복지국가 스웨덴에서도 실업운동은 계속된다.

스웨덴 사회복지제도에 대한 관점들

  스웨덴은 흔히 사회복지제도의 천국으로 알려졌지만, 그 제도를 비판하는 시각도 다양하게 존재한다. 스웨덴의 경제학자인 조니 먼카머는 노르딕 국가들의 제도가 매우 비효율적이라고 비판한다. 그는 복지제도를 유지하기 위하여 국가가 세금을 과도하게 징수하기 때문에 경제는 비효율적이고 국가 재정은 위기로 치닫는다고 비판한다. 그의 발언은 다음 비디오에서 볼 수 있다.(http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=YrOBdbnYtJY)
  한편 이와는 반대로 스웨덴에 불어닥친 신자유주의 파도로 인해서 실업자들의 삶이 더욱 나빠졌다고 주장하는 측도 있다.

                                   (▲2007년 정책포럼, '복지 Vs 자유시장' 에 대해 발언 중인 조니 먼카머)


스웨덴, <공산주의와 계급투쟁을 위한 저널 : riff-raff>이 소개한 반실업 운동

 
  스웨덴의 <공산주의와 계급투쟁을 위한 저널>인 riff-raff(http://www.riff-raff.se/)은 2006년 예텐보리에서 있었던 반실업 운동을 소개하고 있다. 여기에서 예텐보리는 스웨덴 제2의 도시이자 최대 항구도시로서 인구가 50만 명이다.

                  (▲스웨덴의 주요 행정도시, 좌측 하단에 있는 예테보리)

  이 기사에 의하면 스웨덴에서 최근 우리나라의 자활사업과 비슷한 프로그램을 시행한 것으로 보인다. 이전에는 실업자가 실업급여만 받으면 되지만, 이제는 실업자가 구직활동을 적극적으로 하지 않으면 강제적으로 공공근로에 참여하게 되었다.

  이런 현상에 대하여 실업운동 진영은 실업자들을 죄인으로 취급한다고 주장한다. 홈페이지에 실린 기사가 전하는 그들의 투쟁 과정을 요약하자면 다음과 같다.

 

공공근로가 노예노동이라고 주장하는 예테보리의 반실업운동

(◀APPLE 반대 캠페인 : APPLE은 스웨덴의 고용센터)

  공공근로에 반대하는 그들의 첫 번째 투쟁은 공공근로를 지정하는 고용센터에 찾아가는 것이었다. 그들은 고용센터를 투쟁의 대상이 아니라 투쟁의 현장으로 삼았다고 한다. 고용센터에서 공공근로를 지정받기 위해 줄을 선 사람들에게 커피와 케이크를 제공하며, 유인물을 나눠주었다. 유인물은 실업의 원인을 설명하고, 실업자들은 실업상태에 대하여 죄의식을 가질 필요가 없다는 내용을 담았다.

  다음단계의 투쟁은 세미나 개최였다.
세미나에는 고용센터와 실업자들의 대표가 참가했다고 한다. 세미나를 한 뒤에 그들은 AKO라는 조직을 결성했다. AKO는 실업자들의 투쟁조직이라는 뜻이다. 애플(APPLE)이라는 고용센터가 공공근로 참가자를 500여명 모집했고 시 당국은 사업을 시작하려 했다. AKO는 사업이 시작되기 전에 파업을 일으킬 것을 목표로 해서 리플렛을 제작하여 배포했다.

공공근로가 시작되던 날, 그들은 대표자들의 회의 소집했다. 회의가 열렸다면 파업이 성공했을 것이다. 그러나 그날 총회에는 아무도 참석하지 않았다. 

  이때 그들이 사용한 구호는 ‘Your Local Slave Keepers - 당신네 구청의 노예 일꾼들' 또는 'No wage - No work - 무임금 무노동' 등이었다.

  무급노동에 땀 흘릴 수 없다!

  결론적으로 파업에 준하는 투쟁은 실패한 셈이다.

  투쟁의 경험이 없어서인지, 아니면 투쟁의 역량이 없어서인지 모르지만, 그들의 시도가 강렬했던 것 같지는 않다. 이후 그들은 이메일을 통하여 의사소통을 하는 방식으로 조직을 재정비했다. 이후 이 조직은 현실적으로 실천할 수 있는 투쟁의 방법은 태업이라고 판단했고, 공공근로 참가자들에게 태업을 권유했다. 이때 사용한 구호는 ‘No cash, No toil - 무급노동에 땀을 흘릴 수 없다’였다. 그들은 정부와 자본가들이 노동자들을 무상으로 부린다면서 분노했다.

