Arbetarmakt
Swedish section of the League for the Fifth International
The following statement was published by our comrades and sent to the union.
On Tuesday 4 February, the dockers’ union launched a six-day blockade of all types of weaponry for Israel. This is really exemplary – exactly the kind of action that the workers’ movement needs! It is perhaps somewhat surprising that the Labour Court has recognised the blockade, which is a form of strike, as lawful.
However, the employer Göteborg Roro Terminals (GRT) has taken the opportunity to dismiss the chairman of the Swedish Dockers’ Union, Erik Helgeson. The reason given is an alleged violation of the Security Protection Act and disloyalty in connection with this regulation. However, GRT did not want to further substantiate its vague accusations. The company has also announced that it has reported Erik Helgeson to the police. Helgeson explains that he has not heard anything from the police and does not know what he is accused of.
In any case, it is clear that any accusation will only be a pretext. The company simply wants to get rid of a combative union chairman and test whether the pretext works. The entire trade union movement must recognise that this is an attack on the right of trade unions to elect their representatives themselves and give Erik Helgeson every support!
The action of the dockers’ union is also a big and important step in the fight against the Israeli genocide. What is needed is a unionised total blockade of Israel, or at least a much more comprehensive one, which should last not only six days, but at least until all military action against Gaza is stopped and the people there are provided with the bare necessities.
But of course, no one can blame the dockers’ union for organizing a more limited boycott. A single and rather small union cannot do everything, and we must now hope that more unions will follow suit and use strikes as a political weapon, both against war crimes in other countries and for the interests of the working class at home.
So political strikes are still allowed to a certain extent, but we must assume the reactionary right wing government will try to change this. The trade union movement must vigorously defend itself against such attempts – but this is made more difficult by the fact that the Social Democratic and LO (Swedish TUC) leaderships have agreed to the recent restrictions on the right to strike.
