Social Democrats of Sierra

  

Social Democrats of Sierra
Leader	Susan Kwon (SF)
Chairperson	Leo Muir (SC)
Founded	November 8, 1977 (1977-11-08)
Headquarters	14773 18th St, San Francisco City, San Francisco
Student wing	College League of Social Democrats
Youth wing	Young Social Democrats of Sierra
Women's wing	Social Democratic Women's League
LGBT wing	LGBT+ Social Democrats
Overseas wing	International Social Democrats of Sierra
Membership	▲ 8,382,335 (2017)
Ideology	Social democracy Democratic socialism American unionism
Political position	Center-left to left wing
International affiliation	Socialist International Progressive Alliance
American affiliation	Social Democrats of America
Official colors	Red, White, and Green (official)      Pink (customary)
Governing body	Central Committee
Devolved affiliates	Deseret Social Democrats Hawaiian Social Democrats
Senate	25 / 125
House of Commons	44 / 326
American Parliament	10 / 66
Governorships	4 / 46
Website
sds.org
Party flag
Politics of the Kingdom of Sierra Political parties Elections

The Social Democrats of Sierra, commonly referred to as Soc Dems or abbreviated as SDS, is a center-left political party in Sierra. Although it officially promotes social democracy, it is considered a big tent party that espouses multi-tendency towards various inclinations on the left, including democratic socialism and progressivism. It is the third largest party in Sierra and it has traditionally worked with the Democratic-Republicans in the Progressive coalition to form a government. It emphasizes a platform based on social justice, workers' rights, income equality, and greater government intervention. The leader of the Social Democrats is Susan Kwon, a member of Parliament representing San Francisco's 2nd parliamentary district in the House of Commons. It is a full member of the Social Democrats of America and the Progressive Alliance, and holds observer status in Socialist International.

The party was founded in 1977 after the merger between the Reformed Republican Party (RRP) and Democratic Socialist Party (DSP). It was founded under the principles of republicanism, pacifism, and socialism, three mantras which have become the party's primary slogan. It overtook the Libertarian Party as Sierra's third largest party in 2013. It has aligned itself with the Democratic-Republican Party during the minority government of Melinda Peters from 1995 to 1998, and most recently with Steven Hong from 2008 to 2016, as well as the Bolivar caretaker government briefly during the months between Steven Hong's assassination and the 2016 federal election.

Prior to 2020, the party has never attained higher than 30 seats in the House or 5 seats in the Senate while it has dominated local politics in a number of provinces including San Francisco, Santa Clara, and southern Gold Coast (Saintiana region). The party also maintains a very strong presence in Hawaii and plays a major role in influencing the politics of Hawaii alongside the Hawaiian Democratic-Republicans. Political analysts have projected the Social Democrats' rising popularity in recent years may lead to the party displacing longtime ally Democratic-Republican Party as the second largest party by 2024 in terms of official membership count. As of 2017, there were 8.3 million registered members with the party making it the fourth largest party in Sierra.

The Social Democrats made major gains in both 2020 and 2021, winning 73 and 76 seats respectively, and formed a coalition government with the Democratic-Republicans, Green Party and the newly formed Democratic and Progressive Democratic parties from Bajaría after the latter was established in March 2021. Following the 2022 Sierran federal election, the Social Democrats currently have 44 seats and make up the Official Opposition, the first in its history. The party also currently has 25 Senators following the 2022 Sierran Senate elections being five seats behind the Royalist Party. The party also holds ten seats within the 66 seat Sierran delegation to the American Parliament and is affiliated with the Social Democrats of America within the Conference of American States.

History

Main article: History of the Social Democrats of Sierra

Foundation

Prior to its creation, the Social Democrats were preceded by the two dominate left-wing political parties of Sierra, the Reformed Republican and Democratic Socialist Parties. Both were in support of social democratic and democratic socialist policies and other leftist positions and were opposed to the monarchy with the Reformed Republicans having been created for the sole purpose of advocating for legal abolition of the monarchy after the Democratic-Republican Party dropped the idea from its party platform in 1903. The Democratic Socialist Party was formed in the 1920s and pushed for greater workers' rights and freedoms, something that the Social Democrats would also push for following its creation, and generally worked with the Reformed Republicans due to similar ideological positions and agendas. Both parties continued working together as the Reformed Republicans fell from power in the 1930s after losing their electoral presence to the Democratic-Republicans. By the 1970s, both were on the fringe of politics and agreed in rebranding themselves and both parties decided to merge and form the Social Democrats of Sierra on November 8th, 1977.

