Sweden's Sturdy Youth Rallies to Ranks of Democracy and Socialism
Lamming, Norman
Sweden's Sturdy Youth Rallies to Ranks of Democracy and Socialism '•gb : By Norman Lamming A BOGEY which the conservative press ju. Sweden dangles Ik-tore its readers is"th'e" "periP uf a...
...He says that they are "private empires within the nation...
...In the parliamentary elections of 1932, and the municipal elections of 1934, its members were among the foremost in the campaign...
...Had the Youth movement not ttood firm and united, the workert who are...
...Social Democracy has held the reina of government jn Denmark for over Ave years...
...And in order to fight it learnt that strong weapons were needed...
...The Right is badly handicapped...
...In 1017, the League first came into being...
...It would isolate us from the working clasa Every, reader will want to be informed of this struggle...
...They arq, but so are the corporate firms that are held by these holding companies...
...Socialism, with its economic, social, political and cultural democracy and abolition of human exploitation, can be realized for all only when these industries are no longer owned by a few to extort surplus values from the working magse...
...But the sterile policy of t lie Right has little to offer, and tlje new organization can count only 3,000 to 5,0M members...
...Sweden's League of Social Democratic Youth recently* 'held its seventh triennial congress...
...Over L855 such group.* are now studying subjects ranging from economics to Esperanto...
...The Liberal party's you...
...Cabinet meeting might have been called on the platform, for nearly all the members of tJhe government were present, led by Per Albin Hansson, the Prime Minister, and Foreign Minister Rickard Sandler, the president of the Lea mi" of Nations Council...
...This policy would wreck the party and make it anothm little Bolshevik sect...
...THE mW LEADER'S FIGHT FOR THE SOCIALIST PARTY A WORD to Socialists and sympathizers -who form the butifffi *^ the readers of The New Leader:—We are reluctantly com] polled to five much space to internal problems and conflict* a(j the party...
...It learnt that democracy cannot be*a passive state, but must be a living, fighting force...
...Certain elements in the Conservative Party had been wobbling towards the authoritarian _______________ state, and with the Nazi riM tion in...
...Members and former membtsfj of little Bolshevik sects have been encouraged to join the SoriaihM Party...
...So are the great majority of our readers...
...When Industry Is Ripe far a Socialist Form of Society A STRIKING sentence appears in Presk den* $9p#eyejt> message to Congress on utility h<44»ng companies...
...Young workers are being encouraged to make use of the People's High Schools, to which the League provides four scholarships each year...
...T oQvejr...
...association has hardly more thi 3,000 to 4,000 members...
...That League today kg as many members and twicefl many rallying points as thi whole party in 1917, and iu growth is relatively more raji than that of the party itself These are heartening signs thai Socialism and Democracy are if spiring to a greater degree thai ever before the coming genen< tion in Sweden...
...Until that schism the Conservative Youth Organization (the "National Union of Youth") was regarded as the chief opponent of the Social Democratic League and olaimed 40,000 members...
...two centuries capitalist industry has developed from small individual enter* prises to great plants and these have been ,gfajr4iejfed into gigantic organizations...
...l9H who do not are not interested in building a Socialist movequgfl We are...
...Youth League Grows Rapidl The Youth movement of ,W Peasant Union has now tm 50,000 to 53,000 members, and i the country districts is the So*| Democratic League's bigge.it opp neht...
...Timber jack* from Nor r land, miners from Bergslagen, factory workers, clerks, farm laborers, workers of nearly every occupation marched in the long columns...
...they are social...
...Its social blessings cannot hie enjoyed by all so long as these masters are vested with the legal right of owning such industries...
...At its first congress, held in that year, the modest membership of 1,000 was represented...
...Instead of living en slogans it worked out handbooks to the industries in which its members ere engaged...
...Education occupies by far the largest space of any section in the League's triennial report...
...Ten thousand young men and women marched with flying banners and flaring torches through the packed .street* of Stockholm on the opening night...
...So when the President refers to the utilities empire as "private socialism," this can, be interpreted to mean that the socialist form of production is enjoyed by capitalist owners...
...Against Nazism's program of violence and dictatorship it fights with energy and enthusiasm...
...Since then, the ConservaMw Party has created a new Youth organization...
...Never has the Swedish capital witnessed such an assembly of organized youth...
...On the contrary, he wants to preserve it but eliminate some of its abuses through more regulation and elimination of the master holding companies...
...Encourage Studying Since 1931, the membership of its study circles has doubled...
