Labour and Social Justice Party

Labour and Social Justice - The Electoral Alternative (de: Arbeit und soziale Gerechtigkeit – Die Wahlalternative or WASG) is a German political party founded in 2005 by activists disenchanted with the Social Democratic-Green government. It currently (as of October 2005) has 11,000 members, and ran for the first time in the 2005 state election of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state and a stronghold of the SPD, with pastor Jürgen Klute as its front-runner. It is organizing in all parts of Germany and plans to stand for the September 2005 federal election. The party is campaigning against what it considers "the neoliberal consensus" displayed by the governing centre-left political parties and the more conservative opposition alike. Some of its main issues are opposition to cuts in social benefits and to the favourable taxation of the wealthy. In the first few months of existence, it has received a large amount of news coverage, and had its first national convention on 6-8 May 2005.

Oskar Lafontaine, a former major figure of the SPD's left, joined the new party officially on 18 June, 2005, and became their North Rhine-Westphalia frontrunner for the general election on September 18, after advocating also the electoral alliance with the PDS which the WASG and PDS leaderships in principle agreed to on 10 June, 2005.

Programmatic orientation

The draft programmatic orientation is strongly influenced by the memorandums of the Working group for Alternative Economical Politics which counts one of the party's leading figures, economist Axel Troost, among its members. The programme pleads for a policy that strengthens domestic demand and centres around social justice; part of the programme is the return to a more progressive taxation. First and foremost, the tax breaks for large corporations and high incomes introduced by the SPD-Green coalition federal government starting from 1999 would have to be reverted and the federal tax on assets, which had ceased in 1997, reintroduced. The draft programme would have to be discussed until the spring 2005.

Programm für eine bessere Zukunft (Programme for a better future), in German

Historical accounts

Pre-history/Association WASG

The party emerged from the association "Wahlalternative Arbeit und soziale Gerechtigkeit e. V." which had been founded on July 3, 2004. The association itself had started as the merger of the groups Initiative Arbeit und soziale Gerechtigkeit (mainly by Bavarian union representatives) and the Wahlalternative ("Electoral Alternative", founded by people in Northern and Western Germany). Both groups had been founded in reaction to the government politics as laid down in the Agenda 2010 programme of the governing "Red-Green" coalition, which they consider as too neoliberal. The first meeting of the Wahlalternative' took place on 5 March, 2004 in the Berlin headquarters of the German Federation of Trade Unions (DGB).

The association had 4,056 members on 11 September, 2004, the number rising to over 6,000 members shortly before Christmas 2004. The first organisation in one of the states was founded on 17 July, 2004 in the Saarland; the first covention in North-Rhine Westphalia took place on 17 October, 2004, and it was decided to take part in the 2005 regional elections in that state in spite of the party's unclear financial situation.

The association WAsG e. V., the party's "birthplace", continues to exists along with the party; its future purpose has still not been determined. It may be transferred into a political foundation similar to the ones kept by other (German) political parties.

News coverage

The nascent party drew attention in the mass media because the foundation of a new leftist party might lead to a schism of the SPD. Forerunners to such a development were the secession of the "Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands" (USPD) during World War I, the foundation of the leftist Greens (although these were not founded by disaffected SPD members) in the late 1970s, and the Demokratische Sozialisten (DS) founded by Karl-Heinz Hansen und Manfred Coppik in the early 1980s.

Foundation

The federal assembly in Nuremberg of the association WAsG e. V. (20 and 21 November, 2004) decided to found a party, something that had never been ruled out as a possible outcome by members of the provisional leadership. After the strike vote among members in December 2004, the party was officially founded on 22 January, 2005 in Göttingen. The party's name came into being as Arbeit und soziale Gerechtigkeit – Die Wahlalternative (the acronym ASG later had to be changed to WASG, due to a lawsuit). The party will take part in the German general election in 2005; it hopes to attract disaffected voters and nonvoters alike by offering them a real electoral alternative.

Internal conflicts

There is a lot of controversy about the new party's political orientation among its members. While some would like to establish it as a purely leftist party of socialist inclination, many others, especially union representatives and ex-SPD-members, aim to provide a home also for social conservatives and religious people who believe in a strong welfare state. The argument escalated in February 2005 (shortly after the party's foundation) but could be soothed through a compromise that was satisfactory for everyone. The compromise calls for a strict accord with welfare state orientation without excluding more socialist-minded members from the party.

