The Left Party.PDS
The Left Party.PDS (in German: Die Linkspartei or Linkspartei.PDS) was a left-winged political party in Germany. After joining with another political party, it became "Die Linke", or "The Left" in 2007.
The Left Party.PDS | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | Lothar Bisky |
| Founded | 21 April 1946 (SED) 16 December 1989 (SED-PDS) 4 February 1990 (PDS) 17 July 2005 (Die Linkspartei.PDS) |
| Headquarters | Karl-Liebknecht-Haus Kleine Alexanderstraße 28 D-10178 Berlin |
| Ideology | Democratic socialism |
| European affiliation | Party of the European Left |
| International affiliation | none |
| European Parliament group | GUE/NGL |
| Colours | Red |
| Website | |
| www.sozialisten.de | |
History change
After the end of the GDR in 1990, the former Socialist Unity Party of Germany Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (SED) changed to the SED-PDS and later to the Partei des Demokratischen Sozialismus (PDS). In the former GDR it was very successful in state elections and it had a small group in the federal parliament. But it always failed in Western Germany.
In the 2000s there were a lot of changes of job policy and ways of helping people in need. People that restrictions hurt the poorer and unemployed people in Germany. These reforms were made by the Social democrats SPD and the Greens, who were traditionally the left-wing parties in Germany.
Some people, who left the SPD and some people from Trade Unions founded the Electors Association for Work and Social Justice Wahlgemeinschaft Arbeit und Soziale Gerechtigkeit (WASG) in Western Germany. Many students. They - and although the PDS - realized that there was no chance to win mandates in elections as concurrents. So they decided to found a new party, Die Linkspartei.
In the last federal elections they joined the parliament; in the state of Berlin they joined the state government.
Programme change
Die Linkspartei is a left-wing party. It is the only party in the federal parliament which views jobs and people as being more important than letting companies make as much money as they want.
They want to have more people employed directly by government bodies instead of having private companies doing jobs for the government. They also want higher taxes on the rich and those who make all or most of their money from the capital market and deals using their money instead of working at actual jobs.
They are against study fees and want to have only a comprehensive school (gesamtschule) instead of two or three different types of further school in most German states.
Their foreign policy follows the old position of the Green Party Bündnis 90/Die Grüne and are strictly against any German soldiers fighting. They are still talking about allowing German soldiers to be in the peace keeping missions of the United Nations.
In the field of civil rights they copied the position of the Greens, as well.