Left Socialist Party (Belgium)

See also Left Socialists (Denmark), Left Socialist Party (Sweden) and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries (Russia).
Left Socialist Party – Socialist Party of Struggle
Leader

Collective Leadership

(National Committee)
Founded 1992
Headquarters Brussels, Belgium
Newspaper Linkse Socialist, Lutte Socialiste
Student wing Active Left Students
Ideology Trotskyism
Socialism
Marxism
Political position Far-left
National affiliation Left Front
International affiliation Committee for a Workers' International
Colours Red
Website
www.socialisme.be

The Left Socialist Party - Socialist Party of Struggle (Dutch: Linkse Socialistische Partij, French: Parti Socialiste de Lutte, LSP-PSL) is a Belgian Trotskyist party, affiliated to the Committee for a Workers' International. The party publishes monthly newspapers in Dutch and French, entitled Linkse Socialist and Lutte Socialiste, respectively.

Origins

The LSP-PSL was founded in 1992 as Militant Left (Militant Links), an offshoot from the Spark (Vonk) which operated as a Marxist tendency within the Belgian Socialist Party. Following the Socialist Party’s swing to the right, discontent within the Spark culminated in a split, largely over the strategy of entryism under the changed circumstances. One group continued as the Spark, working within the Socialist Party, whilst another left to form Militant Left, later renaming themselves the Left Socialist Party (Linkse Socialistische Partij). The LSP was at first active only in the cities of Ghent and Geraardsbergen, but has since grown into a national party. In 1999 the party formally gained its francophone section, Movement for a Socialist Alternative (Mouvement pour une Alternive Socialiste), renamed Socialist Party of Struggle (Parti Socialiste de Lutte) in 2009.

Electoral alliances

The LSP-PSL aims to build left unity around a common minimum programme, while maintaining the right of groups to organise and campaign on their own platforms. To this end, the party has sought to engage with other radical left parties and has met with some success in creating electoral alliances with the Communist Party, Humanist Party and Revolutionary Communist League. The LSP-PSL contested the 2007 federal elections as part of a new political movement, the Committee for Another Policy, though it subsequently left at the end of the year. Later, it participated in the Left Front, with which it stood in the federal elections in 2010. In the 2014 federal elections, the LSP/PSL did not participate, calling for a vote for the Workers' Party of Belgium or other small left parties instead, despite the PTB/PvdA having rejected the LSP-PSL's proposal for a common list.

Young people

The party emphasises youth work and in universities has a youth network named Active Left Students (Étudiants de Gauche Actifs - Actief Linkse Studenten, EGA-ALS). EGA-ALS takes up issues concerning education, but also campaigns on wider social issues such as sexism and racism, including forming organised opposition to the far-right Nationalist Student Association. In 2010, along with trade union and leftwing youth groups Comac, Écolo j, Jeunes-FGTB and JOC, the PSL launched Jeunes en Lutte pour l'Emploi to campaign on the issue of youth unemployment, taking as its inspiration the Youth Fight for Jobs campaign in Great Britain.

Election results

Federal Parliament

Chamber of Representatives

Election year # of overall votes % of overall vote % of language
group vote		 # of overall seats won # of language group
seats won		 +/- Notes
2003 2,929 0.04
0 / 150
2007 20,083 0.30
0 / 150
 Part of CAP
2010 6,791 0.10
0 / 150
 Steady 0

Senate

Election year # of overall votes % of overall vote % of language
group vote		 # of overall seats won # of language group
seats won		 +/- Notes
2003 8,337 0.13
0 / 40
2007 21,215 0.32
0 / 40
 Part of CAP
2010 7,841 0.12
0 / 40
 Steady 0

European Parliament

Election year # of overall votes % of overall vote % of language
group vote		 # of overall seats won # of language group
seats won		 +/- Notes
2004 14,166 0.22
0 / 24
 Steady 0
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