The International League of Religious Socialists is an umbrella organization of religious socialist movements in political parties throughout the world. Founded in the 1920s, it has member groups in 20 countries totaling 200,000 members. For most of its history, it was mainly European and contained mainly Christian socialist groups, but has recently expanded to the Americas, Africa, and Australia to include more groups with connections to other religions. It is an associate organisation of Socialist International.
The member organisations are:
- Ernest Burgmann Society (Australia)
- (Austria)
- Christians on the Left (Britain)
- Bulgarian Religious Social Democrats (Bulgaria)
- (Costa Rica)
- (Dominican Republic)
- (Finland)
- Covenant of Religious Socialists of Germany
- Religious Socialist Section of the MSZP (Hungary)
- Social Christians (Italy)
- Latvian Christian Social Democratic Organisation (Latvia)
- Religious Social Democrats (Lithuania)
- (Netherlands)
- (Norway)
- Akbayan (Philippines)
- ANC Commission on Religious Affairs (South Africa)
- (Spain - Basque Country)
- Satyodaya (Sri Lanka)
- Religious Social Democrats of Sweden (Sweden)
- (Switzerland)
History
Background
The International League of Religious Socialists (ILRS) is the oldest continuing socialist organization in Europe. The first international conference of the ILRS was held in the Netherlands by Willem Banning and Carl Mennicke in 1926. Willem Banning served as a Dutch preacher and co-founded the Dutch Labor Party. Carl Mennicke was a German-born theologian. A second conference was held in 1928 in Switzerland, and the following year, in 1929, an international committee for religious socialists was founded in Cologne, Germany. Among its members were Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, England and France. This conference solidified the existence of an international organization and is considered to be the official origin of the ILRS. From this point until the 1970s, the activities and membership of the ILRS was limited to Northern Europe.
Current leadership
Today, the ILRS is led by President Maria Angeles Sanz del Moral of Spain. Other executive board members include the Vice Presidents: Carlos García de Andoín, of Spain and Marìa Hevzy, of Norway. The current treasurer is Jochen Geraedts of the Netherlands, and the remaining executive board members are Tarja Kantola of Finland, as well as Ulf Carmesund of Switzerland.