Sweden: a
time of
wolves
ON SEPTEMBER 16, 1991 the Swedish social democratic government fell. The parliamentary elections resulted in the most crushing defeat for the established workers parties since 1928. Above all it was a defeat for the Social Democrats, whose vote fell by 5% to 38%, that is a loss of 300,000 votes since 1988. DICK FORSLUND
B UT it was also a defeat for the
Left Party (LP - formerly the Left Party of Communists). A defeat in figures, in which the LP lost 72,000 votes and decreased from 5.8 to 4.7%, but above all a political defeat, in the sense that the LP was not able to attract all those workers and low income earners who are fed up with the austerity policies and drift to the right by the Social Democrats over the past ten years.
The LP, which experienced a boost in popularity a year and a half ago when it opposed government proposals to ban strikes, has since been ridden with internal conflicts. A group of leaders and MPs has been publicly pressing the party to be more "reasonable" and "responsible", arguing that this must be the conclusion of the fall of what they once called "really existing socialism" in Eastern Europe. This group finally called for a vote for the Social Democrats a week before the elections. Witch hunt follows Moscow coup
Other party leaders were unable to respond to this campaign, which was applauded in the press and finally developed into a witchhunt after the Moscow coup, with the aim of "driving the Communists out of parliament."
Despite their public opposition to Stalinism and the coup, the LP were unable to challenge the identification of socialism as such with Stalinism. The LP leader- 25 ship's response when confronted with the
Trotskyist campaign
THE Socialist Party (SP - Swedish section of the Fourth International) chose to enter these elections in a united front with local Left party branches in a number of towns. Despite meagre results for the common slates, SP candidates
International Viewpoint #214 • October 14, 1991
SWEDEN one a successful businessman and the other an unsuccessful descendant of the Swedish aristocracy who has been sacked from leading positions in Swedish big finance — were embraced by the media as "something new". Their meetings, at were elected to the local parliament in Umea in the north and in Nacka outside
Stockholm. In other towns, where the LP rejected unity with "irresponsible revolutionaries" or the SP had decided to run alone because of the poor state of the
LP, the results were contradictory. Preliminary results from the district of
Jönköping indicate a rise of the SP vote from 500 to 2,000, whereas in Uppsala,
Sweden's fourth biggest town, the SP scored around 1,000 for their separate slate as in previous campaigns. In the industrial town of Eskilstuna, the "pure"
SP slate got 500 votes (0.7%) while in another industrial town, Köping, the SP was eight votes short of staying in the local parliament, with its vote falling from
SP spokesperson Gote Kilden ran in Gothenburg as the third candidate on the LP slate for national parliament. This unity could not counteract the slide to the right in Swedish politics. The LP got only one seat in Gothenburg. However, the left wing LP branch in Gothenburg holds the possibility open for Kilden to alternate with their elected MP on occasions. * right wing campaign against "stone dead was to keep the question of class power and socialism out of the debate. Instead, the LP leadership put all its weight behind trying to defend the
"Swedish model" and the gains of the workers movement in a better and more consistent way than the social democracy.
This was done without addressing the issues of power within society and with arguments for high income taxes and other measures that social democracy ten years ago. Questions like:
"won't big capital leave Sweden if you try to act against the will of big finance?"
were answered "I don't think so" or "it will not happen immediately", if any
Lack of alternative to
Stalinism
The LP's lack of an alternative to Stalinism was also shown when the party chairman, in a 45 minute television interview, was unable to give a clear answer to questions like "do you support the ideal of
Communism or not?". This performance disappointed both
LP members, who smelled concessions to right wing propaganda and those right wing LP members of parliament who want the LP to become a "real" parliamentary left reformist party
— this, in their opinion, is the only way to attract disappointed social democrats.
