In late May, as striking bus drivers blocked several approach roads to Copenhagen, another important strike came to a successful conclusion. Three thousand unskilled and semi-skilled workers in the Danfoss factories got a wage raise of 4.8 percent after a two-month-long strike. The government had been trying to impose a 4 percent ceiling on wage increases, and the partial victory of the Danfoss workers showed that a lot of workers and other employees in the private sector were not going to accept that. In fact, in 1984, a lot of working people have taken advantage of the upturn in the economy to take back something of what they lost during the crisis year of 1982.
Like the bus drivers, the Danfoss workers appealed for — and got - widespread solidarity from other workplaces and also unofficial economic support from trade unions. This was exceptional, because unions are forbidden to support strikes during the life of contracts (normally lasting for two years) under threat of heavy fines.
The Danfoss strike was seen as important by many workers, not only because it broke the Schlueter wage ceiling but also because the Danfoss company had tried to split the skilled from the unskilled workers, giving the former a substantial raise and refusing any increase for the latter. Toward confrontation
The Danish national employers association, the Dansk Arbejdsgiverforening (DA) recognized very clearly the danger that the development at Danfoss represented for the bosses' interests. It is pressing very hard for sanctions against the SiD for the union's support to the strikes. In late September, the special court for labor disputes began its proceedings on the HT bus strike, and the DA demanded that the tribunal impose a fine of 26 million Danish crowns (nearly 2.5 million US dollars) on the SiD.
The upturn in the world capitalist economy has given a considerable boost to the Schlueter government, which took over in the winter of 1982-1983, just as times were beginning to get a bit better. By clever timing and a little help from the stocks and bonds dealers, who were no great fans of the previous Social Democratic government, the conservatives managed to take the credit for the drop in interest rates and the growth in investment and employment that got underway and accelerated during 1983. International Viewpoint 12 November 1984
FOLL
But the upturn has also given a boost to workers demanding higher wages and defending their trade-union rights. so many times before in history, a limited upturn in the capitalist economy has restored a bit of self-confidence to many workers after years of rising unemployment and falling real wages. It is no coincidence that these strikes occurred just as the upturn was taking off.
The reaction from the working class and his precarious position in parliament first year of the coalition kept Schlueter from using the upturn his January 1984 election victory as a springboard for a decisive campaign to restore capitalist "order" to the Danish economy through drastic cutbacks and a full-scale assault on the unions. On the other hand, the fightback from the workers has not been strong enough to seriously challenge the government's position.
As the business cycle in Denmark, like that of the US and other OECD countries, goes from boom to stagnation and probably later in 1985 into decline, the economic problems that led the Social Democrats to withdraw from the government will reemerge with a vengeance.
The balance-of-payments deficit is increasing, and will probably reach 16 to 29 billion Danish crowns for 1984. The foreign debt is expected to exceed 200 billion crowns.
The government deficit will be about 60 billion crowns, about the same level as when the Social Democrats left
In comparison with the Danish GNP, which will be around 500 to 600 billion crowns for 1984, these deficits are among the highest in the OECD. In particular, the balanee-of-payments deficit is worrying the capitalist establishment because it is chronic and growing, regardless of the ups and downs of the economic cycle.
The worsening economic situation can be expected to increase the pressure on the government for more drastic attacks on real wages, social benefits and the unions — attacks that might again collide with the expectations of better times created by the upturn and fostered by the Conservatives propaganda itself
In addition to immediate economic and social problems the government faces, the antimissiles movement remains very strong in Denmark, despite the beginning deployment of the new Nato missiles in Western Europe. The nation-
ICINERE SI REJKE wide 5-minute protest strike against the missiles on October 24 will be a key test of this movement. At the same time, the Social Democratic Party may try to improve its image among the majority of the population who oppose the missiles pushing the Radikale Venstre in a position where it will have to vote against the government on some motion involving
This is a cup the Radikale Venstre will be extremely reluctant to drink from, since it decided to back this government for the sake of mounting an attack on
But it could be forced to swallow the bitter draught because of its historical antimilitarist program and the antimilitarist attitudes of a large part of
In the short run, however, the focus for fightback against the capitalists and the government for the workers and other broad sections of the population will probably be the struggle for the 35-
In the spring, the contracts covering almost all Danish workers will run out, and the national labor confederation, the LO, will bargain in a centralized way for more than a million workers.
So far, there has been agreement in most of LO's member unions only at the rank-and-file level but in most of the leaderships - that the highest priority has to be given to reducing the
And the employers federation and the government are dead set against this, even if the workers were to accept wage euts in return for shorter
The Social Democrats have sided with the LO and are going to campaign for a shorter workweek in the months leading up to the conclusion of nego-
Although the LO leaders have undermined the basis for a wholehearted struggle by the working class by announcing that they are prepared to accept zero wage increases for all but the lowest paid sectors in return for a shorter workweek, the situation here is looking more and more like the one that preceded the launching of the strikes for the 35-hour week in West Germany in the spring of
It is looking more and more as if there will be a full-scale strike for a shorter workweek in Denmark some time in the spring of 1985. This may very well present the Schlueter government with its first real challenge.
wards a fall in prices on the world market.
But, in a second phase, because of the chronic surplus that this brought about, it pushed towards the reduction of
American and European imports of cane