Littérature scientifique sur le sujet « Socialdemokratiska ungdomsförbundet »

The aim of this paper is to ascertain what kind of feminist expressions that are prevalent in two of Sweden’s major political youth organizations, the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League and the Centre Party Youth using ideal types constructed from major feminist ideologies. A comparison between the two is also a part of the analysis, to clarify the differences and similarities between the two regarding issues pertaining gender equality. Socialist feminism and radical feminism were prevalent in the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League but it also contained expressions of liberal feminism. The Centre Party Youth were exclusively liberal feminist in their expression. The differences between the two were ideological and the causal explanations for why gender equality exists differed as well. The similarities were limited to certain specific issues where they identified similar, if not identical, problems in society.

Politiska ungdomsförbund är viktiga arenor där unga människor diskuterar och formulerar frågor som kan bli en del av den politiska dagordningen. Sättet som en politisk fråga diskuteras skapar också gränserna för hur det är möjligt att förstå och tala om den. I denna studie undersöks det socialdemokratiska ungdomsförbundets (SSU) könspolitik under perioden 1970- 2000. Mer specifikt analyseras hur frågan om kvinnors politiska representation framställts inom förbundet och vilka lösningar som varit möjliga att föra fram på förbundskongresserna. Avhandlingens utgångspunkter är feministisk teori och teori om problem konstruktion. Studien baseras på källmaterial som kongressprotokoll, handlings- och principprogram, stadgar, motioner från individuella kongressledamöter och från distrikt, förbundsstyrelsens utlåtande över motioner, förbundsskrifter samt tidskrifterna Tvärdrag och P- Information. Avhandlingen visar att SSU, trots sin radikala självbild, haft liten egen drivkraft att driva frågan om att öka kvinnors representation i förbundets beslutsfattande organ. Problem med låg representation av kvinnor inom förbundet erkänns, men fram till 1990-talet är det någon annan, någon annanstans, som ska lösa underrepresentationen. Avhandlingen visar också att problemkonstruktionerna ofta innehåller motsägelsefulla förståelser av frågan om kvinnors representation. Sammantaget bidrar en rad antaganden som, normer om frivillighet, samarbete mellan män och kvinnor, könskomplementaritet, samt även passiva och symboliska hinder och utlyftande praktiker, till att forma gränserna för hur kvinnors politiska representation kan diskuteras inom SSU.
Political youth associations are important political arenas where young people discuss and formulate issues that can become part of the political agenda. The way a political issue is discussed and problematized also creates the borders for how it is possible to talk about it and to understand a particular issue. In this thesis, the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League’s (SSU) gender politics are explored. More specifically, the question of how women’s representation is constructed and what solutions are seen as possible is analysed. The analytical points of departure are feminist theory and theory of problem construction. The source material consists of congress material from 1970 until 2001: congress protocols, motions from individuals and district committees, League committee reports on the motions and debates in the congresses. Other source materials are debate publications, booklets, written documents, internal material about women’s representation, programs of action and ideas and the periodicals Tvärdrag and P-Information. The study shows that the Social Democratic Youth League, despite of its radical self image, has few ambitions of its own to politicise the question of women’s representation. Problems with women’s low representation within the league are admitted, but until the 1990’s, these problems are always associated with someone else, somewhere else, who is going to solve the under representation. The study also shows that the problem constructions often contain contradictory understandings of the question of women’s representation. A number of assumptions such as norms for volunteering, cooperation between men and women, gender complementary, barriers as passive and symbolic barriers, and ‘externalizing practices’, contribute to shaping the borders of how the question of women’s representation can be discussed within the League.

This study analyzes the moral dimensions of the polemic rhetorics between the two youth organizations tied to Sweden’s Social Democratic Party in the years 1903–1907, ungsocialisterna, the Young Socialists and ungdemokraterna. the Young Democrats. The examined debate centers around which methods and tactics were best suited to achieve their common goal, the liberation of the workers. Instead of looking at the ideological connotations of their arguments, the study examines which underlying moral assumptions give meaning to the two groups line of reasoning, and how they formulated their own ethical structures in the critique of the other organization. The study positions the debate within the context of the older discussions within the Party about violence as a method in class struggle and also relates it, inter alia, to a broader European framework drawing on the worker movements experiences of the Paris commune in 1871. Results include that both youth organizations considered themselves being bearer of true socialism and that the ethical structure they adhered to was primarily natural and common sense. While the Young Democrats rhetorically created virtues around rationality and science the Young Socialists emphazised a youthfulness associated with an unadulterated feeling and action.