The Labour Movement in Sweden. Issues and Trends.

The article presents an abstract of a research paper on the labor movement in Sweden in 1909. The research paper was presented at the Society for the Study of Labour History's conference held in England on May 3, 1968. The first great conflict between labour organizations and the government of Sweden took place in 1909. In this year the Employers Confederation called a lockout which was answered by a great strike, resulting in defeat for the Swedish Confederation of Trade Unions. The motive of the Swedish Confederation of Employers in deciding on a lockout was not very complex: they wanted branch agreements keeping the level of wages the same in the respective fields. On the side of organized labour, one big dispute had been solved in 1908 through State mediators. A general depression had set in, causing price inflation but stagnation of wages. The trade union leaders as well as the Social Democratic Party were subject to remarkable membership losses in 1908-1909. A great strike had been tried for political reasons in 1902 but since then the propaganda for settling disputes by means of a great strike had mainly been voiced by the anarchists, who were excluded from the Party in 1908.