Left Party-Communists

(LPC; Vänsterpartiet Kommunisterna), founded May 13–16, 1917, when the left opposition withdrew from the Social Democratic Party of Sweden (founded 1889). Until 1921 the party was called the Left Social Democratic Party of Sweden. At its Fourth Congress in 1921, it adopted the 21 conditions for admission to the Comintern and was renamed the Communist Party of Sweden (CPS), the name it retained until 1967, when it became the Left Party-Communists (LPC). In the 1920’s the CPS split three times, in 1921, 1924, and 1929, because of the activities of right-opportunist elements within the party. In the 1930’s the CPS closed its ranks and intensified its struggle on behalf of the working class. After 1935 it embarked on a course of resisting war and fascism, forming an antifascist front, and unifying the working class. Between 1936 and 1939 many members of the CPS fought in the ranks of the international brigades in Spain.

During World War II the CPS operated under difficult conditions. It was forbidden to disseminate publications, and Communists encountered discrimination in the labor market and trade unions. The Twelfth Congress in 1944 adopted the party program “Fundamental Principles of the CPS,” defining the historical task of the Swedish working class as the gaining of political power in alliance with other exploited classes and the building of a socialist society. In parliamentary and communal elections between 1944 and 1948, the CPS won more than 10 percent of the vote. Of the 381 seats in the Riksdag, it held 18. In 1945 the Communists led a five-month general strike of 130,000 metalworkers, opening the way for the lifting of the wage freeze in postwar Sweden.

In the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, the CPS actively struggled for peace and against the danger of a new world war, but was weakened by internal dissension and the sectarian views held by some of its members. The Sixteenth Congress of the CPS in 1953 rejected sectarianism and adopted a new program, “Sweden’s Road to Socialism,” thereby strengthening the party organizationally and ideologically. The party decided to concentrate on achieving unity within the Swedish workers’ movement and promoting cooperation between Communists and the rank and file Social Democrats. In 1961 the party’s Nineteenth Congress adopted the “Programmatic Declaration of the CPS,” setting forth both the party’s basic principles and its specific demands on behalf of the social, economic, and political interests of the Swedish working people.

In the mid-1960’s the CPS’s standing in the Riksdag and local government bodies improved somewhat. Simultaneously, the party was ideologically and organizationally weakened by right and left opportunist tendencies both inside and outside its ranks. Disagreements over fundamental questions of theory and tactics arose within the party. In 1967 the Twenty-first Congress renamed the party the Left Party-Communists (LPC). A new party program, “The Socialist Alternative,” was adopted, as well as a new set of party rules that—unlike the previous rules adopted in 1955—omitted certain important tenets of democratic centralism. In the 1968 parliamentary elections the LPC received its smallest vote (3 percent) of the entire postwar period. The Twenty-second Congress in 1969 was to some extent a turning point in the struggle for unity within the party’s ranks and made some corrections in the party rules. The Communists played an important part in the successful strikes of the Swedish workers in 1969–71.

In 1972 the LPC held its Twenty-third Congress. A new party program was adopted, stating that the LPC bases its activity “on the foundation of scientific socialism, the revolutionary theory of Marx and Lenin.” The party’s adherence to the principles of proletarian internationalism was emphasized. The congress also approved amendments to the rules stressing the party’s guiding role in the workers’ struggle for socialism, the importance of party unity and solidarity, and the incompatibility between factionalism and party membership. In the 1973 parliamentary elections the LPC received 5.3 percent of the vote and elected 19 members to the Riksdag, out of 350 seats. (In the elections of 1970 it won 4.8 percent of the vote and sent 17 deputies to the Riksdag.)

CPS delegations participated in the international conferences of Communist and workers’ parties in Moscow in 1957 and 1960, and the CPS approved the documents adopted by the conferences. At the international Conference of Communist and Workers’ Parties in Moscow in 1969 the LPC was represented by observers.

In accordance with its rules, the highest body of the LPC is its congress. Between congresses the party’s work is directed by the Administrative Committee. The chairman of the LPC is C. H. Hermansson. There were 15,000 members in 1972. The party’s organ is the newspaper Ny Dag (New Day). For a list of the congresses of the LPC see Table 1.

E. ALEKSANDROV