Initiative for Democratic Socialism

Initiative for Democratic Socialism

Iniciativa za demokratični socializem
Initiative for Democratic Socialism Iniciativa za demokratični socializem
Leader	Collective leadership
Founded	8 March 2014
Dissolved	June 2017
Merged into	The Left
Headquarters	Ljubljana
Ideology	Marxism ; Anti-capitalism ; Euroscepticism
Political position	Left-wing to far-left
National affiliation	United Left
European affiliation	Party of the European Left
Colours	red
Website
	http://www.demokraticni-socializem.si/
	Politics of Slovenia; Political parties; Elections;

Initiative for Democratic Socialism (IDS) was a Slovenian Marxist party founded on March 8th, 2014, and was part of the United Left electoral alliance.^[1] Its collective leadership structure without an individual leader, inspired by Occupy Wall Street,^[2] was conceived by members of The Workers and Punks University in November 2013, and only allowed for an elected coordinator of the IDS council. Luka Mesec was the first coordinator to be elected.^[3] In 2017 the IDS merged with the Party for Sustainable Development of Slovenia (TRS) to form The Left(Slovene: Levica).^[4]

Program

Its program, based on The Workers and Punks University economic analysis, included regulation of neoliberalism in the short term by making tax rates more progressive, directing funds to public works to lower unemployment, and other ideas associated with social democracy. Their long term goal was the replacement of capitalism with democratic socialism, through policies like workplace democracy and nationalization.^[1]

The initiative is linked to the European Left together with other European new anti-capitalist parties, including German Die Linke, French Front de Gauche, and Portuguese Left Bloc.^[2]

The United Left, which included the IDS, received 5.47 percent of the vote in the 2014 European Parliament election and 6.0 percent of the vote in the 2014 Slovenian parliamentary election.