Anarchism in Sweden

Last updated
Anarchists occupying a building in Sweden 077 meravsperrningar kring skolan (39036989).jpg
Anarchists occupying a building in Sweden

Anarchism in Sweden first grew out of the nascent social democratic movement during the later 19th century, with a specifically libertarian socialist tendency emerging from a split in the movement. As with the movements in Germany and the Netherlands, Swedish anarchism had a strong syndicalist tendency, [1] which culminated in the establishment of the Central Organisation of the Workers of Sweden (SAC) following an aborted general strike. The modern movement emerged during the late 20th century, growing within a number of countercultural movements before the revival of anarcho-syndicalism during the 1990s. [2]

Contents

History and influence

Anarchism was reported to have been extant in Sweden by Mikhail Bakunin as early as 1866. [3]

Anarchist ideas were prominent in the Swedish Social Democratic Party (SAP) from its founding in 1889 to the early 1900s, with a number of anarchists including Hinke Bergegren becoming leading members. After the exclusion of Bergegren and other anarchists from the SAP in 1908, the party's youth organization – the Young Socialists (Swedish : Ungsocialisterna) – broke away to form a separate anti-parliamentary socialist party. [2]

Following the defeat of the Great Strike of 1909, a number of Young Socialists participated in the foundation of an anarcho-syndicalist trade union, the Sveriges Arbetares Centralorganisation (SAC). [4] During World War I, the SAC received support from the German syndicalist Augustin Souchy, while in the United States, the Swedish labor organizer Joe Hill was executed. [2] The rise of anarcho-syndicalism influenced the magazine Brand , which had been published since 1898, to turn towards anarchism during the 1910s, going on to become the oldest continuously published anarchist magazine in Sweden. [2] [5]

Anti-war demonstration by the Lund's Anarchist Group in the late 1960s. Demo-Lund.jpg
Anti-war demonstration by the Lund's Anarchist Group in the late 1960s.

The Swedish anarchist movement experienced a resurgence as a result of the protests of 1968, although by this time the Young Socialist Party had ceased to exist. Further attempts to rekindle a national organisation were largely short-lived, with anarchist presence instead taking root in the rising counterculture of the 1970s, particularly within the punk subculture and nascent intentional communities. By the 1980s, Swedish anarchists had come under the influence of the German autonomist movement, with a number of squats being established throughout the country, and by the following decade, green anarchism was embraced by an increasing number of Swedish anarchists. [2]

Following the revolutions of 1989, Swedish interest in anarcho-syndicalism was revived. The SAC had continued its activities and grew to over 6,500 members, remaining active in labor organizing up until the modern day. In 1993, the Swedish Anarcho-syndicalist Youth Federation (SUF) was established as a youth organization in collaboration with the SAC. [2]

One of many minor anarchist groups are the Fag Army, a left-wing queer anarchist group, which launched its first action on August 18, 2014, when it pied the Minister for Health and Social Affairs, Christian Democrat leader Göran Hägglund. [6]

Notable anarchists

Organizations

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Syndicalism</span> Form of revolutionary organisation

Syndicalism is a revolutionary current within the labor movement that, through industrial unionism, seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through strikes, with the eventual goal of gaining control over the means of production and the economy at large through social ownership. Developed in French labor unions during the late 19th century, syndicalist movements were most predominant amongst the socialist movement during the interwar period that preceded the outbreak of World War II.

Anarcho-syndicalism is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that views revolutionary industrial unionism or syndicalism as a method for workers in capitalist society to gain control of an economy and thus control influence in broader society. The goal of syndicalism is to abolish the wage system, regarding it as wage slavery. Anarcho-syndicalist theory generally focuses on the labour movement. Reflecting the anarchist philosophy from which it draws its primary inspiration, anarcho-syndicalism is centred on the idea that power corrupts and that any hierarchy that cannot be ethically justified must be dismantled.

Anarchism and violence have been linked together by events in anarchist history such as violent revolution, terrorism, assassination attempts and propaganda of the deed. Propaganda of the deed, or attentát, was espoused by leading anarchists in the late 19th century and was associated with a number of incidents of political violence. Anarchist thought, however, is quite diverse on the question of violence. Where some anarchists have opposed coercive means on the basis of coherence, others have supported acts of violent revolution as a path toward anarchy. Anarcho-pacifism is a school of thought within anarchism which rejects all violence.

The International Workers' Association – Asociación Internacional de los Trabajadores (IWA–AIT) is an international federation of anarcho-syndicalist labor unions and initiatives.

The history of anarchism is ambiguous, primarily due to the ambiguity of anarchism itself. Scholars find it hard to define or agree on what anarchism means, which makes outlining its history difficult. There is a range of views on anarchism and its history. Some feel anarchism is a distinct, well-defined 19th and 20th century movement while others identify anarchist traits long before first civilisations existed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front</span> Political party in South Africa

The Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front, formerly known as the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Federation (ZabFed), is a platformist–especifista anarchist political organisation in South Africa, based primarily in Johannesburg. The word zabalaza means "struggle" or "active rebellion" in isiZulu, isiXhosa, siSwati and isiNdebele. Initially, as ZabFed, it was a federation of pre-existing collectives, mainly in Soweto and Johannesburg. It is now a unitary organisation based on individual applications for membership, describing itself as a "federation of individuals". Historically the majority of members have been people of colour. Initially the ZACF had sections in both South Africa and Swaziland. The two sections were split in 2007, but the Swazi group faltered in 2008. Currently the ZACF also recruits in Zimbabwe. Members have experienced oppression in South Africa and Swaziland.

