Workers' Liberty

After the Swedish elections: what hope for the left?

The victory for the right wing alliance was indeed historic. Never before have the Social Democrats lost power in the midst of an economic boom. The SAP’s share of 35.2% of the vote was their lowest since the introduction of universal suffrage in the 1920’s.

Recent opinion polls show a much reduced gap between the left and right blocs and one poll today even indicates that the left bloc have a slight lead.

The reason for this swing? The Folk Party, liberals who are the third largest party in the Riksdag , have been caught hacking into Social Democrat computer databases. Both the party secretary and campaign manager have resigned. The irony of this has not been lost on voters. A central theme in the FP's election campaign has been to give police the right to bug the telephone lines of suspected criminals.

Regardless of the political issues at stake in the elections, the right wing have one clear advantage and that is clear commitment to a governing alliance which will carry out an agreed common programme. By voting for any of the right wing parties, voters pretty much know what it is they are voting for. The same cannot be said of the left parties.

Here is the translated text of an article published in todays Dagens Nyheter written by Henrik Berggren.

Clearly the article is written from a social democratic/ liberal perspective and in a rather patronising tone but it does gives a number of historically accurate insights into Left Party history. Gudrun Schyman was the leader of the Left Party during its most electorally successful period in the mid 1990's. She quit the party two years ago and is one of the founding members of the Feminist Initiative, which is currently standing candidates in the Riksdag election. Whilst Left Party leader she was responsible for a more middle class radical outlook and favoured pretty much open collabaration with the Social Democrats. The partys new leaders Lars Ohly has taken the party back to the a more distinctive working class line and has found itself cut off from mainstream bourgeois opinion.

This is the translated text of the open letter to the Minister of State Göran Persson which was published in Swedish on the Left Party’s website at:

http://www2.vansterpartiet.se/val/template/arkiv/?pressID=48

According to the most recent opinion polls published in todays newspapers, the Left Party currently stand at 3.6%- the partys lowest level of support since April 1994. Parties require at least 4% of the overall national vote in order to gain representation in the Riksdag, so if this figure was repeated in the election on September 17th, the Left Party wold lose all of its 30 current seats in the Riksdag.

Elections to the Swedish Riksdag (parliament) and kommuner (local councils) take place on the 17th September and heavy gains are expected to be made by the right wing alliance at the expense of both the ruling Social Democrats (SAP), and the Left Party which has been a supporter of the Social Democrat government.

Sweden has been governed since 1994 by a loose coalition of the Social Democrats (SAP), Left Party (VP) and the Green Party.

By Bjarke Friborg, Red-Green Alliance

On 8 February the Danish right wing government secured four more years in power. The Conservatives and the Liberal party, together with their far right support party Dansk Folkeparti, now hold 93 of the 179 mandates, or three more than needed to form a majority.

By Bjarke Friborg

With victory for the social democrats and setback for the "eurosceptics" an established tradition in Denmark seems to have been broken. For the left wing it places the question of an anticapitalist answer to the European integration high on the agenda.

Ninety-minute nationalist - socialist, anti-nationalist, blog from Edinburgh.

Bjarke pa net - a Danish Marxist's blog, contains material in English as well as Danish.

By Rhodri Evans

On 14 September Sweden voted 56% to 42% against joining the euro.

The Social Democratic government, the main opposition parties, and the major newspapers all favoured the euro. But the voters rebelled.

Alan Turvey reports

To coincide with the European Union summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, in mid-December, at which ten eastern and central European states were admitted to membership, thousands of mainly young people demonstrated in the bitter Scandinavian cold - in the main not against "the EU" or "Europe" as such, but against "the capitalist EU".

We are informed that the British Offshore Industry Liaison Committee, OILC, will announced its transition from being a rank-and-file organisation to becoming an independent trade union later today [Fr