  이후 AKO는 카페를 열어서 실업자들이 자연스럽게 모이고 정보를 나누도록 했다. 그리고 이런 투쟁이 알려져서 지역의 방송과 신문에 그들의 활동이 소개되었다고 기사는 전한다.

  이 기사는 2006년 봄에서 여름까지의 진행과정을 기록하여 8월4일에 작성하였다고 기록한다. 따라서 그 이후의 활동은 알 수 없다. 다음은 이 기사의 앞부분에 실린 그들의 선전물 내용을 번역한 것이다./기사작성 : 정윤식(부산실업극복지원센터 운영위원)

*번역 : 정윤식

스웨덴의 실업투쟁

  실업은 노동계급 전체를 겨누는 무기이다. 실업의 고통은 실업자들에게 그들이 감내할 수 있는 최대의 수준으로 쥐어짜서 쓰레기 같은 임금과 노동조건을 받아들이게 만든다. 절박한 심정으로 구직활동에 나서는 산업예비군들이 있을 때 사용자들은 그들 가운데 아무나 골라 쓸 수 있고, 고용센터들도 강압적일 수 있다. 그들은 우리들을 훈련생이란 이름으로 저임금이거나 심지어는 무임금으로 일하게끔 몰아넣는다. 그들의 목표는 실업자들에게 저임금 노예일지라도 실업의 대안으로 택하도록 하는 것이다. 우리는 현실적으로 요구를 점점 낮출 수밖에 없었고,  그들은 성공했다. (*스웨덴의 고용센터는 'Arbetsförmedlingen'라고 하며, Arbetsmarknadsverket라는 국가기관의 일부이다. 고용센터의 실무자는 1만명이다.)

  완전한 산업의 개념은 실업을 전제조건으로 한다. 우리가 학교를 졸업할 때 아무도 자신이 훗날 맥도날드나 버거킹에서 일하게 되리라고는 생각하지 않았다. 그러나 오늘의 사정은 달라졌고, 친구들은 대부분 비슷한 장소에서 일한다.

  옛날에 괜찮았던 일자리는 이제 점점 개판 같은 직장이 되고 있다. 일부 직장들, 그러니까 콜센터 같은 곳은 정말로 자포자기 한 구직자들에 의해 유지되고 있다.

실업의 짐

  자본이 우리들에게 드러내는 의도는 우리가 일을 하도록 하는 것이다 - 역설적이지만 이것은 사실이며, 심지어 실업에 대해서도 그렇다. 노동계급은 더 좋은 삶을 위해 투쟁하지만 자본은 우리가 더욱 힘들고 열악한 조건에서 일하도록 투쟁한다. 사회는 노동계급인 우리가 원하는 것과, 자산가들의 경제적 이득을 다투는 투쟁의 공간에서 존재한다.  

  1990년대는 실업문제를 피할 수 없는 시기였다. 다른 나라에 비하여 조금 늦기는 했지만 스웨덴에도 신자유주의의 파도가 닥쳤던 것이다. 인플레이션과의 투쟁이라는 미명하에 진짜이 문제와 싸워야 했던 사람들은 노동자들이었다. 그들의 이익은 극대화었고, 이를 위해 우리들의 노동조건과 임금은 나빠졌다. 70년대부터 성장했던 우리들의 급진주의와 계급투쟁은 실업문제가 우선적인 화두로 등장한 몇 가지 전략들에 의하여 말살되었다.

  스웨덴의 실업은 전적으로 내부의 조건 때문에 발생한 경제 후퇴로 인한 것이었다. 규제를 벗어난 중앙은행은 지나친 대출을 남발하여 엄청난 투자의 거품과 하늘 높은 줄 모르는 인플레이션을 유발했다. 인플레와 경제침체로 인한 값비싼 분투의 고통은 특히 실업자에게 심했다. 예전의 노동이론이었던 완전고용은 이제 역사 속으로 들어갔다. 실업은 일상적으로 발생했고, 엄청난 인플레로 인하여 회사들이 도산했다.

우리는 정부의 허리띠 졸라매기 정책을 잊지 못한다. 망해가는 경제를 구하기 위한 긴축정책과 근검, 규모축소에 따라 수많은 사람들이 해고를 당했다.

  정말로 기억해야 할 사실은 90년대의 근검절약 정책의 영향을 가장 크게 받은 사람들이 노동자들이라는 것이다. 경기후퇴 시기에 우리들은 더 열심히 일을 하고도 합리화와 실업의 고통을 떠안아야 했지만, 그들은 계속 이익을 남겼다. 이것이 바로 자본이 움직이는 방법이다. 우리들에게는 위기가 닥치지만 그들에게는 아니다. 경제위기가 오면 그들은 우리가 만들어낸 돈으로 시설을 증설하고 더 많은 이익을 거둬들인다. 우리의 투쟁은 70년애데 자본주의에게 대부분 승리했지만, 이제는 패했다.

