Stadt did it hold a little more than five percent. In the 1990s she finally fell into a crisis in Basel as well. New or re-founding of party sections took place in 2003 in St. Gallen and Bern , which resulted in 8 canonical sections. At the end of 2019, the party had a total of 30 municipal councils and 3 city councilors in the canton of Vaud , 15 of which were municipal councilors and 2 city councilors in the suburb of Renens, west of Lausanne . In Lausanne itself there were four municipal councils and one city council in the same year. It is most important in the industrial regions of French-speaking French-speaking Switzerland , where it also has government members in individual cities. In 2019, the PdA ran for the Swiss National Council in six cantons, its only representative in parliament is Denis de la Reussille .

Other parties emerged in their environment that split off from the PdA in the late 1960s, such as the POCH or the Revolutionary Marxist League founded in 1969 , which was renamed the Socialist Workers' Party in 1980 . Some reunited with the PdA in the 1990s to pool votes (e.g. the Alliance de Gauche electoral alliance in Geneva ), while others, like the POCH, became part of the Swiss Green Party .

The youth organization of the PdA was originally the Free Youth . Today the Communist Youth Switzerland is the official youth organization of the PdA. This is a member of the World Federation of Democratic Youth .

Tabular overview

  • 1918 (October 6th): Foundation of the first communist party in Switzerland under the name Altkommunisten under the leadership of Jakob Herzog (1892-1931)
  • 1921 (March 6): After the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland (SP) refused to join the Third International in a ballot , the Socialist Left around Jules Humbert-Droz left the party and merged with the old communists to form the newly founded Communist Party of Switzerland (KPS)
  • 1930: Split of the Communist Party opposition around Walther Bringolf , which displaces the KPS as the strongest left-wing party in the canton of Schaffhausen and takes over its organ "Arbeiterzeitung"
  • 1937: The KPS is banned in the cantons of Neuchâtel and Geneva
  • 1939 (December 3rd): Foundation of the Fédération socialiste suisse (FSS), after Léon Nicole's supporters were expelled from the SP.
  • 1939 (December 28th): Ban on the daily newspaper of the KPS, "Freiheit"
  • 1940 (November 26th): Banning of the KPS with partial approval of the SP
  • 1941 (May 27): The FSS is banned and the FSS National Councilors are excluded from parliament
  • 1944 (May 21): Foundation of the Swiss Labor Party in Basel
  • 1947: She got 5.1% of the vote in the National Council elections and won seven seats
  • 1969: Dissolution of the PdA youth after the youth riots in 1968 and establishment of POCH , RML and PSA
  • 1971: Women's suffrage is introduced , Nelly Wicky becomes the first PdA national councilor
  • 2007: Renaming of the Ticino section Partito del Lavoro (PdL) to Partito Comunista (PC)
  • 2011: Loss of representation in the National Council
  • 2015: Exclusion of the Ticino PC and establishment of the Partito Operaio e Popolare (POP) as a new Ticino section; Recovery of a seat in the National Council
  • 2019: Foundation of the PdA Wallis; Defense of the National Council seat

National Council elections 2007

In the 2007 National Council elections , the PdA ran its own lists in the cantons of Zurich , Vaud , Geneva and Ticino , and in the canton of Neuchâtel on a joint list with solidaritéS . The electoral alliance À Gauche toute! / Linke Alternative , which the PdA entered into with the solidaritéS and the alternative lists in the cantons of Aargau , Schaffhausen and Zurich , set itself the goal of achieving a parliamentary group strength of five seats in the National Council .

Although the party was able to keep the total share of the vote, it lost the seat of the National Councilor Josef Zisyadis in Vaud . In contrast, the mayor of Le Locle , Denis de la Reussille , narrowly missed out on winning a seat in Neuchâtel at the expense of the Greens . Marianne Huguenin , Mayor of Renens , was re-elected as the only representative of the PdA in the National Council . However, she renounced her mandate so that Josef Zisyadis could move back into the National Council. In addition, the seat of Pierre Vanek of solidaritéS was lost in Geneva because the PdA refused to enter into a sub-list alliance with solidaritéS. À Gauche was also able to toute in Zurich ! (with the alternative list as the main force there) not win a seat.

