The Progressive Socialist Party was described to have a "clearly leftist" platform.[15] Its campaign slogan was "We shall build a Soviet and Socialist Ukraine!". The party was considered Russophile, and campaigned for a "strategic partnership" of Ukraine with Russia and Belarus, while strongly rejecting the prospect of cooperating with either the European Union or NATO. The party was least popular in Western regions, but it had considerable support in South Ukraine.[15]
History
The party was created by Nataliya Vitrenko, a then dissident member of the Socialist Party of Ukraine (SPU) in April 1996.[16] She led a group of more radical SPU members who opposed what they regarded as revisionist tendencies in the Socialist Party. In October 1995 they had left that party.[16]
In June 2022 various court proceedings tried to ban the parties suspended on 20 March 2022.[35][36] The Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine was one of two parties that actively opposed its banning.[35][36] (The other party was Opposition Platform — For Life.[36]) On 27 September 2022, the final appeal against the party's ban was dismissed by the Supreme Court of Ukraine, meaning that the party was fully banned in Ukraine.[11]
The Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine is considered a neo-communist party, defined as an East European socialist party that distances itself from reformist post-communist parties. The party supports the economic and social principles of communism while criticising the capitalist transition, post-Soviet democratisation and European integration.[37]
The party is considered to represent a distinctive, radical form of left-wing, socialist populism. The party describes itself as the only "true Marxist" party in Ukraine and campaigns on a strongly nostalgic, anti-Western platform. It accuses the IMF of colonizing Ukraine and argues for expulsion of all western advisers from Ukraine.[5] The party's ideological discourse is strongly anti-capitalism, anti-market and also anti-NATO.[38]
PSPU considers the economic transformation of Ukraine into a capitalist economy to be a social regression. The party calls for state ownership of the means of production and an economy based on social justice, described as the elimination of unemployment and the distribution of material goods to their direct creators. The party also calls for "a society in which the free development of each is a condition for the free development of all, committing itself to establishing workers' democracy in enterprises, guaranteeing state ownership of basic industries and halting the privatisation process and halting the decline of kolkhozes and sovkhozes".[12]
^ abcMarch, Luke[in Spanish] (2011). "Left-wing Populism: Populist Socialists and Social Populists". Radical Left Parties in Europe. Routledge. p. 142. ISBN9780203154878.
^Andrzej Antoszewski[in Polish] (2005). Partie polityczne Europy Środkowej i Wschodniej (in Polish). Poznań-Wrocław: Wyższa Szkoła Zarządzania i Bankowości w Poznaniu. p. 179. ISBN83-88544-63-2. Ekstremizm lewicowy reprezentowany jest w Europie Wschodniej głównie przez partie neokomunistyczne, odróżniające się i najczęściej dystansujące się od zreformowanych ugrupowań postkomunistycznych. W Czechach, Rosji, na Słowacji i Ukrainie istnieją formacje opowiadające się za pryncypiami ekonomicznymi i społecznymi komunizmu (przy werbalnym odcięciu się od niektórych błędów przeszłości), kładące akcent na krytykę kapitalistycznego modelu rozwoju, przyjętego po 1989 r., negatywną ocenę procesu politycznej, gospodarczej i militarnej integracji Europy oraz protestujące przeciwko globalizacji. Zaliczymy do nich przede wszystkim: Komunistyczną Partię Federacji Rosyjskiej (KPRF), Komunistyczną Partię Ukrainy (KPU) i Socjalistyczną Partię Ukrainy (SPU), Komunistyczną Partię Czech i Moraw, Komunistyczną Partię Słowacji (KSĆM), Łotewską Partię Socjalistyczną (LSP), Serbską Partię Socjalistyczną oraz ukraińską Progresywną Partię Socjalistyczną (SPS). [Left-wing extremism is represented in Eastern Europe mainly by neo-communist parties, differentiating themselves and most often distancing themselves from reformist post-communist groupings. In the Czech Republic, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine, there are formations advocating the economic and social principles of communism (while verbally distancing themselves from some of the errors of the past), emphasising criticism of the capitalist development model adopted after 1989, negatively assessing the process of political, economic and military integration of Europe and protesting against globalisation. These include, above all: Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), Communist Party of Ukraine (KPU) and Socialist Party of Ukraine (SPU), Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, Communist Party of Slovakia (KSĆM), Latvian Socialist Party (LSP), Serbian Socialist Party and the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine (SPS).]
^Ryszard Herbut[in Polish]; Andrzej Antoszewski[in Polish] (2007). Systemy polityczne współczesnej Europy (in Polish). Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN. p. 102. ISBN978-83-011-4622-1. W niektórych elekcjach wzięły udział także inne partie, które mogą być określone mianem skrajnej lewicy. Mamy tu na myśli Związek Robotników Słowacji (ZRS), ukraińską Progresywną Partię Socjalistyczną (SPS) oraz polską Samoobronę. [Other parties that can be described as extreme left also took part in some elections. We are referring to the Union of Workers of Slovakia (ZRS), the Ukrainian Progressive Socialist Party (SPS) and the Polish Self-Defence.]
^Siaroff, Alan (2019). Comparative European Party Systems: An Analysis of Parliamentary Elections Since 1945 (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 563. ISBN9781317498773. The SPU suffered a split in 1996 when far left members left and formed the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine (PSPU).
^ abAndrzej Antoszewski[in Polish] (2005). Partie polityczne Europy Środkowej i Wschodniej (in Polish). Poznań-Wrocław: Wyższa Szkoła Zarządzania i Bankowości w Poznaniu. pp. 179–180. ISBN83-88544-63-2.
^ abHaran, Olexiy; Zimmer, Kerstin (2008). "Unfriendly takeover: Successor parties in Ukraine". Communist and Post-Communist Studies. 41 (4): 548. doi:10.1016/j.postcomstud.2008.09.002.
^Kichorowska Kebalo, Martha (2011). Personal Narratives of Women's Leadership and Community Activism in Cherkasy Oblast (PhD thesis). The City University of New York. p. 224-225.