오늘 공세를 어떻게 유지할 것인가

  그러나 자본의 공격은 아직 끝나지 않았다. 자본은 노동력이 비축된 것만으로는 만족하지 않는다. 그들은 우리가 서로 일자리를 놓고 필사적으로 투쟁하기를 원한다.

실업자들은 개 같은 일을 하느니 실업수당이나 사회복지수당을 받으며 지내기 바란다. 어떤 사람들은 장기 실업자가 되는데, 그들은 더욱 큰 문제를 일으킨다. 그들은 실업자 통계에 들어가지 않기 때문에, 쓰레기 같은 임금수준이나 고용조건의 통계에 영향을 미치지 않는다.

 

  실업수당은 사람들이 개 같은 직업을 거부할 수 있게 하는 장치이다. 그러나 자본이 고실업 시대의 와중에 찾아낸 해결책은 실업이 마치 범죄라도 되는 양 비난을 하는 것이다. 그들은 실업자들을 사회의 짐이며, 사회부조의 도둑이며 중독자라고 묘사했다.

예전에는 사회보장제도가 우리가 어느 날 실업자가 되었을 때 생존을 위한 수단이라고 생각했다. 그러나 이제는 이것이 마약과 비교되고 있다. 이제는 장기질환자로 등록된 사람들에게까지 벌을 부과하고, 실업자들은 죄인처럼 취급한다. 

  죄인취급과 별개로 실업자에 대한 통제와 모욕은 우리들에게 점증하는 압력이다. 고용센터와 사회보험청의 실무 기관들이 담당하는 업무는 점점 무력적으로 변해 간다. 요즘 그들이 하는 일은 실업자들에게 아무 직업이나, 심지어는 무급의 공공근로 일자리라도 받아들이도록 압력을 가하는 것이다. 초점도 없는 그 모든 과정과 우라질 훈련프로그램에는 목적이 있다. 실업자들에게 고용센터의 발톱에서 벗어나고픈 욕망을 갖도록 하는 것이다.

                                        (▲1930년대의 스웨덴 공공근로, Ak-arbete’)

새로운 일자리 원칙 : 공공근로

  옛날에 일자리의 원칙은 완전고용을 지향하는 것이었다. 앞에서도 말했지만 이 원칙은 신자유주의가 세계를 휩쓴 80년대와 90년대에 완전히 떠내려가 버렸다. 그리고 균형고용이라는 개념이 도입되었다. 실업률을 항상 같은 수준으로 유지한다는 명목으로 임금을 후려 깎을 수 있기 때문이었다. 그러나 이 계획이 제대로 작동하지 않자, 그들은 다른 방법을 추구했다. 실업자들이 일자리를 놓고 경쟁하지도 않고, 실업상태에 머무니까,  실업정책이 그들의 계획처럼 움직이지 않았던 것이다.  

  역사적인 암중모색이 끝나고 요즘 새로운 노동정책이 드러나고 있다. 오늘날 실업기간에 받는 급여는 권리가 아니고 이제는 복귀를 위한 특별한 혜택이 되었다. 이 새로운 모델은 공공근로로 활용된다. 실제로 이 제도에 의해서 실업자는 사회보장연금이나 실업급여만 받으면서 일을 해야만 한다.

옛 기록을 뒤져보면 이 제도가 스웨덴에서조차 처음으로 생긴 것은 아니란 것을 알 수 있다. 1930년대에 이 제도는 Ak-arbete라고 불렸다. 이 제도에 의해서 실업자들은 공공기관이 주선하고 금전적인 지원을 받는일자리에 동원되었다. 그들이 하는 일은 주로 건설, 습지 일구기, 숲가꾸기와 같은 저숙련 노동이었다. 그들은 스웨덴의 오지에서 육체적으로 힘든 노동을 했다. (*이 당시 공공근로:workfare 개념은 스웨덴에 새롭게 등장한 것이다.)

  그런 직종을 공공근로로 선택한 것은 우연이 아니었다. 이런 일에는 예산이 많이 필요하지 않았다. 기계와 노동력을 절감할 수 있는 수많은 도구가 발명되었지만 그들에게는 아주 단순한 도구가 주어졌다. 그들이 대규모 공업도시를 떠나 인구가 희박한 곳에서 집단 거주하게 함으로써 실업자들을 격리시키는 효과도 있었다. 공공근로를 하는 노동자들의 임금이 만족스러운 경우는 없었다. 그들은 동종 직업군 최저임금의 3분의2 수준의 임금을 받았다. 이처럼 불편한 노동환경 때문에 그들은 자신과 가족을 부양할 수 있는 다른 직종을 구하도록 강요받았다. 공공근로를 거부하는 노동자들에게는 평생 실업급여를 받을 자격을 박탈했다.