...Airy-fairy fantasy and sentimental appeal find no place in its program...
...Tjte^ase, implies a contradiction and yet it is not wholly, .wjpng...
...So instead of dreaming of Utopias it organized educational courses in present-day problems...
...Those first five years and those hard-won members, however, were decisive for the future of Social Democracy in Sweden...
...We prej9H run nothing but educational matter, but our wishes are vetoefl by the party crisis...
...But what makes the Rigft still more apprehensive is the strong and purposeful Youth movement standing behind the present government...
...Each of these firms enjoy "private socialism...
...Youth Movement Strong Well might the conservative press ahow bitterness at the confidence reposed in Social Democracy in Sweden and its Scandinavian neighbor...
...The creation of every new group was bailed as a great achievement...
...Left parties, which now play a minor role in Sweden's industrial I and political life...
...The present organization is all the better for those hard knocks...
...Private ownership of any social institution is really an absurdity and yet this absurdity is the basis, of the whole system of capitalist production and distribution...
...The tv Communist parties have abot 12,000 to 16,000 members in the youth sections, whilst the Syirf calists reckon about 2,000 to 3.09 All these organizations pot to gether, however, cannot toad the numerical strength of thi Social Democratic League 4 Youth...
...When industry passes from individualist to social production it is ripe for socialization...
...In the meantime we have received hundreds of letters of ap,1 proval of our course, some now coming from the Pacific Cotwj Resolutions ol' locals and party branches are also coming in...
...its own youth association broke away in 1932, and became an independent party with • policy verging on pure Nazism...
...100,000 Pledged to Socialism No other movement in Sweden can show ruch a large and wejlorganized body of young supporters as the Social Democratic Party...
...Sweden has a Social Democratic government, which, unhappily for the conservative propagandists, has been able to halve the unemployment figures this year...
...Germany, the Nati«Bjj Union of Youth decided the tin had come to line up with faasfl It was given plenty of free aB But the party beat a strategic rj treat when it perceived what litd response the disguised fascia] policy of its bright young thisj received...
...At the opening see¦Itn In tiht Concert Heujib..A...
...That is, it has reached the stage where, Socialism is possible...
...This, cannot be avoided...
...Its growth is at once a romance and a tribute to fine organization...
...which must ^)|^i|ed...
...Sweden dangles Ik-tore its readers is"th'e" "periP uf a "Red Scandinavia...
...He declares that they .have a Rri?ate cialism of copcantatfed private^,jK»mr...
...now between thirty and forty years j of aye might well hove d"een ai»i*-j leetly split between the different j ia:a in h of Communist and .ofAce...
...i Instead of a Labor government at the present time—with the' prospect of others to come—the Right might well have been firmly In the saddle, playing off the various workers' parties against each other and taking ieesons in Nazism from willing teachers on the other sida of the Baltic...
...Side by side with this intensive inward education the League drives a vigorous public propaganda, both on its own account and for the party...
...Over 100,000 young men and women, gathered in nearly 2,000 I "in l graup*, are preparing for the day—not to far ahead— irlu ii they will takt leading places in the State ft ml the community...
...And in Norway the recent municipal elections gave a tmashing victory to the Labor Party...
...Orqaniie Educational Courses From all Bides—from the Right i.nd the extreme Left—the n«|w movement experienced assault...
...So \w under.| take a job that every genuine Socialist organ has undertakes SJ the past when such issues have threatened the dstruction of thej movement...
...Considering that the population ol Sweden >« barely 6,200,000, it can claim that no other country has so strong a force of youth pledged to preserve and apply the principles of Socialism...
...The President does not suggest that this , "private socialism" shall be abolished...
...Every new member had to be fought for...
...Special training courses are held for unemployed member, and when the government appointed a committee in January to work out measures to combat juvenile unemployment, the League's chairman Was appointed a member...
...The strength of Social Democracy and the weakness of the middle-class parties reveal themselves most in the appeal to youth...
...Correspondence tuition is developing...
...The first five years were not specially encouraging...
...and now the Ni tional Union of Youth is an huh pendent party with a, tnemherfl less than half of its* palmy (fl servative days...
...mm wffl-fooirrajrssftscta-from these documents.- . Jll tot a year or two the party membership has been poisoafl by gossip and secret circulars...
...It would be a criminal negJetd for us not to perform this service to the movement...
...Per Albin Hansson spoke no idle words when he praised the .seriousness of its members to fit themselves for the future...
...They are no longer individual...
...But these had .gone to far to retreat...
Vol. 18 • March 1935 • No. 11
