United Socialist Party of Iceland

(USPI; Sameinigarflokkar altydy-sosialista florkkurinn), the Marxist party of Icelandic working people from 1938 to 1968.

The party was formed in October 1938 by a union of the Communist Party of Iceland (founded in 1930) and the left wing of the Social Democratic Party. The purpose of the USPI, according to its 1938 program, was the establishment of a socialist system in Iceland “on national, historical, and social bases.” The Thirteenth Congress of the USPI (November 1962) adopted the program “Iceland’s Path to Socialism,” which defined the party’s tasks in contemporary conditions as the struggle to eliminate American military bases in Iceland, the struggle against threats to Iceland’s in-dependence resulting from membership in NATO, and the struggle for renewed neutrality. Its leaders were members of the government in 1944–47 and 1956–58 and contributed greatly to strengthening Iceland’s economic power and independence. The party fought to raise the living standard of working people and to expand their social and political rights.

In 1956 the USPI joined with the left Social Democrats to form the People’s Union, an electoral bloc which received nine seats in parliament in 1963 and ten in 1967 (out of a total of 60). With the decision of the National Conference of the People’s Union (November 1968) on the reorganization of the union into a political party, the Central Committee of the USPI, on the basis of a decision of the Sixteenth Congress (October 1968) of the USPI, declared the termination of its activity as of Dec. 31, 1968.