The winners in the election were the
Conservative Party (Moderaterna) which won 21.9% of the vote (an increase of
4%), the Christian Democrats, who got into parliament for the first time with 7% of the votes, and New Democracy, which has grown in one year from nothing to nearly 7% and also gained parliamentary representation for the first time. The head of the new government is conservative leader Carl Bildt.
The Green Party, which entered parlia-
26 ment for the first time in 1988, lost its seats, polling less than the 4% threshold for parliamentary representation. It paid for its three years of adaptation to the system. The voters, although positive about the party's defence of the environment, no longer see a vote for the Greens as a way of protesting against the establishment. This role was instead taken over by the conservatives and above all the New Democracy.
The two more "welfare minded" bourgeois parties also lost out. The Centre Party lost 160,000 votes with 8.5% and the Liberals lost 180,000 and got 9%.
The Centre Party is the traditional defender of the farmers in Sweden and tried during the election to advance their interests, criticizing the Social Democrats from the left on the issue of taxes. The Liberals campaigned with the Conservatives for a harsh austerity programme — with the aim of entering a coalition government — simultaneously raising criticisms of the new hardline policy on refugees.
Racists score success in south
That the traditional liberal defence of refugees was not a vote winner was shown in Skåne, the county in the very south of Sweden, where the racist Sjöbopartiet got almost 7% of the vote, campaigning on a single issue "stop the immigrants" platform. Their success cut the support for the centre party by one third.
Hostility towards immigrants and refugees of a smoother kind was also a theme of the extreme right New Democracy. This was combined in their propaganda with harsh attacks on politicians, trade unions and the state bureaucracy — "which gets a lot of money but does nothing to earn it" — and legislation restricting the use of alcohol, car traffic and the activities of small businesses (it is true that small businesses are going bankrupt by the hundred each day in Sweden).
The two leaders of New Democracy - which they criticized the Social Democrats for being unfair to the working class and being no longer a workers' party, dreds of thousands owing to the social democratic tax reform, isn't that unfair" was one of their themes. At the same time their programme suggests cutting taxes on private fortunes, stock market business and easing the already light tax burden on
With the exception of the north of Sweden, where social democracy and traditional Communism are very strong, the New Democracy made heavy inroads in working class neighbourhoods, both in big and small towns. This — together with the fact that more workers than ever abstained from voting — cut big slices (up to 10%) out of traditional social democratic and LP support. In the industrial town of Gothenburg, Sweden's second largest city, the LP went from 9 to 7% and the social democracy lost its majority in the local parliament, while ND got 7.1% and 4 seats in the local parliament.
Youth support for New Democracy
The ND also got a lot of support from youth voting for the first time. In high school test elections, scores of 20% for New Democracy and 30 to 40% for the conservatives were not unusual.
There were some exceptions to this picture, which has been described as the "right wing revolution" in the Swedish press. In two medium sized towns, Alvesta and Nässjö, a left wing opposition got between 15 and 20% of the vote. In both cases these new local parties were splitoffs from the social democracy arguing that their mother party had turned bourgeois. These left alternatives, unmarked by the stigma of Stalinism and with deep roots in the local labour movement, managed to canalize working cutting the support for social democracy by half and - as in many cases in the north of Sweden - keeping New Democracy out of the local parliament.
The far left KPML(r) also gained influence in two towns where they had concentrated on working class issues. But this party also lost votes in its stronghold, Gothenburg, where it got a little over 2%.
Swedish social democracy has been dealt a severe blow. It is the biggest political defeat for the labour movement in Sweden for over half a century. For the first time since the twenties a strong right has taken the government; this will be different from the bourgeois interlude between 1976 and 1982
LP leader Lars Werner described the
AROUND
October 14, 1991 • #214 International Viewpoint result as "not so bad" referring to the fact that his party managed to stay in parliament. The social democratic newspapers and leaders in their turn put their hopes in the chaos created by the entry of two new parties into parliament. They question the possibility of the bourgeoisie forming a strong government, hoping for new elections within the year.