Danish workers spit out
Schlueter's bitter pill rial areas were paralyzed by a de facto general strike. On Monday, April 1, the big Danish cities and indust- The Social Democratic Party also strongly opposes
Tillidmandsringen (Shop Stewards Coordinating Pickets organised by the trade-union left wing, the law since the parliament passed a law imposing a strikes, Which are now illegal according to Danish labor mittee) blocked the buses, trains and ferries. general labor settlement on Saturday, March 30.
Social Democrats argue that the government's policy they held meetings and should be opposed only by legal means, that is, preparing for the next general election which is three
DENMARK workers arrived at work, decided to walk out.
Com
Where
The
A number of workplaces decided to call a three-day strike, leading up to the Easter holiday, which begins
On Friday March 29, massive demonstrations against
Thursday, April 4. After they go back to work the government's law took place throughout Denmark,
Tuesday, April 9, they will hold meetings to decide certainly among the largest in the country's history.
what to do next.
Thus, they are leaving open the
The police themselves admitted that there were at least possibility of an unlimited general strike.
125,000 people in front of the parliament building.
workplaces have only decided to strike for 24 hours,
And large demonstrations took place even in small but in these cases also the momentum of the action cities and towns.
will be decisive.
Hardy Hansen, the leader of the SiD (Specielle-
Despite sentiment for an unlimited general strike, arbeiderfoerbund Danmark - General Workers Union which according to the Danish Fourth International-
In Denmark), a left Social Democrat, shifted from ists, 1s running very strong, the Communist Party and a legalistic position in the Friday the Socialist People's Party,
(the majority political to one of support for the strikes. In the coming days, forces in the shop stewards committees) have been the ability of the Tillidsmandsringen to adjust to the dead set against it.
militancy of the ranks and to lead it will be tested.
Gerry FOLEY
"Showdown in Denmark," the March
27 British business daily The Financial
Times headlined its commentary on the
Danish private sector strike that began two days before.
It expressed concern that the very mechanisms that have proved so useful over the last decades in keeping the labor movement under tight control could create explosions now.
What prompted this concern was the onset of a strike by 300,000 private sector workers, the likelihood that it could spread to include 200,000 public workers, and an insurgent mood among rank and file union members.
In the main Scandinavian countries, there is one big union federation - called the Landsorganisation (LO — National
Orgainsation) in Denmark, Norway and
Sweden. And this federation negotiates a national contract with the government and the bosses for the great majority of workers.
This system has maximised the weight of the union bureaucracy and of governmental institutions in bargaining and served to hold in check more militant groups of workers or unions. But it also assures that if a conflict becomes too strong to supress, it can immediately turn into a direct battle between the government and the working class.
The conditions for such a confrontation are greatest in Denmark, which has an economy particularly dependent on international trade and which has suffered severely from the world recessions. At
International Viewpoint 8 April 1985 the onset of the world capitalist crisis in
1974, successive Danish governments started to impose what was in effect a national contract by law. That is, the cabinet simply submitted to parliament a bill setting the guidelines for wages and conditions, and once parliament accepted it, the unions were prevented by law from striking, on pain of heavy fines.
In a telephone interview with Soeren Soendergaard, a leader of the Socialistisk
Arbeiderparti Party, the Danish section of the Fourth International), I asked why the Danish workers had submitted to the government's dictates before now. He said:
"Since the beginning of the crisis it has been the rule that the government has decreed a settlement. But up until 1982, it was always a Social Democratic government that framed the law. What is different now is that a right wing Thatchertype government is in power and they are launching a very hard attack on the work. ing class. They have set a 2% limit on wage increases for the next two years, for example, and inflation is expected to be 10% so that is going to mean a further cut in real wages for working people. The bill does offer a reduction of the work week to 39 hours.
