Preliminary Programme

Radical democratic movements of the mid nineteenth century has in Swedish historiography usually been treated as a pre-history of the later socialist labour movement. They have been considered as attempts by a liberal bourgeoisie to lure workers away from class conscious politics, but there have also been attempts to root them among the actual experiences of urban workers of the time. This teleological slant has made it difficult to understand these movements on their own terms, a problem exacerbated by an ideal type based analysis of ideologies. A need to label movements as ‘liberal’, ‘conservative’, or ‘socialist’ has hindered a full attention to the actual discourse of the time. There is a need to look at these complex movements from a perspective that takes their ideas and organizational attempts more seriously on their own terms.

This paper will focus on the newspaper Folkets tidning (The People’s Newspaper). It was started in the small university town of Lund in 1856 by Christian Bülow, a young man with a brief experience with the radical press in Stockholm. One of the main targets was the local academic establishment. The paper established a following among what was often termed småfolket (literally ‘the small people’, compare to French menu people). These were workers, artisans, and small independent tradesmen. The paper started in Lund only a few years after the scandals surrounding the paper Fäderneslandet (Fatherland), scandals that showed that there existed a popular radical support in the town.

Stockholm was the centre of Swedish radicalism, where most of the papers were published and the largest organizations existed, and it is also the Stockholm scene that has been best researched. But radical papers and organizations were present in many other cities and towns, and also in the country side. This paper looks at one of these local scenes. It particularly focuses on the way the paper attempted to construct its audience, the narratives that it presented of society, and the place in society that was suggested to the readers. Politics does not reflect society, it is a way of constructing it through the telling of plausible stories. Radicals certainly appealed to workers, but ‘the people’ was a much broader concept, and in a primarily agrarian society an appeal had to be made to a much broader stratum. This paper will investigate how rural and urban groups were integrated into the people.

Swedish radicalism was part of a much wider European movement, based on one particular inheritance of the French revolution. The paper will attempt to place the radicalism of Folkets tidning not only in a Swedish context but within this much broader context. (Show less)

This paper will examine some aspects of the members of the “New Liberal” party’s struggle for a more democratic Sweden in the years following the hotly contested Act of Parliament in 1865. The Act of Parliament of 1865 was the end result of decades of constitutional struggle and put an end to the old parliament of Estates, but soon turned out to have been a very modest step in terms of a more democratic political system. Before long the radical forces in Sweden mustered under the New Liberal banner. In the great narrative of Sweden’s democratization the New Liberals are rather forgotten; their struggle petered out by 1872 and they have long stood in the shadow of the Social Democrats and their role in the “democratic breakthrough” of 1918-1921.
In this paper I shall explore some aspect of the New Liberal struggle. The New Liberals were involved in a two front struggle: from within the political system through their parliamentary platform, but also from the outside. It is the latter that will be the focus here. My working hypothesis is that the New Liberals were involved in a very ambitious project with a next to revolutionary ambition: that they through political agitation and organization tried to create new democratic subjects and a democratic civic culture. Their noble calling was, so to speak, to awaken the slumbering subjects of the old society of Estates and mold them into the good citizens of the future democracy. In the terminology of Almond and Verba, their role was to turn a subject political culture to a participant political culture.
My investigation draws on the theoretical advancements of the linguistic turn to analyze the New Liberal image of the citizen and the civic society, and how they tried to construct a male, Swedish citizenry for a new democratic age. (Show less)

Writing of Wolfe Tone, the Irish revolutionary leader of 1798, James Connolly commented: “Apostles of freedom are ever idolised when dead, but crucified when living.” These words can equally be applied to Connolly, whose writings and ideas have been used by a broad spectrum of Irish and radical groups since his execution in 1916.

In many respects the politics of James Connolly cast him as a paradoxical figure: an outsider in both the land of his birth (Scotland), and in the nation where he was an active Socialist and nationalist (Ireland). His Irish nationalism was too much for many Scottish radicals. Meanwhile, his Socialist republicanism was often too radical for Irish nationalist tastes.

In order to understand Connolly’s political development fully, it is imperative that one is aware of the historical context: the times in which he lived and the challenges that he faced. This paper, through chronicling Connolly’s early life, personality and political thoughts whilst in Edinburgh, will endeavor to achieve this. A number of aspects of Connolly’s early life will be considered, including: the impact of his brief career in the British Army on his views on violence and political insurrection, his role within the Scottish Socialist Federation which he joined, and the influence of Léo Melliet and Andreas Scheu who were behind much of the Socialist presence in Edinburgh during Connolly’s years there, and of John Leslie on his views on the Irish question. Additionally, this paper will consider the impact on Connolly of his electoral attempts in Edinburgh: the results of which highlighted the lack of working-class unity, as a struggle with the Irish National League who were swaying native Irish voters towards the Liberal Party, owing to the allure of prospective Home Rule for Ireland, ensued. (Show less)

The Russian imperial government adopted a repressive integration policy on the Grand Duchy of Finland in the years 1899 to 1905. The policy caused a wave of resistance, for the Finnish nationalists interpreted the imperial measures as Russification violating the autonomy granted to Finland. Resistance to the integration policy has been a central issue in the Finnish historiography for the last century. Historians have, however, largely overlooked a phenomenon distinctive of this period, namely, the mushrooming of denunciations. The denunciations submitted by Finns to the imperial authorities became common particularly in 1903 when the emperor had granted the Governor-General of Finland dictatorial powers for eliminating the opposition to the integration policy.

This paper analyses the phenomenon of denunciations through letters submitted to the imperial gendarmerie in the industrial town of Tampere. Particularly in 1903, the gendarmerie received from the surrounding county Häme numerous denunciation letters, which mainly covered the alleged anti-imperial activities of Finnish-nationalist upper class. These letters were revealed and published after the citizens had raided the gendarmerie office during the revolutionary outburst in 1905. In the following public debate, the Finnish nationalistic intelligentsia proclaimed the revealed denouncers as corrupted and ignorant individuals, who conspired with the repressive regime. This view of the contemporary intelligentsia has been reiterated even by the historiography. Consequently, the prior research has failed to interpret the denunciations in the contexts of linguistic and ethnic divisions, rural poverty and land ownership question.

This presentation takes a new stance by analysing the denunciations “from below”, i.e. by focusing on the denouncers’ social background and motives. The main argument is that the denunciations of 1899–1905 were, more than anything else, expressions of social protest by ordinary people lacking other means to advance their social and political aims. The denouncers included some Russian immigrants protesting against discrimination. A significantly larger group of them, however, consisted of Finnish crofters and agricultural labourers, who were all but excluded from municipal and national politics and lacked organs and organizations to get their voice heard. Hence, the paper ultimately addresses the broader question about the forms of informal political activity in a system where political citizenship was restricted. Moreover, it illuminates the attitude of the Finnish working-class towards nationalism and the Russian empire under the late imperial regime. (Show less)