Workers and youth protest in general election THE FOLLOWING interview was given to Gerry Foley during the annual summer camp of the Socialist Party/Swedish section of the Fourth International by Haakon Blomqvist, the editor of the SP's paper, Internationalen; and Dick Forslund, an SP leader from the town of Nacka in the Stockholm suburbs. The camp was held in early July on a smaller lake just north of Vanern, the largest of the Swedish lakes. The attendance this year was the biggest in the history of the event, 150 adults and 65 children. This year most of the workshops and lectures were devoted to preparation for the SP's
Democrats had done in the governbec ment and that the workers need hol another voice besides those of the ago two bigger workers parties. And then pec we raised slogans on seven or eight of issues.
tha
B. This common platform does was not prevent us as a party from talking about socialism, Nicaragua,
"Be
Poland, and everything else we want
Soc to talk about. It was just a way of tha concentrating what we had said in on the rather long program that
Car we had drawn up initially. At the ist 1 same time we went out to get independents to run on our ticket.
par
F. We had some rather important
The successes. In Koeping, an industrial imr town, we got five independents on tha our slate of ten.
B. But the results were very the uneven. Many branches still real approached the election in a routinist eno way. They never really understood thir the importance of trying to broaden thel the campaign.
is campaign for the general elections
Question. What sort of an election campaign do you intend to run this time?
Blomquist. Well, from the beginning, from the time the Political Committee and the National Leadership first discussed it a year ago, we had the idea of running a broader campaign than just an SP one. The original idea was to get a united campaign that could include many Social Democratic workers who were disgusted with the present Social Democratic government of Olof Palme. He came in in the 1982 elections with the slogan of "freedom to move instead of more belt tightening." But since then things have continued to get steadily worse for ordinary people.
So, we started to get better and better contacts with both Social Democratic workers in opposition to the austerity policy and even some Communist Party workers as in Bolange.
Forslund. The Communist workers were disillusioned with their party, the VpK's [Venstrepartiet Kommunisterna - Left Party of Communists] cooperation with the Social Democratic government.
You know, the VpK members of parliament always end up accepting the Social Democrats' austerity measures, no matter how much they may object.
B. A political vacuum has been developing in Sweden because of this disillusionment with the bigger workers parties. We think that a lot of people who voted for the 16 to be held on September 15. Social Democrats or the VpK as a lesser evil may not vote this time. So, we thought that it was important to try to offer an alternative, not just run a routine propaganda campaign of our own. So, the National Leadership [National Committee] gave the Political Bureau a mandate to test the water for a united workers opposition campaign. We got only a lukewarm response. Critical Social Democratic workers would say, "Well, it's a good idea, but..."
F. But we only contacted people in five or six places, and only the top oppositionists, trade-union leaderships, for instance. We did not really go to the grassroots.
B.It's clear now that we were too timid in our testing. We should have pressed harder. But when we got this initial lukewarm response, we decided that we had to put up our own party slate. But we would still try to make it broader by inviting independent socialists and people from other parties to stand on our slates. A couple of weeks after that, the Socialist League, a small grouping affiliated to the Moreno current [which split from the Fourth International in 1979] and the youth organization "Benny," which it initiated but which has become a much broader thing, decided to participate in our Workers Protest campaign. After meetings with them, we decided to draw up a simplified platform for the coalition.
F. -We simplified it to a short text explaining our viewpoint on the government and what the Social the campaign.
F. We have not yet been able to a v get this idea across to the entire the party. But we hope to make some for progress in this camp.
for
Pol
Q. How many candidates are you of running?
ver
. B. We have about 250 candidates.
left
Q. Is this election just for parliaus ment?
left
F. No, it is for three different levels of government, municipal, in regional, and national.
par
Par
Q. How many candidates are you poli running for parliament?
uni
B. About two hundred. There
WO1 are a total of three hundred seats thei in the parliament. Moreover, in don
Sweden the slates are generally made
Soc as big as possible for demonstration effect. For example, the Social Democrats run more candidates than there are places to be filled.
F. Swedish voters also look at the professions of the candidates, which are listed on the slate. This is an important factor.
B. It is also very important to.
have local candidates in small towns.
In such places, it is a bit of an event when a local person is on a national slate, even if everyone knows that there is no chance that the slate will be elected. On our slate, there are about 15 independents, about twenty
Young Socialists [from the youth organization in solidarity with the
SP], about 15 from "Benny," and five or six from the Socialist League.
The "Benny" is a large organization in Stockholm.
F. "Benny" also plays an important role in Vaexsjoe, a town of about
40,000 people in southern Sweden.
This town has a special importance
International Viewpoint 16 September 1985
because when a Nazi group tried to hold a rally there a few months ago, more than 3,000 of the local people chased them into the toilets of the railway station. That means that nearly 10% of the population was out chasing the Nazis.
