Labour Party

The Labour Party is a centre-left political party in Santa Dominica. It is traditionally seen as an alliance of social democrats, trade unionists, and socialists. In the majority of Santa Dominican history, Labour has either been the governing party or the Official Opposition. There have been four Labour/Social Democratic/Socialist prime ministers. They are currently the third-largest party in the Santa Dominican Parliament, after the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives.

History
The Labour Party was founded in the lead-up to the 1968 General Election and was apart of the political movement to oust dictatorship General Castello in that year. 1968 was the year the party became the governing party, and since then has continually been in parliament.

The party was officially known as the Socialist Party from its founding in 1968 to 2004 when it was renamed the Social Democratic Party. It was renamed again to the Labour Party in 2019 by party leader Rekja Hersteg as a way to "provide representation to those trade unionists and working-class individuals who have built the party to what it is today."

There have been four Labour prime ministers, tied with the Tories. Despite this, Labour has in total governed for 23 years, shorter than the nearly 29 years under governance by the Conservative Party.

Political Ideology
The Labour Party is a centre-left political party and shares many of the same beliefs as most centre-left parties of the world. They support raising taxes on corporations, nationalised rail and infrastructure, a more generous welfare state, abortion rights, and increased minority rights.

Some of the key commitments by the party to Socialism were abandoned by Andrew Walker during his prime ministership, as he focused on applying a more moderate approach. While Walker increased taxes on corporations, he gave large tax breaks to middle-class Santa Dominicans.

Traditional Base
The traditional base of the Labour Party includes younger individuals, working-class individuals, urban voters, minority voters, Francophone voters, and LGBTQ+ voters. Labour also traditionally gets a huge amount of support and votes from large unions in the country.