"But this cut in working hours is modelled on the worst features of the settle. ment of the strikes for the 35-hour week in Germany. That is, the employers are permitted to introduce 'flexible working hours,' which means in effeet that a lot of people may find themselves working more than a forty-hour week instead of demonstrations less."
The government's offer for "shorter hours" was explained in detail in the
March 21 issue of Klassekampen, the paper of the SAP:
"The bill provides for a reduction of the workweek by a half hour from September 1 this year and by one hour from
September 1 next year.
39½ hour week and the 38½ hour week before these provisions go into effect will
"This is not the first step toward a 35-hour week. To the contrary, the bosses have gotten their demand for the
La use their workforces more intensively, that is, the so-called flexible working hours.
"The normal workday has been extended. In the metal industry it runs today from 6.00 am to 5.00 pm. This is to become from 6.00 am to 6.00 pm.
"And from today until September 1, for many workers the workweek can remain 45 hours. After that it will be 44½ and next year it may be 43½. And this is without overtime pay."
The article went on to point out that "flexible hours" could mean five hours less per week in the first three months of the year and five hours more in the second quarter."
Soengergaard said: "this settlement will do absolutely nothing to reduce unemployment." There are about 300,000 jobless in Denmark, which has a total population of about four and a half million. In the past, he pointed out, the Social Democratic governments
sweetened the contracts they imposed, and this made it possible to use
Democratic controlled unions to get the workers to accept it.
"For example, the last time a Social Democratic government put in such a law, they extended vacations from four weeks a year to five." But the Schlueter government has been feeding the workers nothing
In fact, the Social Democrats deliberately turned the government over to the right wing coalition in the fall of 1982 so that it could carry out the austerity program that it was unable to get the workers to accept by the traditional trickery. The Schlueter government took the ball and ran with it. It immediately reduced unemployed benefits for casual workers, provoking a dockers strike at the beginning of 1983. (1) It then proceeded to break the dockers strike, essentially by means of police violence and intimidation. But these attacks have been stimulating a growing radicalization in the Soendergaard described how all the potential has been building up for a strong fight back against austerity and repression.
"It has been developing since 1982, when the bourgeois parties took power in parliament and started the hard austerity policy. Just after that there was a national negotiation between the employers and the trade unions, and they were concluded quite peacefully, without any conflict. But this agreement meant that there was a cut in wages and unemployment still
"So, what has happened since is that a left wing has been developing in the unions, with a lot of people starting to raise demands for higher wages and a shorter workweek. This left wing gained the leadership of some unions. One is the Unskilled Workers Union. In the 1983 national negotiations, this union, which is the largest in Denmark, voted against the contract.
"The dockers fought a very hard struggle at the beginning of 1983, and the left wing in this union has been very strong."
I asked how well defined this left was and what it consisted of. Soendergaard
"It's not one left wing but left tendencies on various levels and made up of varying elements. If you take the leadership level, you have the chairperson of
Unskilled Workers Union, Hardy He is not a Scargill type but rather a left Social Democrat bureaucrat, but he represents a real step to the left in the union leadership.
"What Hansen reflects is a real class-struggle left wing that can be seen among the dockers; the bus drivers; and in some big factories, such as the Danfoss factory in the south of Jutland for example, the [with 4,700 workers], where there has been a long strike.
"From the standpoint of the political forces involved, it is left Social Demothe Communist Party, and the Social People's Party [a more or less left Social Democratic party that grew out of an anti-Stalinst split in the CP in the 1950s] at the top leadership level. At the lower level, there are forces further to the left, the Left Socialists [VS - a New Left party ], ourselves, and also some members of the Socialist People's Party. But this current is not dominated by one or two parties."
class-struggle left, Soendergaard said, was a broad current that expressed itself through the shop stewards bodies. "The dockers started a Shop Stewards Co-ordinating Committee [Tillidsmandsringen], which is totally dominated by this left wing. So, you can say that this current itself through official structures of the union on the local level." Fourth Internationalists campaign for general strike
For months, the SAP has been campaigning for a national general strike to defeat the Schlueter government's antilabor offensive. Soendergaard said that there was considerable sentiment for such a response and the Copenhagen Shop Stewards Committee might call for that after its meeting on Thursday March 28 He expected that the battle would be between that proposal and the Communist Party's demand for protest strikes. As it turned out, the meeting did not come to any decision between the two counterposed proposals.
