Socialist International


The Socialist International is a worldwide organisation of political parties which seek to establish democratic socialism. It consists mostly of democratic socialist, social-democratic and labour political parties and other organisations.
Although formed in 1951 as a successor to the Labour and Socialist International, it has antecedents to the late 19th century. The organisation currently includes 147 member parties and organisations from over 100 countries. Its members have governed in many countries including most of Europe.
The current secretary general of the SI is and the current president of the SI is the former Prime Minister of Greece, George Papandreou, both of whom were re-elected at the last SI Congress held in Cartagena, Colombia in March 2017.

History

First and Second Internationals (1864–1916)

The International Workingmen's Association, also known as the First International, was the first international body to bring together organisations representing the working class. It was formed in London on 28 September 1864 by socialist, communist and anarchist political groups and trade unions. Tensions between moderates and revolutionaries led to its dissolution in 1876 in Philadelphia.
The Second International was formed in Paris on 14 July 1889 as an association of the socialist parties. Differences over World War I led to the Second International being dissolved in 1916.

Labour and Socialist International (1919–1940)

The International Socialist Commission, also known as the Berne International, was formed in February 1919 at a meeting in Berne by parties that wanted to resurrect the Second International. In March 1919 communist parties formed Comintern at a meeting in Moscow.
Parties which did not want to be a part of the resurrected Second International or Comintern formed the International Working Union of Socialist Parties on 27 February 1921 at a conference in Vienna. The ISC and the IWUSP joined to form the Labour and Socialist International in May 1923 at a meeting in Hamburg. The rise of Nazism and the start of World War II led to the dissolution of the LSI in 1940.

Socialist International (1951–present)

The Socialist International was formed in Frankfurt in July 1951 as a successor to the LSI.
During the post-World War II period, the SI aided social democratic parties in re-establishing themselves when dictatorship gave way to democracy in Portugal and Spain. Until its 1976 Geneva Congress, the SI had few members outside Europe and no formal involvement with Latin America. In the 1980s, most SI parties gave their backing to the Nicaraguan Sandinistas, whose democratically-elected left-wing government was subject to a campaign to overthrow it backed by the United States, which culminated in the Iran–Contra affair after the Reagan administration covertly continued US support for the Contras after such support was banned by Congress.
with outgoing secretary general Bernt Carlsson and new secretary general Pentti Väänänen at the Socialist International Congress in 1983
In the late 1970s and in the 1980s the SI had extensive contacts and discussion with the two leading powers of the Cold War period, the United States and the Soviet Union, on issues concerning East–West relations and arms control. The SI supported détente and disarmament agreements, such as SALTII, START and INF. They had several meetings and discussion in Washington, D.C. with President Jimmy Carter and Vice-President George Bush and in Moscow with Secretaries General Leonid Brezhnev and Mikhail Gorbachev. The SI's delegations to these discussions were led by the Finnish Prime Minister Kalevi Sorsa.
Since then, the SI has admitted as members an increasing number of parties and organisations from Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America.
Following the Tunisian revolution, the Constitutional Democratic Rally was expelled from the SI in January 2011; later that month the Egyptian National Democratic Party was also expelled; and as a result of the 2010–2011 Ivorian crisis, the Ivorian Popular Front was expelled in March 2011, in accordance with section 7.1 of the statutes of the Socialist International. These decisions were approved at the subsequent SI Congress in Cape Town in 2012 in line with section 5.1.3 of the statutes.

Progressive Alliance (2013)

On 22 May 2013 the SPD along with some other current and former member parties of the SI founded a rival international network of social-democratic parties known as the Progressive Alliance, citing their perceived undemocratic and outmoded nature of the SI, as well as the Socialist International's admittance and continuing inclusion of undemocratic political movements into the organization.

Relationship with Latin America

For a long time, the Socialist International remained distant from Latin America, considering the region as a zone of influence of the United States. For example, it does not denounce the coup d'état against Socialist President Jacobo Árbenz in Guatemala in 1954 or the invasion of the Dominican Republic by the United States in 1965. It was not until the 1973 Chilean coup d'état that we discovered "a world we did not know", explains Antoine Blanca, a diplomat for the French PS. According to him, solidarity with the Chilean left was "the first challenge worthy of the name, against Washington, of an International which, until then, had done everything to appear subject to American strategy and NATO". Subsequently, notably under the leadership of François Mitterrand, the SI supported the sandinistas in Nicaragua and other movements in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras in their struggle against US-supported dictatorships.
In the 1990s, it was joined by non-socialist parties that took note of the economic power of the European countries governed or to be governed by their partners across the Atlantic and calculated the benefits they could derive from it. During this period, "the socialist international works in a clientist way; some parties come here to rub shoulders with Europeans as if they were in the upper class," says Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, one of the representatives of the Party of the Democratic Revolution at the SI. It is home to "the very centrist Argentinean Radical Civic Union ; the Mexican Institutional Revolutionary Party, which was not very democratically in power for seventy years; the Colombian Liberal Party - under whose governments the left-wing formation Patriotic Union was exterminated - introduced the neoliberal model and to which, until 2002, Álvaro Uribe will belong". In the following decade, many left-wing parties that came to power preferred to keep their distance from the SI.