Regional election in North Rhine-Westphalia

The party decided to take part in the regional election in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, on 22 May 2005. Eligibility was ensured in all regional counties, and pastor Jürgen Klute of Herne was the leading candidate of a 40-person-ticket.

In this regional election the WASG reached 2.2% of the votes cast (approximately 182,000 votes).

Lawsuit against the acronym ASG

According to a decision made by the District Court of Düsseldorf, the party was no longer allowed to officially use its acronym "ASG". The party had been sued by the "Arbeitsgemeinschaft Sozialpädagogik und Gesellschaftsbild (ASG)". As a result the acronym "WASG" has been unofficially adopted (with an equally unofficial slight reordering of the words in its name to fit the new abbreviation).

Electoral alliance with the PDS

After the crushing defeat of his SPD in the regional elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, Federal Chancellor Schröder had declared the intention of going for a general election as soon as possible, avoiding the completion of the regular term (which was to run until September 2006) by the device of failing a the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany vote, which took place on 1 July, 2005. However, there are major constitutional issues which are to be settled by the German Constitutional Court. Because of the German constitution, which incorporated lessons learned from the failed Weimar Republic, the German parliament cannot dissolve itself or be dissolved by a political representative ahead of schedule, except under very rare circumstances.

While the WASG had hoped to gain a large enough membership and to raise enough money for an election campaign by the originally scheduled election date (some time in September 2006), it was now faced with the difficulty of an early election one year ahead of schedule (occurring on the date of 18 September, 2005). Polls predicted an election result of at most 3% for the new party, well below the electoral threshold of 5%. In that situation, the idea of an electoral coalition with the PDS, jointly led by Oskar Lafontaine and Gregor Gysi, was put forward by Oskar Lafontaine.

On 10 June, 2005, the leaderships of WASG and the PDS agreed to form an electoral alliance for the then-upcoming federal elections in September, 2005. According to the agreement, the parties will not compete against one another in any district and will have a joint manifesto. This was intended to benefit both parties, because the WASG is based primarily in western Germany, while the PDS, which is the successor to the East German Socialist Unity Party (SED), is strongest in the East. Oskar Lafontaine, the former chairman of the incumbent Social Democratic Party, was the WASG's lead candidate.

After a multitude of initial problems due to the somewhat restrictive German electoral law, the PDS re-christened itself as "Die Linkspartei." (The Left Party) and will appear on the ballot as either "Die Linkspartei.PDS" (in the Eastern Länder) or "Die Linkspartei." (in the Western Länder) in line with the WASG's wishes. WASG candidates appear on those electoral lists.

As of 5 July 2005, the coalition was on 30% in the polls in the East (level with the CDU there), and 11% nationally. ^* In the Federal Election the Left Party gained 8.7 % of the votes and send 54 Members of Parliament to Berlin, 12 of them are members of the WASG.

In March 2006, however, divisions emerged between the WASG and the PDS (now The Left.PDS) in Berlin and the East more generally, in the run-up to state elections, due to the continuing involvement of the PDS with the SPD in coalition governments which were instituting cut-backs. The WASG-Berlin, against advice or pressure from the national party leadership, announced its intention to run separate lists in Berlin against the PDS.

External links

Political parties in Germany | 2005 establishments

WASG | Arbeit & soziale Gerechtigkeit – Die Wahlalternative | Töö ja Sotsiaalse Õigluse Partei | Εκλογική Εναλλακτική για την Κοινωνική Δικαιοσύνη (WASG) | Alternativa Electoral por el Trabajo y la Justicia Social | Arbeit & soziale Gerechtigkeit – Die Wahlalternative | Munka és Szociális Igazság Párt | Arbeit & soziale Gerechtigkeit - Die Wahlalternative | Arbeit & soziale Gerechtigkeit – Die Wahlalternative | WASG | Alternatywa Wyborcza Praca i Sprawiedliwość Społeczna | Избирательная Альтернатива за Труд и Социальную Справедливость

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