BY CATHARINA TIRSÉN
STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Driving their tractors through
Halmstad, a town in the south of Sweden, 150 farmers
demonstrated January 23. "Low pork prices will increase
crisis," read one of the placards on top of one of the
tractors. The following day 100 farmers marched in Gothenburg
to the home of local regional governor Gote Bernhardsson. That
evening and the evening of January 25, farmers lit
bonfires - a traditional signal of alarm - along highways
leading to Gothenburg and Stockholm.
Earlier on January 25, more than 1,000 farmers rallied at Vakasala Square in central Uppsala, some 70 kilometers north of Stockholm. Hans Jonsson, chairperson of the National Farmers Community (LRF) said, "Farmers in Sweden carry an added backpack in the shape of extra taxes on electricity, petrol, diesel, and fertilizer, which other farmers in Europe are not burdened with. This backpack must go. We can't wait any longer." On January 26 some 250 farmers from around the country went to the House of Parliament in Stockholm to attend a hearing of the Agriculture Commission. Part of the overflow crowd had to watch the hearing on screen in a hall nearby. That day, 800 farmers joined a protest in Malmo.
The protests coincided with a decision January 14 by Swedish Meat, owned by farmers cooperatives linked to the LRF, to close two plants in Varberg and Lulea. Four hundred packinghouse workers will lose their jobs. The low prices of pork have hit farmers and pork production especially hard. Pork is not subject to price regulation, unlike beef, milk, and other agricultural products in the European Union.
Anders Ekstrom, a young farmer who works on his father's farm outside Orebro, told Militant reporters who visited him January 19 that pork prices have dropped from 17 kroner in June 1997 to 9 kroner today (1 kroner = US$0.13). Recently, Ekstrom and his father took a substantial loan to build a new pigsty with room to produce 2,500 pigs a year. "When we took the loan, we calculated that we would need to sell at 12 kroner per kilo to cover our costs," Andres explained. Supporters of the Militant were invited to visit Anders and his wife Anna after having met them distributing leaflets in the street in downtown Stockholm.
"Nowadays, I can take out only 45.50 kroner an hour in wages - before taxes," Anders said. "Of course, I would be a fool to work for that kind of money. I should get 80 kroner an hour. But this is my father's farm, which my family has owned for generations. And I don't want to be the one that breaks the chain. Times just have to get better."
Catharina Tirsén is a member of the Metal Workers Union.