According to one of its leaders, Dalmo Honaiser, the PST was a centre-right party based on the alliance between medium and small entrepreneurs, liberal professionals and workers.

The party's manifesto included support for medium and small businesses, the strengthening of democratic institutions and the progressive taxation of unproductive land as a means of carrying out agrarian reform.

[1] The Social Labour Party was founded in 1983, when it first applied for registration with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) and its manifesto and statute were published.

However, an internal dispute between two of the party's main leaders, Dalmo Honaiser and Altemir Pessoa Figliuolo, who submitted simultaneous applications to the TSE, made registration impossible.

In October 1992, a parliamentary bloc was formed between the PST and the PTR — then chaired by the governor of the Federal District, Joaquim Roriz — which revealed the intention of merging the two parties.