Perspectives document from Kompass-gruppen's Annual General Meeting (AGM) back in March 2026.

The year 2025 saw continued war between Russia and Ukraine, a fragile ceasefire in Gaza (with continued killings), a terribly bloody civil war in Sudan, Israel’s bombing of Lebanon, and a series of major uprisings – albeit under more or less liberal-democratic auspices – in South Korea, Turkey and Serbia. In addition to these, some fifty conflicts receiving less media attention are taking place around the world. At the time of writing, the US has bombed Venezuela and ‘kidnapped’ its president Maduro, and a major uprising is raging in Iran. This has been followed by Israel and the US launching a massive war against Iran, attempting to force a new regime and neutralise the Iranian threat once and for all, a move which is having severe repercussions on the global economy, primarily due to oil prices, and is leading to increasing international tensions.

Ultimately, it is the imperialist rivalry between the US and China that is critical and frames the entire global situation. China continues to expand both economically and militarily, as well as through its imperialist interests across the globe, and the US now faces an ever-greater challenge to the dominance it has long held. The actions in Venezuela (and the threats regarding Greenland) must be viewed in the light of this. Beyond economic interests such as oil or other natural resources, it appears to be primarily about securing its dominance in ‘its own backyard’ and sending a clear signal to those who are approaching, or are already engaged in deep economic and political cooperation with, China (and, for that matter, Russia). This is part of Trump’s increasingly frenzied struggle to hammer out a new world order which, although Trump certainly has his own approach, is at the same time in continuity with the Biden administration’s policy – and to take action on the fact that the US state is on the brink of bankruptcy.

Donald Trump began the previous year (2025) by announcing new customs tariffs and stating that Europe must take greater responsibility – and pay for it itself – when it comes to its own security. This has caused considerable concern within the EU and NATO and led to a major military build-up, as well as propaganda campaigns promoting ‘war awareness’. In Sweden, NATO accession was finalised and Prime Minister Kristersson stated that “we are not at war, but neither are we at peace”.⁽¹⁾

In 2026, therefore, the need for a proletarian and internationalist initiative is greater than ever. Events are moving ever closer towards a world war. To put an end to workers slaughtering one another in wars for the sake of their masters, or to legitimate discontent being channelled into bourgeois channels, a higher level of class struggle is required, on an international scale. In Sweden, however, we see, for the time being, only minor signs of this.

Any understanding of present-day capitalism and class struggle must be viewed in the context of the return of crisis in the early 1970s, the definitive collapse of Keynesianism as a result of the falling rate of profit when the post-war boom came to an end and debt-based economic policies were no longer viable. Inflation alongside unemployment (across the Western world, with Sweden being no exception), the abandonment of Bretton Woods, the oil crisis – all underpinned by a crisis of profit. A widespread international phenomenon which, for industry (and for workers), manifested itself, for example, in the steel crisis and, in Sweden, not least in the shipbuilding crisis of the 1970s. The response of capital was restructuring.

The bourgeoisie's fierce struggle and the restructuring of production to safeguard their profits led to fundamental changes. Heavy industry became less significant, whilst sectors such as microelectronics, information technology and services emerged. The number of industrial workers in Sweden fell from 1.4 million in the early 1970s to just under 600,000 today. At the same time, the service sector has grown to become by far the largest sector, accounting for 70–80% of all workers. This has fundamentally altered the structure of the labour market and the composition of the working class, and with it, their self-identification. Much of the essential working-class identity that was so clearly tied to the factory, the mill and the community where so many worked and lived their lives together, has now vanished. Today, we therefore have a dominant service sector that is, at the same time, highly heterogeneous: academics and the completely uneducated, a multitude of employment forms (temporary staff, permanent employees, fixed-term employees, agency workers and involuntary self-employed) side by side, with differing wages, conditions and even ‘lifestyles’ and housing arrangements, and an almost non-existent sense of class community.

In the 1970s and 80s, austerity was met with a wave of wildcat strikes that highlighted the need to go beyond the boundaries of the trade unions in order to fight. At the same time, it is clear that this ended in a defeat – capital succeeded in relocating production to areas with low wages and costs and in restructuring production, the economy and the working class. From the 1990s onwards, strikes declined, and the last 10–15 years have seen the lowest level of strike activity since records began. It is clearly a very difficult situation, with such a different labour market, a fragmented working class, and so much of the fighting tradition and experience now consigned to oblivion.

