Breakthrough for Left Party
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* Sweden The ex-communist Left Party (Vänsterpartiet) are the most impressive winners of the recent parliamentary election. Peter Lindgren In previous elections the party seemed stuck at 3-6% of the vote. This time they won 12%. The Left Party is now the third largest party in the Riksdag (parliament).
The Social Democrats, still Sweden's dominant party, have been obliged to start negotiating with the Left Party and the Greens about a "long-time co-operation" agreement to cover the four-year life of parliament. The Social Democrats and the Left Party are one vote short of a majority in the 349-seat assembly.
Prime Minister Göran Person says he doesn't want the two smaller left parties to be part of the government, but to support from outside. For the Left Party. this is a open question. Left Party leader Gudrun Schyman is the first woman to lead a Swedish
The history of the Left Party is similar to other European Communist Parties. The Communist Party of Sweden changed its name to the Left Party Communists in 1967. In 1968 the party strongly condemned the invasion of Czechoslovakia, even demanding that Sweden should break off diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union! The development towards "eurocommunism" took a step forward in 1977, when the hard-line supporters of the Soviet "line" left the party.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the party briefly tried to build a strong, united left (like Spain's United Left). The far-left Socialist Party (4" International) participated on a joint list in the 1991 election, but declined a serious offer to join the Left Party. Later that year, the Left Party caused a government crisis, voting against the Social Democrats, who wanted to freeze public sector salaries.
Eventually, events in the ex-USSR and eastern Europe provoked a political crisis for the party. Several party leaders joined the Social Democrats. The rest decided to change the party's name to Left Party. "Communists" became demoralised and increasingly passive. The right-wing within the party grew in strength. This trend was helped by the lack of party organisations in the trade unions and workplaces. In fact, the last workplace branch of the party dissolved in the beginning of the parliamentary party Communists and, for a few years in the 1970s, a Maoist group called the Marxist-Leninist Struggle League.
Autumn 1994 was a decisive moment for the party. The new Social Democratic government pushed through an aggressive austerity budget, cutting down a total of 126 billion kronor (US$16.7bn.). These cutbacks were particularly hard for the unemployed, social welfare recipients and single mothers - all core voters of the Social Democrats.
You wouldn't know it if you looked at their 1998 electoral campaign, but at the time the Left Party supported these cutbacks! In fact, the "savings-parcel" only passed in parliament because of the votes of Left Party deputies.
According to Jörn Svensson, an MEP on the right of the Left Party, "our party was dishonest Tin 1994] when we took recponsibility for 114 billions of 126 billions in cutbacks and then - during the 1998 electoral campaign - blamed the Social Democrats for the cutbacks."
In 1995 the Social Democrats turned their back on the Left Party, preferring to negotiate its cuts programmes with the liberal Centre Party (Centerpartiet). One reason for the strategic shift was the Left Party's critical view of the European Union. The Swedish establishment is committed to the European Union, but all polls since 1995 shows that a majority, particularly among working people, want Sweden to leave the Union.
The new co-operation between Social Democrats and the Centre Party let the Left Party off the hook during this election. The party was able to demand "justice" for the unemployed, single mothers and social welfare recipients. In the eyes of the voters. the Left Partv was standing for a traditional, social democratic, welfare policy.
Among young people voting for the first time, the party won 20%. About 27% of unemployed voters supported the Left Party, as did over 30% of members of the LO trade union confederation, which organises 84% of blue-collar workers. The true face of the "responsible" Left Party could be seen in some municipal governments. In Stockholm in 1996, a Social Democrat-Left Party-Green coalition cut 3 billion kronor (US$ 400m.) from the health budget. Not surprisingly, Stockholm voters have since elected a bourgeois eighties.
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Such was the climate in the party that
Women's lives in the new global economy
Gudrun Schyman, claimed she had never been a Communist, when she became party leader in 1994. In fact, the first woman to lead any Swedish parliamentary party had been a member of the Left Party
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Penny Duggan & Heather Dashner (editors
the Left Party. But the two parties have must now start to prepare a common seats — one less than a majority! The suspect are coming." [PL] * majority. In several cities the Left Party showed it's "responsible" attitude to cash shortages at the municipal level by cutting payments to welfare recipients.
Tragically, the left inside the party reacted in a very confused way. At the 1996 congress of the Left Party, left-wingers denounced any co-operation with the Centre Party, while voting in favour of the Stockholm council health cuts.
The outcome of the current government negotiations will ultimately be decided at the international level. With a crisis in Asia, Russia and Latin America, there is small reason for optimism.
