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