Latvian Social Democratic Workers' Party
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The Latvian Social Democratic Workers' Party (Latvian: Latvijas Sociāldemokrātiskā Strādnieku Partija, abbreviated as LSDSP) is a political party in Latvia. It has a long history but is not represented in the current parliament of Latvia.
[edit] History
LSDSP is the oldest organized political party in Latvia, its roots in the workers' groups of the New Current that were founded as early as 1892, when Latvia was still part of the Russian Empire. The early LSDSP, formally established after various Latvian socialist groups merged on 20 June 1904, initially had a nationalist as well as a socialist basis and rejected the dictatorship of the proletariat. On 1 June 1904, together with the more radical Latvian Social Democratic Union, the social democrats had issued a joint proclamation demanding self-determination and the introduction of Latvian as the language of administration and education. LSDSP led the 1905 Revolution in what is now Latvia, organizing strikes in Rīga together with the Bund.
The party became an autonomous regional organization of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, renamed the Social Democracy of Latvia (Latvijas sociāldemokratija; LSD), on 23 April 1906 and boasted 16 000 members by 1907, but membership declined sharply due to the imposition of martial law and mass arrests that followed the failure of the 1905 Revolution, to 2000 members in 1911. Industrialization in 1912-13 saw the party grow again -- but World War I brought about a second decline, to 500 members in 1916. The Central Committee of LSD came under the control of the Bolsheviks in 1915, but the Mensheviks who had been expelled from the party re-established the LSDSP as a separate party on 17 June 1918.
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 1920 Constitutional Assembly (Satversmes Sapulce). It won most seats in every of 4 parliamentary elections of that period (31 out of 100 in 1922, 33 in 1925, 26 in 1928 and 21 in 1931). The leader of LSDSP, Pauls Kalniņš, was the speaker of Latvian parliament from 1925 to 1934.
The party itself, however, would often be in opposition because of many smaller right-wing parties forming coalition governments, typically led by the Latvian Farmers' Union.
LSDSP was banned after the 1934 coup by Kārlis Ulmanis, together with all other political parties, and remained banned after the Soviet annexation in 1940. When many Latvians left Latvia during World War II, LSDSP was restored as an "exile organization" operating in Sweden in 1945 and, later, other Western countries as well.
[edit] LSDSP today
When Latvia became independent again in 1990, LSDSP returned to Latvia. In early 1990s, it struggled with internal splits. At one point, Latvia had 3 social democratic parties, two of them being descendants of LSDSP and the third being the reformed faction of former Communist Party of Latvia. Eventually, all three parties merged, under the name of LSDSP.
The merged party enjoyed some success in parliamentary elections in 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. It was less successful in the next legislative elections, 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 LSDSP's popularity continued as the party lost the mayor's seat in Riga in 2005 municipal elections (keeping 8 seats in the Riga City Council but forced into the opposition). The parliamentary elections of 2006 brought even more dissatisfactory results for LSDSP as the party got 3.5% of votes and thus got no representation in the parliament once again.
The party is currently lead by Guntars Jirgensons (acting chairman since 2006, when Juris Bojārs resigned).
