hater-of-terfs:

hater-of-terfs:

Then I began to learn that the Swedes and Norwegians paid a price for
their standards of living through nonviolent struggle. There was a time
when Scandinavian workers didn’t expect that the electoral arena could
deliver the change they believed in. They realized that, with the 1
percent in charge, electoral “democracy” was stacked against them, so
nonviolent direct action was needed to exert the power for change.

When workers formed unions in the early 1900s, they generally turned
to Marxism, organizing for revolution as well as immediate gains. They
were overjoyed by the overthrow of the czar in Russia, and the Norwegian
Labor Party joined the Communist International organized by Lenin.
Labor didn’t stay long, however. One way in which most Norwegians parted
ways with Leninist strategy was on the role of violence: Norwegians
wanted to win their revolution through collective nonviolent struggle,
along with establishing co-ops and using the electoral arena.

In the 1920s strikes increased in intensity. The town of Hammerfest
formed a commune in 1921, led by workers councils; the army intervened
to crush it. The workers’ response verged toward a national general
strike. The employers, backed by the state, beat back that strike, but
workers erupted again in the ironworkers’ strike of 1923–24.

By 1935, Norway was on the brink. The Conservative-led government was
losing legitimacy daily; the 1 percent became increasingly desperate as
militancy grew among workers and farmers. A complete overthrow might be
just a couple years away, radical workers thought. However, the misery
of the poor became more urgent daily, and the Labor Party felt
increasing pressure from its members to alleviate their suffering, which
it could do only if it took charge of the government in a compromise
agreement with the other side.

This it did. In a compromise that allowed owners to retain the right
to own and manage their firms, Labor in 1935 took the reins of
government in coalition with the Agrarian Party. They expanded the
economy and started public works projects to head toward a policy of
full employment that became the keystone of Norwegian economic policy.
Labor’s success and the continued militancy of workers enabled steady
inroads against the privileges of the 1 percent, to the point that
majority ownership of all large firms was taken by the public interest.

What social democrats don’t tell you about the so-called Nordic Model is that even that wasn’t accomplished through electoralism alone

The rich will never allow us to simply vote away their wealth

What you need to learn from this is that even reformism requires an organized grassroots movement, ready to take direct action to accomplish what they want, if it is to accomplish anything. The only language the ruling class speaks in is force, because to them every single decision is a profit calculation. You need to be prepared to shut things down if your demands aren’t met, so the ruling class is forced to either do what you say and give up a fraction of their power or continue to ignore you and lose all of it

This has always been the case, at every point across human history. Name any concession any state has given to its citizens, I guarantee you can find a revolutionary movement threatening their power. This isn’t rhetorical – I genuinely want you to look up absolutely any right you have right now, and find the movement that got it for you. It has never come from above through the good will of an elected official, always from below

Start building these movements now, or you’ll just be due for another retelling of the same story in 4 years. And an organized working class can demand a lot more than just a reformist president