Initiative for Democratic Socialism (IDS) was a

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

party founded on March 8th, 2014, and was part of the United Left electoral alliance.Nastala je nova stranka, Iniciativa za demokratični socializem

Delo ''Delo'' () is a business oriented online media in Ukraine, belonging to ekonomika+ media holding. ''Delo'' was the first daily in Ukraine, publishing its real print circulation (13.000 - 15.000) and trying to introduce Western editorial and b ...

, 8 March 2014 Its collective leadership structure without an individual leader, inspired by

Occupy Wall Street Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a left-wing populist movement against economic inequality, capitalism, corporate greed, big finance, and the influence of money in politics that began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Financial ...

,Neki novi tovariši...

Mladina ''Mladina'' (English: Youth) is a Slovenian weekly political and current affairs magazine. Since the 1920s, when it was first published, it has become a voice of protest against those in power. Today, ''Mladinas weekly issues are distributed ...

, 13 November 2013 was conceived by members of The Workers and Punks University in November 2013, and only allowed for an elected coordinator of the IDS council.

Luka Mesec Luka Mesec (born 1 July 1987) is a Slovenian politician and activist who has been the leader of the eco-socialist The Left party since June 2017. Mesec was elected to the Slovenian National Assembly for the first time at the 2014 parliamentary ...

was the first coordinator to be elected. In 2017 the IDS merged with the Party for Sustainable Development of Slovenia (TRS) to form The Left( Slovene: ''Levica'').

Program

Its program, based on The Workers and Punks University economic analysis, included regulation of

neoliberalism Neoliberalism is a political and economic ideology that advocates for free-market capitalism, which became dominant in policy-making from the late 20th century onward. The term has multiple, competing definitions, and is most often used pe ...

in the short term by making tax rates more progressive, directing funds to

public works Public works are a broad category of infrastructure projects, financed and procured by a government body for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community. They include public buildings ( municipal buildings, ...

to lower

unemployment Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is the proportion of people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work du ...

, and other ideas associated with

social democracy Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

. Their long term goal was the replacement of

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...

with

democratic socialism Democratic socialism is a left-wing economic ideology, economic and political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and wor ...

, through policies like

workplace democracy Workplace democracy is the application of democracy in various forms to the workplace, such as voting systems, consensus, debates, democratic structuring, due process, adversarial process, and systems of appeal. It can be implemented in a ...

and

nationalization Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization contrasts with p ...

International partners

The initiative is linked to the

European Left The Party of the European Left (PEL), or European Left (EL), is a European political party that operates as an association of Democratic socialism, democratic socialist and Communism, communist political parties in the European Union and other E ...

together with other European new

anti-capitalist Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and Political movement, movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose capitalism. Anti-capitalists seek to combat the worst effects of capitalism and to eventually replace capitalism ...

parties, including German

Die Linke Die Linke (; ), also known as the Left Party ( ), is a democratic socialist political party in Germany. The party was founded in 2007 as the result of the merger of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) and Labour and Social Justice – The ...

, French Front de Gauche, and Portuguese Left Bloc.

2014 Elections

The United Left, which included the IDS, received 5.47 percent of the vote in the

2014 European Parliament election The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 22 and 25 May 2014. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties field ...

and 6.0 percent of the vote in the

2014 Slovenian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Slovenia on 13 July 2014 to elect the 90 deputies of the National Assembly. The early election, less than three years after the previous one, was called following the resignation of Alenka Bratušek's governm ...

References

{{Slovenian political parties 2014 establishments in Slovenia 2017 disestablishments in Slovenia Anti-capitalist political parties Defunct political parties in Slovenia Defunct socialist parties in Europe Democratic socialist parties in Europe Eurosceptic parties in Slovenia Marxist parties in Slovenia Party of the European Left former member parties Political parties disestablished in 2014 Political parties established in 2014 Socialist parties in Slovenia