  실업제도와, 실업자들을 열악한 일자리로 내모는 정책의 이면에는 사람들이 근로의욕을 상실하지는 않을까 하는 양대 정당의 두려움이 자리 잡고 있다. ‘사회보험정신’이나 ‘사회적 기생충’ 같은 말이 회자된다. 그들은 노동시장의 작동방법에 두려움을 갖고 있다. 그러나 노동자들에게 합리적인 임금수준을 제공한다면 모두에게 일자리가 있을 것이다. 당연한 말 아닌가?

우리들과 세계

  우리들에게 닥친 오늘날 노동시장의 진실 된 모습은 스웨덴 정치가들이나 고용주들이 꾸미고 싶어 하는 아름다운 풍경과는 거리가 멀다. 신자유주의와 공공근로는 밀턴 프리드만이나 페르손, 프레드릭 라인펠트가 말하는 멋진 이론들의 추악한 면일 뿐이다. 그들의 이론은 부자는 점점 부자가 된다는 동화나 반복한다. 그러나 노동계급을 위협하는 무기로서의 실업은 자본주의가 태어날 때부터 내재적인 가능성으로 간직한 것이다. (*페르손은 이 글을 쓸 당시 스웨덴 총리, 프레드릭 라인펠트는 이 글을 쓸 당시의 스웨덴 야당 우파 정당 지도자)

  오늘날 정치인들과 사용자들은 우리가 지금의 처지에서 만족하도록 가진 노력을 기울인다. 양대 정당은 세계화를 비난하고, 말도 안 되는 토론과 난센스로 날밤을 지새우지만, 실업에 관한 토론은 회피한다. 사장들이 그들의 공장을 해외로 내보낼 것이라며 위협하면, 정치인들은 그들에게 더욱 큰 권력을 부여한다.

그러나 자본가들이 범지구적으로 일하고 세계화를 지향한다면, 투쟁 또한 세계화가 될 것이다. 파리 시가지에서 투쟁이 있었고, 교외는 불탔다. 독일의 고용센터들이 점거되었고, 아르헨티나는 도로점거로 혼란이 일어났다. 이런 것들은 작은 예일 뿐이다.

  자본만 우리들을 통제만 하는 것이 아니다. 우리도 투쟁을 통하여 자본을 통제할 수 있다. 우리가 소극적이면 우리들은 희생자가 될 것이고, 우리가 밀어붙이면 우리가 원하는 방향으로 제도를 고쳐나갈 것이다. 우리들의 투쟁과 경험이 쌓일수록 우리들의 지위는 점점 높아질 것이며, 계급이 없는 사회에 더욱 가까워질 것이다.

  자유롭고 누구의 통제도 받지 않는 환경이라면, 자본주의가 세계화될수록 우리들도 효율적으로 될 것이다. 다른 나라에서 투쟁하는 노동계급이 이제는 먼 나라 이야기가 아니게 되었다. 성취를 위해서 누군가는 선봉에 서야 한다. 실업이 오늘날 우리를 위협하지만, 실업운동은 자본을 향한 무기가 될 것이다. 실업률이 낮았던 70년대에 유연성과 직업전환의 자유는 노동자들에게 중요한 투쟁의 구호였다. 이제 우리에게도 그 시대가 왔다. 다시 한 번 그 방향으로 나아가자 - 일을 할 것인가 말 것인가를 향한 집중이 바로 해결책이다. 플러스 잡스와 다른 형태의 임금 하락 정책은 투쟁의 대상이다. (*플러스 잡스는 스웨덴 정부의 새로운 노동정책)

[참고 : 원문]

Unemployment struggle in Gothenburg, Sweden¹

The current situation: unemployment struggle as a weapon against capital

Unemployment is a weapon aimed at the whole of the working class; the unemployed are being squeezed making the unemployment as unbearable as possible, which leads to dumped wages and working conditions. Because when there is a reserve army of desperate people looking for work, the em춑loyers can pick and choose, and through the compulsion by the job centres² they can force us into taking low paid as well as unpaid work through traineeship. The goal is that unemployment should be춃ome such a hell that underpaid wage slavery would appear as a better alternative. We are in fact made to lower our demands, and this they have succeeded with thoroughly.

