It is now over fifty years since the return of the economic crisis, which marked the end of the reconstruction phase after the end of the Second World War. It triggered a wave of class struggle that culminated in the class struggles in Poland and the militant miners' strike in England. The defeats of these class struggles influenced the will and ability of the working class to develop its defensive struggle against the attacks of the bourgeoisie. In response to the deepening of the economic crisis and the working class struggle against these attacks, the bourgeoisie was forced to develop new strategies. One response was to restructure the production process. Millions of jobs disappeared from the industrial centres and moved to low-wage countries in Asia and China. But this was only the beginning, several attacks on the living conditions of the working class were carried out. In Sweden, for example, we saw a deterioration of the unemployment insurance fund, reduced employment protection and curtailed right to strike. Large parts of the young generation of workers never got permanent work, but went from casual and short-term jobs to new casual and short-term jobs with subsequent insecurity. The bourgeoisie developed the tactic of fake self-empliyment where each individual worker has their own company where they have to pay social security contributions themselves making collective struggle more difficult. ⁽¹⁾ We saw this in the development of the so called gig economy (e.g. Uber) with very precarious and sometimes completely non-contractual conditions. In Sweden we saw a sharp increase in strike fines used to slow down/prevent wildcat strikes. Without a militant working class, it has thus been fairly easy to defeat strikes and struggles on rights and conditions. All this, of course, has taken place with the unions' blessing.

The last 10-15 years have been the years with the lowest level of conflict in the labour market in Sweden since statistics began to be kept. The wildcat strikes of the 1970s and 1980s abruptly subsided. With a few exceptions, such as the wildcat strike at Lagena in 2009, some conflicts in the harbours and minor actions by garbage collectors and taxi drivers, open conflicts have largely been absent.

Recent Non-Union Initiatives Show the Way Forward

In early November, more than 80 train guards employed by Tåg i Bergslagen came together to form a non-union working group. A couple of weeks earlier, two union representatives had already resigned in protest, stating that they did not want to stand up for the spirit of consensus and the duty to make peace and that they were tired of the union's betrayals. The specific issue at the root of the anger is the scheduling practices of the Vr Group (the company that contracts out the operation), which have become increasingly inhumane and ‘flexible’ – where flexibility means flexible for the company. Changes to shifts and hours as late as the day before are not uncommon, and workers are finding it increasingly difficult to balance their lives and get the rest they need. Dissatisfaction is high and the non-union working group has organised several well-attended rallies. This is clearly an example for other workers to follow.

Initiatives like this non-union working group are not only commendable but downright necessary. If any change is to be achieved, we have to make it ourselves. It is also positive that already last year a non-union initiative was taken to organise a strike on the commuter trains in Stockholm,⁽²⁾ and in the same city a collective action was also carried out among taxi drivers in the form of a variant of a ‘sit-down strike’ for one hour: a hundred or so drivers took a break at exactly the same time and drove in a slow caravan through the city.

Just as we should never be demoralised, we should not be naive either. After all, these examples are still small even though encouraging. The class is deeply divided and fragmented and capitalist ideological dominance is almost total, a tendency that has only intensified in recent decades. The movement of workers outside the trade union framework is promising, but we need to move from words to action. Moreover, demands and strategies must be designed in a way that can draw in more workers from different sectors and workplaces – building on our strength in the short term and paving the way for stronger solidarity and steps towards greater class consciousness in the longer term.

This independent non-union struggle is an absolute necessity not only to develop a better balance of power to try to beat back the attacks and cuts in wages and conditions by capital, but it also paves the way for our future struggle.

The Perspective

It is becoming more and more obvious that the capitalist system can no longer meet the needs of humanity. The wars in Ukraine and Gaza, the tensions between the US and China show that the economic crisis is forcing the rulers of the different countries to confront each other more and more. The risk of a third world war is becoming more and more apparent. Global warming is having increasingly disastrous environmental consequences and is seriously threatening the living environment of all mankind. Capitalism has no answer to all these problems. Capitalism is becoming increasingly unsustainable and is making our problems worse.

The only realistic solution is for us to take control of production ourselves and create a society that produces for needs and not for profit. The way to do this is through independent non-union struggle, creating our own bodies, workers' councils, to manage society. We can no longer afford capitalism.

Notes:

(1) For struggle in the new economy see: Capitalism's New Economy: The Working Class, The Gig Economy: Capitalism’s New Normal, Telefónica Strikes in Spain

(2) For our view on the commuter train strike see article in Kompass: leftcom.org

For those more interested in the perspective of the ICT, the Kompass-gruppen has also made a translation of the platform into Swedish that can be ordered here: leftcom.org