Talk:Labor Workers' Party

The Labor Worker's Party (Doggish: Partij fan Arbeid en Arbeiders, LWP or PAA) is a centre-left to left-wing social-democratic political party in Doggerland. The Leader of the party is Mel and the party has 26 registered members. It is the largest left-wing party in terms of MPs, and is the second-largest party overall. Following the January 2021 legislative elections, it was a junior partner in the Forward! Alliance for Progressive Action, led by the United Left People's Party. After the most recent legislative election in February 2021, the LWP is currently a junior partner in a coalition led by the Liberal Party, alongside the Civic Union.

General Workingmen's Association of Doggerland (1886-1902)
The Labor Workers' Party's origins are in the General Workingmen's Association of Doggerland (GWAD), which emerged in 1886 as a political front for the socialist and trade union movements, made up primarily of urban union workers. It was the dominant left-wing organization in Doggerland, made up of a broad coalition of different ideological beliefs. Eventually, the more radical socialists within the GWAD began to turn against it, culminating in a split at the party conference in 1902 which led to the creation of two new parties, the Workers' Party (WP), a further left and primarily English party and the Arbeidspartij (AP), a more moderate and primarily Dutch party. The Workers' party had very minor electoral success but was seen as the main organization for socialists within Doggerland for this period.

Pre-Assembly Era (1902-1923)
The WP and AP were in favor of the adoption of parliamentary democracy, with their parties working together to advocate for such, organizing marches and protests across Doggerland. It was during this time that AP activist J. C. Murrie gave his "On the Shores Speech" in favor of parliamentary democracy. These efforts would continue for much of the early 20th century. Eventually, in 1922 upon the creation of the National Assembly by King Caribou VI and the holding of snap elections the following year, Murrie was appointed the first Deputy Prime Minister, under the Non-Partisan Prime Minister Jan Vander Zijk.

A key event during the history of the two parties was the Russian Revolution in 1917, in which the Arbeidspartij denounced the Soviets as radical and dangerous to the stability of Europe, meanwhile, the Workers' Party came out as fully supportive of the revolution. The Workers' Party would later split along Pro-Stalin and Pro-Trotsky factions after Stalin's rise to power in 1922, eventually leading to the split of the Pro-Trotsky faction into the Revolutionary Socialist Party, a Trotskyist and Left Communist party. Meanwhile, the Arbeidspartij gained many of the moderate former WP supporters, as the party became increasingly adamant of its support of Stalin.

J. C. Murrie Deputy and Full Premiership (1923-1946)
Murrie's appointment was widely praised among the left and he was re-elected to a second term, as Prime Minister Zijk's Non-Partisan Caucus gained a majority of seats. The Workers' party gained a small number of seats during these early elections. Zijk and Murrie worked to modernize Doggerland during their brief term in power. However this term would be cut short by the death of Prime Minister Zijk on October 29th, 1927, and the subsequent rise to the Prime Ministership by Murrie on November 2nd, 1927, which is widely seen as a turning point in Dogger history.

Murrie's first terms were marked by instability, as he attempted to pass progressive reforms while maintaining the Non-Partisan Caucus. This would change when many conservative members left to form the Progressive Conservative Party, which led to Murrie abandoning the Non-Partisan Caucus in favor of adopting the Arbeidspartij as his official party within the assembly. Upon the next election, the Arbeidspartij and Workers' Party formed a government together. This government would deal with the Great Depression, and their efforts to do so were seen widely as a great success, as they instituted several economic reforms to offset the depression. By the 1934 election, the AP gained a majority of the vote on their own. The AP would grow to immense popularity for the entire decade that followed, instituting much of their party program into law. Murrie would controversially maintain a policy of neutrality during much of World War 2, only entering the war on February 25th, 1945. Murrie would retire from politics in 1946, leaving the post of AP leader to Emerens Coughca, and he remains a much-admired figure among LWP members today, with many citing him as their greatest political influence.

Emerens Coughca Prime Ministership (1946-1957)
Upon the retirement of J.C. Murrie, Deputy Leader of the AP Emerens Coughca rose to the position of Party Leader and would gain the position of Prime Minister in the following election. He was widely seen as being on the left of the party and formed a coalition government with the Revolutionary Socialist Party to gain a majority in 1946. He led Doggerland to remain neutral during the Cold War and often declared his support for decolonization and colonial liberation movements.

Upon the death of Stalin in 1953 and Khruschev's rise to power, there was again a major split in the Workers' Party over the leadership of the USSR, as the party took a Pro-Khruschev stance, leading to many of their Pro-Stalin members joining the RSP. Following this, many reformist members of the RSP joined the WP, culminating in a political realignment in 1958, when a leadership election in the RSP led to a formerly Pro-Stalin member winning. At this point, the Workers' Party had absorbed much of the Socialist and Trotskyist support, adopting a neutral stance on the USSR, while the Revolutionary Socialist Party was dissolved and replaced by the Dogger Communist Party, which took a hardline Pro-Soviet stance. During this time, neither party participated in AP-led governments, with the AP opting to work with the Liberal Party instead to distance itself from the USSR. By the end of the 1950s, the Workers' Party and Arbeidspartij were cooperating again due to settling differences, and often ran joint lists for local elections.