Presidents, honorary presidents and secretaries general

Presidents

Current and honorary presidents include:

Full members

The following parties are full members:
CountryNameAbbrGovernmentNotes
Socialist Party of AlbaniaPS in governmentAdmitted as consultative member in 1999. Promoted to full member in 2003.
Socialist Forces FrontFFS in oppositionAdmitted as consultative member in 1992. Promoted to full member in 1996.
Social Democratic PartyPS in oppositionPromoted to full member in 2003.
Popular Movement for the Liberation of AngolaMPLA in governmentAdmitted as observer member in 1996. Promoted to full member in 2003.
Radical Civic UnionUCR in oppositionAdmitted as consultative member in 1996. Promoted to full member in 1999.
Armenian Revolutionary Federation ARF in oppositionAdmitted as observer member in 1996. Promoted to consultative member in 1999. Promoted to full member in 2003.
Social Democratic Party of AustriaSPÖ in oppositionFull member since 1951.
Social Democratic PartyASDP in oppositionAdmitted as observer member in 1996. Promoted to consultative member in 2003. Readmitted as consultative member in June/July 2014. Admitted as full member in 2016.
Belarusian Social Democratic PartyBSDP in oppositionAdmitted as observer member in 1999. Promoted to consultative member in 2003. Promoted to full member in November 2015.
Socialist PartyPS
Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and HerzegovinaSDP BiH in oppositionAdmitted as observer member in 1996. Promoted to full member in 1999.
Democratic Labour PartyPDT in oppositionAdmitted as consultative member in 1986. Promoted to full member in 1989.
Party of Bulgarian Social DemocratsPBSD in opposition
Bulgarian Socialist PartyBSP in oppositionAdmitted as full member in 2003.
People's Movement for ProgressMPP in governmentAdmitted as full member in 2016.
Social Democratic FrontSDF in oppositionAdmitted as consultative member in 1996. Promoted to full member in 1999.
African Party for the Independence of Cape VerdePAICV in oppositionAdmitted as consultative member in 1992. Promoted to full member in 1996.
Movement for the Liberation of the Central African PeopleMLPC in oppositionAdmitted as observer member in 2008. Upgraded to full member in 2018.
ChadNational Union for Democracy and RenewalUNDR in oppositionAdmitted as observer member in June/July 2014. Upgraded to full member in 2017.
Party for DemocracyPPD in oppositionAdmitted as consultative member in 1992. Promoted to full member in 1996.
Radical Social Democratic PartyPRSD in opposition
Socialist Party of ChilePS in oppositionAdmitted as consultative member in 1992. Promoted to full member in 1996.
Colombian Liberal PartyPLC junior party in coalitionAdmitted as consultative member in 1992. Promoted to full member in 1999.
National Liberation PartyPLN in oppositionFull member since 1987.
Social Democratic Party of CroatiaSDP in oppositionAdmitted as full member in 1999.
Movement for Social DemocracyEDEK in oppositionFull member since 1987. Promoted to full member in 1992.
Cyprus Republican Turkish PartyCTP in oppositionAdmitted as consultative member in 2008. Promoted to full member in June/July 2014.
Cyprus Communal Democracy PartyTDP in oppositionAdmitted as consultative member in November 2015. Promoted to full member in March 2017.
Czech Social Democratic PartyČSSDjunior party in coalition
Union for Democracy and Social ProgressUDPS in governmentAdmitted as observer member in 2003.
Dominican Revolutionary PartyPRD junior party in coalitionFull member since 1987.
Convergence for Social DemocracyCPDS in oppositionAdmitted as consultative member in 1996. Promoted to full member in 1999.
Social Democratic Party of FinlandSDP senior party in coalition
Socialist PartyPS in opposition
National Democratic CongressNDC in oppositionAdmitted as consultative member in 2003. Promoted to full member in 2008.
Panhellenic Socialist MovementPASOK in oppositionPart of the Movement for Change coalition. Full member since 1990.
National Unity of HopeUNE in oppositionAdmitted as full member in 2008.
Rally of the Guinean PeopleRPG in governmentAdmitted as consultative member in 1999. Promoted to full member in 2003.
Fusion of Haitian Social DemocratsPFSDH in oppositionFull member since 1989.
Social Democratic Assembly for the Progress of Haiti RSD in oppositionAdmitted as full members in 2018
Hungarian Socialist PartyMSzP in oppositionAdmitted as observer member in 1992. Promoted to full member in 1996.
Social Democratic Party of HungaryMSZDP extra-parliamentaryMember since 1990. Admitted as observer member in 1992. Promoted to consultative member in 1999.
Promoted to full member in 2003.
Indian National CongressINC in oppositionOriginally joined in 1993. Readmitted as full member December 2014.
Kurdistan Democratic PartyKDPAdmitted as a full member in November 2015.
Patriotic Union of KurdistanPUK junior party in coalitionAdmitted as observer member in 2003. Promoted to full member in 2008.
Labour Party in opposition
Israeli Labor PartyAvoda junior party in coalitionUntil May 2020, it temporarily suspended membership in July 2018 over SI's adoption of BDS policies.
Meretz in opposition
Italian Socialist PartyPSI in opposition
