Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung
The Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (RLS) is an internationally operating, public funded, non-profit institution for political education affiliated with Germany’s DIE LINKE (Left Party). RLS is committed to work within the traditions of the global workers, women, anti-fascist and anti-war movements and advocates the ideas of Democratic Socialism. Active since 1990, RLS has been dedicated to the critical analysis of social and political processes worldwide. In cooperation with partner organizations RLS is conducting programs for political education and provides scientific research. It supports the development of political, economical and socio-ecological alternatives to neoliberal capitalism. RLS currently runs 17 regional offices around the globe.
RLS Regional Office for Southeast Europe
RLS’s office for Southeast Europe (SEE) was opened in 2010 in Belgrade. With funds from the German Ministry for Foreign Affairs, it supports non-profit organizations in Albania, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia. RLS SEE is working on three levels. (1) It supports workers, women, Roma and LGBT groups engaged in social rights advocacy and the building of networks for self-organization. (2) It supports the elaboration of alternative policies, which are based on social justice and democratization, and counter the dominant neoliberal hegemony (3) It supports the elaboration of a differentiated and critical discourse on the history of the left in the region.
Die Linke / Left Party
The “Left Party” (Die Linke) was founded in 2007 as merger of the primarily East German “Party of Democratic Socialism” (PDS) and the West German “Electoral Alternative for Jobs and Social Justice” (WASG). In the last federal election in September 2013, it became the third strongest party, winning 8.6% of the popular vote and 64 seats in the German Bundestag (36 women and 28 men). The head of the Left Party’s parliamentary group is Gregor Gysi, 65. The party’s current presidents are Katja Kipping, 35, and Bernd Riexinger, 57. The Left Party has elected representatives in 10 of the 16 German federal states parliaments and thousands of elected representatives on the local level. In the European Parliament, the Left Party’s eight members are part of the “Confederal Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left” (GUE/NGL).
Further information about RLS international activities please visit the section WORLDWIDE on the German website of Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung.