Trade Union Activism in the Nordic Countries since 1900

396 Pages·2023·5.194 MB·English

by  Jesper Jørgensen, Flemming Mikkelsen

Trade Union Activism
in the Nordic Countries
since 1900
Edited by
Jesper Jørgensen
Flemming Mikkelsen
Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements
Series Editors
Stefan Berger, Institute for Social Movements, Ruhr University Bochum,
Bochum, Germany
Holger Nehring, Contemporary European History, University of
Stirling, Stirling, UK
Around the world, social movements have become legitimate, yet
contested, actors in local, national and global politics and civil society,
yet we still know relatively little about their longer histories and the
trajectories of their development. This series seeks to promote innova-
tive historical research on the history of social movements in the modern
period since around 1750. We bring together conceptually-informed
studies that analyse labour movements, new social movements and other
forms of protest from early modernity to the present. We conceive of
‘social movements’ in the broadest possible sense, encompassing social
formations that lie between formal organisations and mere protest events.
We also offer a home for studies that systematically explore the political,
social, economic and cultural conditions in which social movements can
emerge. We are especially interested in transnational and global perspec-
tives on the history of social movements, and in studies that engage
critically and creatively with political, social and sociological theories in
order to make historically grounded arguments about social movements.
This new series seeks to offer innovative historical work on social move-
ments, while also helping to historicise the concept of ‘social movement’.
It hopes to revitalise the conversation between historians and historical
sociologists in analysing what Charles Tilly has called the ‘dynamics of
contention’.
Editorial Board
John Chalcraft (London School of Economics, UK)
Andreas Eckert (Humboldt-University, Germany)
Susan Eckstein (Boston University, USA)
Felicia Kornbluh (University of Vermont, USA)
Jie-Hyun Lim (Research Institute for Comparative History, Hanyang
University Seoul, South Korea)
Marcel van der Linden (International Institute of Social History, The
Netherlands)
Rochona Majumdar (University of Chicago, USA)
Sean Raymond Scalmer (University of Melbourne, Australia)
Alexander Sedlmaier (Bangor University, UK)
·
Jesper Jørgensen Flemming Mikkelsen
Editors
Trade Union Activism
in the Nordic
Countries since 1900
Editors
Jesper Jørgensen Flemming Mikkelsen
The Workers Museum Copenhagen, Denmark
Copenhagen, Denmark
ISSN 2634-6559 ISSN 2634-6567 (electronic)
Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements
ISBN 978-3-031-08986-2 ISBN 978-3-031-08987-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08987-9
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
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Preface
The anthology is a result of a growing interest in labor history and social
movements. To paraphrase the credo of Palgrave Studies in the History of
Social Movements, we are not only beginning to historicize labor market
conflicts of the post-Cold War era and the post-Global Financial Crisis of
2008. We are also trying to relate recent contentious politics to a longer
history of social movements, including traditional labor organizations,
such as working-class parties and trade unions.
In a Nordic perspective, one of the first clear indications of this new
research momentum was the XIV Nordic Labour History Conference
(NLHC) in Reykjavik in 2016. The conference was bigger and wider in
scope compared to the 1970s and 1980s and inspired the establishment
of the Nordic Labour History Network in Stockholm in 2017 in line
with the newly established European Labour History Network in 2013
and the Global Labour History Network in 2015. Indirectly, it was also
a starting point for us as this publication is largely based on presentations
planned for the conference track ‘Political Activism and Labour Protest’ at
the XV NLHC in Copenhagen November 2020. Because of the COVID-
19 epidemic, the conference was postponed to January 2022 and in the
meantime, the idea of an anthology took form. In January 2021, we
held an online workshop with most of the contributors, all leading histo-
rians and social scientist in the field of trade union activism in Denmark,
Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Iceland. Later we found common ground
with the series editors and Palgrave Macmillan. We hope the book can
v
vi PREFACE
serve as inspiration for other regional studies and a steppingstone for
further historical social movement research across the Nordic countries.
We thank The Workers Museum and the Danish Ministry of Culture’s
Research Committee for support.
Copenhagen, Denmark Jesper Jørgensen
Flemming Mikkelsen
Contents
1 Trade Union Activism in the Nordic Countries:
Introduction 1
Flemming Mikkelsen and Jesper Jørgensen
2 Labor Market Struggles and Labor Market Relations
in the Nordic Countries, 1848–2020: Trends
and Fluctuations 15
Flemming Mikkelsen and Jesper Jørgensen
Part I National and Local Trade Union Activism,
1900–1939
3 The Norwegian Experience: Trade Union Opposition
and Local Activism, 1900–1939 47
Finn Olstad
4 Syndicalism and Strikes in Denmark, 1917–1920:
The Syndicalist Challenge to Social Democratic Trade
Union Leadership 69
Knud Christian Knudsen
5 Trade Unions, the Social Democratic Party and Labor
Market Conflicts in Malmö, 1890–1910 93
Lars Berggren and Mats Greiff
vii
viii CONTENTS
6 Anti-Strikebreaker Protests and Collective Violence
in Sweden, 1918–1939 111
Martin Ericsson and Stefan Nyzell
Part II National and Local Trade Union Activism,
1940–2020
7 Social Movement Unionism in Denmark, 1940–1985 135
Flemming Mikkelsen
8 Mass Labor Protest and Trade Union Activism
in Early Post-War Copenhagen 155
Jesper Jørgensen
9 Reluctant Vanguard? Finnish Building Workers’
Unions and Strikes, 1949–1973 179
Tapio Bergholm
10 The Peak Strike Period in Finland, 1970–1980:
Wildcat Strikes and Income Politics 197
Tapio Bergholm
11 From Street Fighting years to Seizing the Agenda.
Labor Militancy Challenging the Establishment
in Norway, 1976–2010 213
Idar Helle
12 Reaching Out. Oslo Construction Workers
and Migrant Workers, 2004–2014 231
Knut Kjeldstadli
13 Trade Unions’ Protest Cycles in Sweden, 1980–2020 255
Jenny Jansson and Katrin Uba
Part III Comparative Perspective
14 Lockouts in Scandinavia, c. 1900–1938 281
Jesper Hamark
15 Wildcat Strikes Between 1960 and 1973:
A German-Danish Comparison 303
Kai Peter Birke
CONTENTS ix
16 Developing Public Sector Trade Unionism
in Scandinavia: From Noble Civil Servants to Militant
Wage Earners 327
Laust Høgedahl
17 Closing the Gender Pay Gap: Global Concepts, Local
Negotiations in Iceland and Sweden, 1900–1985 351
Ragnheiður Kristjánsdóttir and Silke Neunsinger
Index 381