- Socialist Left Party (Austria)
Infobox Austrian Political Party
party_name = Sozialistische LinksPartei
party_deletable image-caption
party_articletitle = PAGENAME
leader =Sonja Grusch
foundation =2000 ("Sozialistische LinksPartei")2000 (Merged from "Sozialistische Offensive Vorwärts")
ideology =Trotskyism
position =Left wing
international =Committee for a Workers' International
european =none
europarl =none
colours =Red
headquarters = Kaiserstraße 14/11
A-1070Vienna
website = [http://www.slp.at http://www.slp.at] The Socialist Left Party (de: "Sozialistische LinksPartei", or SLP) is aTrotskyist political party inAustria . It is a member of theCommittee for a Workers' International . The party originated in the1980 's, when the forerunner "Sozialistische Offensive Vorwärts" emerged from the far-left wing of theSocialist Youth of Austria . It later transformed itself during the protests against the participation of theFPÖ in the Austrian government in2000 into the current SLP, forming itself as a party at a conference on January 30th 2000 [ [http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/sparchive/147.htm Mass Protest movement in Austria against right-wing] , The Socialist 147, 03/03/00] . In2002 , it ran in federal elections for the "Nationalrat"; however, it was unable to win a seat.The SLP has several professed goals as part of their party plan for reform: social justice on a national and global level; a stop to the
neo-liberal government's spending cuts andprivatisation schemes; gender equality and equality forhomosexual s; an end toNazism ,racism , and all forms ofxenophobia ; protection of the environment; as well as other topics relating toanti-globalisation . The party is alsoanti-EU . The SLP aims to help found an alternative tosocial democracy and what it terms the "bureaucratic-centralist" or "Stalinist "KPÖ . As a section of the Committee for a Workers' International it has a Trotskyist analysis which rejectsStalinism as well thecultural revolution approach ofMaoism . It also rejectssocial democracy , which it believes has become bourgeois. The SLP defines itself as a young, revolutionary pro-labour party.In 2001, the party stood in elections in
Vienna and received 100 voters, 0.01% of the vote in communal elections of2001 . However, since the SLP put itself up for votes in only one district ("Zentrum"), this equates to relatively 0.18% of all votes. The party campaigned also in other districts such asMargareten , where it received 139 votes, which totals to 0.68% of all votes.In communal elections of
2005 , the party campaigned again in the districts of "Zentrum" and Margareten. It was able to raise its votes to 124 in Zentrum (0.24% or 0.02% for all of Vienna); however, it lost in Margareten (90 votes, 0.47%). Because the SLP ran against the KPÖ in Margareten, their presence could have contributed to the narrow miss for the KPÖ in entering the communal assembly there, with their tally of 2.22%. The SLP also ran inFavoriten (0.19%) andBrigittenau (0.28%); however, neither result was enough to qualify for a seat.Campaigns
Socialist Left Party activists have been prominent in defending abortion rights. In 2003, after writing an article criticising the methods of
pro-life groupHuman Life International (HLI), SLP member Claudia Sorger was taken to court, but won her case on July 10th 2003 [ [http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/2003/310/index.html?id=pp5a.htm Success In Defending Women's Right To Abortion] - The Socialist 310 26/07/03]External links
* [http://www.slp.at/ Official web site]
References
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