"Death to class-society!" : Morality and rhetorics in the Swedish Social Democratic Party's youth organizations 1903–1907

This study analyzes the moral dimensions of the polemic rhetorics between the two youth organizations tied to Sweden’s Social Democratic Party in the years 1903–1907, ungsocialisterna, the Young Socialists and ungdemokraterna. the Young Democrats. The examined debate centers around which methods and tactics were best suited to achieve their common goal, the liberation of the workers. Instead of looking at the ideological connotations of their arguments, the study examines which underlying moral assumptions give meaning to the two groups line of reasoning, and how they formulated their own ethical structures in the critique of the other organization. The study positions the debate within the context of the older discussions within the Party about violence as a method in class struggle and also relates it, inter alia, to a broader European framework drawing on the worker movements experiences of the Paris commune in 1871. Results include that both youth organizations considered themselves being bearer of true socialism and that the ethical structure they adhered to was primarily natural and common sense. While the Young Democrats rhetorically created virtues around rationality and science the Young Socialists emphazised a youthfulness associated with an unadulterated feeling and action