Entire business concepts have the reserve army as a precondition. When I finished school no one would think about working at McDonald’s or Burger King. Today the situation is different, now practically everyone I know have had a job at a similar work place. The work places that were decent be춆ore are becoming more and more the same as these shit jobs. Some business concepts, for example call centres, are entirely based on the existence of terribly desperate job seekers.

The imposition of unemployment

Everything capital expose us to has the purpose of making us work – paradoxically so, even unemployment. The working class is fighting for a better life, capital is fighting for us working harder but under worse conditions. Society is a struggle between our wants and needs and the economic interests of the rich.

It was during the 90s that unemployment forced itself upon us. It was a part of a neo liberal wave that actually arrived relatively late in Sweden. The pretext was to combat inflation but those who were actually being fought were the workers. Working conditions and wages were to be worsened to allow higher profits, profits that later went to a small minority. Our radicalism and class struggle that was strong since the 70s were to be killed by means of a number of strategies where unemployment was one of most important ones.

The Swedish model of imposing unemployment was to work out an entirely home made economic depression. A deregulated central bank succeeded by giving away loans to create an enormous bubble of investment and lifting inflation to the roof. This inflation and the economic depression was then to be fought at any price, simply by unemployment. What was before as ‘The work principle’ (Arbetslinjen), full employment, was now history. The unemployment was never hard to produce; the enormous inflation led to companies’ bankruptcy. And we won’t easily forget the state’s belt-tightening policy – however young we might have been –, the austerity programmes set up in order to save the runaway economy: restraints, cutbacks, people were simply getting sacked.

Most important to remember: those who were most effected by the 90’s restraints were us workers. A lot of companies, in the middle of the depression, continued to increase their profits at the same time as we were expected to bear the burden in the form of harder work due to rationalisations and unemployment. This is how capitalism is. A crisis for us does not necessarily mean a crisis for them. With the economic crisis, the companies had got a number of instruments for increasing their profits at our expense. The radical working class during the 70s, which almost succeeded in tilting the capitalist economy, was now defeated.

How the offensive continued until today

But the offensive by capital did not end there. In fact it isn’t enough for capital to have a labour force reserve, it also has to do its job by making us desperately compete over the jobs. Many unemployed refused to accept shitty jobs and instead chose to stay on the unemployment benefit or social allowance. Some became long time unemployed and that was an even more serious problem. These persons got marked as unemployable and non-contributing to the dumping of wages and conditions of employment.

The relatively just allowances made that people could refuse accepting shitty jobs. But capital found ‘solutions’ even here. One of the first strategies was, in the middle of a period of high un춅mployment, to impose guilt on the unemployed and blaming them for the unemployment. They were depicted as a burden to society, as benefit cheaters and addicts. Before, social benefits were considered as something you needed to live on while being unemployed, now it was compared with addiction. Lately, the imposition of guilt has extended to sick-listed people who now, like the unemployed, are to be harassed and guiltyfied.

Apart from the imposition of guilt, the control and humiliation of unemployed is a central component of increasing the pressure on us. Executing officers in the job centres and the Social Insurance Administration (F�rs�kringskassan) have received an even harder task – their job is now to threaten the unemployed and to force them into accepting any (‘real’) job or unpaid trainee job. All the pointless courses and fucked up training schemes have as a purpose: to make the unemployed to even more want to get out of the humiliating claws of the job centres (Arbetsf�rmedlingen).

The new work principle: Workfare

The old work principle had full employment as its goal. As said before, this was abolished with the neo liberal wave that swept over the world during the 80^th to 90^th, when the so-called equilibrium unemployment was introduced, i.e. the unemployment rate should remain at a certain level in order to hold back inflation through wage dumping. But since this didn’t work entirely they tried to find another solution. If the unemployed weren’t competing over the jobs and became ‘unemployable’, unemployment didn’t work out as planned.

‘Ak-arbete’ in the 1930s.

Out of the darkness of history, today’s labour-market policy emerged. Now benefits during unemployment will no longer be a right but a privilege linked to services in return. This ‘new’ model is use to be called ‘workfare’.³ In reality this model entails that unemployed have to carry out work with social allowance or unemployment benefits as the only compensation. If one digs in the archives one will find that this is not a new invention even in Sweden. During the 30s the name of this policy was Ak-arbetet. The work principle at that time entailed that the unemployed were sent to publicly arranged and financed assistance labours. The jobs that were usually carried out were construction works, ditching of wetlands, forest works and other unskilled labours. The nature of the tasks implicated that they were often situated in the sparsely populated areas of Sweden and that they were very physically demanding.

