Helsingborgsyndikalister vid vägvalet: revolt eller revolution? En ideologianalys av en syndikalistisk lokal samorganisation, perioden 1917-1922.

In 1910 the Swedish trade union federation Sveriges Arbetares Centralorganisation (the SAC) was formed. Initially, the SAC had an anarcho-syndicalist ideological framework, with limited theoretical discussion on how the revolution or socialization process should be undertaken. 1917-1922 the SAC went through an ideological shift, in part due to general increased radicalization of the European working class and the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. During these years the socialization process underwent increased discussion, and many of the leading men on the central level of the SAC parted with anarchism and embraced an evolutionary type of syndicalism. Few studies have examined how this ideological shift from radicalism to a more reformist perspective manifested itself on the local level, why I have examined how the local branch of the SAC in Helsingborg (Helsingborg LS) reacted. My results conclude, that the men in Helsingborg LS initially contested the discussions on the central level - claiming them to be reformist and even bourgeois - but after 1919 and with little argument, adopted and encouraged an evolutionary syndicalist perspective. Furthermore, my results conclude that Helsingborg LS ideological shift was heavily influenced by the British guild socialist movement or ideology, an influence that earlies studies on the SAC have underplayed. Helsingborg LS did not fully embrace the guild socialist ideology, but were inspired enough to create Helsingborg Kooperativa Byggnadsförening (Helsingborg Cooperative Building Association) in early 1922, containing many components of the guild socialist movement. Foremost, the it is an argument for the shift from anarcho-syndicalism to evolutionary syndicalism