Labor and Social Justice Party

The Labor and Social Justice Party (German: Arbeit & soziale Gerechtigkeit – Die Wahlalternative or WASG) is a new German political party. Founded in 2005 by activists disenchanted with the Social Democratic-Green government, it currently (as of May 2005) has 5,236 members, and plans to run 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 2006 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 its first few months of existence, it received a large amount of news coverage, and had its first national convention on May 6–8, 2005.

Several papers reported in May 2005 that Oskar Lafontaine, a major figurehead of the SPD's left, was planning to join the new party.

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 politics that strenghtens 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 big 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 spring 2005. Another recently founded party, RESPECT, could be seen as the party's British counterpart.

• 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 3 July, 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 SPD-Green coalition, which they perceived as too neoliberal. The Wahlalternative's first meeting took place on 5 March, 2004 in the Berlin domicile of the German Trade Union Federation (DGB).

The association had 4,056 members on 11 September, 2004, rising to over 6,000 members shortly before Christmas 2004. The first organisation in one of the states was founded on 13 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 alongside the party; its future purpose has not been determined so far. It may be transferred into a political endowment 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" (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 Partei 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 2006; 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 nascent 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 is the leading candidate of a 40-person-ticket.

Lawsuit against the acronym ASG

According to a verdict 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)".

External links

• Homepage of the WASG, in German
• Homepage of the association Wahlalternative Arbeit & soziale Gerechtigkeit e.V., in German
• Working group for Alternative Economical Politics (Memorandum-Gruppe), in German
• Homepage of the WASG in North Rhine-Westphalia, in German
• Homepage of the front-runner for the German regional election in North Rhine-Westphalia in May 2005, pastor Jürgen Klute, in German