Healthy flats lor poor children is the inscription on this socialdemocratic poster from the general election 1936. The socialdemocrats were in govemment 1932-1976,1982-91 and from 1994 onwards. During the 1930-ies the welfare society was under construction trying to reach social democracy with central questions like grant for housebuilding, paid holiday by law, pension by law and unemployment benefit.
Photoes are registrated together with other archival documents in the files of the organisation or person whom the archive belongs to like newspapers, archives from trade union periodicals, persons, politic al and cultural organisations. The institute also keep a collection of photoes without known origin. 60.000 photoes are now registrated. Scanning projects are in progress.
Copyright: SAP
The agitator August Palm (1849-1922) worked as a tailor in the south of Sweden, in Germany and Denmark where he came in contact with the socialist ideas. He introduced the social democracy in Malmo 1881 with his speech 'What do the Social-Democrats want?'
He started newspapers, wrote books and agitated for socialism allover the country until his death 1922 in Stockholm.
This little sculpture (height 24 cm, 20 x 30 cm) was carved in wood 1939 by an unknown artist with the initials AR.
The newspaper Socialdemokraten was first published 1885. From 1890 there was a special number 1st of May. This picture from 1899 was drawn by the artist Nils Kreuger och became afterward a symbol for the labour movement. The motif has been changed later on. Today you can see this demonstration with women on posters, postcards and banners.
The Branting monument can be seen close to the Archives and Library of the Swedish Labour Movement in Stockholm. The artist Carl Eldh completed the monument 1942 but due to the Second World War it was not placed at Norra Bantorget and inaugurated until 1952.
These minutes belong to the union of carpenters and joiners in Stockholm 1880.
During the 1880s the social democratic ideas were accepted by many trade unions in Sweden. The oldest trade union minutes kept at the lnstitute were written by the typographs association in Stockholm 1846. At that time the association was more or less an association for professionals. Later on -in the 1870s -they started to handle even economical questions and signed an agreement with the principals.
These minutes are very detailed and an important source of knowledge.
The early labour movement banners had a symbol on the top of the bannerpole. The social-democratic banners sometimes used the goddess of freedom, especially the women organisations. The trade unions did show a symbol for their work like these joiners and modelmakers that shows a saw.
Sometimes the top emblem was constructed of the members but it could also be made by a specialist. In the 1880s they were often cut in wood. Later on they were often forged or founded. They were very heavy and could be up to half a metre in size.
A copy of this letter from the social democratic leader and later prime minister Hjalmar Branting to Karl Liebknecht 1890 was found in Hjalmar Branting's archives. lt was originally published in the Swedish newspaper Socialdemokraten. As letters mostly are hidden in the archives of the receiver they could be hard to find. Therefore ARAB has a special register for the writers of letters.
The first red labour movement banner in Sweden was unfurled in 1883 at the time when the socialist ideas started to be discussed in the trade unions. The red banner was the symbol for unity between the members of the union and to others a message showing pride in the work and the meaning that socialism was the way to reach the goal of freedom, justice and equality.
When the first 1st of May demonstration was celebrated in 1890 the Swedish labour movement only used local bands or badges. In 1894 the first centrally produced badge was printed by the Social-democratic Party in Stockholm. It shows a goddess of freedom or justice taken from the German socialist iconography. The following years the badges show almost the same motif and the demand for 8 hours workingday. They were all red and made of paper. The text and pictures were golden or white.
