National Labor

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National Labor

National Arbejdskraft
LeaderAndreas Støvring
General SecretaryMalene Thygesen
Founded1876
HeadquartersNorenstal
NewspaperFolkets Stemme
Youth wingUng Arbejdskraft
Women's wingArbejde Kvinder
Membership (2019)Decrease 5,356,092
IdeologyDemocratic socialism
Political positionCentre left to left-wing
Colors  Red
Chamber of Representatives
123 / 500
Chamber of Nobles
42 / 200
First ministers
1 / 7
State parliaments
298 / 1,150
County councils
623 / 2,317
Municipal councils
17,842 / 47,580
Election symbol
A
Website
www.nationalarbejdskraft.del

National Labor (Delkoran: National Arbejdskraft) is a left-wing political party in Delkora. With over 5 million registered members, it is the largest political party in Delkora. The party has had a major influence on Delkoran society through the New Kingdom program, which has played a profound role in shaping the country's politics, economics, and culture since the 1960s.

At the federal level, the party currently governs in coalition with the Liberal Party and the Greens. At the state level, it heads the government of Cybria and is a junior coalition partner in Førelskov and Norvia. National Labor's leader, Andreas Støvring, serves as the current minister of foreign affairs.

History

Early years

National Labor was formed in 1876 by the United Workers Congress of Delkora to represent the interests of the country's growing trade union movement. Despite political repression by the jarls of Delkora's states, the party quickly established itself as a major electoral force, displacing the Liberals as the largest leftist party in the 1880 federal election and winning a plurality.

During the chancellorship of Magnus Brom (1880-1888), the party introduced economic reforms that laid the foundation for Delkora's welfare state, including unemployment and disability insurance, old age security, universal pensions, and workers' compensation. It also codified the right to collective bargaining and legalized strikes. Brom's government also instituted a number of political reforms, including universal male suffrage and passage of a constitutional amendment limiting the power of the jarls.

National Labor continued to consolidate its power over the next several years, gaining a strong presence in state and local legislatures. It was returned to government from 1896 to 1912 under the chancellorships of Torsten Branting and Niels Frederiksen. During their tenure, National Labor pushed forward with continued political reforms that included reigning in the power of the Chamber of Nobles and extending suffrage to women. On the economic front, it instituted the eight hour work day and created a system of employer-provided health insurance. It also secured support for reform of the Vallyar Order and mandatory secular education.

Red scare

Going into the 20th Century, National Labor was seen as one of the most influential leftist parties in Eracura and presided over an increasingly militant labor movement. This growing militancy led to a red scare that was stoked by right-wing parties and the increasingly conservative leadership of the trade unions, who worked to expel communists from their ranks.

These ideological conflicts were carried over into the party, and came to a head with the outbreak of the Ruvelkan Civil War in 1914, when the leadership declared its support for the Imperial Separatists. This prompted the party's left flank to break away and join the nascent Communist Party of Delkora.

After purging the remaining radicals from the party, National Labor went on to adopt the Gothendral Manifesto in 1915, renouncing socialist revolution and declaring its support for reform of capitalism. Over the next several years, the party came to be dominated by corrupt political machines in the major cities. It supported the Brøndum government's Sedition Acts, which targeted radical labor groups.

Although leftists in the party made a brief comeback under the leadership of Ingeborg Hansen, who went on to become Delkora's first female chancellor, she was later ousted by the conservative wing and replaced with Jørgen Löfgren, who renewed efforts to suppress radical tendencies within the party.

Löfgren's tenure came to be defined by the growing civil war within the party between the conservative and radical factions. A turning point came with Bjørn Olsen's successful takeover of Cybrian National Labor in 1930. With the party's largest state party under the control of the insurgent radicals, the conservative faction slowly began to lose control of the party. At the federal level, Mette Elvensar launched an unsuccessful leadership challenge against Löfgren in 1944, only to come back with a successful second challenge in 1948 after the party's worst ever electoral performance in the federal election that year.

New Kingdom coalition

Two famous National Labor posters from 1959. The one on the right reads: "Comrades — let it now be over! Vote National Labor!"

Elvensar oversaw the democratization of the party's internal rules and the adoption of a new platform that marked a return to the party's socialist roots. At the same time leftists were reasserting control of the party, radicals in the labor movement were usurping control of the trade unions from the conservative old guard.

As the Delkoran economy entered a severe depression in the 1950s, the party made major gains at the federal, state, and local levels on a program of anti-austerity, social safety net expansions, and structural reforms that collectively made up the party's New Kingdom agenda. With the outbreak of civil unrest in the latter part of the decade, the party sought to distance itself from the Labor Underground and other groups engaged in political violence, instead promoting the abolition of capitalism through the electoral process.

The 1959 federal election resulted in a National Labor landslide and the first single-party majority since the introduction of proportional representation. During the subsequent chancellorships of Elvensar and Geirbjørn Feldengaard, the party implemented much of the New Kingdom agenda, expanding public and worker ownership in the economy, strengthening workers' rights, and creating a robust welfare state.

The popularity and success of these programs cemented National Labor's power for decades, with the period from 1959 to 1975 coming to be known as the "National Labor Hegemony" due to the party's federal majority, majorities or pluralities in all seven state parliaments, and control of a majority of municipal councils. It passed the Economic Rights Amendment, codifying the core tenets of the New Kingdom into the Delkoran Constitution. From 1975 to 1983, the party governed in coalition with the Liberal Party, with whom it had maintained good relations.

