Central Organisation of the Workers of Sweden

Central Organisation of the Workers of Sweden (in Swedish

Swedish language

Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...

: Sveriges Arbetares Centralorganisation) is an anarcho-syndicalist

Anarcho-syndicalism

Anarcho-syndicalism is a branch of anarchism which focuses on the labour movement. The word syndicalism comes from the French word syndicat which means trade union , from the Latin word syndicus which in turn comes from the Greek word σύνδικος which means caretaker of an issue...

trade union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

federation in Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

. Unlike other Swedish unions, SAC organizes people from all occupations, including the unemployed

Unemployment

Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...

, student

Student

A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...

s, and the retired

Retirement

Retirement is the point where a person stops employment completely. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours.Many people choose to retire when they are eligible for private or public pension benefits, although some are forced to retire when physical conditions don't allow the person to...

. SAC also publishes the weekly newspaper

Weekly newspaper

A weekly newspaper is a general-news publication that is published on newsprint once or twice a week.Such newspapers tend to have smaller circulations than daily newspapers, and are usually based in less-populous communities or small, defined areas within large cities; often, they may cover a...

Arbetaren
Arbetaren
Arbetaren is a Swedish weekly newspaper, founded in 1922. It is published by the anarcho-syndicalist union SAC, Central Organisation of the Workers of Sweden....

("the Worker"), owns the publishing house Federativs and runs the unemployment fund Sveriges Arbetares Arbetslöshetskassa (SAAK).

Its long-term goal is to realize libertarian socialism

Libertarian socialism

Libertarian socialism is a group of political philosophies that promote a non-hierarchical, non-bureaucratic, stateless society without private property in the means of production...

, a society without classes

Social class

Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...

and hierarchies

Hierarchy

A hierarchy is an arrangement of items in which the items are represented as being "above," "below," or "at the same level as" one another...

, where the means of production

Means of production

Means of production refers to physical, non-human inputs used in production—the factories, machines, and tools used to produce wealth — along with both infrastructural capital and natural capital. This includes the classical factors of production minus financial capital and minus human capital...

are owned commonly and administrated by the workers: in effect, abolition of capitalism

Capitalism

Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...

, wage slavery

Wage slavery

Wage slavery refers to a situation where a person's livelihood depends on wages, especially when the dependence is total and immediate. It is a negatively connoted term used to draw an analogy between slavery and wage labor, and to highlight similarities between owning and employing a person...

, and sexism

Sexism

Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...

. SAC has thus decided to declare itself to be anti-sexist, anti-militarist

Antimilitarism

Antimilitarism is a doctrine commonly found in the anarchist and, more globally, in the socialist movement, which may both be characterized as internationalist movements. It relies heavily on a critical theory of nationalism and imperialism, and was an explicit goal of the First and Second...

, and, as the first trade union in Sweden, feminist

Feminism

Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...

(1998). Short-term goals are improved salaries and working environments. It frequently cooperates with other libertarian socialist organizations, such as the Swedish Anarcho-syndicalist Youth Federation

Swedish Anarcho-syndicalist Youth Federation

Swedish Anarcho-syndicalist Youth Federation, is a youth-based group in Sweden that supports anarcho-syndicalism....

(SUF), although SUF is not a part of SAC.

SAC was formed in 1910 by former members of the mainstream trade union movement LO

Swedish Trade Union Confederation

The Swedish Trade Union Confederation , commonly referred to as LO, is a national trade union centre, an umbrella organisation for fifteen Swedish trade unions that organise mainly "blue-collar" workers...

who were influenced by the revolutionary

Revolutionary

A revolutionary is a person who either actively participates in, or advocates revolution. Also, when used as an adjective, the term revolutionary refers to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor.-Definition:...

syndicalism

Syndicalism

Syndicalism is a type of economic system proposed as a replacement for capitalism and an alternative to state socialism, which uses federations of collectivised trade unions or industrial unions...

of the French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

Confédération Générale du Travail

Confédération générale du travail

The General Confederation of Labour is a national trade union center, the first of the five major French confederations of trade unions.It is the largest in terms of votes , and second largest in terms of membership numbers.Its membership decreased to 650,000 members in 1995-96 The General...

. It was also a founding member of the anarcho-syndicalist International Workers Association

International Workers Association

The International Workers' Association is an international federation of anarcho-syndicalist labour unions and initiatives based primarily in Europe and Latin America....

, but came into conflict with the IWA in the 1950s when SAC entered into a state-supported unemployment fund, which the IWA regarded as state collaboration and reformist. In 1956, the SAC withdrew from the IWA.

The traditional strongholds of the SAC were primarily in the forestry

Forestry

Forestry is the interdisciplinary profession embracing the science, art, and craft of creating, managing, using, and conserving forests and associated resources in a sustainable manner to meet desired goals, needs, and values for human benefit. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands...

, mining

Mining

Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

, and construction

Construction

In the fields of architecture and civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of human multitasking...

industries. Today, most SAC members are employed in the public sector

Public sector

The public sector, sometimes referred to as the state sector, is a part of the state that deals with either the production, delivery and allocation of goods and services by and for the government or its citizens, whether national, regional or local/municipal.Examples of public sector activity range...

Decision making

Decisions should, according to SAC, be made by those whom it concerns and not by representatives or leaders. That is why they apply federalism

Federalism

Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...

, direct democracy

Direct democracy

Direct democracy is a form of government in which people vote on policy initiatives directly, as opposed to a representative democracy in which people vote for representatives who then vote on policy initiatives. Direct democracy is classically termed "pure democracy"...

and direct action

Direct action

Direct action is activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political, economic, or social goals outside of normal social/political channels. This can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the direct action...

