Left Socialists

The Left Socialists emerged from a split in the Socialist People's Party (SF), which itself was a splinter of the Communist Party of Denmark (DKP).{{cite book |author=Childs |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6ZRGCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT154 |title=The Changing Face of Western Communism |date=30 July 2015 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-317-37248-6 |page=154 |access-date=8 May 2016}}{{cite journal |last=Christensen |first=Dag Arne |title=Foreign Policy Objectives: Left Socialist Opposition in Denmark, Norway and Sweden |journal=Scandinavian Political Studies |date=1998 |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=51–70 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9477.1998.tb00003.x |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111%2Fj.1467-9477.1998.tb00003.x |access-date=17 April 2025 |language=en |issn=1467-9477|url-access=subscription }}{{rp|53}} The SF was established in 1959 by members of the DKP who had been expelled from the party for criticising the Soviet Union's intervention in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.{{cite book |last=Olsen |first=Jonathan |chapter=The Danish Socialist People's Party: Still Waiting After all These Years |editor-last1=Olsen |editor-first1=Jonathan |editor-last2=Koss |editor-first2=Michael |editor-last3=Hough |editor-first3=Daniel |title=Left Parties in National Governments |date=16 July 2010 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-0-230-23650-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books/about/Left_Parties_in_National_Governments.html?id=4MVDAQAAIAAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y |access-date=17 April 2025 |page=123 |language=en}} The results of the 1966 general election opened up the possibility of a leftist majority government for the first time in Danish history, between an SF minority and a plurality of Social Democrats, who were more moderate. The two parties subsequently established a so-called "red cabinet", which lasted until 1968, when six SF members of the Folketing defected and formed the Left Socialists in 1968.{{cite journal |last=Arter |first=David |title=Scandinavia: What's Left is the Social Democratic Welfare Consensus |journal=Parliamentary Affairs |date=1 January 2003 |volume=56 |issue=1 |pages=75–98 |doi=10.1093/pa/gsg006 |url=https://academic.oup.com/pa/article/56/1/75/1591668 |access-date=17 April 2025 |issn=0031-2290|url-access=subscription }}{{rp|79}}

In 1989, the Left Socialists, DKP, and Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party agreed to form an electoral alliance{{snd}}the Red–Green Alliance{{snd}}to contest the 1990 general election together. The alliance did not win any seats.{{cite book |last=Keith |first=Daniel |chapter=Radical Left Parties and Left Movements in Northern Europe |editor-last1=Wennerhag |editor-first1=Magnus |editor-last2=Fröhlich |editor-first2=Christian |editor-last3=Piotrowski |editor-first3=Grzegorz |title=Radical Left Movements in Europe |date=28 July 2017 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-07188-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books/about/Radical_Left_Movements_in_Europe.html?id=1JouDwAAQBAJ |access-date=17 April 2025 |page=48 |language=en}}

In 1998, the Left Socialists deregistered as a political party and became a political organisation. The Left Socialists' activities declined afterwards, with members focusing most of their efforts on the electoral success of the Red–Green Alliance.{{Cite news|title=Venstresocialisterne nedlægger sig selv|trans-title=The Left Socialists are dissolving themselves|url=https://politiken.dk/indland/politik/art5467572/Venstresocialisterne-nedl%C3%A6gger-sig-selv|date=9 September 2013|work=Politiken|access-date=17 April 2025|agency=Ritzau|language=da}}

Seven members of the Left Socialists, including several of its leaders, were arrested by Danish authorities on 20 February 2006. They were charged with providing material support to a foreign terrorist organisation because the organisation had sent money raised from selling t-shirts to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.{{cite web |title=Venstresocialisterne |url=http://venstresocialisterne.dk/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121031171909/http://venstresocialisterne.dk/ |archive-date=31 October 2012 |publisher=Left Socialists |language=en}}

At a general meeting on 8 September 2013, the leadership of the Left Socialists voted 14 to 1 to disband, with its chairman Per Clausen explaining they did not want to be "a party within a party", in reference to the Red–Green Alliance.

The Left Socialists described themselves as "Marxist, democratic, and revolutionary socialists".

The Left Socialists published a newspaper named Solidaritet ("Solidarity") and maintained a website which posted party press releases and Solidaritet issues. Solidaritet became independent from the Left Socialists when it transformed from a party to an organisation.

File:VS logo2.png]]

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.venstresocialisterne.dk/ VS website]{{dead link|date=April 2025}}

{{Danish political parties}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1967 establishments in Denmark

Category:Defunct socialist parties in Denmark

Category:Political parties established in 1967