Peters' coalition

Main article: Progressive coalition (1994–2000)

Hong coalition (2008–2016)

Main articles: Progressive coalition (2008–2016) and Hong ministry

Kwon coalition (2020–2022)

Main articles: Progressive coalition (2020–present) and Premiership of Susan Kwon

Ideology and political positions

The Social Democrats are a left-wing political party that primarily adheres to a platform centered around social democracy, strengthening of workers' rights, support for workers' unions, and reformism. The Social Democratic Party also embraces multi-tendency and is described as a left-wing catch-all/big tent party. It includes within its ranks: democratic socialists, progressives, Landonists, syndicalists and radical democrats. The Social Democrats primarily run on a platform of expanding workers' rights, supporting unions, government intervention in the economy, a robust welfare state and social safety net and tackling the issue of income inequality. The Social Democrats are also reformist in nature and are critical of the current Sierran political structure believing that it heavily favors the Democratic-Republicans and Royalists at the expense of the Libertarians, Social Democrats and other third and fourth parties.

Under the leadership of Susan Kwon, the party has adhered to "Forwarding the Movement", a concerted push to move Sierra leftward and to combat the entrenchment of neoliberalism and free market capitalism within the Sierran political system. It has pushed for greater protections for the Sierran working class, democratizing the workplace, supporting worker cooperatives, guaranteeing universal healthcare and education, and strengthening labor unions. The party has described itself as the "party of the precariat" and emphasizes economic security as one of its main goals.

Name and symbol

The symbol of the Social Democrats is a red rose with three green arrows behind the rose. Both are symbols of social democracy showing the party's ideological position and support for left-wing policies. The three arrows show the party's opposition towards fascism and the far-right, a symbol that was first used in the Weimar Republic meant to show opposition to the Nazi Party. Below the written name of the party is a line of colored circles meant to represent Sierrans of all walks of life from different racial, ethnic and cultural groups to those with different political views that unite in support of the Social Democratic Party and a more equal society. The motto of "Republicanism, Socialism, and Pacifism" are the core concepts and ideas that the party supports.

Organization

The Central Committee of the Social Democrats of Sierra is the governing body of the party. It is responsible for formulating the party platform and working closely with Social Democrat officials in office, especially those in Parliament. It is also responsible for selecting and endorsing candidates in local and federal elections, but does not have direct control over the actions and positions of its elected officials. It also supervises the party's subnational and local chapters. In each PSA except the Deseret, there is an executive committee which oversees the local chapter and acts an intermediary link with the Central Committee. In the Deseret, all individual chapters of the five areas in the Deseret are subject to the authority of the Central Committee of the Social Democrats of the Deseret.

The party recognizes two classes of members: registered members and full members. The former consists of all party members who have officially registered with the party with their local registrar of voters. The latter consists of party members who have paid their membership dues and are permitted to stand in elections as a party candidate, take up party office positions, or vote in leadership elections. In Hawaii, each state has their own affiliated party that's part of the Social Democrats and are all organized as part of the Social Democratic Alliance of Hawaii which allows MPs from Hawaii affiliated with the Social Democrats to be represented in the federal parliament and organize all political activities of the Social Democrats in Hawaii.

Structure

The Central Committee is the primary governing body of the Social Democrats of Sierra and makes the most important decisions in regards to the party's platform, candidates and internal decisions and hosts the Social Democratic Conference to determine the party's most senior-level decisions which includes presiding over leadership elections and electing new members to the Central Committee, including the committee's chair. The party's structure is largely decentralized with the party's provincial chapters and affiliates having their own elected leaders and bodies which all keep contact with the mainline Social Democratic Party, but are allowed to make their own internal decisions with the main party having a hands off approach to provincial level affiliates. Social Democrats elected to parliamentary positions are organized into two sections; the House Social Democratic Caucus for MPs elected to the House of Commons and the Senate Social Democratic Caucus for elected senators, both regular and commissioned. Social Democrats that are elected to the American Parliament are organized as the American Parliamentary Social Democrats within Sierra's delegation to the American Parliament.

Provincial-level parties have a more centralized organization, especially in smaller provinces such as San Francisco and Laguna each having their own separate party committees and bodies along with their own elected leaders chosen by the provincial party committee and voters themselves rather than by the mainline party itself. Provincial-level affiliates organize into various constituency parties that keep close contact with the provincial party and rely off of grassroots support and donations from registered members just like the Social Democrats as a whole with members paying monthly fees to the party or donating to individual candidates during elections. The Social Democrats are also an alliance of various affiliated trade unions, political organizations and socialist groups that support the party through grassroots fundraising, volunteering for candidates during elections, and getting unions and other organizations to endorse the party come election time. Trade unions and other organizations affiliated with the Social Democrats have a degree of autonomy and can internal decision making with the only restrictions being that such groups must advance the Social Democratic cause and movement within their unions and respective communities and groups. Leaders from affiliated trade unions, organizations and socialist societies have representatives in the Central Committee itself.