Perhaps we will see a government like the Jospin administration in France: a left government that satisfies the needs of big business, and implements the reactionary criteria of European economic integration.
"The markets" have reacted mildly to the elections indeed. And the Left Party has made it clear they will not "put at risk the repayments of the budget deficit". They want to repay public debt slightly more slowly than the Social Democrats, but stress that the difference is only 10bn. kronor ($1.4bn) This is certainly a comforting message for "the markets". In fact, Sweden's public sector debt is only 30% of GDP, much lower than the EU
The European Commission has bluntly announced that unemployment payments in Sweden are too high, and must be reduced. Social Democratic Finance Minister Erik Asbrink has promised to comply. But he will not have an easy ride. This quesThe centre collapses Sweden's ruling Social Democrats have tion was hotly debated at the Social
Democratic congress in September 1997. The party leadership was clearly defeated by the delegates, a very rare phenomenon showing the strong feelings of the traditio nal welfare-sentiment in the party.
The Left Party's electoral campaign included a pledge to increase unemployment benefits. But party leaders would rather give proof of their "responsibility" Their strong parliamentary group might be a problem. Not all had expected to be elected, and some might stand up for their promises (though their initial statements are not encouraging).
It is clear that the new government will continue with neoliberal policies against the poor. Up to a point, the Left Party will go along with these attacks. No-one knows yet how far the Left Party will go, and when it will resist its "realistic" leaders.
That will be decided by forces outside the parliament. But there is no cause for exaggerated optimism. Only one demonstration in the nineties has gathered more than 8,000 participants - a demonstration of 30,000 against the austerity policies of a conservative government in 1993.
This might mean that the masses will not spontaneously flood the streets in protest against the Social Democrats in the near future. But four years is a long time in politics, and the new government can be expected to provoke bitter dissapointment among its core voters. * * The author co-ordinates the International Viewpoint website. He is a member of the Socialist Party (Swedish
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Austerity and cutbacks were the main only other party likely to support the just had their worst electoral result since
1922. Left and right opposition parties reasons behind the defeat. "I have hurt people", Goran Person admitted after the results were announced. "And I failed government are the Greens. [The alternative for Person is a "grand coalition" with have gained votes Elections on September 20th showed a them]. growing polarisation in Swedish society. Prime Minister Goran Person saw his party's share of the vote fall from 45.3% to 36.6%. The party lost 30 seats.
The ex-Communists of the Left Party (Vansterpartiet) scored a record 12.0%. It's parliamentary representation increased from 22 to 43 seats.
But the right-wing also gained votes. The Christian Democrats - homophobic and neoliberal, though not overtly racist - had their best election since their foundation in 1964. The party's share of the vote increased from 4.1% to 11.8%.
The Social Democrats also lost to "the sofa party", apathy. The number of voters actually exercising their right to vote went down from the usual 86% to 78%.
In the past, a clear majority of unemployed voters have supported the Social Democrats. This time, only 35% gave Goran Person their vote. The Left Party gained a record 27% of votes by unemployed Swedes, with the conservatives in third place with 12%.
to explain why it was necessary" [to hurt
This was the first election since Sweden joined the EU in 1995. In the 1994 referendum on entry, the Social Democrats were the most important part of the "Yes!" coalition but all opinion polls since the end of 1995 show that a majority of Swedes want to leave the EU - including up to 70% of blue collar trade union members! (Sweden has the highest rate of trade union membership in the world: 84%).
One new phenomenon in Swedish politics during the 1990s has been the string of corruption scandals. Not surprisingly, these have particularly hurt the ruling party, the Social Democrats.
In fact, the Swedish political system is in crisis. All parties connected to the policies implemented in recent years did very
The Social Democrats may form a minority government with the support of only 174 of 349 of the parliament's 349 the conservative opposition, so as to marginalise the Left Party - Ed.]
Goran Person has claimed that "l will never risk my credibility with the market. I will not gamble with the debt. Good finances will come before any reforms".
Strong words. But being forced to negotiate with the Left Party may get the prime minister into trouble.
Interestingly, no openly-racist party is represented in Sweden's parliament, refecting the still-strong welfare-sentiment in the country. Even the pro-EU parties claim to be "friends of immigrants", despite the increasingly anti-immigrant and anti-refugee policies adopted in Brussels.
On the extreme left, the Socialist Party defended it's electoral gains, but won no new official positions.
"It is sad, a tragedy, that the extreme left lacked the maturity to form a broad, democratic front during this campaign", said a Socialist Party spokesperson. "This must be done before the European elections in the spring of 1999 And we struggle against the cutbacks that we