So what's the feeling on the ground in Sweden? Are peeps expecting significant numbers to participate in strike action? Does that mean that all 7,000 SAC will be striking?
Nov. 15 - SAC calls upon 2.5 million workers to strike
From an email from Ronny to me:
"Bad thing is that the big union has taken distance to the SAC strike and SAC now has to withdrawal the part of the call for the LO members. The call from now, Monday, is only valid for SAC members, as the resistance from the reformist organization is soo big so they prefer to sue their own members if they should use the SAC call......
More news will follow. The SAC members will strike though."
What i know so far is that 1,000 attended a rally in Stockholm's main square.
From Ronny (SAC)
"Hello,
The Call for strike is still valid, but only for SAC-members. The withdrawal is the part that was about members of alla unions.
After the attacks from the big union, and their decion not even to keep a neutrality towards the strike, that means that SAC has no support whatsoever from other unions, and with maintaining the call, SAC would put the LO-members and members of other unions in danger. Especially as LO has claimed they will not support their own members if they participate in the strike.
So it seem that SAC does not want to take any risks for members in other unions, especially if those cannot get any help from their own unions.....
The law on Calls for strikes are not totally clear in a case like this. So SAC tried to use this fact to make it possible for all the workers to participate, but as the reformist trade unions was attacking SAC so hard, and threatening their own members if they would participate, SAC retracted the part that called member of other unions to strike.
It might have been some naïvety from the SAC part. Did someone really think that the big monsterunions that always fight the SAC, and the more radical opinions on unionist struggle, the tendencies to strikes, and even use to say that manifestations in the streets are not their methods, suddenly should say, allright, great, we will follow your call?
The important thing about the call was that it has created debates in the other unions. And it has lead to other actions and protests. Parts of the reformistic socialdemocrat unions have demandet a participation in the strike, or a call from their own unions for a strike. All of the unions have the same opinion on the governments proposals, but only SAC believes in the strike as an effective weapon, well, even the harbour workers wants a general strike, but they do not believe that the small SAC could lead a big strike movement.
Thus, only SAC will go on strike, and not even the whole SAC, only the workers in the private sector (even though, some of the syndicates in public sector in SAC have called for strike on wagequestions, to combine that strike with the political strike).
Today, the day before the strike, SAC is harshly attacked from the big Swedish employers association Almega, a thing that shows that even thougt SAC is small, the employers are scared of the strike, and especially of the example that a strike can show. That it is possible to go to strike, and that it would be possible for the other unionas as well to use the strike weapon. They are of course also afraid that the strike can create a necessary debate in the big unions on the methods to fight the government "reforms".
Ronny"
Ok, go to http://www.sac.se/ and scroll down. Even if you don't read Swedish, the stores dated 15/11 are about the strike. There's a run down of how many struck.
So how many in total, the full 7,000? I don't read Swedish.
Quote:
Today, the day before the strike, SAC is harshly attacked from the big Swedish employers association Almega, a thing that shows that even thougt SAC is small, the employers are scared of the strike, and especially of the example that a strike can show. That it is possible to go to strike, and that it would be possible for the other unionas as well to use the strike weapon. They are of course also afraid that the strike can create a necessary debate in the big unions on the methods to fight the government "reforms".
Even if was only a few thousand and other workers are debating the concept I think its pretty rad. 
Most SAC members in the public sector did not strike, as political strikes are aparrantly not allowed for public employees. Some SAC locals sovled this by demanding a pay increase, and using this as an excuse for striking.
I agree the strike is good because it creates debate about the issue among other workers, but at the same time, it shows the limits of SAC's legalistic strategies. SAC can initiate a lot of strikes, because their members are not bound by the union contracts negotiated by the big unions and managegenment, which always have no-strike clausuls. At the same time, this means that SAC strikes will be largely ineffectual, as only a handful of workers at any job site will be on strike.
The IWA groups may be in some ways sectarian, but at least they argue for workplace assemblies where all workers at the job site decide to go on (often illegal) strikes, instead of
organizing exclusive one or two man strikes by their own members.
i think you are mixing a bigger strategic issue to todays events.
For instance according to someone i used to know about 10 years ago the SAC tube drivers did call workplace assemblies regardless of the union membership. These steps are often considered hostile by the reformist unions and tension can rise.
Cultural background is very different in southern european countries where union membership is very low and general assemblies have more of a tradition. In north that is not the case, so maybe it is better to compare SAC strategies and realities with IWA groups such as NSFs strategies and realities?