The choice of work tasks was never a coincidence. Apart from that they did not require high expenses, they would also constitute hell on earth for the aid applicants. Even though machinery and labour saving tools were obtainable the assistance labourers were provided with the most simple possible tools. The fact that they were also situated in the sparsely populated areas when most of the unemployed came from big industrial cities implied that those who accepted an assistance labour often had to leave their place of residence and instead live in barracks together with other unemployed. An assistance labourer’s salary was never very attractive. Even though the management expected a satisfactory work, they only received a salary that matched up to two thirds of the lowest paid of the unskilled labourers on the spot. These inhospitable conditions would guarantee that the unemployed would prefer any other alternative for caring for the livelihood of himself and his family. Anyone who refused an assistance job was automatically excluded from all formsof unemployment benefits.

Behind the design of the unemployment policy, with its harsh conditions and large focus on testing the will to work of the unemployed, lied a widespread (inter-party) fear that people did not want to work. Terms such as ‘social benefit spirit’ and ‘social parasites’ were in swung. The fear got its support in the theories of how the labour market functioned: if only the workers demanded reasonable wage claims there would be work for everyone. Does it sound familiar?

We and the world

The reality of today’s labour-market policy that struck us all has nothing in common with the fine-looking picture the politicians and employers in Sweden and the world wants to make up. Neoliberalism and workfare are nothing new but a dirty chapter from the past that once again shows its ugly face – how nicely the theories of Milton Friedman, G�ran Persson⁴ and Fredrik Reinfeldt⁵ are packed it is the eternally same tale, the rich get richer… Unemployment as a weapon against the working class has existed as an integrated possibility in the capitalist system all since the infancy of capitalism.

Today’s politicians and employers do all they can in order to make us abide the situation. Both parties blame globalisation and wrap the discussion over unemployment in heaps of nonsense and incomprehensible arguments. The employers threatens to move abroad and the politicians give them more power. But just as capital’s workings are global and to a certain extent always have been global, the resistance is global. In Paris, there were strikes and suburbs were burning, in Germany job centres were occupied and in Argentina the country was congested due to roadblocks. These are only a few examples.

Capitalism does not only control us; through the struggle we carry out we also control it. If we stand passive we become victims, but if we act we are forcing the system to meet some of our needs. Since our struggle and our experiences are being developed we are advancing our positions and arrives one step closer to a classless society.

Capitalism is global and our struggles becomes most effective if they free and unrestrained may grow and develop. To hold back because the working class of another country have not come far enough is nonsense. Someone has to go in the front in order to get something done. Unemployment is today a weapon aimed at us, unemployment struggle then becomes a weapon pointed at capital. In the 70s flexibility and the right to change jobs were a strength because of a low unemployment rate – workers started to dictate the terms. It is time for us, once again, to move in that direction – more power to workers with or without work is the only solution. Plus jobs⁶ and all other forms of wage dumping policies need to be fought.

From individual strategies to collective action�– unemployment struggle here and now

The goal has never been to gather around empty phrases, or to create organisations for that matter. The goal is to strengthen class struggle. This is being done most effectively by viewing organisations and means of struggle as weapons in our struggle, and never to view them as ends in themselves.

How petty it may seem, spreading peaces of advice on how to deal with your executing officer, this might be the thing that makes the difference between a decent life and outcast for a lot of people. To step by step arm our class with weapons is our task. We shall deliver strategies and weapons that brings home victories. Our goal is not to spread myths or wave flags but to fight capital with class struggle, a struggle we carry out together for our needs and wants.

Background

In the activist group Stubin we arrived at the idea to start a campaign against the job centres (Arbetsf�rmedlingen) and took the (in-) popular expression already used ‘Arbetsf�rnedringen’ (‘The work humiliation’). We started with making a leaflet and carried through a quick visit to the local jobcentres in town. There, instead of using the classic tough activist confrontation we turned directly to the unemployed at the spot. We offered them coffee, cakes and actually tried to be as friendly as possible. The visits were sometimes in a larger group – with the coffee and the cakes – and sometimes more sneaky, when two people tiptoed around in the job centres and handed out. During these occasions we also made interviews with unemployed.

Leaflets still going strong

The result from this and the following handouts were amazing, almost everyone who received a leaflet read it. As an activist and politically active you are not quite often used to that people pay attention to what you say, the regular hymn being suspicion.

To say something about the content: In the leaflet we explained the reasons for unemployment and stressed that one should not feel personally guilty for a problem in society. Then we pointed at a number of simple tips which shows how to limp along through unemployment with all its trap doors.

Our actions came in part out of a critique of activism and then our of our own experiences. It is important to see that those we turn to, in this case unemployed, do not need to be reached via the roundabout way of activist and symbolic acts, at least not in some cases. Our aim with the action was never to strike against the job centre but to use it as an arena for sharing strategies of resistance. In a job centre you have to wait, and you hate it! If someone hands you a text and, in addition, it is something easy to agree with, and furthermore offers you concrete tips, clear as hell you read it!