B. And we had no branch there. "Benny" has a local there and the Socialist League has an organization that functions. So, all the names on the Workers and Youth Protest Campaign slate in Vaexsjoe are Socialist League or "Benny" members. F. Nonetheless, the name of our party is at the top of the slate. There are also two Latin-American immigrant organizations in the area that are supporting the campaign. BO cure, te forces behind the campaign are tiny. The only real organization, and that's small enough, is the SP. But the important thing is that the campaign nonetheless has a broader profile. This is something new in Sweden. It's a very nonsectarian way of gathering the forces that are against austerity, for youth, women, immigrants and for solidarity with Nicaragua and Poland. Moreover, this combination of Central America and Poland is a very important thing for the Swedish left. F. It's the dividing line between us and the other currents on the left. B. There are a lot of elements in the VpK or the orthodox Stalinist party the AKP, Workers Communist Party] who are against the austerity policy and the bureaucracy in the unions. But for the Social Democratic workers who are breaking from their traditional allegiance today, who don't feel comfortable anymore in the Social Democratic Party, these
NEJ F ASKA PARTIE ISKA PARTIE
"Communist" currents are no alternative, even if they have positions on austerity, etc. that these workers agree with. Because these people look at Poland, Latvia, and other Baltic countries. • Q. Is this a factor because you have a lot of refugees from the Baltic countries in Sweden? B. Yes. That's important. But the largest number of refugees are from Poland. • Q. What sort of response did you get from the other far lett organizations, the AKP for instance?
B. The AKP has its own campaign. Besides, they have been on a rampage against Trotskyism, running long articles denouncing the Trotskyist menace. In Goteborg, they expelled their whole active membership for collaborating with us on the October 4 demonstration against the right. F.In the last parliamentary elections, they got about 6,000 votes, and we got about 4,000. In some communities in the north of Sweden they have strong traditional support. B. They have a backbone of older workers in their party. When you talk to AKPers, you can be impressed that they have been in the struggle for so long. But then you feel very sad, because you realize that these people are finished. Q. That they are fossils?
B. Yes. I think that we will outdistance the AKP this time.
Q. What about the VpK? B. They are growing today, in electoral support, not in activity or Demonstrating for workers rights (DR) TILL AVSKED RT MED SKAD
DING SUKFORSP RALE membership. The polls show a slight upturn for the Social Democrats and a sharper one for the VpK. That's not surprising. They are extremely close to the Social Democrats now,
I have never heard them sound so
Social Democratic in my lifetime.
Q. That is, they look like Social
Democrats but a bit to the left?
B. Yes.
F. The way it works is this:
The Social Democrats make austerity proposals. The VpK says, "No, no, we can't have this." But the Social
Democrats keep pressing, and then the VpK says that it has no choice but to go along.
B. One Social Democrat leader even said publicly that they always propose measures harsher than they intend to implement, so that they can make some compromises with the VpK and make it appear that the VpK got something. So, the VpK has gained electoral influence, and that must convince the leadership that they are on the right track. But on the ground, they are going to hell.
In Sweden, there is a feeling spreading among Social Democratic unionists and workers, and even among Communist Party unionists and workers, that there are no longer any workers parties.
F. On my job, they say that to me. They don't support us. Maybe only a few of them will vote for us on the quiet. But they say, "It's perfectly understandable that you are trying to run a ticket to the left of the VpK and the Social Democrats. It doesn't make any difference for us whether a Social Democratic government or a bourgeois govern. ment is in power."
If you look at the Social Democratic Party slates, you see "social worker," "professor," and all sorts of top academic titles, or just party full-timers. Then, maybe on the twentyfifth or twenty-sixth place, you may see "metalworker." They have to keep some sort of front, after all.
B. It's a strange situation in Sweden now. The Social Democrats have been very inactive. Their electoral workers seem not to have dared to go out. It's a very bad state of affairs when a Social Democratic government when a Social Democratic government gets in and says that Sweden is on the right track again, and then a year later everything starts getting worse for ordinary people. And all the official propaganda is that everything is getting better. It's a 1984 situation. It creates an atmosphere where the Social Democratic election workers are afraid to go out. But at the same time the polls are getting better for the Social Democrats. And the VpK are in about the same state as the
17
International Viewpoint 16 September 1985
Social Democrats.
F. They are very inactive.
B. The VpK youth has between 15,000 and 20,000 members on paper. But in Stockholm, when the local branch tried to assemble their members, they could get only four together. They have collapsed.
But we are also having some strange problems. The activity of our membership is down sharply. But our paper has the highest cireulation it has ever had. This summer camp is the biggest we have ever had.
F. There are many new people here.
B. But there is a problem of flagging activity.
Q. Like people taking a vacation?
B. Perhaps, but not just in the summer, it has been going on since April.
F. People are feeling the pressure of austerity. Even our members tend to seek private solutions, retire into the family, spend more time with the children, let the bad weather pass over.
B. The problems of the society affect us, too. For example, one of our main leaders is not here this week. He had to work extra in the harbor so that his family could make ends meet.
F. Part of the problem is slowness in rooting ourselves in the unions. We have, maybe, 40 or 50 percent of our membership in unions that belong to the National Labor Organizaiton (LO). Those members are active in everything. But the members who are isolated in places where only a few people work, who often have higher education, they feel a right wing wind blowing. But in the industrial workplaces, the wind is blowing in the other direction.
