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    Vol.60/No.40           November 11, 1996 
 
 
Thousands Protest Sweden Austerity  

BY BIRGITTA ISACSSON

STOCKHOLM - Slowly but surely working people are coming out in the streets to protest the austerity measures implemented by the Social Democratic government here in Sweden. On October 16 Prime Minister Goran Persson spoke at a public meeting in Skelleftea, a small town in the north of Sweden, when more than 1,000 people showed up to protest the government's policy. They interrupted him and booed.

Persson had promised to cut unemployment in half by the year 2000. Instead unemployment is again on the rise, reaching more than half a million people, officially 7.7 percent. The government's austerity policy is increasing unemployment, while at the same time attacking the rights of the unemployed.

New restrictions make it harder to qualify for unemployment benefits. Currently workers need to work 5 months in the last 12-month period to qualify. Starting Jan. 1, 1997, a proposed requirement would be raised to 9 months, along with an added rule of working at least 80 hours per month.

On October 17, some 3,000 people marched in Stockholm to demand their rights. Many who came were jobless workers from outside Stockholm. The march was initiated by the Transport Union in Gavle, a town north of Stockholm. Some other local unions were also among the organizers but LO, the national union federation, did not support the demonstration.

Labor Minister Margareta Winberg was met in Gothenburg by more than 2,000 protesters - most of them unionists - while debating a member of the conservative Moderate Party October 23. These have been the biggest protests since the Social Democratic Party won the 1994 elections

Another proposed restriction, which would go into effect after Jan. 1, 1997, affects workers over 55 years old who will lose 150 days of their unemployment benefits. Now they have the right to 450 days. Some 30,000 people each year will lose their unemployment benefits and end up on welfare. In 1995, 11 billion Swedish krona (1krona = US$0.15) were paid in welfare - 100 percent more than in the 1990.

In spring 1995 the Social Democrats, in alliance with the Center Party, lowered unemployment benefits from 80 percent to 75 percent. Before Goran Persson was elected as chairman of the Social Democratic Party and prime minister of the government he promised to raise unemployment benefits to 80 percent sometime in the late 1990s. The unions are still demanding that unemployment benefits be raised to 90 percent.

On November 9 a demonstration is planned in Lulea, a region where unemployment is the highest in the country and where labor struggles historically have had a stronghold.  
 
 
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