The aim has been to spread self activity and simple advices. A good advice may make the difference between being broke and not. To teach people what are their rights and to expand rights via a few simple strategies, for example manipulate executing officers, is a good first step towards creating a broad class consciousness with no empty phrases.

Towards collective struggle and organisation

In springtime leaflet handouts were in full swing and on the next step some of us in Stubin went in and sparkled new life in the for many years long inactive Unemployment Committee in Gothenburg’s LS of SAC⁷. Working within the local organisation gave some steadiness to our earlier nonexistent funds. During this time the Arbetsf�rnedringen campaign, with the Unemployment Committee in tow, we also kept contact with SAC’s folk high school course of unemployed anarcho-syndicalists which was held at Angereds folkh�gskola.

The next step was to prepare a seminar which went under the name Unemployment and Insecure Employment Contracts. We put up posters in almost all of the city’s job centres and in town. The seminar had a relatively good attendance and even if many of the guests were already activists a few ‘ordinary people’ came. At the seminar the Unemployment Committee, Arbetsf�rnedringen and struggling unemployed were represented in a panel. We lectured about the causes and effects of unemployment and about how labour movements all around the world and in the Swedish history have taken the fight for the conditions of the unemployed and against workfare as well as giving concrete tips.

The end discussion came to be about how we might learn from these struggles and how we should organise them today. The result became that we gathered email addresses and invited people to an organising meeting. This resulted in AKO – Arbetsl�sas kamporganisation (‘The Fight Organisation of Unemployed’). AKO became a network where Stubin, autonomous activists and local organisations of SAC could come together and wage a combined resistance against today’s workfare and humiliation.

AKO and the struggle against workfare

AKO had a few relatively well attended meetings with people from Gothenburg and environs. At the very same time of the formation a nasty workfare program was on the way of being opened in the city. The district council in Biskopsg�rden thought that the unemployed of the suburb should work almost fulltime in order to keep their benefits, and a job centre (훡plet – ‘the apple’) where five hundred slave jobs at an opening stage would be mediated, was being set up in full blast. The goal was to, in time, assemble even more slave services. We wanted to strike swiftly and made plans to mobilise already at the day of kick off. The task was to close down the damn shit before it would even open.

We were effective in the arrangements and produced leaflets that were translated into several languages; the entire suburb was repapered with pictures of politicians in the city councils, responsible officials and union bigwigs. ‘Your Local Slave Keepers’ was the message. A pretty yellow-red poster with the message ‘No wage – No work’ was also put up. Two of us also went through media training to prepare us for the worst. We had a discussion about equal representation but since no one was to be in the limelight we had to accept the situation…

But not everything was that successful. We invited to formal meetings instead of pushing for activity as the central thing. Too much energy got wasted on making everyone involved in every decision. With the wisdom of hindsight the meetings of planning should have been on a voluntarily basis and not necessarily gathered everyone. We should meet in the activity, in the struggle. Those who want to should off course be in the arrangements but too often formal meetings are needless and more time consuming than they are useful. That communication was centralised via an email address made these problems worse. It was hard for individual members to come with initiatives and the driving core had to work their asses off in order to make more participatory processes start.

The idea of this ‘self criticism’ is not that we are to become a service organisation for weekend activists but to make people take part out of interest/need. The activity must also be social and, expectantly, give results. With this approach, hopefully, the organising will come to pass out of need rather than in accordance with an organisational or idealist principle.

However, the practical solutions of these problems are very simple: an email list solves the communication problem, work groups accepts the arrangements and the discussions take place over the email list. You should continue to meet but not in the form of meetings but rather at a caf� where everyone’s experiences is at the centre.

Evaluation of the manifestation against ‘the Apple’

The manifestation against the job centre ‘the Apple’ was more than a simple manifestation. We made use of several strategies in order to achieve to our goal which we in part reached. The Apple’s room for five hundred people shrunk to fifty and the project was hidden away.

Manifestation against ‘the Apple’

Our main strategy was the threat of go-slow. Under the banner ‘No cash – No toil’ we gathered at V�rv�dertorget. In our leaflets we encouraged everyone placed in a action programme to work really slow and with joy mess up things for their employers. The aim was to scare the employers from using slave workers. It should bloody cost them more than what they gain by it.

