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Evolution of the contemporary leftist movement (2010)
Leftism as an organized political movement in Lovia began at the beginning of the 20th century, but only became powerful and influential in the 21st century. The term leftist movement currently applies to the establishment and cooperation of several leftist (or socialist) and progressive forces. The term was coined by Yuri Medvedev (CPL.nm) in 2010, who himself is one of the most prominent figures of the current socialist movement in Lovia. The popularity of leftism in Lovia has been very volatile, with periods where communist parties have earned vast amounts of seats in Congress, and others where the more moderate parties have earned relatively few seats.
The leftist movement is not one party or organization but a complex interaction between both political and cultural groups that have progressive and leftist values. Medvedev himself is one of the main theorists of the leftist movement and his neo-Marxist Communist Party is considered one of the main forces in the movement. Recently the movement has known a growth in strength with the election successes of new political parties as the New Lovian Socialists and the Labor and Liberal Centrist Party.
Early utopian socialists[]
With the first settlers to Lovia came also the first thinkers inspired by earlier socialist theorists. Among the Founding Fathers, political philosopher William Jefferson is known to have been inspired by Henri de Saint-Simon, Robert Owen, and other utopian socialists. Stephen Robinson, the only African American Founding Father on board of the Francis II, found inspiration in the utopian socialists as well, and was in favor of a strong, welfare state.
The political atmosphere that was predominant on the Lovia Archipelago from its foundation in 1872 onwards, was a libertarian spirit. Many agreed that the individual rights would be respected above all. The few marginal socialists of the time were nevertheless respected.
Marginal socialist forces in the early 20th century[]
At the beginning of the 20th century the socialists were low in numbers and they met a lot of opposition. The radical demands made by most conflicted with the liberal views held by the rulers of Lovia. Most of them returned to Europe in order to concentrate on France and Germany, were the influence of socialists was growing. After the United States entered World War I, Lovian socialists gained some sympathy by holding anti-war rallies. The Lovian authorities severely restricted the demonstrations because they wanted to stay completely neutral. Meanwhile, corporations pressured the government to deal with strikes and other disruptions from disgruntled workers.
McCarthyism[]
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Mainstream socialism in the late 20th century[]
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Post 2009 Leftist Movement[]
Preface[]
The founding of the Progressive Democrats is often seen as the start of the leftist movement in Lovia. The popularity and growth of the party meant a shift from liberal-american views to moderate continental-socialist ones. The Progressive Democrats embraced progressivism and had a party program that could be seen as center-left. The Progressive Democrats worked on several proposals that made the country more democratic and dominated high level politics for a long time. Alyssa C. Red, at that time the most outspoken leftist politician, even wrote a book on the future of the leftist movement. The book was titles A New Vision on an Old System but its impact was rather small at that time.
When the extreme-rightist Iron Guard Party was created and started to attack the Lovian establishment by putting forward their Anti-Cabalist theory the leftist forces come into action for the first time. The Anti-Fascist League was created by miss Red and immediatly got the support of the whole Progressive Democrats who were determined to fight the IGP and its leaders. The extremist views of the IGP were refuted in Yuri Medvedev's publication White King/Black King. The Walden Libertarian Party, more a progressive than a real leftist one, also become popularized and is sometimes considered a part of the movement.
From growth to crisis[]
The first generation of leftists
The popularity of the Walden Libertarian Party kept growing and also a new force appeared on the political stage: the Lovian Communist Party. It was a minor party headed by the controversial August M. Donia but the frontman of the Progressive Democrats, Yuri Medvedev, found an ideological partner in Donia. Though Medvedev was very skeptic about the 'communist' party, which he considered more of a conservative party with leftist economic views, he did admire the courage that was needed to call oneself a communist. This influence would become very important in the near future.
A first attempt was made to unite the divided leftist front when Jon Johnson, Marcus Villanova and August M. Donia came up with the proposal of a leftist meeting in the François-Noël Babeuf-Room of the Malipa Civic Auditorium. All leftist forces of the moment were asked to give a speech on what they thought would be the best strategy for the near feature. Members of the AFL, WLP, PD and LCP talked a lot but the monologues were mainly of symbolic value. The leftist movement was crying out loud but there weren't any concrete results.
Soon the leftist movement started crumbling. Several moderate members of the Progressive Democrats felt uncomfortable with the pro-leftist course their party started to head on. The party program of the progressive democrats made a slight move to the left but at the highest point leftism had reached so far, the movement knew a setback. The image of the PD suffered with centrist voters and the Liberal Democrats could organize a rightist opposition, the first successful opposition against the movement. Key element was the merger between the LD with the conservative LOWIA. Also, the controversy surrounding Donia leads to the decline and eventually disappearance of the LCP.
