Love, power and sisterhood

Organizations and actions

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Numerous political organizations were founded in Sweden in the 1960s and 1970s. The women’s movement was reorganized. What was new in political organizations and in the new women’s movement were their pronounced leftist dimension and other ways of operating. The focus was on outreaching activities, demonstrations, actions, and the selling of journals in streets and markets.

As well as political organizations, women’s organizations evidently existed before this time, and a majority of the big political parties had special women’s organizations.

The Fredrika-Bremer-Association

The Fredrika-Bremer-Association was founded in 1884 by Sophie Leijonhufvud-Adlersparre who wished to continue the struggle for women’s liberation in the spirit of Fredrika Bremer. Together with Rosalie Roos, she managed the first Swedish women’s journal Tidskrift för hemmet in 1859-1885. Sophie Leijonhufvud-Adlersparre contributed with many articles, often with the pseudonym Esselde. The journal later changed its name to Dagny and in 1913 it was named after the novel Hertha by Fredrika Bremer. The journal was published until 1999 and continued to exist as an electronic journal for some years after that. A jubilee issue was released in 2009 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Tidskrift för hemmet. The Fredrika-Bremer-Association is a politically and religiously independent association, open to both women and men from its beginning in 1884.

The Left Federation of Swedish Women

In 1914, the physicians Ada Nilsson and Julia von Sneidern Kinberg formed the organization Frisinnade Kvinnor (Liberal Women).

Its slogans were "Against war psychosis, for democracy and equality". Frisinnade Kvinnor became a national organization in 1920 and changed its name in 1931 to Svenska Kvinnors Vänsterförbund [The Left Federation of Swedish Women], SKV. Struggle for peace persists as a mainstay in the organization’s activities. The journal Tidevarvet, published between 1923 and 1936, initiated "Kvinnornas vapenlösa uppror mot kriget" [Women’s Unarmed Uprising against War) in 1935. SKV participated in the 1950s in the round robin against Swedish nuclear weapons and is engaged in the continuous struggle against nuclear weapons. In 1972, SKV celebrated the International Women’s Day together with Group 8 and Kvinnoligan (Women’s League) and since then there are joint actions with other women’s organizations on 8 March.The organization’s journal Vi mänskor has been published since 1947.

Group 8

Group 8, founded by eight women in 1968, was the women’s organization with most impact in Sweden. The group grew rapidly, first in Stockholm and later across the rest of the country. There were aspirations of a non-hierarchical organization, the basic groups were independent, decisions were made at general meetings, and committees were substituted by a “rolling”, i.e. shifting, representation. Their politics was presented in the journal Kvinnobulletinen that started its publication in 1971. Group 8 pursued a great number of issues – the rights to employment, equal pay, six-hour working, day nurseries and abortion, and struggle against pornography. Group 8 revived the celebration of the International Women’s Day on 8 March.

On 8 March 1971, some ten Group-8 women in Stockholm demonstrated, among other things, for the rights to abortion and more day nurseries. In 1972, Group 8 and SKV held their first 8 March meeting. The very next year, similar meetings and demonstrations were arranged in several other places. The International Women’s Day became then an annual manifestation, with a growing number of participants from all over the country. On 8 March 1978 there were as many as about 2,000 demonstrators in Stockholm alone. At the international level Group 8 participated in the Women’s International, with the slogan "Sisters of the world, unite!" The work on "consciousness-raising" was an internal issue, pursued to enhance individual consciousness of the male-dominated society and its patriarchal power. "The personal is political" was its motto.

At the height of its activity, there were basic groups in some thirty places in Sweden. The nation’s interest in politics as well as women’s movements diminished during the 1980s, but the publication of Kvinnobulletinen continued up to 1996.
A more detailed account of Group 8 is given under History.