People's National PartyPNP in oppositionFull member since 1952. Temporarily demoted to observer member in 2012 due to non-payment of membership fees.
Social Democratic PartySDP in oppositionFull member since 1951 as the Japan Socialist Party.
Nationwide Social Democratic PartyOSDPAdmitted as consultative member in 2012. Promoted to full member in November 2015.
Social Democratic Party of KyrgyzstanSDPK in governmentPromoted to full member in June 2018.
Progressive Socialist PartyPSP in oppositionFull member since 1980.
Social Democratic Party of LithuaniaLSDP junior party in coalitionFull member since the 1990s.
Alliance for Democracy in MaliADEMA-PASJ in oppositionAdmitted as consultative member in 1996. Promoted to full member in 1999. Promoted to full member in 2008.
Rally for MaliRPM in governmentAdmitted as consultative member in 2003.
Rally of Democratic ForcesRFD in oppositionAdmitted as observer member in 2003. Promoted to full member in 2008.
Labour PartyPT in oppositionFull member since 1969.
Mauritian Militant MovementMMM in oppositionAdmitted as consultative member in 1996. Promoted to full member in 2003. Part of the Alliance of the Heart.
Institutional Revolutionary PartyPRI in oppositionAdmitted as consultative member in 1996. Promoted to full member in 2003.
Democratic Party of MoldovaPDM junior party in coalitionAdmitted as consultative member in 2008. Promoted to full member in 2012.
Part of Alliance for European Integration.
Mongolian People's PartyMPP in governmentAdmitted as observer member in 1999.
Promoted to full member in 2003.
Mongolian Social Democratic PartyMSDPAdmitted as consultative member in 1992. Promoted to full member in 1996. Merged with others in 2000 to form the Democratic Party
Democratic Party of Socialists of MontenegroDPS senior party in coalitionAdmitted as consultative member in 2003. Promoted to full member in 2008.
Social Democratic Party of MontenegroSDP in oppositionAdmitted as observer member in 1996. Promoted to consultative member in 1999. Promoted to full member in 2003.
Socialist Union of Popular ForcesUSFP in oppositionPromoted to full member in 1992.
Frelimo PartyFRELIMO in governmentAdmitted as consultative member in 1996. Promoted to full member in 1999.
South West Africa People's OrganisationSWAPO in governmentPromoted to full member in 2008.
Nepali CongressNC in oppositionAdmitted as consultative member in 1989. Promoted to full member in 1999.
Nigerien Party for Democracy and SocialismPNDS in governmentAdmitted as consultative member in 1996. Promoted to full member in 2003.
Pakistan Peoples PartyPPP in oppositionAdmitted as consultative member in 1989. Promoted to full member in 2003.
Fatah in governmentAdmitted as observer member in 1996. Promoted to consultative member in 1999.
Promoted to full member in 2012.
Democratic Revolutionary PartyPRD in governmentAdmitted as consultative member in 1986. Admitted as consultative member in 1996. Promoted to full member in 2003.
Democratic Progressive PartyPDP in oppositionAdmitted as consultative member in 2008. Promoted to full member in November 2015.
American Popular Revolutionary AllianceAPRA in oppositionPromoted to full member in 1999.
Philippines Democratic Socialist PartyPDSP in oppositionAdmitted as consultative member in 1992. Demoted to observer member in 2012 due to non-payment of membership fees. Delisted in December 2014. Reinstated in 2019.
Socialist PartyPS in government
Puerto Rican Independence PartyPIP in oppositionConsultative member in 1987, full member in 1994. Promoted to full member in 1992.
Social Democratic PartyPSD in oppositionAdmitted as consultative member in 1996. Promoted to full member in 1999. Consultative member in 1992, full member in 2001. Admitted as full member in 2003.
A Just RussiaSR in oppositionAdmitted as observer member in 2008. Promoted to consultative member in 2010. Promoted to full member in 2012.
Party of Socialists and DemocratsPSD in oppositionConsultative member in 1961, full member in 1980.
Socialist Party of SenegalPSFull member since the 1970s. Boycotted last election.
Direction – Social DemocracySMER-SD in oppositionFull member since 1994.
African National CongressANC in governmentAdmitted as full member in 1999.
Spanish Socialist Workers' PartyPSOE in governmentFull member since 1951.
Democratic Forum for Labour and LibertiesFDTL junior party in coalitionAdmitted as consultative member in 2003. Demoted to observer member in 2012 due to non-payment of membership fees. Promoted to full member in 2012.
Republican People's PartyCHP in oppositionTook Social Democratic Populist Party's place in 1995.
Social Democratic and Labour PartySDLP in oppositionFull member since 1974.
New SpacePNE in oppositionAdmitted as consultative member in 1999. Promoted to full member in 2003.
A New EraUNT in oppositionAdmitted as consultative member in 2013. Promoted to full member in November 2015.
Democratic ActionAD in oppositionObserver member in 1966, consultative member in 1981, full member mid 1980s.
Popular WillVP in oppositionAdmitted as full member in December 2014.
Yemeni Socialist PartyYSP in oppositionAdmitted as observer member in 2003. Promoted to consultative member in 2008.
Promoted to full member in 2012.

