Swedish labour movement

The labor movement is one of the three major Swedish popular movements of the 19th century.

Requirements

The labor movement arose as a response to the new social conditions in the wake of industrialization. Although Sweden never faced any misery, English industrial cities, the situation of the workers was difficult. The work involved is usually 10 to 12 working hours. Women and child labor was widespread and the number of accidents was about twice as high as in agriculture. Wages were often at or below the subsistence level.

There were significant differences between different groups of workers. The best conditions were in the metallurgical and iron works. They paid sick half the wages and old workers ' pensions. Large families were supported and some companies also built workers' housing. A large part of the reward, however, was paid in kind, which lasted until the turn of the century. At the worst it had the sawmill and forest workers and factory workers in the cities.

Precursor

The first initiatives came from intellectual middle-class areas. It organized education circles and workers' associations on the German model, in which, however, were the workers in the minority. Ideologically, these initiatives were characterized by a faith-based humanism, which - if at all seemed a political statement - went in a liberal direction.

Of greater importance for the emergence of the Swedish labor movement were the self-help organizations that were formed in the 1850s and 1860s. In various places created health insurance, who joined forces in a national health insurance movement later. 1910 were about 13 % of the adult population insured in this insurance. A second self-help organization were the consumer cooperatives formed on the British model, who joined forces in 1899 at the Cooperative Association Kooperativa Förbundet (KF ). The goal was to combat monopoly tendencies in the trade, thereby being able to offer the workers cheaper goods. The fight was at times hard, and could only be won when the consumer cooperative began to produce their own goods important to ensure the supply of their own shops.

The labor movement

The breakthrough came for the labor movement in the 1880s, when a wave of strikes broke out in Norrland due to strong wage cuts. The largest ever strike with about 5,000 strikers broke out in 1879 in Sundsvall, whereupon the authorities to strike camp of military surround left and the strikers forced to return to their jobs. As a result of lost strikes a trade union movement was born. The local union clubs went in the late 1880s together in national trade union confederations, which eventually in 1898 an umbrella organization, the National Organization country organizations ( LO) were formed.

Social democracy came in 1881 with the Scanian master tailor August Palm to Sweden, who presented the social democratic ideas in meetings in Malmo and Stockholm. But Sweden's Social Democratic Labour Party in 1889 was formed and the first May Day demonstration was conducted with the demand for an eight hour work day on May 1, 1890.

The cooperation between the trade union and the political labor movement was henceforth very narrow and the development of the two branches of the Swedish labor movement was broadly the same. The first peak they reached around the year 1907, when the union of 186,000 members and the Social Democratic Party counted 113,000 members.

1917 occurred within the Swedish labor movement to a split. A smaller, more radical part joined to Communism and made Sweden's Social Democratic Left Party ( Sverges socialdemokratiska vänsterparti ) from 1921 Sweden's Communist Party ( Sverges kommunistiska parti) emerged.

To further history see:

• Sveriges socialdemokratiska arbetareparti
• Vänsterpartiet
• Swedish unions

• Swedish History (19th century)
• Swedish History ( 20th century)
• Labor movement