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Cooperatives, Corporatism and Politics – Agrarian Organisations and the Swedish Right During the 1940´S

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Cooperatives, Corporatism and Politics – Agrarian Organisations and the Swedish Right During the 1940´S Cooperatives, Corporatism and Politics – Agrarian Organisations and the Swedish Right during the 1940´s Dr. Fredrik Eriksson Södertörns University ([email protected]) Rural History Conference 2010 at the University of Sussex, Brighton September 13-16. Introduction Few groups in society have been as politically successful as farmers. They have been able to promote an agricultural policy on their own accord. At the turn of the century the farmers till amounted to roughly half of the population. Since then most farms have disappeared, but at the same time this does not mean that the political influence of agriculture has diminished proportionally. I use the Swedish Right Party as the example in this essay, for several reasons.1 Firstly, the Right has a past as being a partly agrarian party, but this has been quite unnoticed in research. Neither has the party appeared as a farmers´ party during the post war era. But during the early years of the 20th century agrarians created internal structures to defend their position were created. These structures continued to influence policy within the party. In 1942, during World War II, the most comprehensive agricultural commission ever appointed. The purpose was to investigate the pricing of agricultural products during the crisis, and also to investigate how to organise agriculture after the war. It has been called the Magna Charta of Swedish agricultural policy. The commission consisted of 27 members, all belonging to different organisations (agrarian cooperatives, other agrarian organisations, consumer cooperation, trade unions and industry). The purpose of this essay is to illustrate the paths of influence of farmers and agrarian organisations within the political system, through studying the Right. Corporative ties to organisations are common traits of the agricultural policy system. Much of the previous research on the field of corporatism in Sweden has focused on the Social Democratic Workers Party (henceforth Social Democrats). They have had an unequalled influence on Swedish politics in the post war era (in government 1936–1976). Therefore much of the previous research concerning Swedish political history has focused on the Social Democrats and their 1The Right party was founded in 1904 as Allmänna valmansförbundet and was from 1935 called Högern (The Right), and finally from 1969 Moderata Samlingspartiet (The Moderate Coalition Party). relations to the Swedish Trade Union Council (Landsorganisationen, LO).2 There is also research concerning the relationship between Swedish Employers´ organisation (Svenska arbetsgivarföreningen, SAF), business and the parties on the right.3 So we know quite a lot about the influence of organisations on the labour market. But, we know a lot less about the influence of agrarian organisations pertaining agricultural policy and the political system. There are two distinct periods in this paper: contested agriculture 1867–1930 and the farmers´ own agricultural policy from around 1930. Historical background One of the most important political factors in Sweden was the Representation reform (Representationsreformen) in 1866. The Swedish Riksdag went from a parliament of four estates, to a two-chamber parliament with an upper house (första kammaren) and a lower house (andra kammaren). The system introduced in 1866 built on traditional values about representation and the character of politics. It was a reform with conservative traits4 (samhällsbevarande) as well as moderate liberal.5 Through the electoral system farmers benefited and soon dominated the lower house. Another central aspect concerning the formation of agricultural policy and Swedish politics was the tariff question of the 1880´s. In 1888 the protectionists managed to enforce grain tariffs and this can be seen as the expression of the active opinion of the farmers. But this was in no way a uniform political action of the farmers, as the majority were liberal free traders. Instead it shows the power of the minority: grain producing manor owners of the plains. The tariff question also saw the development of the first modern political parties. Yet another important agrarian political factor was the Farmers´ March (Bondetåget) of 1914. The march as such was a manifestation for national defence and the King, against the liberal government.6 It showed, yet again, not a uniform political action, but the strength of conservative manor owners. Strong national defence could easily be translated into a defence of Swedish agriculture. In the aftermath of the Farmers´ March a new agrarian party emerged. The process of forming an agrarian party had started in 1910 and the founding 2 Hans Haste (1988/1989), Det första seklet: människor, händelser och idéer i svensk socialdemokrati, del 1 och del 2. Stockholm: Tidens förlag. 