Consultative parties

The following parties are consultative parties:
CountryNameAbbrGovernmentNotes
People's United PartyPUP in oppositionAdmitted as consultative member in June/July 2014.
Botswana Democratic PartyBDP in governmentAdmitted as consultative member in June/July 2014.
Unified Lumumbist PartyPALU in oppositionAdmitted as observer member in December 2014. Upgraded to consultative in 2019.
Movement for Democratic Renewal and DevelopmentMRDin oppositionAdmitted as consultative members in 2019.
Gabonese Progress PartyPGPAdmitted as consultative member in 1996.
United Democratic PartyUDPAdmitted as consultative member in 2012. Boycotted last election.
Social Democrats for the Development of GeorgiaSDDAdmitted as consultative member in 2013.
Convention People's PartyCPPAdmitted as consultative member in 2018
African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape VerdePAIGC in governmentAdmitted as consultative member in 2008.
Democratic Party of Iranian KurdistanPDKIAdmitted as observer member in 1996. Promoted to consultative member in 2008.
Palestinian National InitiativePNI in oppositionAdmitted as observer member in 2008. Promoted to consultative member in 2012.
Palestine Popular Struggle FrontPPSFAdmitted as consultative member in 2018.
Polisario FrontPOLISARIO in governmentAdmitted as observer member in 2008. Promoted to consultative member in 2017.
Movement for the Liberation of São Tomé and Príncipe/Social Democratic PartyMLSTP/PSDin governmentAdmitted as consultative member in 2013.
People's United Democratic MovementPUDEMOAdmitted as consultative member in 2013. Political parties are banned in Eswatini.
Democratic Union PartyPYDAdmitted as consultative member in November 2015.
Democratic Convention of African PeoplesCDPAAdmitted as consultative member in 1999.
Peoples' Democratic PartyHDP in oppositionAdmitted as consultative member in 2015.
Social Democratic Party of UkraineSDPUAdmitted as consultative member in 2003.

Observer parties

The following parties are observer parties:
CountryNameAbbrGovernmentNotes
SwazilandSwaziland Democratic PartySWADEPAAdmitted as observer member in June/July 2014.
Komala Party of Iranian KurdistanKPIKAdmitted as observer member in December 2014.
Komala Party of KurdistanKPKAdmitted as observer member in December 2014.
Labour Party of KenyaAdmitted as observer member in 2012.
VetëvendosjeVV in governmentAdmitted as observer member in 2018.
LesothoLesotho Congress for DemocracyLCDin oppositionAdmitted as observer member in June/July 2014.
SerbiaSocial Democratic Party of SerbiaSDPSjunior party in coalition governmentAdmitted as observer member in 2018.
Labour Party in oppositionMember since 1951. Welsh Labour is in government in Wales and London Labour holds the London Mayoralty. The party asked to be downgraded to observer status in February 2013 "in view of ethical concerns, and to develop international co-operation through new networks."

Former members

Fraternal organisations