The feminist manifesto of 1973. Translation from the Redstocking manifesto
International Women’s Day, the 8 March demonstration in Gothenburg, celebration party at Folkets Hus, n.d.
International Women’s Day, the 8 March demonstration in Gothenburg, 1973.
Evaluation of the 8 March demonstration, Gothenburg 1973.
Internal Bulletin 1973:2, ocover.
Report from Västra Gruppen (the West Group), April 1973.
8 March demonstration, Gothenburg 1977

Women’s League in Lund

In the autumn of 1970, some women in Lund formed a women’s group to which they gave the name Kvinnoligan (Women’s League). Similar to Group 8, this women’s group originated from discussions in a small nucleus of women, of whom many came from the political left in Lund, on women’s oppression, women’s struggle and Marxism. However, they were rather soon inspired by the feminist ideas of consciousness-raising and sisterhood. One of the Women’s League members had attended the women’s movement in the United States, from where she brought some material, for instance the anthology "Sisterhood is Powerful: Anthology of Writings from the Women’s Liberation Movement". The literature, characterized by some as a "bombshell", met the requirements set by many of the women activists. It initiated the organization of basic groups in which women discussed subjects like the role of mothers, the impact of gender roles, the insufficient solidarity between women, women’s relation to men, women as sexual objects, and the single mother. The subjects were based on particular texts on consciousness-raising, published by the U.S. women’s movement. One of the basic groups declared that the literature served as a starting-point for theorizing about these issues so as to "realize the social function of these problems". The Women’s League thus had accepted the idea of making political women’s own experiences, i.e. that the personal is political.

Consciousness-raising became the device enabling Women’s League members to start breaking traditional notions of what was expected of a woman and, at the same time, a potential tool for changing her life. The aim was to raise women’s self-confidence and start organizing against women’s oppression together with other women. The strategy was to find women in residential areas, arrange meetings in libraries and other places, and debate the experience of women’s oppressions with other women. The idea was to develop a women’s solidarity.

In February 1971, the student nights’ committee in Lund held a meeting with the title "Women’s Struggle". Representatives from Rödstrumperne (Redstockings) in Denmark, Women’s Liberation in London, and Group 8 in Stockholm, were invited to the meeting with over 1,000 visitors, some of them men. This was the first women’s meeting of its kind in Sweden. From the gallery in the students’ union building, banderols with the women’s names Rosa Luxemburg, Angela Davis, Sara Lidman, and others, were hung by women activists over the covered portraits of distinguished men like Rydberg and Tegnér. The room was decorated with banners saying "Sisters, together we are strong and beautiful", and "We must reclaim our history. We must create a future". The platform was draped with a cloth banner in red, its words "Sisterhood is power" encircled by the radical symbol of the clenched fist.

As a result of the meeting several women joined the Women’s League and many basic groups were established during the spring of 1971. When the Women’s League held an information meeting at the City Library in December 1971, more than 400 women came, many of whom had to stay outside as there was no room for them in the library. On the following day, the press declared: "As the Women’s League cried out against oppression and patriarchal society, the men sat outside, looking after the children".

For some period of time the Women’s League could notice an enormous influx of new members, and, at the same time, a decline of the women’s group. It was as characteristic of the Women’s League’s organizational structure as of other parts of the women’s movement that the form of organization was non-hierarchic, based on the principle that all were active members and that no one member should govern or guide another. The structure did not always function when it came to looking after all new members, and there were many who abandoned the women’s group after a short period of activism. Parallel to the growing number of its members, the Women’s League initiated, in the spring and summer of 1972, an indicative discussion on the nature of the women’s movement that they were to develop. The discussion was not fruitful and there were many who withdrew from the organization. The Women’s League began dissolving as early as in the autumn of 1973.

Consequently, there were two different orientations of the women’s struggle when the new women’s movement emerged and developed in the early 1970s – one more socialist feminist and one more radical feminist. On the other hand these orientations were not absolute, neither in Group 8 Stockholm nor in the Women’s League; women activists in both groups let themselves be influenced by each other, and, as a result, tensions arose in deciding the most appropriate strategy in the women’s struggle.

Arbetets kvinnor (Working Women)

Arbetets kvinnor (Working Women) was established in 1973 as a local group withdrawn from Group 8 in Stockholm. Its main critique of Group 8 was that its view on women’s struggle, as capable of uniting all women across class boundaries, was erroneous. They argued that the women’s movement must direct their attention to working-class women, as these had the least to lose and the most to win in a battle against the oppression of class and gender. An additional reason for the rupture was that the feminist orientation was beginning to take up too much space, according to Arbetets kvinnor. They maintained that Group 8 focused more on the oppression at an individual level than on the outreach of daily-life demands.

Group 8 was also criticized on a more fundamental level for a growing lack of theory. It was for this reason that Arbetets kvinnor began publishing the journal Rödhättan, in which a Marxist debate on women’s issues was to be opened. Articles by Clara Zetkin and Aleksandra Kollontaj on working-class women’s past history and present situation were published in the journal. There were also articles on children’s situation, anti-authoritarian education of children, and Marxist pedagogy. Even though Arbetets kvinnor functioned primarily as an educational association, other groups were created – one for female members of LO (The Swedish Trade Union Confederation) members; another for female members of TCO (The Swedish Confederation for Professional Employees) – to support their political work at their workplaces. In Stockholm, Arbetets kvinnor organized more than 100 women and workplace groups were formed in Malmö with some 20 members, in addition to sympathizers in Lund and Gothenburg. In the early 1980s, Arbetets kvinnor adopted an orientation that became increasingly similar to that of Group 8, with basic groups and an interest in sexual and feminist issues.

Lesbian Struggle

The lesbian movement appeared as a particular section of the women’s movement. Riksförbundet för sexuellt likaberättigande (the Swedish Federation for Sexual Equality; since 2007 the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights) was established as early as in 1950. Female members were engaged in the federation’s own groups, for instance Victoria in Stockholm and Göta in Gothenburg, which later changed its name to Lesbiska ligan or Liga Lesbia. When the women’s movement escalated many lesbian women felt they had more in common with this movement than with homosexual men. The lesbian women’s movement was as well the result of a Nordic lesbian collaboration. Lesbianism was discussed as early as in 1971 at the Danish women’s camp Femö. In Copenhagen, the journal Kvinder-Kvinder (Women-Women) was initiated by a lesbian group.

The Nordic lesbian movement made a breakthrough in 1974 after a conference in Oslo. Lesbian women’s groups from Malmö, Stockholm, Gothenburg and other places participated in the conference, which resulted in the establishment of Lesbisk Front (Lesbian Frontier). The second Nordic lesbian conference was held in Stockholm in 1975. An important ingredient in these conferences was the opportunity to meet and exchange experiences made in the local work. There were as well discussions on various actions, the oppression directed especially against lesbian women, sexuality, and partner relationships.

The question whether or not the lesbian struggle belonged to the new women’s struggle was discussed within the lesbian movement and in other parts of the women’s movement. "Lesbian struggle is a women’s struggle" was for some people a controversial slogan. In some places, lesbian women were at the same time active within Group 8 and the Lesbian Frontier, and the organizations often collaborated with each other at events like 8 March and on separate actions. Within the Lesbian Frontier, women were organized in basic groups that functioned as groups for consciousness-raising. In Gothenburg there was a circle for the study of lesbianism in fiction. From the mid-1970s, women activists from the lesbian movement were frequently the initiators and promoters of women’s centres in different places around Sweden. The lesbian groups effected many spectacular actions, for instance the action against pornography in Gothenburg in 1975, when fermented Baltic herrings were thrown into the cars of the prostitutes’ clients, but their actions always had a serious purpose. They spoke in public about taboo issues and contributed to the elucidation of a previously invisible group. The different groups acted under the name Lesbian Frontier until 1980, when the name was changed to Lesbiska feminister (Lesbian Feminists).

Leaflet from the Women’s group within RFLS, Gothenburg.
Lesbian feminists – who are they?
Lesbian frontier – what does it mean?

Läs mer

The Fredrika-Bremer-Association
RFSL, Riksförbundet för sexuellt likaberättigande (Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights)
SKV, The Left Federation of Swedish Women

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