Opposition (1957-1987)
In the 1956 election, the Arbeidspartij and Workers' Party failed to gain a majority for the first time in Dogger history, and a Liberal-led government was formed. The following Prime Ministership of Anders Beekhof would seek to undo many of the more left-wing reforms of the Murrie and Coughca administrations.

After almost a decade in opposition, and an ever-closer relationship between the Arbeidspartij and Workers' Party, party leaders organized a conference to discuss a party merger in the fall of 1967. Eventually, a deal was negotiated between the two parties, with the goal of not prioritizing the much larger Arbeidspartij over the Workers' Party. The new party was decided to be called the Labor Workers' Party and would contest the general election the next year.

The new Labor Workers' Party would remain in opposition for the next several years under the controversial administrations of Jereon Kost and Paul Tudor. The party would come to power for the first time in the 1987 Snap Election, with Leader Jim Crowley entering a coalition government with the Justice Party.

Jim Crowley Prime Ministership (1987-1996)
The Labor Workers' Party would go on to rule for the next 9 years, with the moderate Prime Minister Jim Crowley leading the party. He go on to

New Electoral System
After the reorganizing of the national government from a flawed semi-parliamentary system to parliamentary democracy, the current Labor Workers' Party was founded on January 25th, 2021 as Doggerland overhauled its electoral system. On January 26th, it was the first political party within the new electoral system to ever register new members. The party began to organize the following day and ran 15 members on their party-list for the January 2021 legislative elections. Later, the party-list was expanded to 21 members.

On January 26th, 2021, Robert La Follette was elected as party leader in a voice vote, while Mel was appointed as deputy leader and Trashman was appointed as press secretary. That same day, their branding and platform were officially set. Many more posters would end up being posted up until the election itself on the 28th.

The Labor Workers' Party List is as follows in numerical order:

There were initial talks between the LWP and many other parties to possibly form coalitions, however, shortly after the election began on January 28th, an internal poll conducted among party members decided that a coalition with other left-leaning parties should be favored over a coalition with center-leaning parties. It was unclear at the moment exactly which parties would compose this coalition, but the party leadership had expressed interest in forming a coalition with the United Left People's Party and Justice Party.

During the early morning of January 29, 2021, the Labor Worker's Party and the Justice Party both agreed to a coalition. About 2 hours later, the United Left People's Party agreed to the coalition also, forming a three-way coalition between them, the Labor Worker's Party, and the Justice Party. They decided to call the coalition "Forward! Alliance for Progressive Action".

During the early morning of February 17, 2021, the Labor Worker's Party and the Justice Party agreed to merge. There were talks about changing the name of the party to either the Social Democratic Party or a portmanteau of the two parties' names, however, nothing came to fruition from these and the name remained the same.

Ideology
The party is considered broadly center-left, with most members falling into the ideological categories of social democracy, progressivism, and democratic socialism. While being strongly in support of social democratic, and at times democratic socialist, economic policies, they tended to not take an active stance on social issues. The party has a strong focus on worker's rights, as well it has a strong presence within Dogger organized labor. The Labor Worker's Party is not an explicitly socialist party, despite this many members are often open to policies advocated by socialists.

Symbols
The party's main symbol is the rose, which is prominently featured in the party's official logo. It had long been a symbol of social democratic and leftist movements worldwide. The secondary symbol is the peace sign which eas also featured in the logo, which represents peace, cooperation, and diplomacy. The LWP is known for its distinctive branding and the rose in almost all forms had come to be associated with the political party.



Policies
The January 2021 Labor Worker’s Party manifesto committed the party to progressive reform and social democracy in a specific appeal to the Dogger working class. The manifesto committed to key policies such as a Green Industrial Revolution, a considerable expansion to workers' rights, a major expansion of the state as part of its Universal Basic Services policy, creating a fairer taxation system, and a new deal on housing. The Labor Worker's Party committed itself to unite Doggerland on these policies.

The official policies of the party can be found in their manifesto.

January 2021 Legislative Elections
Main article: January 2021 legislative elections

The ULPP led the preliminary support polling on January 27, taking 31.2% of the votes. On January 29, they received the plurality of the popular vote (29.6%), but failed to make a 50% majority. After forming a coalition with the Labor Worker's Party and the Justice Party while supporting a confidence and supply agreement with the Communist Party, they were able to maintain a minority government, making Kevin Trevor the first Prime Minister of Doggerland.

Internal Referendums
Internal referendums were routinely held within the LWP to allow for the membership of the party to shape it's direction, typically for major decisions such as policy goals or party strategy. Some examples are as follows:

EU Parliamentary Party election
An LWP referendum was held to determine which EU Parliamentary group and which EU Parliamentary party the Labor Worker's should join, the results are as follows: