This article was published in Arbetaren no 37/02, which had the largest print run since the papers staunch involvement in the anti-nuclear movement in the 80's, to be distributed to working class areas in Gävle, home of Joe Hill and
site of this years SAC congress.

Arbetaren is a syndicalist weekly published by SAC - the syndicalists since 1922 (and thus celebrates it's 80th birthday this year).  http://www.arbetaren.se

A TOUGH PERIOD FOR THE SAC

It isn't just the nazi murder of the syndicalist Björn Söderberg and the involvment in the protests against the EU summit in Gothenburg that has put it's stamp on the activities of the SAC the latest congressperiod.

The organisation, which celebrated its 90th anniversary last year, has also suffered from internal turbulence and low participation in important referenda.

But the activity on the job is also in its road to a new ignition, and
the
syndicalists have thrown themselves into industrial conflicts of
non-conventional character.

Ingemar Sjoo, from the former Working Committee, points out four
things that
before others have affected the organization since the last congress
1998: The
murder of Björn Söderberg autumn 1999, the taxidrivers strike at
Arlanda airport
spring 2000, the Gothenburg demonstrations 2001 and the beginning of
the "union
reorganisation".

In any case there is no doubt that SAC has been more in the public
spotlight now
than for a long time.

- These events together have led to that perhaps three times as many
Swedes know
who the syndicalists are today compared to 1998, Ingemar Sjöö
speculates.

He points out the SAC:s very visible and active participation in the
Gothenburg
Action network as a "propagandistic triumph".

- We got a very good reputation amongst other organisation, who
perhaps
envisioned us to be a gang of anarchist loonies, but in reality we
proved
ourselves to be very competent organizers.
The secretary of the SAC, Hannele Peltonen, wants to emphasize an
aspect of the
Gothenburg events that haven't got the same amount of attention,
namely the
European industrial branch-meetings that SAC hosted.

- We have established better international cooperation with our
sister
organisations and have begun to create a global network.
As well Ingemar Sjöö as Hannele Peltonen believes that the massmedias
picture of
the Gothenburg events originally cast SAC in a negative light, but
that the
organisation has won out as the picture has become more and more
balanced.

- For a while many members were worried, but when people who
weren't there
realized that we stood behind the peaceful activities they calmed
down, says
Hannele Peltonen.

But what kind of picture has the SAC put up for the outside - is it
one of a
union or more like a organisation concerned with general politics?

- Before most people didn't have any idea at all who we were, so
I think that it
is positive that people now know that we exist, says Hannele Peltonen.
For her, there is no doubt that it was the almost unrealistic time
after the
murder of Björn Söderberg that was the most turbulent time during her
four years
as Organisational Secretary.

SAC succeeded, amidst sorrow and worries, to mobilize giant
manifestations
against nazism and received a seldom seen attention. This was
attention of a
whole other kind than the suspect picture that was delivered in the
massmedia
after the Gothenburg events. Diametrically opposite pictures of one
and the same
organisation have been offered in the same newspapers during only a
year.

- Already before everything happened we had planned to reach out
and take more
space in the public debate. This meant that we weren't totally
unprepared.
Amongst the positive things that have happened, Hannele Peltonen wants
to point
out successful work with public opinion, the campaign against the
proposed new
draconian version of the labour laws that the so called
Öberg-investigation
produced, a campaign in which Björn Söderberg was very active.
We took part in creating opinion against the attacks on union rights
and
freedoms and thus helped so that all of the new suggestions weren't
realized.

There has been concern about possible galloping escape of members both
in
connection to the Gothenburg riots - which sparkled quite a lot of
internal
debate - as well as the murder of Björn Söderberg. However the
concerns turned
out to be groundless. The consequence of the fact that nazis murdered
a union
man and carried out a bombing of the SAC Industrial Secretariat in
Gävle was
instead a tightening of the ranks in the organisation. In Ingemar
Sjöö's opinion
it was even the traumatic autumn of 1999 that marked the end of SAC
long period
of sinking membership.

Presently the amount of members is largely in a status quo, even
though it
depends on how you count. Traditionally the rather large group of
retired
workers are counted as SAC-members, even though they do not work or
pay
membership fees. With the retired members in the calculations, the
membership
curve is still sinking, but if one looks at the dues-paying membership
the
numbers instead point upwards, and ends around circa 6500 members. The
official
membership, counting the retired workers, is 7761.

One thing that is striking, and according to Hannele Peltonen one of
the
organisations main problem, is the high throughout. About 500-600
people join
each year, but almost as many leave the SAC, even though it partly can
be
attributed to a group of "sporadic members".