In any case, Soendergaard explained, "The left wing does not yet have the power to impose a general strike on the national level. They can do it in a few for example, in the Copenhagen But on the level of the country as cannot yet override the opposition of the bureaucrats."
I asked if there were any signs of a polarization within the Social Democratic
"Yes, you can see very clear differences between the people in parliament and the left Social Democratic labor leaders. For example, there was a big rally Monday [March 25], where the former Social Democratic premier Anker Jorgensen spoke, together with Hardy
"Jorgensen said that the workers should accept the government's law but that they should try to exert pressure to get adjustments that would be more in tune with social justice. What Hardy Hansen said was that we should not accept a settlement imposed by law. He said that the last time he had argued against a law, his union was fined 20 million kroner [about one and a half million US dollars], and so he wouldn't anything precise about what the
So, in fact, he said that people should strike. was a conflict involving the bus drivers last spring, he said that people should go
And for that, he was fined 20 million kroner.
As in West Germany, the soaring unemployment in Denmark in the past period has put the demand for a 35-hour workweek at the center of the fight. And this is going hand in hand with a demand arising out of the sharp cuts in real wages.
"In 1982, the Schlueter government eliminated the sliding scale of wages. And so the unemployed and low-paid workers who benefitted from the sliding scale before have had a very rough time. Thus, the demand for raising the lowest wages became very strong. And then the government offered an hour cut in the workweek and nothing for the lowest paid. Even if Hardy Hansen accepted it, he would face a revolt in his union."
The March 21 Klassekampen pointed out "In the last ten years from 1975 to 1985, the real wages of LO members have dropped by 15%." So, with expected inflation of 10% over the next two years and wage increases limited to 2% a year, the buying power of LO members would fall by 6%, more than a third of the a already drastic decline that has taken place over the last decade. So, it is not surprising that the workers' tempers are boiling over,
The Social Democrat leaders argue, Soendergaard pointed out, that it would be wrong to oppose a "democratically elected government" by direct action. But the fact of the matter is that the government itself does not have a working majority. (2) It has had to make a deal with a small right-wing petty bourgeois party, the Radicals, which has an anti-military tradition, to get a majority
During the confrontation, the SAP is publishing Klassekampen twice weekly in special editions, Soendergaard said *The paper is coming out Tuesdays and Fridays, and it is full of strike information. give a high priority to selling it. been putting forward the line for weeks that the working class has to prepare for a general strike to throw this government out, because the conflict is totally politicalized, you can't have any real negotiations without getting rid of this govern-
"We have linked this with our activity arguing that the unions on a national level should support the strike with money from the strike fund. After the law is passed, according to the rules, the strike will not be official any more, and the money will stop. We have argued that it should continue.
"We have put forward the call for a *Robin Hood government, that is, one that takes from the rich to give to the poor. This is an expression use by Hardy Hansen and is the equivalent here of Arthur Scargill's call for a 'government as loyal to our class as Thatcher is to
13: 2083 No 36, June 27, 1883. No 36, Aug
sut 1, 1983; No 37. October 3, 1983; and No
The right-wing government headed by Paul Schlueter came game in parliament in the fall of 1982. rightist coalition gained seats in the January 10, 1984, parliamentary elections, but failed to get
Cf International ViewJanuary 30, 1984; and No 46, February 13, 1984
International Viewpoint 8 April 1985
miners was sabotaged by TUC general secretary Norman Willis and the majority of the General Council.
The TUC, no doubt, will use as an exeuse the clause that support -icularly in the power stations - had to