Election results

National Council

National Council election results of the PdA (1947-2015)
8th%
6%
4%
2%
0%
year Share of the vote Seats
1947 5.1% 7th
1951 2.7% 5
1955 2.6% 4th
1959 2.7% 3
1963 2.2% 4th
1967 2.9% 5
1971 2.6% 5
1975 2.4% 4th
1979 2.1% 3
1983 0.9% 1
1987 0.8% 1
1991 0.8% 2
1995 1.2% 3
1999 1.0% 2
2003 0.7% 2
2007 0.7% 1
2011 0.5% 0
2015 0.4% 1
2019 0.6% 1

Cantonal and municipal elections

The PdA is currently in the cantons of Neuchâtel (8.3%, 6 mandates), Vaud (1.6%, 2 mandates), Jura (1.6%, 2 mandates) and Geneva (2.1%, 1 mandate) represented in parliaments. In the cantons of Ticino (0.7%), Bern (0.3%) and Zurich (0.2%), she last ran for election without success (as of May 2019). In the cantons of Geneva and Vaud, she has been part of the Ensemble à Gauche (EAG) electoral alliance with other left-wing groups (including SolidaritéS ). In the canton of Jura there is an alliance with the Combat socialiste group .

At the municipal level, the PdA has its strongholds in the clock towns of Le Locle (16 of 41 general councils , 2 of 5 city councils) and La Chaux-de-Fonds (8 of 41 general councils, 1 of 5 city councils). In the 2019 National Council elections, the PdA together with SolidaritéS achieved 33.3% in Le Locle and 26.2% in La Chaux-de-Fonds.

Communist Youth Switzerland

The Communist Youth Switzerland ( KJS, Jeunes POP in French) is the youth association of the Swiss Labor Party. She is a member of the World Federation of Democratic Youth . The organization is organized according to the principle of democratic centralism .

The aim of the KJS is to sensitize, mobilize and organize young people in Switzerland through political education, campaigns and social projects. The activities of the KJS are based on the teachings of Marx, Engels, Lenin and other revolutionary thinkers. The KJS campaigns for the rights of apprentices, the unemployed, trainees, students and employees. It advocates free, high-quality education that is accessible to all and a free and high-quality public service, for a nature and environmentally friendly society without exploitation, for health care that is free for all, and for the promotion of culture and sport . The Communist Youth of Switzerland campaigns against nationalism, racism, right-wing extremism and discrimination based on nationality and ethnicity. The organization condemns sexism, homophobia, transphobia and all other forms of discrimination based on gender and sexual identity. For gender equality and sexual identity. The organization stands up for peace, against war and imperialism, for open borders, for international solidarity between peoples. It wants the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of communism through socialism.

literature

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Brochure: “The Confederation in Brief 2010” , page 21.
  2. ↑ https://pda.ch/2019/10/die-partei-der-arbeit-ist-weiter-vier-jahre-im-nationalrat-vertreten/
  3. ↑ https://www.srf.ch/news/wahlen-2019-results
  4. ↑ Article on the parliamentarian rating , published in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung on October 14, 2007.
  5. ↑ What we are about | Swiss Labor Party. Retrieved on July 11, 2017 (German).
  6. ↑ Party of Labor (PdA) , on History of Social Security , Federal Social Insurance Office
  7. ^ A b c d e f J. C .: Anaïs Timofte à la tête du Parti ouvrier populaire . In: Pietro Supino (Ed.): 24 heures . No. 269 . Tamedia , Lausanne November 19, 2019, p. 5 .
  8. ↑ Grown into the PdA , Vorwärts , June 29, 2016
  9. ↑ National Council elections: Overview Switzerland. Federal Statistical Office, October 18, 2015, accessed on December 13, 2015 .
  10. ^ Statutes - Communist Youth Switzerland. Retrieved on May 1, 2020 (German).