Swedish labour movement

First of May 1890 in Sundsvall. The sign reads "8 hours of work, 8 hours of freedom, 8 hours of rest".

The labour movement in Sweden dates back to at least the 1850s, when food riots into strikes, hence acting as an autonomous group.^[1]

History

Modern types of labour unions emerged in the 1870s. An event that is usually considered to be central in the early days of the Swedish labour movement is the lecture "Hvad vil Social-Demokraterna?" ("What do the Social Democrats want?") by August Palm, at Hotel Stockholm in Malmö 6 November 1881. Five years later, in 1886, Sweden's first national labour union, Svenska Typografförbundet, was founded.^[2] Another union of that sort, Svenska Postmannaförbundet, was founded later that same year.^[3]

The labour movement soon divided into two parts, a political one and an unionspecialized one. The union movement was organized in one central organization, the Swedish Social Democratic Party (SAP), founded in 1889.^[4]

These two organizations has ever since dominated not only the Swedish labour movement but also the political life in general. One example of their close association is the fact that all members of LO was initially automatically made members of SAP.^[5]

Even though LO has dominated labour relations in Sweden, the two other big confederations for unions, the Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees, TCO, and the Swedish Confederation of Professional Associations, SACO, are today almost as important participants as LO in the debate of labour economics. In 2008 for the first time the total number of active wage and salary members (i.e. excluding pensioner, students and self-employed) in TCO and SACO together surpassed that of LO.^[6]

References

Printed sources

• Olsson, Lars & Ekdahl, Lars, Klass i rörelse - arbetarrörelsen i svensk samhällsutveckling (2002), Arbetarrörelsens arkiv och bibliotek, ISBN 91-973690-3-9
• Nycander, Svante, Makten över arbetsmarknaden - ett perspektiv på Sveriges 1900-tal (2002), SNS Förlag, Second Edition 2008, ISBN 978-91-85695-65-2

Notes