. Decisions about negotiation

Negotiation

Negotiation is a dialogue between two or more people or parties, intended to reach an understanding, resolve point of difference, or gain advantage in outcome of dialogue, to produce an agreement upon courses of action, to bargain for individual or collective advantage, to craft outcomes to satisfy...

s, notice

Notice

Notice is the legal concept in which a party is made aware of a legal process affecting their rights, obligations or duties. There are several types of notice: public notice , actual notice, constructive notice, and implied notice....

s, offensive actions and agreements are ultimately made by the members of the operational sections. Decisions about using the battle funds are made by the Local Co-organization (the members thereof, of course). Central notices about offensive action, strikes, and other things exist but they can be annulled locally by local instances. Central veto

Veto

A veto, Latin for "I forbid", is the power of an officer of the state to unilaterally stop an official action, especially enactment of a piece of legislation...

es against conflict measures do not exist. Concentration of power is avoided by not letting SAC's employees be eligible for election to positions of confidence or as congress representatives.

Most workplaces are today covered by collective agreements

Collective bargaining

Collective bargaining is a process of negotiations between employers and the representatives of a unit of employees aimed at reaching agreements that regulate working conditions...

set up by Landsorganisationen

Swedish Trade Union Confederation

, which apply not only to members of LO, but also other employees of the workplace in question. However, only members of LO are bound by LO's part of the agreement, which means that members of SAC - and, of course, other non-LO trade unions - are free to initiate offensive actions even if the current collective wage agreement includes a no strike clause.

Structure

SAC has a double structure, the geographic and the industry-wise. It is influenced by the way CGT

Confédération générale du travail

was structured at the time of SAC's founding.

Geographical structure
- Local Co-organizations (Lokala Samorganisationer, LS). The foundation of the geographical structure and the entire movement are the Local Co-organizations organized as locally as possible, preferably one per city
  City
  A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
  
  and/or municipality
  Municipality
  A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...
  
  . Individual members of SAC are affiliated directly with their nearest Local Co-organizations. As one of the basic tenets of syndicalism
  Syndicalism
  Syndicalism is a type of economic system proposed as a replacement for capitalism and an alternative to state socialism, which uses federations of collectivised trade unions or industrial unions...
  
  is direct and local democracy, the structure of different Local Co-organizations may vary a lot. It is not common to refer to the Local Co-organization by saying "Lokala Samorganisation", instead you say "LS".
- Districts. Several Local Co-organizations in a geographical area may establish a district, where they can cooperate with, for example, agitation
  Agitator
  An agitator is a person who actively supports some ideology or movement with speeches and especially actions. The Agitators were a political movement as well as elected representatives of soldiers, including the New Model Army of Oliver Cromwell, during the English Civil War. They were also known...
  
  and education
  Education
  Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
  
  . Districts may also function as constituencies for some functionary positions. The Local Co-organizations that make up the district decide what the district should be doing.
- Central Organization. Local Co-organizations are members of the federation
  Federation
  A federation , also known as a federal state, is a type of sovereign state characterized by a union of partially self-governing states or regions united by a central government...
  
  SAC, the name of the central authority, whose task is principally coordinating and administrative. It is from this central authority the movement has adopted its name. The highest governing body of SAC is the Congress
  Congress
  A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different nations, constituent states, independent organizations , or groups....
  
  , which is held at least every fourth year, the last being held in 2009. Representatives are sent to the congress from the Local Co-organizations, whose number of members determines how many representatives they may send. Every Local Co-organization has in advance decided how representatives should act in the questions that are to be decided on the congress, and the representatives are bound to act as such. A central committee
  Committee
  A committee is a type of small deliberative assembly that is usually intended to remain subordinate to another, larger deliberative assembly—which when organized so that action on committee requires a vote by all its entitled members, is called the "Committee of the Whole"...
  
  (centralkommitté, CK) composed by members elected from the districts lead the implementation of the decisions made by the congress and may make decisions on lesser issues. An executive committee (arbetsutskott, AU) elected by the congress handles recurring matters. Between the congresses important questions and supplementary elections are made by referendums. The Local Co-organizations are independent in matters and questions concerning them only, and have their own battle funds, even though there is a central battle fund too.
Industry-wise structure
- Operational section. The Operational section is the foundation of the industry-wise structure. These are organized at workplaces, without regards to occupation on the working place in question, and may go on strike
  Strike action
  Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
  
  independently of other parts of the organization if so decided by members of the Operational section. As the name implies, these groupings are to take over the operation of the workplace in the future libertarian socialist society envisioned by SAC.
- Syndicate. Operational sections belonging to the same industry (in example, health or transport) form syndicates in the city, municipality or other geographic area. Operational sections connected to different Local Co-organizations may join the same syndicate.
- Federation. Syndicates from all over the country join up to form industry-wise federations. Today, the main purpose of these is to coordinate the cooperation and agitation of the syndicates.

Secretariat

The secretariat of SAC is located in the SAC house on Sveavägen 98, Stockholm

Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

. The closest subway station is the Rådmansgatan

Rådmansgatan

Rådmansgatan Stockholm Metro station is located in Vasastaden, by the Sveavägen street and the Rådmansgatan street. The station was opened in 1952.The station is decorated with yellow tiles, and the theme in some of the artwork is August Strindberg....

. The purpose of the secretariat is to co-ordinate the internal and external work of the organization. Arbetaren
Arbetaren
Arbetaren is a Swedish weekly newspaper, founded in 1922. It is published by the anarcho-syndicalist union SAC, Central Organisation of the Workers of Sweden....

and Federativs are to be found in the same house.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Decision making

Structure

Secretariat

See also

External links