Contribution of the Communist Party of Sweden

To the May 2026 ECA Teleconference hosted by the Communist Party of the Workers of Spain:

“The tasks of communists in organising the Communist Party in workplaces and working-class neighbourhoods.”

 

On behalf of the Communist Party of Sweden, I wish to thank our comrades of the Communist Party of the Workers of Spain for organizing and hosting this meeting. The question of Communist Party organizing in workplaces and working class neighborhoods
is a fundamental one for securing the communists’ foothold among the working class, and in building a party able to inspire and lead the workers in the class struggle.

This is currently one of the most important tasks of the Communist Party of Sweden. As we approach this task as a small party, with a small footprint within the working class in general, and unions in particular, we have needed to approach this problem from a broad
perspective. With a goal of organizing the most radical anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist workers, but also students and retirees, we have started by analyzing the class composition of current day Sweden, with an eye towards the popular strata, seeking out
those groups who have common interests with the working class.

With this analysis to guide us we have formed working groups within the party to oversee the work of expanding the party’s outreach, member organizing within unions and other mass organizations, and to support and guide the members involved. Through this we
seek to use our resources as efficiently as possible, identifying where our members’ efforts, and thus the party’s, can have the biggest impact.

We are already seeing positive signs from these efforts, but the struggle to gain significant ground within the unions will be a challenge, given their nature in Sweden. The dominance of the Social Democratic Party in the Swedish labor movement was codified already in 1941, when the national umbrella organization for labor unions, the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) was centralized. This move concentrated power over the labor unions in the hands of leading Social Democrats. The monitoring of communist members of labor unions continued at least into the 1970s, with the assistance of the Security Police.

Through this monitoring hundreds of thousands of communists, peace activists, union members and others were registered by the Social Democrats and the Secret Police. This made it possible for the Social Democrats to effectively attack communists in the unions.
Social Democratic union representatives were trained in how to act against the communists and hired agitators would be sent to communist-dominated districts. The Social Democrats were thus able to slowly, but steadily, undermine support for the communists within the labor movement.

The Social Democratic dominance of the major labor unions has made them into top-down organizations, where the members have very little say in their running. An emphasis on avoiding conflicts that threaten productivity comes equally from the labor union
leadership as it does from the captains of trade and industry, disarming the workers of their most powerful weapon, the strike. As the decision to strike can only be taken centrally, and not while a collective bargaining agreement is in place, strikes have become a rarity, the few recent strikes often being of the so-called “wildcat” variety. This also means that political strikes are close to impossible for unionized labor, unless they go the “wildcat” route.

The conciliatory nature of the Swedish LO labor unions could be clearly seen in the 2023 rounds of collective bargaining, where the leadership of one union after another opened their bargaining with wage increase demands far below the rate of inflation. One explanation from the union side was that both parties, the employers and the labor union, needed to take mutual responsibility for not driving up inflation. Yet again the workers would pay for the crisis of capital and this with union acceptance.

These class-collaborationist characteristics of the unions, along with their lack of member democracy, need to be highlighted. This will be done most effectively by organized and principled communist workers. These workers must also lead the struggle to turn the
unions into fighting organizations of the workers. Not only to demand substantial wage increases - far beyond what the representatives of the state, businesses and labor union bureaucracy consider “reasonable” - but also to reverse the deterioration of other compensation and working conditions in general. One important area is retirement age, which has been raised in recent years, and where a massive pushback should be mounted to not just return the retirement age to earlier positions, but to actually reduce it
even further. This in particular for those who face physical wear and tear in their line of work.

When it comes to collective bargaining agreements, the membership of a union does not get to vote on whether they are accepted or not. This is wholly up to the union leadership currently and must become a major point of struggle. The working class must have a voice in what agreements they are a party to and all collective bargaining agreements must be put to the membership for a vote.

In this struggle to mobilize the workers and mold the unions into their fighting organizations, we need to be clear that the state is an instrument of capital. Arrayed against us we have the state, capital and the labor union bureaucracy, but united we are strong. It is crucial that we realize the power we can wield when united, and that the rights of the working class must be our law. We must refuse to recognize any directive or law dictating when we can strike or otherwise rise up in conflict, as only a combative working class can push forward its positions, while passivity leads to defeat.

For this struggle to succeed the working class must come together. The communists and other radical elements within the labor movement must coordinate their efforts more effectively, creating spaces for organization that are beyond the control or influence of the social democratic leadership.