De misshagliga : Uddeholmskonflikten 1921–1923. En studie av syndikalister under mellankrigstiden

Sammanfattning

The subject of this thesis is syndicalism in Sweden during the interwar period. The focus lies on what historian Eva Blomberg calls the “marginalization process” of the syndicalist unions in Sweden. This process was in large part driven by both the Swedish Employers’ Confederation (Svenska Arbetsgivareföreningen, SAF) as well as the Trade Union Confederation (Landsorganisationen, LO), the latter being closely linked to the Swedish Social Democratic Party. The point of departure for this thesis is that the particular kind of economic cooperation between employers and labor unions in Sweden that has come to be known as “the Swedish model”, as well as the socio-political concept of folkhemmet (lit. “the people’s home), was in part built upon the aforementioned marginalization of the syndicalist movement. Using this framework, the thesis examines a specific labor union conflict at the Hagfors ironworks in Värmland from the year 1921 to 1923. The conflict broke out when the employer, the Uddeholm company, decided to fire most of the workers belonging to the syndicalist union, who subsequently issued a blockade of the workplace in retaliation. The reformist labor union (which belonged to the LO) also became involved in the conflict at the ironworks. The Uddeholm conflict provides an interesting case study of the marginalization process of the Swedish syndicalist movement, as the conflict stemmed from the company’s explicit desire to abolish the syndicalist union at the workplace. Drawing upon the field of contentious politics studies – particularly the concept of conflict repertoires – the study examines the three collective actors’ attitudes towards each other, as well as the different methods they employed to stake their respective claims during the conflict. The results of the study provides a glimpse into an otherwise often overlooked aspect of the construction of the Swedish model and folkhemmet, namely the ostracization of radical and dissident groups.