Also todays events, at least how they look like from the distance, were complicated by the fact that initially it looked like all the reformist unions would go out as well. My mate who is not a member of SAC but a member of a reformist union said that his workmates had loads of exitement and symphathy to the general strike call. These are not anarcho-syndicalists, or even that radical of workers. The call sounds like, from my very limited coverage, struck a chord among workers as a whole.
According to http://www.sac.se/akassan/ here are the numbers:
Göteborg, 2000
Stockholm, 1800
Malmö, 800
Örebro, 150
Gävle, 150
Kalmar, 130
Umeå, över 100
Norrköping, 100
Växjö, 90
Sandviken, 80
Lund, 60
Trollhättan, 50
Varberg, 20
Uppsala, 20
Kristianstad, 20
This was forwarded to me. FYI:
Hi comrades,
The french CNT organised today three demonstrations in solidarity with SAC strike.
In Paris, we stayed one hour in a street closed to the Swedish embassy. The police didn't permit our presence in front of the Embassy.
One thing funny : we were with the red and black flags when passed two black cars. Inside the cars, the cops told us , there was Nicolas Sarkozy the actual very conservative and racist Police Minester and, may be, future president of the Republic. We show him that CNT was everywhere !!!!!
Tomorow we will send you the fotos of Paris demonstration.
In Toulouse (south of France) the CNT members were in front of the swedih embassy at 6 PM. Tomorow I will send you the fotos.
In Lille (north of France), comrades were at 2 PM. A CNT delegation was received by the director of the swedish consulate who was very happy to speak with our omrades. "In Sweden nothing happen !!! it's a sad country" he told us.
A local newspaper (The voice of the North)will publish tomorow an article about the SAC strike and CNT solidarity.
Here's a foto of Lille demonstration.
Pease to transmit the information.
In solidarity.
Long live anarcho-syndicalism !
Nil and Jeremie for CNT International Secretary.
syndicalist wrote:
According to http://www.sac.se/akassan/ here are the numbers:
Hmmm that's a shame. Were they just staying at home? Or were they trying to picket out their fellow workers? It seems not...
Did they not even ask LO members not to cross picket lines then?
And could they have strikes of only 20 people, because official union strikes are given legal protections or something?
Just to clarify, the numbers that syndicalist posted are for participants in demonstrations, not the number of strikers. A report of international solidarity actions in Portugal, France, Poland, Spain, Greece, Turkey and Ireland can be found here
There are no closed shops in Sweden and there are nothing stopping LO members from joining SAC (except their reputation as odd anarchists and troublemakers, of course...).
I don't think SAC thought that the big unions would actually join their strike, except for a few of the more radical locals here and there.
John. wrote:
Hmmm that's a shame. Were they just staying at home? Or were they trying to picket out their fellow workers? It seems not...
where did you get that from? My mate saw some pickets in stockholm and many trains and subways were cancelled. According to the media people were really supportive of the strike though (front page of Metro for instance).
Quote:
Did they not even ask LO members not to cross picket lines then?
according to my knowledge this varies hugely - some places have the tensions so high that it would not be wise, some places not. I would love to hear reports from various locals how this went.
Quote:
And could they have strikes of only 20 people, because official union strikes are given legal protections or something?
yeah, thats right. Isnt the same situation true in spain? UK union legistlation is so bad that it is no wonder we are struggling to get an A-S union off the ground here 
JDMF wrote:
John. wrote:
Hmmm that's a shame. Were they just staying at home? Or were they trying to picket out their fellow workers? It seems not...where did you get that from? My mate saw some pickets in stockholm and many trains and subways were cancelled. According to the media people were really supportive of the strike though (front page of Metro for instance).
Ah I thought the numbers quoted above were numbers of strikers, not numbers on demonstrations.
Did the left not mobilise for the demonstrations or anything then, because it was an SAC initiative?
I think the figures are pretty good for a small union in a country with a relatively small population. I mean to say, how many do TUC days of action get on their demos? Besides, does anyone really think the left will go out of their way to back some bunch of anarcho-syndicalists? I expect it was all just wishful thinking and a bit of encouragement to non-SAC workers to join in the strike festivities and also to flag up their existence to other workers by making themselves a talking point. Well done you Saccies!
JDMF wrote:
yeah, thats right. Isnt the same situation true in spain? UK union legistlation is so bad that it is no wonder we are struggling to get an A-S union off the ground here ;)
Youre trying to get an anarcho-syndicalist union going in UK? IWW over there already has about 200 members. They are close enough, no?
x357997 wrote:
Youre trying to get an anarcho-syndicalist union going in UK? IWW over there already has about 200 members. They are close enough, no?