The party also has devolved affiliates with the Social Democratic Alliance of Hawaii and the Social Democrats of the Deseret many different affiliates in Sierra's territories. The SDA of Hawaii is an alliance of the various social democratic parties in all of Hawaii's states with the alliance organizing them into a single political force meant to help elect Social Democrats to the federal parliament to represent Hawaii and its states. The SDA has its own governing body, the Executive Committee, which makes all the high-ranking decisions for the Social Democrats in Hawaii and coordinate with the federal party during federal elections, though the SDA has a great degree of autonomy and decision making in regards to its electoral activities, conduct and decisions in Hawaii proper. The Social Democrats of the Deseret, more commonly known as the Deseret Social Democrats (DSD) organize in a similar manner with their own governing body, the Regional Committee, and organize in all areas of the Deseret in local, area, regional and federal elections. Both the DSD and SDAH elect their own leaders and have representatives on the Central Committee as well and maintain strong contact with the federal party and can participate in party conferences and internal elections.

Membership

At the time of its formation, the Social Democrats had around 500,000 members due to the memberships of both the Reformed Republicans and Democratic Socialist Party joining the SDS after both parties merged to create it. Membership steadily grew and by 1999 it was at 733,000 total members with the party reaching one million by 2003. In 2015 at the time of the 2015 Social Democrats leadership election, the party had 5,223,944 total members which had grown up to over 8.3 million by 2017. Membership of the party is handled by the Central Committee who determines members through voter registration with the party whether it's by registering online via the party's official website, donations to the party which go through the Central Committee, or by registering with the provincial and/or constituent Social Democratic parties. By January 2020, the party was confirmed to be the fastest growing political party in Sierra outpacing that of the three major parties, a trend that Kwon said was proof of dissatisfaction with the status-quo and a desire for change, one which the Social Democrats campaign on bringing. The party also includes members registered with the Social Democrats in the Deseret and with the Social Democratic Alliance in Hawaii as well as both parties are party of the federal Social Democrats within the Kingdom of Sierra.

The Central Committee largely doesn't allow supporters of the party in Sierra's territories to register as said citizens are part of unincorporated territories and are not official provinces. As a result, they can't officially register with the Social Democrats or any other Sierran political party as no Sierran party organizes in said territories, but the Social Democrats are affiliated with territorial parties that are loosely affiliated with the Social Democrats of Sierra and joining the territorial affiliated parties is a way for citizens of Sierran territories to support the Social Democrats. Notable affiliated parties that the SDS supports includes the Colorado Social Democratic Alliance in West Colorado, Democratic Labor Party of New Mexico in West New Mexico, and the Democratic and Labor Party in the Channel Islands.

International affiliations

The Social Democrats are part of the Social Democrats of America within the American Parliament with the Parliamentary Social Democrats having ten elected MAPs within Sierra's total delegation to the American Parliament. As of 2019 the SDS is the largest member party within the SDA surpassing the Social Democratic Party in the Northeast Union and Farmer Labor Party of Superior. As of 2018, Martha Reynolds is the current President of the Parliamentary Social Democrats and serves as their head and chief whip within the American Parliament. The Social Democrats are affiliated with the Progressive Alliance and have been since the party's formation back in 1977 and hold observer status within the Socialist International.

Platform

Economic policies

• Raise the federal minimum wage to $20 an hour.
• Implement regulations on the stock market and major businesses.
• Oppose de-regulation and tax cuts for wealthy Sierrans.
• Raise the corporate tax rate to 45%.
• Crack down on outsourcing in Sierra.
• Protect and epxpand unions and labor rights.
• Nationalize the healthcare and energy industries.

Social policies

• Support and expand LGBT rights.
• Legalize same-sex marriage on the federal level.
• Oppose most restrictions towards abortion.
• Allow for easier immigration towards Sierra.
• Establish a single-payer healthcare system.
• Reduce racial inequality in Sierra.

Foreign policy

• Support normalizing relations with China.
• Support and expand the Conference of American States.
• Oppose offensive military interventions and operations.
• End all aid to authoritarian regimes.
• Support Sierra's commitment to its allies Anglo-America.
• Support the Indo-Pacific Treaty Organization and NATO.

Leadership

Main article: Leader of the Social Democrats of Sierra

See also

• List of political parties in the Kingdom of Sierra
• Socialism in the Kingdom of Sierra
• Republicanism in the Kingdom of Sierra
• Sierran Left
• Forwarding the Movement
• Big Three (Sierran politics)