Sweden
EuroPassive
The European elections confirmed the sad state of the Swedish workers movement. Peter Lindgren Participation in the election was under 37%. This is less than the 1995 EU elections (42%) and much lower than the over 80% participation in the last three national
Low participation reflects the political passivity amongst the poorer strata of the population. Poorer electoral districts Over half the residents of the wealthy suburbs participated in these EU-elections, compared to about 20% of residents of the poorer districts.
According to professor Peter Esaisson of Stockholm University, "this is probably the most clear class
ET EUROPA UDEN EU!
election in Sweden since the
Despite this class polarisation, the
Social Democrats reached an all time low, with 26% of the vote. In
Enheds/isten - de red-granne other words, only 9.7% of registe- Denmark's Red-Green Alliance (above) supported the anti-EU candidates who red voters answered the call of the 23.4% of the vote, maintaining their four seats in the EuroParliament. The party that governed the country Socialist People's Party dropped from 8.6% to 7.1%, but kept its single seat. from 1936 to 1976.
The [ex-Communist] Left Party attracted 15.8% of the vote. This was even better than its 1995 record score of 12.9%. The party's top candidate Jonas Sjoumlstedt scored 40% of votes in his district.
The low vote for the Social Democrats is no surprise. The party has been in the forefront for cutbacks and neoliberalism since they returned to government in 1982. Their message to the voters has been "Our cutbacks are painful but necessary". In 1993 the conservative government only dared to cut unemployment benefits from 90% of salary to 80%—provoking a protest demonstration of 30,000 trade unionists. Two years later, the Social Democrats cut it to 75%, and the only demonstrators were about 800
Although it is moving to the right, the Left Party is increasingly seen as the party that best continues the old social democratic traditions, and best defends the welfare state. Their votes reflects the failure of "modernisers" to eradicate social democratic working people in Sweden. Voters continue to defend publicly owned hospitals and continue to believe 8 - International Viewpoint #314 September 1999 that taxes can be used to the advantage of the people.
Since 1998 the Social Democrats are in government. Their majority in the parliament depends on the Greens and the Left Party. This has prevented them from making serious attacks on the welfare state-though the minor cutbacks for the unemployed and the sick quite clearly show which direction the Social Democrats and some of their partners would like to go.
There has already been a revolt within the Left Party's parliamentary group. Younger MPs like Jenny Lindahl (leader of the party youth league) are responsible for the party's growing popularity. But they also resent the discipline that forces them to vote for cuts in social
The terrible passivity of the workers' movement can be seen in the reactions to the Balkan war. The government supported every NATO bomb, not even condemning the bombings of the Swedish embassy in Belgrade. The traditional policy of neutrality has been sold out to the EU without opposition or dis-
According to Social Democrat MP Bengt Silfverstrand, "the elected leadership of the party and the parliamentary group has not once discussed the Balkan war!"
Progressive NGOs like Workers Aid have received impressive sums of money from the public. But apart from the metal workers national congress in late May, no trade unions made any statement on the war. And even the metal workers' declaration stated that "the EU is a peace project since its first beginning in the late forties".
Parties from outside the mainstream have failed to fill the vacuum in Swedish politics. The anti-immigrant SwedenDemocrats became the largest extra-parliamentary party, with an unimpressive 8,568 votes (despite generous financial support from the French National Front). The far-left Socialist Party (4" International) decided not to revive the Justice List, which attracted almost 15,000 votes in 1995. This time, most of the far left* voted-without enthusiasm-for the Left Party. * * Except the Trotskyist Justice Party (affiliated to the CWE) which attracted 1,430 votes nationally.