Socialist People's Party (Norway)

Socialist People's Party Sosialistisk Folkeparti
Founded	16 April 1961
Dissolved	30 April 1976
Split from	Labour Party
Merged into	Socialist Left Party
Youth wing	Socialist Youth League (1963–69) Socialist People's Youth (from 1969)
Ideology	Socialism Popular socialism
Political position	Left-wing
National affiliation	Socialist Electoral League (1973–75)
Politics of Norway Political parties Elections

The Socialist People's Party (Norwegian: Sosialistisk Folkeparti) was a splinter group of the Norwegian Labour Party (DNA) founded in 1961. SF was principally dissatisfied with the pro-NATO/European Economic Community external policies of DNA. A group centered on the magazine Orientering had been expelled from DNA. The party merged into the Socialist Left Party in 1976.

History

In the mid-1960s, the youth organization of SF, Socialist Youth League (Sosialistisk Ungdomsfylking), started moving towards revolutionary Marxism, leading to a split in 1969. The SUF broke away, renamed itself SUF(m-l) and launched the Workers' Communist Party (Marxist–Leninist) (which merged with the Red Electoral Alliance in 2007 to launch the new Red Party).

Following the split, Socialist People's Youth (Sosialistisk Folkepartis Ungdom) became the new SF youth wing. SF lost parliamentary representation in 1969; however, in 1972 a DNA MP, Arne Kielland, joined SF.

SF was the driving force behind the formation of Socialist Electoral League, which later emerged into Socialist Left Party. SV can be seen as the direct successor of the SF.

SF party leaders

• 1961-1969 : Knut Løfsnes
• 1969-1971 : Torolv Solheim
• 1971-1973 : Finn Gustavsen
• 1973-1975 : Stein Ørnhøi

Electoral results

Parliamentary elections

Storting

Date	Votes			Seats		Position	Size
	No.	%	± pp	No.	±
1961	43,996	2.4	New	2 / 150	New	Support (1961–1963)	8th
						Opposition (1963)
						Support (from 1963)
1965	122,721	6.0	3.5	2 / 150	2	Opposition	6th
1969	73,284	3.4	2.6	0 / 150	0	Extra-parliamentary	6th

Local

Year	Vote %	Type
1963	2.8	Municipal
1967	5.1	Municipal
1971	4.0	Municipal