200 is fuck all. Same goies for the solfed membership, but basically we are both in a starting point. Same could be said to the anarchists who are in the IWW - why not join an anarcho-syndicalist project to get it to the volume levels which would enable economic drives instead of political. So it goes both ways.
Lets see what happens and what will kick off
JDMF wrote:
why not join an anarcho-syndicalist project to get it to the volume levels which would enable economic drives instead of political. So it goes both ways.
Because I'm not particularly interested in anarcho-syndicalism. Okay, that's not strictly true, if it was a significant force in this country and had learned from past mistakes (and fair enough, Solfed seems pretty sussed on this to me), then I would be interested. I've got a lot of time for Solfed but AS isn't a significant force, nor is it likely to be, mainly due to the distinct lack of any working class AS tradition on these isles.
Because, in the workplace, I'm interested in organising to kick the boss's fat arse, not where other workers stand with regards to anarcho-syndicalism and anarchism in general. I personally don't care how 'political' my workmates are, what their opinion of the the CGT or CNT is, or what they think about Bakunin. But if they fancy organising from below to fight the bosses, then that'll do for me.
Because although 200 members of the IWW is fuck all, it is nevertheless an organisation which has the potential to become something significant - if we do things right.
Frankly, I don't see this potential in any anarcho-syndicalist project in Britain.
Serge Forward wrote:
Because, in the workplace, I'm interested in organising to kick the boss's fat arse, not where other workers stand with regards to anarcho-syndicalism and anarchism in general. I personally don't care how 'political' my workmates are, what their opinion of the the CGT or CNT is, or what they think about Bakunin. But if they fancy organising from below to fight the bosses, then that'll do for me.
agree 100% and that is the position of all the anarcho-syndicalist who like to build A-S union instead of union of anarchists.
Quote:
Varberg, 20
Uppsala, 20
Kristianstad, 20
It looks like the demo in Dublin was as big as some of the demos in Sweden.
Quote:
Dublin demonstration is Solidarity with Swedish strikeThe SAC has called for a 24 hour strike in protest against unemployment laws proposed by the new right-wing government. The strike has been called for November 15th, the day before the Swedish parliament votes on the bill. Demo in Solidarity with SAC
6pm
13-17 Dawson St.Members of WSM, Anarchist Youth and TCD Anarchist Society with be holding a protest outside the Swedish Embassy at 6 pm in Solidarity with Swedish Strikers. The SAC, Sweden's anarcho-syndicalist trade union of over 7,500 members, has called for a 24 hour strike in protest against unemployment laws proposed by the new right-wing government. This demonstration has been called by members of the SAC in Ireland.
The Swedish Embassy is in 13-17 Dawson St. Come along and show your support.
Swedish syndicalists call general strike
Sweden's libertarian socialist trade union, the Sveriges Arbetares Centralorganisation (SAC) has called a general strike for November 15th against new unemployment laws.
The SAC has called for a 24 hour strike in protest against unemployment laws proposed by the new right-wing government. The strike has been called for November 15th, the day before the Swedish parliament votes on the bill.
SAC member Ronny Stansert said, "all the unions are making different forms of actions, meetings of companies, official notices of protests, threats to allow garbage to pile up outside the seat of the government etc. The most radical action comes from the libertarian union, SAC. Today the SAC has issued a call for general strike for the 15 of November against the proposal... All the workers in the private sector (in the public sector political strikes are prohibited) can legally follow the SAC call."
The Swedish government wants to cut its financial contribution to unemployment funds by 50 per cent, in an effort to offer tax cuts to the better off, a move they claim will stimulate the Swedish economy. 600,000 people received benefits last year.
Quote:
Irish solidarity with Swedish strikersOn November 15th the Swedish Workers Centralorganiation (SAC) called a 24 hour strike in protest against unemployment laws proposed by the new right-wing government.
The Swedish government wants to cut its financial contribution to unemployment funds by 50%, in order to finance more tax cuts for the wealthy, a move they claim will “stimulate the Swedish economy”. 600,000 people depended on benefits last year.
The previous day a delegation of SAC* members visiting Ireland met with the WSM’s Jack White branch and we decided to jointly organise an event the following day to show support for our fellow workers in Sweden.
About 20 of us gathered, in driving rain, outside the Swedish embassy in Dawson Street. Signs explained the reason for the strike and 400 leaflets were given to passers-by.
