Elections in September last year turned out a right-wing government in Sweden. Under the slogan of "the new workers party", the Swedish Conservative party managed to woo a small section of the middle class to its ranks and gain a tiny majority. Now Swedish workers have a tough fight ahead of them to defend the remnants of the Swedish welfare state. Should the next general election return a Conservative government, British workers would do well to study the Swedish experience.
Sweden has since 1994 had a minority government of Social Democrats supported by Greens and the Left Party. The government started off by carrying out attacks against the working class in its first four years, using entry to the European Union and the crisis of 1991-2 as an excuse. The boom of the economy combined with some reforms in the period 1998-2002 managed to keep the government in power.
However, after the failure of the Euro referendum in 2003 the capitalists had enough of the left government. Like in the cash-for-peerage-scandal, the press suddenly revealed a number of "shocking news" stories. Most of these were not news at all, like the fact that the leader of the Left Party called himself a Communist or that the Social Democrat youth organization cheated with state funding. Neither could the government have done anything to prevent the death of a few hundred Swedes in the Tsunami of 2004, something the right-wing press refused to acknowledge.
At the same time, the right-wing parties launched a new united front against the left, using the colour orange (from Ukraine) to attempt to soften their image. The Conservative party styled themselves "the New Moderates", claiming to be "the new workers’ party". Their political programme, however, did not change in any significant way, something which became obvious once they were elected.
The honey moon for the new right-wing government lasted only a few weeks and their small majority in the election turned into a small lead for the left. This did not cause the government to slow the pace of attacks, quite the contrary. The conservative government’s cuts in unemployment benefits in December led to the largest demonstrations since the beginning of the Iraq war and, in several cities, local trade union leaders called for a political strike. Half a year later, there has been a 10% swing to the left. The reason is simple: diisillusion with Social Democrat reformism led a small layer of white collar workers to shift sides. After the election they quickly regretted their choice.
In this situation, the trade union and Social Democratic party leaderships are urging patience. "Wait till the next election!" is the message. In the demonstrations in December they travelled far and wide to put a halt to the movement. In the wage-negotiations this spring, employers attempted to enforce pitiful wage increases. After the workers showed their willingness to fight, they backed down.
This must be the strategy also for confrontation with the government. Showing weakness provokes aggression. A wait-till-election-strategy is giving the government a blank cheque to do whatever they want in the coming three years. Should a Cameron-led government show its ugly face in the U.K. in 2010 or even earlier, workers of Britain would do well to learn that lesson.
