)
, colours =
Maroon
Maroon ( US/ UK , Australia ) is a brownish crimson color that takes its name from the French word ''marron'', or chestnut. "Marron" is also one of the French translations for "brown".
According to multiple dictionaries, there are vari ...
Green
Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combin ...
, headquarters =
Riga
Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the ...
, Lāčplēša iela 60, LV-1011
, seats1_title =
Saeima
The Saeima () is the parliament of the Republic of Latvia. It is a unicameral parliament consisting of 100 members who are elected by proportional representation, with seats allocated to political parties which gain at least 5% of the popular v ...
, seats1 =
, seats2_title =
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the Legislature, legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven Institutions of the European Union, institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and in ...
, seats2 =
, website
lsdsp.lv, membership_year = 2017
, membership = 633
The Latvian Social Democratic Workers' Party ( lv, Latvijas Sociāldemokrātiskā strādnieku partija, LSDSP) is a
social-democratic
Social democracy is a Political philosophy, political, Social philosophy, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocati ...
political party in Latvia and the second oldest existing Latvian political party after the
Latvian Farmers' Union. It is not currently represented in the
parliament of Latvia
The Saeima () is the parliament of the Republic of Latvia. It is a unicameral parliament consisting of 100 members who are elected by proportional representation, with seats allocated to political parties which gain at least 5% of the popular vo ...
. The party tends to hold a less
Russophilic
Russophilia (literally love of Russia or Russians) is admiration and fondness of Russia (including the era of the Soviet Union and/or the Russian Empire), Russian history and Russian culture. The antonym is Russophobia. In the 19th Cent ...
view than fellow social-democratic party
"Harmony" .
History
Founding, interwar Latvia, under authoritarianism and occupation
The Latvian Social Democratic Workers' Party was founded on 17 June 1918, by
Menshevik
The Mensheviks (russian: меньшевики́, from меньшинство 'minority') were one of the three dominant factions in the Russian socialist movement, the others being the Bolsheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries.
The factions em ...
elements who had been expelled from the
Social Democracy of the Latvian Territory
The Communist Party of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Komunistiskā partija, LKP) was a political party in Latvia.
History Latvian Social-Democracy prior to 1919
The party was founded at a congress in June 1904. Initially the party was known as the Latvia ...
in 1915. Once Latvia became independent, LSDSP was one of the two most influential political parties (along with the
Latvian Farmers' Union). LSDSP held 57 out of 150 seats in the
1920 Constitutional Assembly (Satversmes Sapulce). It won the most seats in each of four
parliamentary elections of that period (31 out of 100 in
1922
Events
January
* January 7 – Dáil Éireann (Irish Republic), Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes.
* January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éirean ...
, 33 in
1925, 26 in
1928
Events January
* January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA.
* January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhano ...
and 21 in
1931). The leader of the LSDSP,
Pauls Kalniņš
Pauls Kalniņš (3 March 1872, in Vilce Parish – 26 August 1945, in Lustenau, Austria) was a Latvian physician and politician ( LSDSP), a long-term Speaker of the Saeima, one of the signatories of the Memorandum of the Central Council of Lat ...
, was speaker of the Latvian parliament from 1925 to 1934.
The party itself, however, would often be in
opposition
Opposition may refer to:
Arts and media
* ''Opposition'' (Altars EP), 2011 EP by Christian metalcore band Altars
* The Opposition (band), a London post-punk band
* '' The Opposition with Jordan Klepper'', a late-night television series on Com ...
because of many smaller right-wing parties forming
coalition government
A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...
s, typically led by the
Latvian Farmers' Union.
The party was a member of the
Labour and Socialist International
The Labour and Socialist International (LSI; german: Sozialistische Arbeiter-Internationale, label=German, SAI) was an international organization of socialist and labour parties, active between 1923 and 1940. The group was established through a me ...
between 1923 and 1940, and was admitted into the modern
Socialist International
The Socialist International (SI) is a political international or worldwide organisation of political parties which seek to establish democratic socialism. It consists mostly of socialist and labour-oriented political parties and organisation ...
in 1994.
The LSDSP was banned after the
1934 coup by
Kārlis Ulmanis, together with all other political parties, and remained banned after the
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
annexation in 1940. When many Latvians left Latvia during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, the LSDSP was restored as an "exile organization", operating in Sweden in 1945, and later in other Western countries.
Return to Latvia, activities 1990–2010
When Latvia became independent again in 1991, the LSDSP returned to Latvia. In the early 1990s, it struggled with internal splits. At one point, Latvia had three social democratic parties, two of them being descendants of the LSDSP, and the third being the reformed faction of the former Communist Party of Latvia (
LSDP). Eventually, all three parties merged, under the name of the LSDSP.
The merged party enjoyed some success in the parliamentary
election of 1998, winning 14 seats out of 100; and in local elections in 2001, when one of its members,
Gundars Bojārs, became the mayor of
Riga
Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the ...
. It was less successful in the
next legislative election, held on 5 October 2002, where it got only 4% of the vote, and did not make the 5% minimum to get seats. The decline of the LSDSP's popularity continued as the party lost the mayor's seat in Riga in the 2005 municipal election (keeping 7 seats in the Riga City Council but forced into the opposition). The
parliamentary election of 2006 brought even more dissatisfying results for the LSDSP, as the party got 3.5% of votes and thus got no representation in the parliament once again.
2010–present
For the
2010 parliamentary election, the LSDSP formed the
Responsibility Alliance with smaller parties, but their performance was disatrous, receiving less than 1% of the vote. In January 2011, , who was supported by the outgoing leader , was elected as party chairman. He defeated
Ansis Dobelis, who was more aligned with youth activist circles and later formed
The Progressives. His tenure did not improve the party's performance, with the LSDSP not running in the
2014 parliamentary election. By 2017, Dinēvičs had returned to lead the party. At the
2018 election, the party received just 0,21% of the vote.
2022 brought a historic turn for the party, when on June 1st it joined the
Union of Greens and Farmers (ZZS) after the
Latvian Green Party had left the alliance, as the second member of ZZS is the Farmer's Union, LSDSP's main rival in the 1920s and 1930s.
In 2012, the
Socialist International
The Socialist International (SI) is a political international or worldwide organisation of political parties which seek to establish democratic socialism. It consists mostly of socialist and labour-oriented political parties and organisation ...
demoted LSDSP to observer member for not paying membership fees. The party was officially delisted from the Socialist International in December 2014. It currently maintains the status of observer member in the
Party of European Socialists
The Party of European Socialists (PES) is a social democratic and progressive European political party.
The PES comprises national-level political parties from all member states of the European Union (EU) plus Norway and the United Kingdom. ...
.
Election results
Legislative elections
Symbols and logos
File:LSDSP logo.png, Old logo
See also
*
Brūno Kalniņš
Brūno (also: Bruno) Haralds Kalniņš (7 May 1899, in Tukums, Courland Governorate of the Russian Empire, now Latvia 26 March 1990, in Stockholm, Sweden) was a Latvian social democratic politician and historian. He was the son of prominent ...
References
External links
Official website
{{Authority control
Political parties in Latvia
Former member parties of the Socialist International
Political parties of the Russian Revolution
Social democratic parties in Latvia
Members of the Labour and Socialist International
Party of European Socialists member parties
Political parties established in 1918
Formerly banned socialist parties