Labour & SPD - Labour‘s roots & aims - SPD‘s roots & aims - Parallels.

Labour & SPD

- Labour‘s roots & aims

- SPD‘s roots & aims

- Parallels

The Party‘s roots

• 1893: Keir Hardy forms Independent Labour Party (ILP), wins two seats

• 1900: ILP, Trades Union Congress (TUC), Fabian Society & others create Labour Representative Committee (LRC)

Rise of the Labour Party

• 1906: 30 MPs• 1945: 48.0 % of total votes, 393

MPs• 1994: Tony Blair becomes

Leader• Since 1997: Prime Minister

The first policies

• Close connection to trade unions

• class conflict

• Socialism and socialization of main industries

The first policies: CLAUSE IV, 1918

"To secure for the workers by hand or by brain the

full fruits of their industry and the most equitable

distribution thereof that may be possible upon the

basis of the common ownership of the means of

production, distribution, and exchange, and the

best obtainable system of popular administration

and control of each industry or service."

Tony Blair‘s New Labour

• More liberal:– Privatization– Globalization– more open to capitalism

• Minimum wage act• Increase in public spending

New Labour: CLAUSE IV

• "The Labour Party is a democratic socialist party. It believes that by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone, so as to create for each of us the means to realise our true potential and for all of us a community in which power, wealth and opportunity are in the hands of the many, not the few. Where the rights we enjoy reflect the duties we owe. And where we live together, freely, in a spirit of solidarity, tolerance and respect."

The Party‘s roots

• 1863: Ferdinand Lassalle founds the party under the name “Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein“

• 1890: the party was legalized• 1912: strongest party in

Germany

Rise and Fall of the SPD

• 1918: became part of the so-called Weimar-Coalition and led several inter-war cabinets

• 1933: gained 120 seats during the last partial free election

• Summer 1933: banned by Adolf Hitler• 1946: recreated and admitted in all 4 occupation

zones

Policies

• Founded to defend the interests of the working class

• 1959: Godesberg – Program: officially abandoned the concept of a worker´s party

• Stress on social welfare programs

Gerhard Schröder

• 1998: won the election with 40,9% of the votes after 16 years of CDU leadership

• Formed coalition government with the Green Party

• 2004: disaster, worst result in a nationwide election with only 21,5% of the votes

SPD today

• Now the junior partner in a grand coalition with CDU/CSU under the leadership of Chancellor Angela Merkel with Franz Müntefering as Vice-Chancellor

• Müntefering resigned as party chairman and was succeeded as chairman by Matthias Platzeck

• On April 10, 2006 Matthias Platzeck announced his resignation of the Chair because he suffered a major hearing loss in March 2006

• The interim Chairman from April 10 to May 14 was Kurt Beck

• He won the full leadership on a small party convention on May 14

Parallels• Both are „parties for the ordinary blokes“, the working

classes• Both work for a fair and equal society• Both want to represent the „little man“, not the big

companies• Both were founded in the second half of the 19.

century in order to give the workers the possibility of a political opinion

• Both weren't accepted during their first years