Return to opposition

Harald Henriksen succeeded Feldengaard as party leader in 1983, and led the party through the remainder of the decade. Despite being in opposition, the party managed to subvert the Conservative-Agrarian government's attempts at scaling back the New Kingdom. It likewise held fast to its ideological orientation, with Henriksen strongly resisting efforts by moderates within the party to move it to the center.

Factional battles between the left and right wings, dating back to the New Kingdom, reached a peak in the early 1990s. After the party's right was exposed as having sabotaged the 1991 federal election campaign, Emma Jørgensen expelled the right wing from the party, and altered its constitution to make advocacy of neoliberalism punishable by expulsion. The expelled right of National Labor joined with New Conservatives defecting from the Conservative Party in the Centre Democrats.

The exposure of the neoliberal conspiracy and advent of the early 1990s depression led National Labor to pick up a large number of seats in the 1992 state elections. Emma Jørgensen went on to become chancellor three years later following a snap election called in response to the indictment of Ulrik Andersen on corruption charges stemming from the 1991 federal election.

1994 to present

With the political right largely discredited by the depression, neoliberal conspiracy, and Andersen's conviction, National Labor was able to reaffirm the New Kingdom agenda and press forward with its implementation, accelerating the socialization of the economy and reversing the austerity and privatizations of the previous Conservative governments. It likewise implemented sweeping criminal justice reforms and drug liberalization laws.

Beginning in the late 1990s with the induction of the fourth party system, National Labor suffered from a fracturing of its support as a result of the surge in support for other leftist parties including the Greens, Communists, and the Pirate Party.

Following the 2002 federal election, the party supported a coalition government led by these three parties under Kol Vossgaard after they collectively secured a plurality. During Rolf Steffensen's tenure as leader, the party moved somewhat closer to the center in the hopes of capturing more moderate voters, which proved to be politically unpopular among its base. Steffensen was succeeded by Andreas Støvring in 2013.

Following the 2014 federal election, National Labor entered into Delkora's first federal traffic light coalition with the Liberals and Greens under Chancellor Adric Azengaard. The party increased its seat share in the 2018 federal election, and continues to partake in the coalition government.

Organization

National Labor consists of individual dues-paying members, affiliated trade unions, and constituency organizations. It is organized into seven state parties, each divided into county chapters. Party members in each county elect delegates to a County Committee, which sends delegates to the State Central Committee. The State Central Committees, in turn, send delegates to the National Executive Committee. At each level, delegates are instantly-revocable. Each state party and county chapter functions autonomously within the guidelines established by the party's national constitution.

Once every year, the party's county chapters, state sections, affiliated trade unions, and constituency organizations send delegates to the National Labor Convention, in which changes to the party's structure, constitution and bylaws, and federal platform are debated and voted on. The National Executive Committee oversees the party between conventions and appoints the General Secretary. The party's Federal Leader is elected by a nationwide vote of all party members, and this person is usually nominated as its chancellor candidate. A motion of no confidence can be brought against the Leader at any time by the party's Chamber of Representatives caucus, the National Executive Committee, or by petition of at least 25% of party members.

Base of support

Since its founding, National Labor's strongest base of support has been among the urban working-class. The party also performs well with intellectuals and younger voters, as well as ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities. Geographically, its strongest support is found in cities, university towns, and areas on the northern coast. The states of Norenstal and Cybria have long been National Labor strongholds, as well as the industrialized coastal region of Førelskov. Seven of Delkora's ten largest cities are led by National Labor mayors.

The party's support is weakest among upper middle class and wealthy voters, older voters, and those with socially-conservative religious values. Geographically, it struggles in affluent suburban areas, small towns and rural areas.

Ideology

The National Labor constitution defines the party as a democratic socialist organization committed to "the peaceful, gradual, and democratic dismantling of capitalism by means of the political institutions and procedures of the existing Delkoran polity." It supports as its end goal the establishment of a classless society based on common ownership of the means of production and the allocation of economic resources according to the principle of "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need."

Various factions exist within the party, including social democratic, left communist, anarcho-syndicalist, and anarcho-communist groups. While these factions have generally been tolerated and allowed to maintain informal working groups within the party, officials espousing neoliberal viewpoints or others that contradict the party's fundamental tenets are subject to disciplinary action, including expulsion.

Factions

National Labor has long had a tradition of factions, formally organized as "platforms", reflecting its big tent organization.

The 1914 convention marked the first appearance of formal factions:

  • Reform Tendency (Reformtendens) — the right wing of the party.
  • International Platform (Internationale platform) — the left wing of the party, which would later form the Communist Party of Delkora.

The 1928 convention reflected the dominant left–right struggles:

The 1967 convention showed the proliferation of factions in the New Kingdom era:

The 1988 convention reflected consolidation and emergence of new political forces:

Following the 1991 election and the exposure of the neoliberal conspiracy, the New Democracy Platform was expelled from the party, and instead joined the Centre Democrats. The 1992 convention showed the factional consolidation:

Subsequently, the Workers' Council Tendency and Qualia Platform merged with Socialism of the Future, imprinting a strong emphasis on decentralised planning that gained it the nickname "tablet socialism".

The 2012 convention shows the current internal groupings:

List of leaders

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