- Here we have one of our big problems. This is why educational
activity is
important - to take care of the new members, says Hannele Peltonen.
The SAC is good at agitating and being visible, and very many submit
their
interest in joining. But somewhere along the line something doesn't
click:
partly the Local Coorganisations (LS) in general are bad at following
up the
interest and grab hold of the new members, partly the SAC isn't good
enough at
involving new members in the activities and stay for a longer while,
according
to Hannele Peltonen.

Some very deep changes can be seen in the composition of the SAC
membership.
Traditionally syndicalism has been a movement dominated by men in the
countryside. Timberworkers and stonecutters were initially very
strongly
represented in the organisation, and this trend continued for a long
while. Even
if there still is a lively Forest industry-federation in the SAC,
there can be
no doubt that the trades that traditionally have been organised are on
the way
out, to slowly be replaced by others.

- The larger group now comes from the public sector dominated by
women, and
usually live in the larger cities, says Hannele Peltonen.
That SAC - which became the first feminist union in Sweden - still has
only
about 35 percent women members is said to be caused by the fact that
the large
numbers of older male members.

- Amongst the members below 65 years of age the distribution in
terms of
breakdown by sex is almost even, says Torfi Magnusson, who has taken
care of the
statistics for the membership registry.

The differences are also big between different LS. SAC in total has
many young
members, possibly far more than a couple of decades ago, but some LS
which seem
to live a fading life mainly consists of only older persons.
So, at present neither more or fewer choose SAC as their union
organisation.
Ingemar Sjöö feels that this is quite natural, because the membership
development historically has been intimately tied to the business
cycles of
society.

- SAC had great increases in membership in connection to deep
economic crisis,
for example post-WWI. The happy 20's meant a massive loss of members,
a trend
which was broken with the stock market crash in 1929. SAC lost almost
10 000
members in your years time, to regain the same number almost as
quickly, he
says.

- I believe it will continue in this fashion. We must be
available when people
almost in desperation search for union alternatives.
Aside from the more dramatic events that SAC freely or forced took
part in, the
syndicalists that The Worker has spoken to want to hold forward a less
spectacular tendency that has grown noticeable the latest years. It is
what is
referred to the "union reorganisation", which has revolved around a
number of
union conferences and aims at rebuilding the union activity at the
base in the
form of sections at workplaces and trade-organising in the form of
syndicates
and federations on local respectively national level.

- We have earlier focused pretty much on general political
questions that
admittedly have bearings for the union struggle, but we have forgotten
to invest
energy in the union organisation, says Hannele Peltonen.
Will the debated reorganisation escalate, or is it more of a hope?

- Yes, but it isn't going as fast as one would like. I worked
with the SAC
Women's Committee to bring in feminism in the organisation, and now in
the
mirror you can see that it took 10 years.

Ingemar Sjöö believes himself to see that things already are starting
to happen.
He tells about how he heard plans from members in the half-and-half
sleeping
construction worker's federation to disband the federation, at the
same time as
a group of younger construction workers who had been to a union
reorganisational
conference showed great interest in a construction worker's federation
without
even knowing about the formally existing one.

- One could expect that this would take place during a general
increase of
membership, but it is more the already existing members that are
beginning to
get more alert, says Ingemar Sjöö.

He says that there is a consensus in the organisation about "turning
the wheel"
in the direction of rebuilt syndicates and federations, and believes
that the
taxi strike, which attracted much attention, has played a vital role
in the
vitalization.

The taxi strike was successful, but at the same time led to some
internal
controversies. That a union organises taxi drivers, who formally are a
one
person-business, and struggles, with a combination of direct action
and
anti-trust laws, for their demand to equal access to the taxi lanes at
the
Arlanda airport is hardly a conventional way to do things for a
Swedish union.
SAC has also stood for two much written about one-person this year,
though with
lesser success. Last spring it was Karolina Bergh in Gävle who
struggled for
better workplace conditions and higher wages, and now Rasmus Hästbacka
in Umeå
who alone went out in strike against indivudual and secret
wage-setting
policies.

- Particularly the taxi strike was very odd. But I believe that
we are quite
open for new ways, to use the strategies, methods and laws that are
available to
us, says Hannele Peltonen.
Ingemar Sjöö concurs.

- That one has to be flexible in the choice of methods and not
lock one self up
in certain patterns of behaviour is a very far-reaching syndicalist
tradition.

Torfi Magnusson, who has been involved in the work with the union
reorganisation
conferences' points out that the amount of innovative union activity
that he has
observed is limited to a small section of the membership and a younger
generation, but that it nevertheless is decisive for the survival of
the SAC.

- If a new ignition doesn't come now, SAC will quietly fade out
and die, he
says.