Media as a strategy was a just as important one. We prepared ourselves in advance by sending press releases and to spread our voice to the radio and news papers. Gothenburg’s Independent Newspaper wrote an article. And faced with the big day we hade prepared us to handle media at the spot. We were facing the worst but, instead it became a shock for us – TV4 and Gothenburg Post played us right in our hands and the publications of interviews and the pieces of writing about the manifestation worked undoubtedly in our favour. TV4 broadcasted on prime time when one of us railed out the chief of the city council. Liberal GP was also forced to defend itself against us – not by branding us but through a perplexed editorial where they desperately tried to lie away unemployment and wage dumping. One may ask: why did the media swallow the bait? In part it may have been because it was hard for the media to define who acted – we were not a party, nor any ‘extreme left anarchist group’. Maybe they for once saw us as angry workers and unemployed. To leave the worn out radical phrases at home might sometimes be a good choice.

쟕he hanging out of politicians and bigwigs was also a strategy. To put pressure on union VIPs and politicians might be profitable. They mustn’t get away that easily. As long as you are not appealing, pressure on politicians can be a strategy.

The manifestation was a symbolic act and a large point was that it wash held at the very opening. This showed how fast we could mobilise, and that we later threatened with more extensive mobilisation was for certain also lucrative. Our strength was not the number of people we were mobilising for the manifestation (it was raining and the attendance was barely twenty people). The main point was that we filled the manifestation with threats that both employers and politicians had to take seriously. If we had only been standing on the square and whined, surely the Apple would have got their five hundred. Since it was – for the most part – the employers who backed out of the project, the threats and not only the media circus must have had effect. No one wants to employ a negligent worker.

If we dare to look forward

To close down single workfare projects are important but to all the time act as fire-fighters and defensive is no solution. Workfare projects are hard to justify but will in time be carried out more cleverly, more hidden and be harder to strike at. And it is not horrible job centres which are our main enemy, but: the pressure on the unemployed, different forms of low and unpaid forced labour. That unemployment can be used as way to dump wages and conditions of employment is a problem for everyone.

To fight such a big problem in society we need to spread methods of struggle that are easy to take hold of and to carry out. The last few days we, AKO, have started a caf� for unemployed in Biskopsg�rden. The idea about the caf� is that it could facilitate the sharing of experiences and also offer collective solutions to the problems we are having. Is the executing officer at the job centre is mean and nasty to one of us we have to appear in a group. We need to learn to act collectively. Perhaps not in the first place via tough activist groups but rather through simple but effective methods. Often mom and dad are better to bring with you to the executing officer than a bunch of funny activists.

The groups for collective action already exists: groups of friends, workmates, classmates. Wherever we are there are conditions for collective struggle, and often it is already there. Physical meeting places will also be necessary. The caf� is an attempt to this, but group visits with leaflet handouts on job centres is another way to meet.

An important part of today’s unemployment situation is also the unpaid labour. Instead of employing new people, the company is replacing services with trainee jobs. By threatening with different forms of sabotage, goslow, theft, direct sabotage, we managed to make the employers who was going to use the unemployed in Biskopsg�rden to pull out. There are opportunities to spread this form of struggle to any sort of unpaid / low paid work, to make it a more general struggle. Today a lot of unemployed are actually working and in just one workplace there are heaps of ways to struggle. The only thing you have to do really is to work faulty or bad, or not to work at all. Our best weapon against capital is to refuse doing what we are expected to do – work.

This is only the beginning…

Arbetsf�rnedringen is planning, in the fall, to start a campaign were we are encouraging all slaves to carelessness. At the same time we will start a campaign for go-slow – go-slow to lower the unhealthy work pace. Propaganda is still as important today as it has ever been, but propaganda that spreads experiences of struggle, not opinions.

Unemployment struggle is connected to workplace struggle and students struggle. No matter if we for the time being are working, studying or are unemployed, we are workers with common interest. Capital forces us to work as students in schools, as trainees and as workers. These mutual interests is a condition for struggle. The next one is that we know how the struggle shall be fought, that we arm ourselves with our own and others experiences of struggle, that we start to trust in ourselves and in one another.

 

Notes

1. This is a slightly modified translation of a script written by AKO, Arbetsl�sas kamporganisation (‘The Fight Organisation of Unemployed’), that was used for a number of lectures in 2006 in Sweden. Translators note.

2. The job centres in Sweden has the name ‘Arbetsf�rmedlingen’. These offices are a part of the state institution Arbetsmarknadsverket which has 10,000 employed. Translators note.

3. Note that the concept of ‘workfare’ is actually very new in Sweden. Translators note.

4. The Swedish prime minister since 1996. Translators note.

5. The leader of the right wing opposition. Translators note.

6. A ‘reform’ presented by the ruling social democratic party. Translators note.

7. That is the local organisation (LS) of the anarcho-syndicalist union Sveriges Arbetares Centralorganisation <www.sac.se>. Translators note.