Björklund, Carl Johan (1884-1971)

Carl Johan Björklund was born in the old university town, Upsala in Sweden on August 7th 1884. His father was a machinist at the local waterworks.

As a child he joined the Salvation Army but quickly became disillusioned and moved to an atheist position. He first worked as an errand boy at the age of eleven, apprenticed as a tile worker at the Kungsängen tile factory, and as a journeyman artisan, as in Germany, had to voyage around Europe at the age of seventeen. He eventually settled in southern Sweden, where he came in contact with the workers’ movement in the town of Kalmar, where he worked as a stove tile maker. Here he joined the Young Socialist League, youth section of the Social- Democrat Party, whose members were increasingly turning in an anarchist direction.
He actively participated in workers’ struggles and read many texts on socialism and anarchism. He organised several workers’ collectives and trade unions and brought out the papers Gnista and Gula Faran.

A friend of his, Rickard Almskoug, a shoemaker journeyman, was arrested for refusing military service and subsequently died in prison in suspicious circumstances. Björklund wrote an obituary, stating "Society's revenge befell him when he refused to practice murder. Society murdered him - his action lives on and will bear fruit." He delivered a fiery speech at the funeral on June 6th, 1909, accusing the authorities of murder. The Young Socialists wanted to bury their comrade without the involvement of the church, but that was not allowed (civil burial was not introduced until 1926). Björklund had tried to talk to Pastor Ossian Wahlmark about the matter, but without success. But it wasn't long before Björklund was attacked by church reactionaries and supporters of the strike-breaking yellow unions. "A struggle broke out," Björklund recounts in his memoirs: "I was several times thrown far down in the grave, but was pulled up again each time by the hands of strong comrades."

As a result, Björklund received a four months prison sentence. Six of his comrades were each fined 200 kronor. They could not afford that and instead had to serve the fine with 21 days each in prison in Kalmar.

He escaped from prison and fled to Germany. There in Berlin, he met Rudolf Rocker, Fritz Kater, Max Nettlau, Gustav Landauer, and other important German anarchists. However, he was arrested and spent a month in prison, before being expelled. He went to Prague, but was expelled from there too, and proceeded to Vienna where he had to earn his living as a tilemaker in a tile stove factory. There he met the anarchists Pierre Ramus and Augustin Souchy.

During the war between Austria and Serbia, the authorities rounded up everyone they perceived as subversive. Björklund was arrested on the charge of high treason on October 22nd 1914. Accused of anti-war agitation amongst workers. However, he was finally released after several months in prison and deported to Sweden.

Björklund now became very involved in agitation around Sweden. Every meeting he spoke at was surrounded by a large police presence.He was finally arrested.

In prison he soon found out that treatment of political prisoners was worse than that in Germany and Austria. This resulted in a prison reform programme being passed in parliament.

From March 1916 to February 1917, Björklund edited the anarchist paper Brand during the time whilst the editor Ivan Oljelund was in prison. Oljelund resigned as editor at the 1918 congress and Björklund succeeded him in February 1919. Björklund remained as editor of Brand until 1948.

In December 1918 Björklund visited Russia, and met with Petr Kropotkin at Dimitrov, where he was then residing.
Björklund carried out in depth studies of various theoreticians of anarchism like Bakunin and Most.He also wrote for several foreign language papers and for the syndicalist paper Arbetaren. He worked for several years as a film critic for the magazine Scen och Salong.

He was active in the campaign to defend Sacco and Vanzetti, acting as chair for the Swedish committee for the two Italian-American anarchists. From the 1940s onwards, he was active in the National Organisation of Swedish Pensioners, which he helped to found. He continued to be involved in antimilitarist activity and in work with the unemployed.He was for a time on the board of the Swedish Writers’ Association, which defended the financial interests of writers.

He died in Stockholm of July 12th, 1971. He left behind a memoir, Anarkist and Agitator.

Nick Heath