- It isn't as simple as that one must become more workplace
oriented, because
that might to mean jurisprudence and MBL [the Co-Determination Act, a
law which
gives the worker opportunities to affect the situation at the
workplace by for
example the right to form a union and sign collective agreements]. The
interesting thing is not to chase collective agreements, but to
successfully
press for improvements. How they then are formally carried out and if
it is LO
[Swedish main trade-union federation connected to the Social
Democrats] that
signs them, it doesn't mean shit.

Torfi Magnussan is of the opinion that SAC cannot hold on to the old
majority-thought, the goal to organise all workers.

- We must be able to be a minority but still have the ability to
put questions
on the agenda. If you have three syndicalists in a workplace it is
more
interesting if they manage to carry out changes than if they recruit
five
co-workers.

Many of the proposals to the SAC congress touches on to the "union
reorganisation" in different ways. Amongst other things there is a
longer
proposal for a union programme (which is debated in this issue of
Arbetaren).
Despite that many syndicalists seem to have a feeling that SAC is in a
critical
stage, which both can lead to total stagnation or a new ignition, most
don't
seem to view the congress as very decisive. Instead most are glad that
the
number of motions this time isn't as large as at the congress in 1998.

- Last congress flipped out. It wasn't able to make all
decisions during the
allotted time, says Hannele Peltonen.

The aftermath was a number of referenda in important questions, which
she means
has created a democratic problem by numbing the SAC-members. In
important
referenda about the SAC economy and election of a new Working
Committee, only a
few percent of the member participated.

Two years ago the members chose between a number of alternatives to
manage SAC:s
million kronor deficit. Increased dues, closure of Arbetaren, firing
of
personnel or borrowing money from the conflict funds were some
alternatives, and
1200 member took part in the decision.

The result was higher dues for the ones with the highest wages, the
internal
organ Syndikalisten cut down on printing costs and Arbetaren was left
to mange
itself without additional money from it's owner, the members - even if
a clear
majority voted against closure.

Now the economy of the SAC is OK, but the situation is worse for the
companies:
the property in Stockholm, Federativs printing press and Arbetaren. As
well the
printing press as the company taking care of the real estate has
suffered losses
when customers when bankrupt.

During spring 2001, the Working Committee (AU) resigned, after a
membership
referenda accepted a proposal to strip the AU delegates of voting
rights in the
Central Committee. This changed the mission "from being a political
commission
to being a service function" the delegates wrote, and chose to leave
since this
was not what they had candidated for.

When a new AU was to be voted for only 200 members took part in the
election. A
number of conflicts has since showed up around the Gothenburg-based AU
that came
into action the 20th January this year - after SAC had been without AU
for
almost a whole year.

- We were forced to have seven-hour meetings to work off the
mountain of matters
that had accumulated and it burnt us out from the start, says Ingemar
Sjöö, one
of the delegates in the AU that now resigns when the congress votes a
new one.

The critics mean that the present AU has acted authoritarian and tried
to direct
the organisation politically rather than administrating the running
work. But
Ingemar Sjöö means that hard measures were necessary after a period of
degeneration

- We broke into different authorities in the organisation and
wanted
transparency and it things got heated. During the time that there had
been no
AU, committees, companies and officials had found themselves quite
comfortable.
A sort of praxis had been developed, unwritten routines that didn't
comply with
the organisations constitution.

One of the more controversial actions of the AU was when the boards of
SAC:s
companies were exchanged. Not the least the fact that Arbetaren
received a board
compromised exlusively by men woke upset feelings.

- I get the impression that we are intensively detested among
many. But we don't
give a shit about it now, because we are resigning now anyway, says
Ingemar
Sjöö.

Six individuals are canditating for a new AU this congress. One lives
in Gävle,
one in Uppsala and the rest in Stockholm. Two of them are women.
Three persons - Liv Marend, Arwid Lund and Lars Hammarberg - want to
take over
the post as SAC:s secretary after Hannele Peltonen.

- These four years has been a tough period. We have been very
visible in the
media, but at the same time periodically lacked a function AU and been
forced to
heavily cut down on personnel. Add to this the threats from nazi
groups and that
our headquarters in Gävle was bombed. Together all this makes people
to feel
bad, says Hannele Peltonen.

At the same time she means that SAC has learned much through the work
of
creating a feminist trade union.

- We have gathered a common goal and cooperated between the
office, the
industrial secretariat in Gävle, Arbetaren, the ombudsmen and the
committees.
After our desire to break the male dominance it is a natural thing to
continue
dealing with the union reorganisation.

Rasmus Fleisher, Translation Mikael Altemark