ASF-IWA, Sweden: 100th Anniversary of the Norwegian Syndicalist Federation: 1916 - 2016

The NSF had an 100th Anniversary event on October 29th as start for the NSF Centennial. It 
was held in a wooden house in Grunerløkka in Oslo and it was very well attended. Greetings 
were held from IWA Secretariat (with seat in Poland) by the General Secretary, a comrade 
from SFManchester, and a comrade from Ørestad LS, which is an IWA Friends organization. 
Later, it appeared 9 workers from a new grassroot initiative of transport workers from the 
big transport terminals in Oslo and surroundings, and they made a greeting to the NSF. 
---- There were first speeches about the founding of NSF on December 28th of 1916 and the 
numerous direct actions the following years. The NSF was also in the forefront of making 
actions by taking the 8th hour day, and started to agitate for the 6th hour day as early 
as in 1919. A health worker/ historian , who is writing two books about the NSF, spoke 
about the development in Rjukan, a community where the NSF had 600 affiliates in 1920, and 
how the local branch of the main Confederation, the LO, sometimes cooperated, but most 
times undermined the NSF and its direct actions.

Another speech was about NSF activities in the twenties and thirties. The NSF joined the 
IWA at its founding Congress in 1922, and has since taken actively part in it. The NSF 
kept organizing in the twenties and thirties. They had also a women`s group that actively 
took part in the NSF organizing efforts, and many of its members were also arrested during 
the World War II for illegal work against the Nazis.

The oldest current NSF veteran spoke about the NSF activities from the World War II to the 
reorganization in 1977. The NSF cooperated in this period with the revolutionary 
syndicalists in Sweden, as the SAC had made a reformist development, and with Danish 
comrades. He also spoke some about the reorganization of the NSF in 1977 and the union 
work he and other NSF comrades had in the metal industry. There had been some major 
unofficial/ illegal strikes in this sector that had radicalized the workers.

Then the last and biggest part of the event was about work conflicts which NSF members had 
taken part in and/or supported. To mention some: The NSF had a couple of years after the 
reorganization in 1977 an own action that was successful, about the repression against NSF 
union activists, a comrade talked about the activities of the NSF Section during the 
pre-school teachers unofficial strike in 1987, another about the unofficial strikes at 
Tollpost- Globe (big transport terminal) in 1992 and the SAS -Hotel conflicts in 1992 and 
1993. Thanks to these conflicts, tens of thousands of Norwegian workers in these and other 
branches got fixed instead of temporary contracts! It was also mentioned work conflicts up 
to today.

Activists of the unions at Tollpost- Globe and SAS- Hotel workers union and other unions 
participated at a NSF Conference in April 1996 about Direct action. Two Liverpool dock- 
workers who were on strike also participated at this Conference. It was the start to the 
very big solidarity work from Norwegian local unions to the Liverpool dock- workers.

The SF comrade, and another comrade, spoke about this support work in the nineties, and 
also about the very big solidarity work among Norwegian local unions for the British 
miners strike in the 80-s. The SF comrade saw clearly the link between the Norwegian 
Government plans to privatize the railways, and the privatization in Britain: It has been 
a disaster in Britain and now the Norwegian government is copying them!

NSF activists were active in establishing local unions solidarity committees for arrested 
workers in Chile and Bolivia in the end of the seventies, and members took actively part 
in local union support for arrested workers in Poland after the Marshall law in December 
1981. A comrade from ZSP informed about the situation of Polish workers today, and how 
Poland tries to attract factories as a low cost country. The speech was then about ZSP 
work conflicts which there are a lot of, and how they act against the Government and 
Employers policy.

The Swedish comrade had a speech about privatizations in Sweden. He said the legislation 
in Sweden makes it easier for minority organizations to negotiate than in Norway, and told 
about work conflicts of Ørestad LS. It was also spoken about that the comrades in Ørestad 
LS, Denmark and NSF will start a Scandinavian cooperation.

All these examples and many more show the importance of International solidarity and 
affiliation to the International Workers Association (IWA). The importance of the NSF 
affiliation and active participation in the IWA since 1922 was mentioned in all the 
speeches about the different decades.

This commemoration was held in times when the employers and the state are attacking the 
workers and their rights on all fields. The lower oil price compared to some years ago is 
used to attack the oil -workers conditions and rights and they are throwing thousands into 
unemployment while the oil companies still are having big profits.

One and a half years ago, pilots in Norwegian went on strike for the right to be employed 
by those they actually perform their work for, and not by temporary agencies. The 
dock-workers have campaigned and went on strike for up to three years in some ports for 
collective agreements and for the right to perform the work in accordance with 
international conventions (ILO). And in October there was a four weeks long train drivers 
strike demanding a common standard in education, so its independent of the different train 
companies that will appear when the plans of privatizations of the railways will be put 
into practice in 2017.

Because of this situation, where the Norwegian tripartite, class- collaboration model is 
shaking, the NSF has got more requests about new forms of resisting and anarchosyndicalism 
in the last one and a half year, than in the more "silent" period from the year 2000!

http://asf-iwa.org.au/100th-anniversary-of-the-norwegian-syndicalist-federation-1916-2016/