Solidarity events also took place in many other countries. There are some photos at
www.yelah.net/news/20061115190520The mainstream unions are opposed to ‘political strikes’ and campaigned vigorously against the SAC, with some even threatening their own members in the private sector that they would not defend them if they joined the strike. All public sector workers are legally prohibited from joining political strikes. Despite all these obstacles thousands walked off the job, most visibly in Stockholm and Gothenburg.
The day’s action also created debates in the other unions. Branches passed resolutions in favour of participation in the strike, or for their own unions to call a strike.
All of the unions are against the governments proposal’s, but only the SAC believes that the strike is a legitimate weapon for both workplace disputes and resisting state attacks on the wider working class.
*The SAC is a 7,500 member union, which describes itself as “libertarian socialist”, and which has been organising workers since 1910. They are affiliated to International Libertarian Solidarity, which is a network of revolutionary trade unions and anarchist organisations, including the WSM.
More: http://www.sac.se
.jpg "Up Against The Wall Motherfucker! - graphic, 1960s")
Rough translation. All errors are mine.
--mitch (per. Cap.)
The Swedish syndicalist union SAC calls upon all 2.5 million Swedish private sector workers to engage in a political strike against the proposal to cut of the subsidies to unemployed* and the total reform of the unemployment system, by the new right-wing Swedish government. The proposal is to reduce the payment to the unemployed. This has awakened the sleepy working movement in Sweden.
All the unions are making different forms of actions, meetings of companies, official notices of protests, threats to allow garbage to pile up outside the seat of the government etc.
The most radical action comes from the libertarian union, SAC. Today the SAC has issued a call for general strike for the 15 of November against the proposal. The proposal comes to a vote on 16 November in the Swedish parliament. The official call of the SAC goes out to all 2.5 million private sector workers, although the SAC only has affiliated 7000 thousands. All the workers in the private sector (in the public sector political strikes are prohibited) can legally follow the SAC call. The Secretary General of SAC, Moa Norell, explains today in an article in Aftonbladet (the largest circulation newspaper in Sweden) (http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/debatt/story/0,2789,922180,00.html) that all those workers can participate in political strike although they have prohibited all union strikes (since the large unions are tied by the collective agreements). In all Sweden the 15 of November there are mobilizations for a 2 hour political strike... The SAC calls on all its affiliates to for f 24 hours. The readers who know the Swedish can follow the preparations of strike in the page SAC Web http://www.sac.se
Ronny Stansert
The proposal is to cut unemployment insurance by cutting the government’s financial contribution by 50 per cent. The Swedish reformist trade union central notes that the Government proposal to is being made “in order to finance tax cuts and reforms for those not being affected by unemployment”. The LO further reports that “Every year some 600 000 persons receive compensation from the unemployment insurance [fund].
---m
-----------------------------------------------
SAC convoca a 2,5 millones de trabajadores suecos a huelga política
SAC convoca hoy a 2,5 millones de trabajadores suecos a una huelga política
en contra de la propuesta de recortes del subsidios a los desempleados y la
reforma total de las cajas de desempleo, por parte del nuevo gobierno de derechas
en Suecia.
La propuesta de encarecer la participación en las cajas de desempleo para los
trabajadores y reducir el pago a los parados ha despertado al dormido
movimiento trabajador en Suecia. Todos los sindicatos están haciendo diferentes tipos
de acciones, recogido de firmas, comunicados de protestas, amenazas de tirar
basura fuera de la sede del gobierno etc. La acción más radical viene del
sindicato libertario, SAC, que hoy ha convocado una huelga para el 15 de noviembre
en contra de la propuesta que sera ratificada el 16 en el parlamento sueco.
La convocatoria oficial de la SAC contiene el llamamento a 2,5 millones de
trabajadores, aunque la SAC sólo tiene 7000 mil afiliados. Todos los
trabajadores en el sector privado (en el sector público las huelgas políticas son
prohibidas) pueden legalmente seguir la convocatoria de SAC.
La secretaria general de SAC, Moa Norell, explica en un artículo hoy en
Aftonbladet (el periódico más grande de Suecia) (
http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/debatt/story/0,2789,922180,00.html ) que todos aquellos trabajadores pueden
participar en la huelga política aunque tienen prohibido todas las huelgas
sindicales (ya que los grandes sindicatos están atados por los convenios colectivos).
En toda Suecia están movilizando para poder parar el país durante dos horas
el 15 de noviembre. Para los afiliados de SAC la convocatoria de huelga es de
24 horas.
Los lectores que saben el sueco pueden seguir las preparaciones de la huelga
en la página web de SAC http://www.sac.se
Ronny Stansert