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"Må de herrskande klasserna darra" Radikal retorik och reaktion i Stockholms press, 1848-1851 John Björkman Akademisk avhandling för avläggande av filosofie doktorsexamen i idéhistoria vid Stockholms universitet som offentligen kommer att försvaras fredagen den 17 april 2020 kl. 13.00 i Auditorium (215), Manne Siegbahnhusen, Frescativägen 24. Abstract ”Let the ruling classes tremble”. Radical rhetoric and reaction in the Stockholm press, 1848-1851 This dissertation explores the formation of the modern historiography of class in mid-nineteenth century Sweden by analyzing constitutive rhetoric of class in the Stockholm press from 1848 to 1851. The aim is to study how disparaged workers during the February Revolution in France began to be ascribed a new kind of unified agency, and how workers in Stockholm became recipients of mobilizing appeals from all parts of the political spectrum. To this end the dissertation examines periodical papers representing the three major political positions of the period, i.e. a royalist conservative press, liberal papers in opposition, and a newly emerging socialist press. How were workers described, invoked and addressed as a new kind of community of political interest and action in these publications? Refuting perspectives of socio-economic determinism, this study adopts a conception of belonging and agency that views political communities as discursively produced by the creation of subject positions and the interpellation of individuals to them. The study is also influenced by recent re-evaluations of the category of the event associated with poststructuralism, and analyzes operations of constitutive rhetoric in forming a new symbolic field of class identity and agency in an open- ended and multivalent historical situation. The analysis shows how workers were construed as political agents in the Stockholm press during the mid-nineteenth century turmoil by being described, invoked and addressed within the framework of four main rival narratives. The socialist press tried to evoke a self-organizing working class within a collectivist narrative of labour’s liberation and universal male suffrage. The liberal press interpellated workers to a position aligned with the reformist middle class within a narrative of individual self-determination and gradual improvement. The royalist narrative of reconciliation was aimed at separating the large mass of workers from socialist and communist ideologues, deemed as mischievous outsiders, while at the same time offering them a new-found and prominent role as protectors of social harmony and peace. Only within the royalist narrative of catastrophe were the workers continuously excluded from mobilizing appeals, instead being invoked as the harbingers of an approaching communist revolution, against which all other sections of society should unite. Keywords: The revolutions in Europe 1848-1851, Stockholm, Swedish labour history, Swedish press history, modern historiography of class, constitutive rhetoric of class, socialism, communism, liberalism, conservatism, political narratives, interpellations, agency. Stockholm 2020 http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-179771 ISBN 978-91-7844-423-6 Institutionen för kultur och estetik Stockholms universitet, 106 91 Stockholm ”Må de herrskande klasserna darra” John Björkman ”Må de herrskande klasserna darra” Radikal retorik och reaktion i Stockholms press, 1848–1851 Gidlunds förlag www.gidlunds.se Utgiven med stöd av Stockholms Arbetareinstitutsförening, Helge Ax:son Johnsons stiftelse, Gunvor och Josef Anérs stiftelse samt Längmanska kulturfonden. © John Björkman, 2020 isbn 978-91-7844-423-6 Tryck: BaltoPrint, Vilnius 2020 Innehåll Innehåll ........................................................................... 5 1. Inledning ............................................................................... 9 Syfte och frågeställningar ........................................................ 16 Berättelsekritiska utgångspunkter........................................... 18 Konstitutiv klassretorik, 18 · Händelseperspektivet, 24 Arbetarhistoria och presshistoria ........................................... 27 Arbetarradikalismens Stockholmsmiljöer, 27 · Den politiska pressen, 34 Material, urval och analytiska strategier ............................... 42 Arbetarpressen, 43 · Den monarkiska pressen, 46 · Den liberala pressen, 49 · Analytiska strategier, 50 Disposition ................................................................................ 53 2. De arbetande klasserna som hot, 1830–1845 ............. 55 Landsbygden och Stockholm ................................................. 56 Den anspråksfulla medelklassen ............................................ 62 Hantverkarmissnöjet ................................................................ 68 De hotfulla arbetarna .............................................................. 74 3. Arbetarradikalismens Stockholms miljöer, 1845–1848 .................................................................................. 77 Stockholms bildningscirkel ..................................................... 78 Skandinaviska sällskapet ......................................................... 84 Den kommunistiska kretsen ................................................... 88 Ideologiska gränsdragningar .................................................. 94 Flytande gränser, 95 Den kommunistiska tillhörigheten i Stockholm ................... 101 Arbetarförankringen, 101 · Reformkommunismen, 105 · Kristen- domen och det klasslösa samhället, 110 Sammanfattning ....................................................................... 116 4. Revolt och reaktion, 1848–1849 .................................... 119 Marsoroligheterna i Stockholm .............................................. 121 Den upproriska massan........................................................... 126 Revolutionsutbrottet i stockholmspressen ............................. 129 Arbetarupproret i Paris ........................................................... 136 Ordningsförsvararnas arbetarfigur ......................................... 144 Liberalernas reviderade samtidsberättelser ........................... 154 Arbetarsubjektets röst i Stockholm ........................................ 164 Vem talar för arbetarklassen? ................................................. 175 Kommunismens röst ................................................................ 183 Kommunismens motröst ......................................................... 188 Folkbladet ................................................................................. 192 Arbetarvännen, 193 · Antikommunisten, 199 · Försonaren, 206 Sammanfattning ....................................................................... 212 5. Socialistisk mobilisering, 1849–1850 ............................ 218 Nya pressaktörer ...................................................................... 219 Tidningssocialismen ................................................................ 223 Mobiliseringssyftet ................................................................... 228 De andras skrämseltaktik ........................................................ 236 Socialismens ofrånkomliga seger ........................................... 242 Arbetarnas lidanden och de förhatliga andra ....................... 247 Det engelska skräckexemplet, 248 · Det svenska eländet, 253 Söndagsbladets vändning ........................................................ 257 Patologiseringsstrategin, 262 · Räddaren i nöden, 267 Sammanfattning ....................................................................... 273 6. Monarkisk offensiv och arbetar radikalismens slut, 1850–1851 ........................................................................ 277 Reaktionens politik .................................................................. 278 Angreppen på Hierta .............................................................. 281 Undergångsberättelsen ............................................................ 288 Arbetarnas socialistiska medvetandeformering, 290 · Omstörtnings- partiets simulerade arbetarinterpellationer, 295 Sveriges räddning..................................................................... 301 Processen mot Fredrik Borg, 304 · Den omöjliga positionen, 309 Efterspelet ................................................................................. 313 Sammanfattning ....................................................................... 319 7. Slutdiskussion ...................................................................... 323 1848 års revolutionära arbetarfigur ........................................ 327 Brottet i diskursens ordning .................................................... 330 Händelsekurvan belyst ............................................................ 332 Binärt konfliktmönster och polariserande budskap ............. 335 Konstitutiv retorik och den moderna klassberättelsens födelse ....................................................................................... 338 Summary ............................................................................ 347 Efterord ........................................................................... 359 Källor och litteratur .................................................. 363 personregister ................................................................ 374 1. Inledning ”Den makt, som nu rycker till sig väldet, är Proletäriatet.”1 Året var 1848 och Europa hade förvandlats till
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