3 Niklas Stenlås (1998), Den inre kretsen: den svenska ekonomiska elitens inflytande över partipolitik och opinionsbildning 1940–1949. Lund: Arkiv förlag. 4 In this case it was not a conservative ideology per se, but more a kind of preserving of the traditional structures, maintaining the influence of the elites while still allowing reform. 5 Göran B. Nilsson (1969), ”Den samhällsbevarande representationsreformen”, in Scandia 1969, p. 253. 6 It led to the resigning of the liberal government, as the King sided with the marchers. was quite complicated, but around 1914 the Farmers´ Union (Bondeförbundet) was founded.7 All of these cases show that agriculture was contested, as was the struggle for winning the farmers. The majority of the farmers belonged to and voted for the liberal party, the minority being conservative. Agrarian ideology in Sweden was in many ways defensive as it aimed at defending a rural lifestyle, agriculture and the power position of the farmers against city dwellers, workers and socialists. Up until the 1920´s agricultural policy was a function of the grain tariff battle of 1888: grain producing manor owners from the plains stood against smallholders in the forest areas. Liberals8 and Social Democrats raised arguments based on free trade against the protectionism of the conservatives and the Farmers´ Union. Up until the introduction of agricultural regulations around 1930 agrarian political influence can be described as contested. Workers and other groups fought their way onto the political arena. The regulations and the Crisis Agreement (Krisuppgörelsen) of 1933, between Social Democrats and the Farmers´ Union created a specific reserve in politics.9 Through this the farmers initiated a system in which they fully could control agricultural policy and could create whatever systems they wanted to support their trade. One could say that the political influence of the farmers, when restricted to agriculture, had become uncontested, or at least accepted. Swedish farmers have been successful exerting influence but the decrease in the number of farmers has not decreased in relation. The first factor behind this kind of influence was tradition, the Right had ever since the founding incorporated strong and powerful agrarian groups. The other factor behind the influence was the existence of the regulations and the connection to strong “apolitical” organisations Swedish Union of Agriculture, (Sveriges lantbruksförbund or SL) and National Organisation for the Countryside (Riksförbundet landsbygdens folk, RLF). These organisations gave farmers the opportunity to exercise influence and acted as a power base outside the political parties. The third factor behind agrarian political influence was preparedness. The food situation in Sweden during World War II was quite unproblematic, as the regulations of the 1930´s worked just as well to keep production up and prices down, as vice versa. Hence there were no food shortages during 7 The initial Farmers´ Union was founded in 1910, but it took several years to gather the many different groups into a party. The union mainly took over the farmers from the liberals while the conservatives maintained their influence. 8 The liberal parties were initially founded in 1902 as Frisinnade landsföreningen; the party was divided concerning the sobriety issue in 1923. The two parties were called Frisinnade Peoples´ Party and the Swedish Liberal Party. They merged again in 1934 founding the Peoples´ Party. 9 In short the Crisis Agreement meant that the Social Democrats accepted and supported the agricultural policy of the farmers while the Farmers´ Union accepted and supported the labour policy of the Social Democrats. Its enemies called the Crisis Agreement the ”Cow Trade” (Kohandeln). World War II, as there had been during the First World War. The concept of preparedness meant the interests of farmers coincided with the interests of the consumers. Therefore political parties forged an alliance during the post war era of maintaining agricultural regulation systems benefiting the farmers. Contested Agriculture 1867–1930 When the Swedish Right was founded in 1904 it was as a reaction to developments in society. On the political level the liberal franchise movement who, together with the labour movement, challenged the establishment threatened the Right. Allmänna Valmansförbundet (AVF) was a compromise between moderate conservative forces and more staunch elements and this heritage came to influence the history of the party during the 20th century.10 There were strong ideological tensions depending on the strengths and weaknesses of different groups. Farmers were numerous but not a uniform group and a substantial part of the heritage came
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