Resurgence[]
When the movement was about to collapse, Yuri Medvedev succeeded in giving it momentum once again. He reformed the moderate Progressive Democrats into the neo-marxist Communist Party. It was a major success since eighty percent of the original members kept loyal to the party and its leaders. The transformation into a communist party was partially inspired by the loss of the LCP but, contrary to Donia's party, was an actual marxist party that based its views upon scientific socialism. Shortly after the creation of the Communist Party, a small group of more moderate socialists around Marcus Villanova split off to for the Labor and Liberal Centrist Party. Paradoxically this only made the movement stronger since the center-leftist voters were kept into the movement and the relation between the Communists and the LLCP was very positive in nature.
With the founding of the New Socialist Party another splinter party appeared on the far-left end of the political spectrum. This party was less progressive than the other two but still held close contact with its sister parties. In the 2010 mid-term elections the three leftist parties scored well, getting altogether three candidates elected. Though they individually weren't the winners of the elections, the leftist movement gained a lot of power in Congress. LD rapidly lost power as the WLP chose to work together with both sides of the left-right spectrum and the former LOWIA split of under the form of the Conservative Christian Party of Lovia.
With the right side losing influence the left tried to re-organize once more. This time LLCP leader Marcus Villanova started a poll to see how far the other parties want to go in combining their forces. The WLP did take the invitation but kept itself rather impartial on the matter. The LLCP proposed to form an alliance of some kind in order to get leftist proposals through Congress. The communists responded very positive and also expressed their long term view of the leftists speaking through one party. Medvedev also suggested the alliance could be used to put forward one common PM candidate in the next elections.
The LLCP changed its name to Labour late in July 2010, but collapsed two weeks later. Most politicians joined the more leftist successor of WLP, Walden, although some joined CPL.nm. This political situation remained relatively stable through the end of the year, with Walden winning three governorships and the CPL.nm two in the 2010 State Elections. Despite losing the position of Prime Minister in the 2011 Federal Elections to CCPL candidate Ygo August Donia, leftists won a majority of seats once more. Donia was quickly jailed for his involvement with the Brigade, leading to a speedy fall of his government. Walden later collapsed, but remaining party members founded a more traditional leftist party called the SDP.
After a period of inactivity and resignation of many politicians, Medvedev and Villanova created the 2011 Provisional Congress with all parties across the spectrum represented. The interim Villanova I Government was created to temporarily rule the country in absence of a government appointed by an elected congress. The 2011 State Reform was passed, reforming several parts of the government, most notably the Congress, which was now fixed at one hundred members. In the 2011 Special Federal Elections, the SDP won eight seats, lead by Justin Abrahams, and the CPL.nm a whopping twenty-five, lead by Medvedev and Villanova. Other powerful parties included the rightist CCPL, with thirteen seats, and newly founded centrist Liberal Democratic Party, with fifteen seats.
Stagnation[]
The Leftist Movement was at the height of its power in mid 2011 and was expected to grow even stronger in the future. However, a schism in CPL.nm between Medvedev and Villanova led to six out of twenty-five MOTCs of the party resigning to form the Socialist Progressive Party. Near the end of the year, the SPP, SDP, and the smaller Working Families Party merged to form the Labour Party, now tied with CPL.nm for the most seats of Congress.
Yuri Medvedev, a powerful and influential politician, announced his retirement from politics in December 2011. He served out the rest of his term in Congress. Largely due to this, but also due to the forming of centrist and rightist parties such as the Conservative Nationalist Party and Positive Lovia, the 2012 elections showed decline for the leftist parties. Unlike the previous governments of the past four years, a rightist, Oos Wes Ilava of the CCPL, became the Prime Minister. While LP remained the largest party in the 2012 Congress with twenty-four seats, it was the only significant leftist one, with the once-great CPL.nm showing a decline to the small number of three seats.
In the following elections, the 2013 elections, Labour's share of seats dropped further to only fourteen seats, a loss of ten since the last congress, changing it from the first to the third largest party. The CPL.nm also completely dropped out of Congress. However, the Green Party, a new leftist party, made a large gain of nine seats, increasing its representation from two to eleven seats. In addition, the Social Liberal Party, a left-leaning party formed from the Liberal Democratic Party, Liberal Arts Party, and Lovian Alliance, lost two seats, dropping from fourteen to twelve seats. This shows an overall loss of six seats for leftist and left-leaning parties in the 2013 Congress.
Return to the forefront[]
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