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The Women's Liberation movement in Sweden has a history different from the movement in the rest of Europe. Due to the late development of the Swedish working class and its relative smallness, the question of women's liberation was an issue taken up through the development of bourgeois society and the formation of the liberal ideas of that era. The first women's organisations fought for the right of married women to own property, for the right to equal education, the right to hold positions in society etc.
The first proletarian women's organisation was formed only in 1886 by glove seamstresses over the issue of wages. At this time only 20% of all women were wage earners. Shortly after, two other proletarian women's organisations were formed, even a women's trade union was formed. The issues for all these organisations were strictly related to working conditions, working hours, wages etc. But as in Germany, women in Sweden also had to fight hard against the reactionary tendencies of male workers who even in trade union programs demanded regulations and restrictions against women workers and very often women were also banned from joining trade unions. Very soon the proletarian women's organisations joined the social democratic party and their main task was to go our and agitate among men and women to join the party. The specific character of women's oppression in a class society, was not brought forward.
In the fight for universal suffrage women in the social democratic party had a hard battle to wage: the party demanded that universal suffrage for women should not be made a major issue since this might endanger the chances to get it for men. The party was also willing to maintain the incomebarriers for the women. In short: the question of universal suffrage for women was only seen as a tactical question that could be used to bargain with in parliament. These proletarian women were so betrayed by the social democratic party that many of them were thrown off into the bourgeois camp that was leading the suffrage movement. When universal suffrage was at last introduced in Sweden in 1921, women in Finland had had the right to vote since 1907, in Denmark since 1908 and in Norway since 1909.
During the 1930's the social democratic party showed a radical face concerning women and the family. In Europe as a whole a very reactionary ideal was brought forward with the rise of fascism in very strong patriarchal families and a highly developed feminine mystique. But here in Sweden there was no need for this ideal. The social democrats have all aleng seen it as their main task on their peaceful roadto socialism, to strenghten the economically most progressive parts of the bourgeoisie. The developing monopoly capitalism could within its framework very well use a new woman's ideal. The relatively small working class needed to be expanded as quickly as possible and the continual regrowth had to be secured. A campaign for larger families was started: collective housing borne. But women on the Swedish labour market are treated no different from women on the labour market in any other capitalist society: cheap unskilled labour for fields related to household work e.g. maintenance, and a hugh army of reserve labour.
This spring the social democratic women's organisation came out with a program concerning their family policy. In quite radical language this program condemns class society and the existing structure of the ownership of the means of production. When it comes to analysing the family, the air has gone out and the perspectives given for the future family are such that they already are a reality today. No analysis of the function of the family in a capitalist society is given, no analysis of the specific oppression of women is given, the problem is simply put as a problem of sex roles. One of the demands is a shorter working day to give both the man and the woman more time for family life in order to get rid of the sex roles.
As the social democratic party has never been able to see the oppression of women as a problem requiring any attention different from the working class as a whole, the social democratic women's organisation has also never been able to have a progressive role: it was the liberals leading the struggle for universal suffrage. During the 1960's when the debate on the oppression of women came to the fore, it was again the liberals leading the discussion making it to a discussion of sex roles only. Here the debate among the bourgeois liberals and the social democrats in many aspects fused: women's liberation was identified with her right to work outside the household. In a moralising and non-analytical style arguments were brought out against the housewife institution: if men and women only did the same kind of work, men in the household and women in the labour market the differences of the sexes would disappear. No connection at all was made between the oppression of women as a sex with the social and economical structure of society as a whole. The left was non-existent in this discussion: at this time the stalinist hegemony was total.
The development of the new women's liberation movement is very much in reaction to the liberal sex role debate and the traditional women's organisations for their utter failure to give the movement any strategical perspective and instead of mobilising the oppressed working class women they relied on getting response from the authorities and the commercial and industrial interests.
The same two tendencies, the feminist and the socialist, that cut through the movement on an international scale also cut through Sweden. The feminist tendency is today only represented in one group, limited to a university town in southern Sweden, Kvinnoligan (League of Women) and its main emphasis is on consciousness-raising and ideological-critical work in order to liberate women from their male suppressors.
Within League of Women there are different tendencies concerning the perspectives of the political work: some voices are
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aised in favour of active political work whilst others claim that women today, due to the oppression they have suffered for so long, are unable to form a political opinion of their own. As a symton of the non-existant political perspective a split in the League of Women occurred a year ago when Socialist Women's Group was formed. Up till now this group has been concentrated on theoretical work and a consolidation of cadres but before the end of this year the group will come out with a political platform.
Today the biggest and most rapidly expanding women's organisation is Group 8. Group 8 was formed in 1968, on a clearly defined socialist platform which stressed the class character of women's oppression and related the liberation of women to the revolutionary development of society as a whole The reasons for setting up a separate women's organisation were due to the inability of the left in its stalinst heritage to see women's liberation as a question worthy of any attention. The problems of a separate women's liberation movement have not yet been settled and there are different tendencies on how to build the organisation. whether it should have the character ofa mass-movement of an avant guardist organisation. what the persenctives are and the relationship to the other left organisallons.
The two manifestations and the exhibition on the economical. political and ideological oppression of women that Group * arranged this spring has contributed to a mass-affluence to the organisation. This mass-affluence has underlined and sharpened the urgent need for the organisation to express and concretise its strategical and tactical positions. This need for a politicisation has resulted in a decision to hold a national conference late this year to which other socialist women's organisations are invited Preparations for this conference are heing made and groups have heen formed to prepare internal discussions around very specific political questions as Reform or Revolution and Class analysis etc.
If Group & is to maintain its mass-base and revolutionary potential. this conference must contribute to outlining the strategical and tactical perspectives of the movement. It is the duty of the revolutionary left to give their support in building a revolationary women's liberation movement A Swedish Comrude Demonstration orgarbed by Group Son the platform: Struggle for Socalism and Women's Liberation.