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Labor Party 勞動黨 | |
|---|---|
_emblem.svg) | |
| Chairman | Wu Jung-yuan |
| Vice Chairmen |
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| Honorary Chairman | Luo Mei-wen |
| Founded | 29 March 1989 (1989-03-29) |
| Headquarters | 6th Floor, No. 25, Lane 344, Nanjing West Road,Datong District,Taipei |
| Membership(2019) | ~400[1][needs update] |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Left-wing[2][3] |
| National affiliation | Pro-Beijing camp |
| International affiliation | International Communist Seminar (until 2014)[4] |
| Legislative Yuan | 0 / 113 |
| Municipal mayors | 0 / 6 |
| Magistrates / mayors | 0 / 16 |
| Councilors | 1 / 912 |
| Township /city mayors | 0 / 204 |
| Party flag | |
_flag.svg) | |
| Website | |
| laborparty | |
| Labor Party | |||||||||||||||
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| Traditional Chinese | 勞動黨 | ||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 劳动党 | ||||||||||||||
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TheLabor Party[I] is aleft-wing,pro-Beijing political party inTaiwan, founded on 29 March 1989 by a striking trade union inXinpu,Hsinchu County. It regards itself as part of the widerlabor movement in Taiwan, and advocates for labor reforms and the redistribution of social resources under a centralised authority. The party also supports theunification of Taiwan and mainland China, with a high level of autonomy reserved for Taiwan under the "one country, two systems" principle.
Party members often assist in unionizing workers and regularly hold protests against the government's labor policies, as well as perceivedimperialism from theUnited States andJapan. Notable labor demonstrations that the Labor Party helped organize include the2004 Yaowen Electric protests [zh],2004 Hsinta strike [zh] and 2009 labor dispute againstTSMC.
The Labor Party was founded on 29 March 1989 by unionized workers of the Far East Synthetic Fiber Company in Xinpu, Hsinchu County.[5] The trade union had been protesting the company's mass layoffs and refusal to increase workers' wages; the protests culminated in the1989 Far East Synthetic Fiber Company strike [zh] a month later.[5] When establishing the party, the union leadership considered adopting the name "Taiwanese Communist Party" but elected not to do so due to the widespreadanti-communism in Taiwan at the time.[2][6]
In the years following its founding, the Labor Party grew in size and influence, with its membership consisting mainly of former political prisoners of theWhite Terror, labor movement organizers and the working class.[6] The party, however, did not see electoral success until the2009 local elections, when Labor Party candidate Kao Wei-kai was elected to theHsinchu County Council.[7] After Kao was elected, a majority of his monthly salary (NT$80,000) was put back into the party's treasury to fund future political activities.
In the2018 local elections, Kao was reelected to the Hsinchu County Council, alongside Labor Party veteran Luo Mei-wen. The party won a total of two seats in the county council, representing the townships ofHukou and Xinpu.[8]
The party received 0.05% of the votes in the2024 Taiwanese legislative election.[citation needed]
The Labor Party regards itself as asocialist party[2][9] and views itself as the ideological successor to the Taiwanese Communist Party.[10] The party opposes the electoral system in Taiwan, calling it abourgeois democracy, but participates in elections nonetheless.[9]
The Labor Party opposesTaiwan independence and supports the unification of Taiwan and mainland China, under the government of the People's Republic of China and the "one country, two systems" principle.[3][9]
| Election | Number of popular votes | % of popular votes | Total elected seats | +/− |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 4,736 | 0.11 | 1 / 587 | 1 |
| 2014 | 5,827 | 0.05 | 1 / 532 | 0 |
| 2018 | 10,247 | 0.08 | 2 / 912 | 1 |
| 2022 | 7,308 | 0.06 | 1 / 910 | 1 |
| Nationally represented (Legislative Yuan seats) |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Locally represented | ||
| Other parties | ||