Q. It's not a life cycle thing is it, that is, that your membership is getting older, more have children, and so on?
B. That's part of it.
F. Yes. I regret now very much that we didn't start the youth organization in 1975. We did not realize that our membership was getting older.
B. Another problem is that women are being pushed back in the party, as a result of these social pressures. There are fewer and fewer women in leading positions. On the other hand, 90 percent of our new recruits and sympathizers are women.
Q. So, why are you suddenly getting so popular among women?
B. It's the course of the radicalization in Swedish society today. Women are becoming more and more critical. They are often alone, 18 with one or more children. They over Stockholm with captions saying, often work six hours a day, with "Benny wants a job," "Benny wants lower pay. So, the austerity policy an apartment," "Benny wants hits them much harder than men. happiness." You can see the effect when you F. "Benny thinks," "Benny can are selling papers. When you're ringing manage," "Benny knows." on doorbells. Women are generally B. They have big banners in more interested in what we have demonstrations with just this strange to say- figure with big teeth, looking silly.
And they say, "Benny," nothing
Q. What about the role of youth more. They have aroused a lot of in this campaign? comment in the media.
F. Well, we changed the name F. I read a long article about of the campaign from the original them in a financial paper. They had Workers Protest Campaign to a some professor at Upsala explain Workers and Youth Protest Campaign. the symbolism of "Benny." In Stockholm, the first nine candi- B. They have about 150 people dates on the slate for parliament in Stockholm, but it is very loose. are Young Socialists; They are They don't have meetings. They educating the older members of the just have parties. party on the youth question. One F. They have about ten people of the main issues is the new laws in Nacka and I got them together for for getting youth into work, in a their first meeting to interview them very artificial way, at low wages. for our mass paper.
B. The "Youth Units."
F. There is one law for youths Q. What mass paper? 16-17 years of age and another for F. We are publishing a special youths 18-19 years of age. campaign paper in editions of a
B. They have just taken all quarter of a million copies nationally. the young people off the unemploy- It's not the paper of the SP but of ment rolls. They have put them into the coalition. It's mainly made up of Youth Units and taken away all their interviews with the different candisocial benefits. What happens is that dates on our slates and different when they cut back social services, members of the four component orgafor example, they lay off the hospital nizations. We assume about 90 percent workers and replace them with Youth of the costs, but we give the other Units, who get half the wages. organizations equal space.
The most important demand for The interviews take up different the youth protest campaign is aspects of the platform. The main the right to real jobs. The other article in the latest issue describes the demands are that young people flow of money from the poor to should have places of their own the banks, to the industrialists, and to live and a right to happiness. to the finance capitalists. There are two articles on the back, one is on
We brat thre org cam issu hig are and par the the the dict is b the secT aga pol try the new Nac reft for stay pur farr led the sch Un: and alt the ind Sto con of live tryi tog for waI
So
Q. What is tion, exactly? B. It's a new i really a political the traditional se
F. They ha demands, mon happiness, etc. a lot of rebe them, youngster In fact, these y dubious about Anyway, they minimum votin anarchistic mir inside seem to support our cam
We may see in the campaig will not present tion but as a "Benny" has n for socialism.
B. They say the "Benny" organiza- Central America and one is on Poland.
The latter is mainly an attack on ›henomenon. It's not the way the bourgeoisie exploits youth organization in this question.
The different organizations in the inse. ve just two or three coalition will also distribute their ey in the pocket, own materials. For example, a number They have gathered of SP branches have made their own llious youth around mass papers. s of 14, 15, 16 years. oung people are very Q. How much of a role do running in elections. internationalist issues play in the can't vote. The campaign? ; age is 18. They are F. The Polish issue is less active now, because the situation in Poland ided. The socialists have pressed them to has not changed for the last two years. There is a more active interest paign. some problems later in Nicaragua. That is a well established 1. Because the media issue now in Swedish politics. For the ticket as a coali- example, in my city, the municipal socialist one. And government has twinned with a ot taken a position little town outside Leon called Santa
Rosa. This has given the Nicaragua
"We're neither left solidarity committee in Nacka the nor right, we're just 'Benny' " This occasion to invite representatives imaginary character, "Benny," is the of Santa Rosa to speak. There is a symbol of the group, sort of a mascot, collection going on now to gather a strange-looking figure with big 30,000 crowns for a school. Many teeth. He is drawn on walls all radicals go to Nicaragua to work.
International Viewpoint 16 September 1985
We also have a member of the Nacka branch of the SP in Nicaragua working in public health. She will return for three weeks in August and we will organize meetings for her to speak on Nicaragua in the framework of the campaign.
Q. What role does the immigrant issue play?
F. We have put immigrants in high positions on our slates. They are allowed to vote in municipal and regional elections but not for parliament. So, we demand that they also have the right to vote for the national government. Moreover, the flow of refugees from third world dictatorships has increased and that is becoming a big issue in Sweden. For the first time, small racist and Nazi sects are trying to start agitation against immigrants. The border