At the same time, there are at least a few examples from recent years that deserve attention: the wildcat strike on the Stockholm commuter trains in 2023,⁽²⁾ the extra-union mass assemblies in Bergslagen in 2024,⁽³⁾ and a smaller wildcat strike among Volt couriers in 2025. These are commendable and important, and it is on the basis of this type of struggle that the working class must expand its battles and, over time – which is absolutely crucial – give them a more political character. The starting point is difficult for today’s fragmented working class, but the new class consciousness that needs to develop must come through independent, non-union struggle – the only way to take the struggle to a higher level.

The political situation in Sweden in 2026 within the capitalist left is heavily dominated by ‘solidarity with Palestine’ and hypocritical ‘anti-imperialism’ (an internationalist perspective is entirely absent), as well as more generally, by the fact that 2026 is an election year. Here, the situation is in something of a stalemate. Whilst the Sweden Democrats (SD) remain stable at just over 20% of the vote, their continued influence is dependent on a “bourgeois” government; however, in the opinion polls, the red-green coalition still leads (albeit narrowly, and the margin is shrinking), and several parties on the right have so little support that they risk being voted out of the Riksdag.

Nowhere is there any sign of critical opinion or opposition to either NATO membership or the arms race in general, and the bourgeoisie is playing heavily on ‘fear of the Russian threat’ – a turbulent international situation – as well as on a ‘madman in the White House’. The right and the left are joining forces to whip up the arms race and warmongering. At the same time, no one seems to have a solution to what is, from an economic and social perspective, the most serious issue here in Sweden: the third-highest unemployment rate in Europe, at around 9%. A class-based agenda is, of course, completely alien to their world, but is clearly highly relevant in the real world. In addition to the aforementioned unemployment, the spread of precarious working conditions continues, along with hazardous working environments resulting in fatalities (one per week in 2025) and work-related injuries – and, despite the relative recovery of inflation since 2022–2023, the high cost of living. Instead of a focus on class and the struggle for collective interests, individualistic and divisive identity politics still dominates – in both its left-wing and conservative right-wing variants.

The more brutalised conditions of working life, racism and division, the rising cost of living, and a state that continues to tighten its belt to fund rearmament and war preparations – the need to fight is here and now, and it is becoming increasingly urgent to take the struggle to a higher level. To achieve this, the working class must recognise our common position and the strength we possess if we act collectively. To develop this collective struggle, it will be necessary to try to bridge the divide between organised and unorganised workers, given that union membership within the LO (Swedish Trade Union Confederation) currently stands at just 58%. We must also see nationalist myths for what they really are: class collaboration and workers being pitted against one another instead of us putting class against class. Through struggle and solidarity, the working class must realise that we have common interests with workers all over the world. And not with any ‘peoples’ or nations!

That is why the No War but the Class War (NWBCW) initiative is so important. At a time when the crisis of capitalism is so clearly and ever more rapidly driving us towards war and threatening us all with sheer barbarism, it is of the utmost importance that genuine internationalists can come together. Through these committees, we can collectively bring the internationalist message to the working class and its struggles in a more effective way. For ultimately, it is only we, the working class, who can stop wars and prevent those that are in preparation. If we act independently as a class, and not as a nation, we can not only defend our living conditions, prevent or stop wars, but change the whole world. Independent workers’ struggle and internationalism – this is what 2026 must be about. Here in Sweden, as well as internationally.

Our tasks will be no easier in 2026 than they were in 2025, but there is no alternative: we must continue to make political clarifications regarding the imperialist nature of capitalism as a whole, and the fact that the working class has no interest in supporting any of its factions. We must spread our position on the need for the working class to wage an independent struggle, free from parliamentary illusions and outside the trade unions. And not least, fight to help broaden the struggle between different groups of workers and across national borders, and against capitalism as a whole. This must ultimately lead to the creation of an internationally widespread revolutionary workers’ party, the indispensable weapon for overthrowing the entire capitalist system. In a world drifting towards a third world war and environmental catastrophe, we have no time to lose.

Notes:

(1) Sweden and the NATO Accession: Fight Against Rearmament, Fight Against Capitalism!

(2) Sweden: The Wildcat Strike on the Commuter Trains Shows the Way Forward

(3) Class Struggle in Sweden: Anger and Dissatisfaction with Trade Unions - And Then What?