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Title: Anarchism in Sweden
Author: Gabriel Kuhn
Date: 2009
Language: en
Topics: Sweden, history
Source: Retrieved on 22nd November 2021 from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781405198073.wbierp0074
Notes: Published in The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest.

Gabriel Kuhn

Anarchism in Sweden

A defining moment for the anarchist movement in Sweden was a 1908 split

within the Socialdemokratiska Arbetarparti, the country’s social

democratic party. When Hinke Bergegren (1861–1936), widely regarded as

Sweden’s most influential early anarchist (he later turned to

Bolshevism), and other radicals were excluded, most members of the

party’s original youth organization, Ungsocialisterna (Young

Socialists), distanced themselves from the social democratic leadership

and formed Ungsocialistiska Partiet (Young Socialist Party), an

anti-parliamentarian organization with strong anarchist leanings. In

1910 followed the foundation of the predominantly anarchosyndicalist

workers’ federation Sveriges Arbetares Centralorganisation (Central

Organization of Sweden’s Workers) (SAC). Among the organization’s

earliest supporters was German anarchosyndicalist Augustin Souchy

(1892–1984), who lived in Swedish exile during World War I. In the 1920s

SAC counted almost 40,000 members. Meanwhile, the famed Sweden-born

International Workers of the World (IWW) agitator and songwriter Joe

Hill (born Joel Emmanuel Hägglund, 1879) was executed in the US in 1915.

The radicalization of broad segments of the workers’ movement also had

significant influence on the workers’ journal Brand, founded with a

relatively broad ideological outlook in 1898. In the 1910s it began to

turn into a more explicitly anarchist journal and has remained a focal

point of the anarchist movement since. Today, it publishes four issues a

year. Two of its former editors, Albert Jensen (1879–1957) and Nisse

Lätt (1907–88), count among Sweden’s most important anarchist activists

and authors.

While Ungsocialistiska Partiet changed its name to Anarkistiska

Propagandaförbundet (Anarchist Propaganda Association) in 1934 and

finally dissolved as an organization in the 1960s, SAC continues to

exist. Its current membership stands at around 6,500 and it still

publishes the journal Arbetaren (The Worker), founded in 1922. Relative

to its size, SAC retains a noticeable influence on Swedish politics. In

1999 SAC member Björn Söderberg (1958–99) was killed by right-wing

extremists after leading a campaign against workplace and union

infiltration by members of extreme right-wing organizations.

In the 1960s anarchism was rekindled in the context of the decade’s

social protest movements. While several attempts at nationwide anarchist

organizing during the following decades were short-lived or

unsuccessful, an anarchist counterculture grew. In the 1970s many

communes inspired by anarchist ideals emerged. Anarchafeminist groups

and, towards the end of the decade, the punk movement also became

increasingly influential. In the 1980s the German autonomous movement

had a major impact on Sweden’s anarchist scene and several anarchist

squats were established. In the 1990s many Swedish anarchists embraced

radical ecological and animal rights causes. In 1993 Syndikalistiska

Ungdomsförbundet (Syndicalist Youth Federation) was founded, a

syndicalist youth organization with a strong anarchosyndicalist outlook

that collaborates closely with SAC. Many anarchists today are also

active in the infoshop scene, chapters of the Anti-Fascist Action

network, and the activist collectives Motkraft and Yelah.

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REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Bratt, A.-K. & Fogelqvist, J., (Eds.) (1997) Syndikalister

(Syndicalists). Stockholm: Federativs.

Henningsson, B. (1997) Humanism, anarkism och socialism: varför

splittrades det socialdemokratiska vänsterpartiet? (Humanism, Anarchism

and Socialism: Why Did the Social Democratic Party Split?).

Arbetarhistoria: Meddelande från Arbetarrörelsens Arkiv och Bibliotek

80–1.

Netdau, M. (1996) A Short History of Anarchism. London: Freedom Press.

Sjöö, I. (2004) Fackliga fribrytare: episoder från hundra år av svensk

syndikalism: 1903–2003 (Union Rebels: Stories from 100 Years of Swedish

Syndicalism: 1903–2003). Göteborg: Syndikalistiskt Forum.