The Swedish general strike () of August 4 to September 6, 1909, was a general work stoppage by over 300,000 individuals all over

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. It was the first major conflict between the

Swedish Trade Union Confederation The Swedish Trade Union Confederation ( ; literally "The National Organisation in Sweden"), commonly referred to as LO (), is a national trade union centre, an umbrella organisation for fourteen Swedish trade unions that organise mainly "blue-c ...

(), and the Swedish Employers Association (). The losses to employers was estimated to be around 25 million

Swedish kronor The krona (; plural: ''kronor''; currency sign, sign: kr; ISO 4217, code: SEK) is the currency of Sweden. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use for the krona; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usual ...

Recession In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction that occurs when there is a period of broad decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be tr ...

was having a negative impact on many companies and the SAF therefore wanted to lower wages. A lockout of 80,000 workers in the

textile Textile is an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term that includes various Fiber, fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, Staple (textiles)#Filament fiber, filaments, Thread (yarn), threads, and different types of #Fabric, fabric. ...

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

- and pulp industry was put in effect. The LO answered with a call for

general strike A general strike is a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large coalitions ...

. Only

healthcare Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

workers and a few other skeleton professions were exempt from the strike. Funds were short and forced the union to end the strike after a month, resulting in major membership losses. The LO lost almost half of its members, some to the newly formed

anarcho-syndicalist Anarcho-syndicalism is an anarchist organisational model that centres trade unions as a vehicle for class conflict. Drawing from the theory of libertarian socialism and the practice of syndicalism, anarcho-syndicalism sees trade unions as both ...

Central Organisation of the Workers of Sweden The Central Organisation of Swedish Workers (; SAC) is a Sweden, Swedish syndicalist National trade union center, trade union federation. The SAC organises people from all occupations and industries in one single federation, including the Unempl ...

. The anarcho-syndicalists argued that the management of the LO had handled the strike half-heartedly and only started it to curb its members' more radical stance. Employers also took the opportunity to lay off approximately 20,000 workers, which also contributed to mass defections from LO when workers were forced to leave the union to keep their jobs.

Emigration Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

also rose as a consequence of the strike. The failure of the general strike formed an important backdrop to the Saltsjöbaden Agreement of 1938.

References

External links

Tony Cliff, Patterns of mass strike
{{Authority control 1909 labor disputes and strikes Anarchism in Sweden General strikes in Europe Labor history Swedish Trade Union Confederation Social history of Sweden 1909 in Sweden Labour in Sweden August 1909 in Europe September 1909 in Europe Labour disputes in Sweden

See also

References

External links