The Japanese Anarchist Federation was an anarchist organisation that existed in Japan from 1946 to 1968.

Anarchism in South Africa dates to the 1880s, and played a major role in the labour and socialist movements from the turn of the twentieth century through to the 1920s. The early South African anarchist movement was strongly syndicalist. The ascendance of Marxism–Leninism following the Russian Revolution, along with state repression, resulted in most of the movement going over to the Comintern line, with the remainder consigned to irrelevance. There were slight traces of anarchist or revolutionary syndicalist influence in some of the independent left-wing groups which resisted the apartheid government from the 1970s onward, but anarchism and revolutionary syndicalism as a distinct movement only began re-emerging in South Africa in the early 1990s. It remains a minority current in South African politics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alternative libertaire</span> Political organization in France

Alternative libertaire was a French anarchist organization formed in 1991 which publishes a monthly magazine, actively participates in a variety of social movements, and is a participant in the Anarkismo.net project. In 2019 the organization merged into the Union Communiste Libertaire

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anarchism in Ukraine</span> History of the anarchist movement in Ukraine

Anarchism in Ukraine has its roots in the democratic and egalitarian organization of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, who inhabited the region up until the 18th century. Philosophical anarchism first emerged from the radical movement during the Ukrainian national revival, finding a literary expression in the works of Mykhailo Drahomanov, who was himself inspired by the libertarian socialism of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. The spread of populist ideas by the Narodniks also lay the groundwork for the adoption of anarchism by Ukraine's working classes, gaining notable circulation in the Jewish communities of the Pale of Settlement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anarchism in Australia</span> Australian anarchism

Anarchism in Australia arrived within a few years of anarchism developing as a distinct tendency in the wake of the 1871 Paris Commune. Although a minor school of thought and politics, composed primarily of campaigners and intellectuals, Australian anarchism has formed a significant current throughout the history and literature of the colonies and nation. Anarchism's influence has been industrial and cultural, though its influence has waned from its high point in the early 20th century where anarchist techniques and ideas deeply influenced the official Australian union movement. In the mid 20th century anarchism's influence was primarily restricted to urban bohemian cultural movements. In the late 20th century and early 21st century Australian anarchism has been an element in Australia's social justice and protest movements.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to anarchism:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anarchism in Argentina</span> Aspect of Argentine politics

The Argentine anarchist movement was the strongest such movement in South America. It was strongest between 1890 and the start of a series of military governments in 1930. During this period, it was dominated by anarchist communists and anarcho-syndicalists. The movement's theories were a hybrid of European anarchist thought and local elements, just as it consisted demographically of both European immigrant workers and native Argentines.

Anarchism in Japan began to emerge in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as Western anarchist literature began to be translated into Japanese. It existed throughout the 20th century in various forms, despite repression by the state that became particularly harsh during the two world wars, and it reached its height in the 1920s with organisations such as Kokuren and Zenkoku Jiren.

Contemporary anarchism within the history of anarchism is the period of the anarchist movement continuing from the end of World War II and into the present. Since the last third of the 20th century, anarchists have been involved in anti-globalisation, peace, squatter and student protest movements. Anarchists have participated in armed revolutions such as in those that created the Makhnovshchina and Revolutionary Catalonia, and anarchist political organizations such as the International Workers' Association and the Industrial Workers of the World have existed since the 20th century. Within contemporary anarchism, the anti-capitalism of classical anarchism has remained prominent.

Types of socialism include a range of economic and social systems characterised by social ownership and democratic control of the means of production and organizational self-management of enterprises as well as the political theories and movements associated with socialism. Social ownership may refer to forms of public, collective or cooperative ownership, or to citizen ownership of equity in which surplus value goes to the working class and hence society as a whole. There are many varieties of socialism and no single definition encapsulates all of them, but social ownership is the common element shared by its various forms Socialists disagree about the degree to which social control or regulation of the economy is necessary, how far society should intervene, and whether government, particularly existing government, is the correct vehicle for change.

Anarchism in Peru emerged from the Peruvian trade union movement during the late 19th century and the first two decades of the 20th century.

Anarchism in Denmark emerged in the late 19th century from the revolutionary factions of early social democratic spheres, crystalizing into a widespread anarcho-syndicalist movement that reached its height during the late 1910s. After the disintegration of organized syndicalism, anarchists in post-war Denmark began to organize the squatters' movement, which led to the creation of Freetown Christiania.

Anarchism in Austria first developed from the anarchist segments of the International Workingmen's Association (IWA), eventually growing into a nationwide anarcho-syndicalist movement that reached its height during the 1920s. Following the institution of fascism in Austria and the subsequent war, the anarchist movement was slow to recover, eventually reconstituting anarcho-syndicalism by the 1990s.

The Young Socialists was the name of the anarchist and socialist organization that can be said to be responsible for the break, which took place in 1908, between Swedish anarchism and social democracy. It was, among other things, these Young Socialists who took care of the magazine Brand. The Young Socialists were, among other things, behind the formation of the Central Organisation of the Workers of Sweden and the Young Socialist Party. The organization existed until the end of the 1960s, then under the name of the Anarchist Federation.

References

  1. Woodcock 2004, p. 366.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Kuhn 2009, p. 1.
  3. Woodcock 2004, p. 135.
  4. Campbell 1992, p. 435.
  5. "Om | Tidningen Brand". tidningenbrand.se. Retrieved 2016-01-15.
  6. "Christian Democrat leader attacked with cake". The Local . 18 August 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2014.

Bibliography

Further reading