Scandinavian conference of trade-union fighters THE FIRST all-Scandinavian conference of militant trade-unionists in the memory of the post-1960 radical generations was held over the weekend of October 26-27 in Goteborg, Sweden's second largest city and industrial center. It was initiated by the trade-union opposition at the Volvo plants in Goteborg, and by a group of forty trade unionists in Denmark. More than two hundred union activists attended. In addition to participants coming from the length and breadth of Sweden, a large group came from Denmark and a smaller one from Norway. Members and sympathizers of the Fourth International predominated, but there were also activists from other organizations, such as the Left Socialists (VS), the Revolutionary Socialists (RS) and the International Socialists (IS) from Denmark and the Workers Power Group (AMG) and the International Socialists from Norway. GERRY FOLEY
SCANDINAVIA
On Sunday, there were a series of workshops on trade union work in the various industries, in particular mining, steel, and shipbuilding. One workshop was on the ten-year history of the trade union opposition at the Volvo plants in Goteborg. Another was on trade-union work in the social services sector.
Especially the Saturday workshops covered a very wide range of issues. There was one on the problems posed by the new technologies, along with one devoted to the fight against plant closings in crisis-hit industries. A leader in the later discussion was Harry Isaksson, the best known figure from the wildcat strike at the Malmberget iron mine in the far north of Sweden in 1969-70, which first pointed to a new rise of militancy in the Swedish labor movement.
Isaksson personifies long traditions in the Swedish labor movement, and his presence, among other things, helped to put the conference in helped to nut the conference historical perspective. He told me that he had been particularly inspired by the rise of Solidarnosc in Poland. He thought that was the example of the rank-and-file trade-unionism he wants to see in his own country.
There were also special workshops on the fight against cutbacks in the public sector, the fight against discrimination against women in the workplace and the unions, and on building solidarity with other workers struggles. The last was led by Dennis Pennington from the British NUM. There was a workshop on the fight against racism and xenophobia and on the struggle of youth for jobs, training, and trade-union organization."
In the workshop on youth, Kent Johansson from the Kontaktnaptet for • Arbetsloesa i Sverige (Swedish Contact Network for Unemployed) described the problems of the so-called youth jobs schemes that have proliferated in his country. Jacob Nerup from the Laerlingarnas Landsorganisation (Apprentices National Labor Organization) in Copenhagen gave an outline of the great variety of associations of young workers in Denmark.
In fact, the presence of a number of energetic young workers from Denmark did not fail to make a mark on the conference, as well as on the evening festivities.
The conference was well organized and welcomed all trade-union activists and socialist political groups. In particular, it testified to the capacities of Fourth Internationalist workers in Sweden and the growing regional profile of the trade-union opposition in Volvo-Goteborg, which is now in a majority in the two major plants in the area.
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GERRY FOLEY
GOTEBORG, SWEDEN - Reporting on the conference in its October 28 issue, the Goteborg Post, one of the largest dailies in the region, quoted Gote Kilden, a leader of the Swedish section of the Fourth International and Volvo trade-union opposition: "One of the ideas of the meeting was to exchange experience with each other, because the normal trade-union channels are so clogged." The Volvo union leader referred to some of the discussions:
"We got information about the struggle that the Danish scaffolding workers are involved in, and this was something that we had not heard about before in Sweden. On the other hand, the Danes did not know anything about the struggle here against asbestos or the cleaners' strike.
"We also learned how people in Norway are pushing the demand for a six-hour day and how people are fighting racism in other countries."
The Goteborg Post's account concluded by quoting Kilden on the importance of links among workers throughout the region:
"Today, it's not just Gyllenhammer who's talking about Nordic cooperation. This conference is a first step toward a workers' link in the North, a link that will function to defend jobs and to stop the destruction of the environment." Gyllenhammer is the boss of Volvo and the muscle behind the proposal to build a new highway in the Goteborg region called the "Scandinavian Link." The Volvo union militants are supporting the fight against this project, and the conference offered its facilities to the environmentalist coalition "Motlaenken" (Against the Link) to explain the importance of this struggle.
International Viewpoint 11 November 1985
The traffic in the Goteborg area does not justify a new highway. Furthermore the forests in the area are already threatened by exhaust fumes, among other things.
The "Link" is part of a project to reorganize the road network in Western Europe centering around the industrial heartland of West Germany. The big capitalist combines involved are strong enough even to blackmail national governments.
However, the conference did not discuss only Scandinavian or even West European problems. It was opened by a speech by Kilden on the struggle against austerity and for fighting democratic trade unions. But the second speaker was Jorge Alberto Hernandez from the Salvadoran union federation FENESTRAS, who appealed for support for the struggle of workers in his country.
Representatives from other coun tries described their struggles and appealed for solidarity. They included Dennis Pennington from the British National Union of Mine Workers (NUM) and a spokesperson from the African National Congress, who, among other things, stressed the working-class dynamic of the struggle in South Africa. A collection was taken up for the NUM, the ANC, and the Danish building workers, as well as for the Swedish cleaners.
A good deal of time was devoted to discussing the experience of the aborted Danish general strike at Easter. Ardan Johansen from the printing workers union in Copenhagen gave a report on it in a plenary session and there was also a workshop on this subject, as well as on the fight for the 35 hour week in Denmark in general.
SCANDINAVIA