Experiences from Habilitation Workers in Partille
The experience of workers in the habilitation sector in Partille represents an important example of workplace organizing in contemporary Sweden. It shows how workers, through collective solidarity, the defense of professional knowledge, and the creation of independent forms of organization, were able to resist management policies and employer pressure.
Out of this process emerged the workers’ newspaper Pedagogical Work (Pedagogisk Arbete, a publication that became both a tool for expressing workers’ demands and a means of sharing the experience of struggle and strengthening collective awareness among the staff.
The birth of this newspaper cannot be understood without considering the many years of collective struggle that preceded it. It was not the result of a sudden initiative or the idea of a single individual, but rather the outcome of a long process of organization, shared experience and growing mutual trust among workers.
Pedagogical work and working conditions in habilitation
Work with people with autism in Sweden is often organized according to methods such as TEACCH (Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication-handicapped Children). This method is a structured pedagogical approach based on visual support, predictable routines and a carefully organized environment. Its aim is to strengthen independence and communication for people with autism.
In Partille, as in many other municipalities in Sweden, there are several residential facilities for people with autism. These are generally run by the municipality and form part of the public habilitation system. Workers in these facilities include trained specialists, educators, and staff who have developed professional knowledge through practical experience.
The work is demanding. Staff often face high workloads, limited resources and difficult working conditions. In some cases they must also deal with physical incidents involving residents. As a result, the working conditions of staff and the quality of life of residents are closely connected.
Struggle over control of the labour process
A central aspect of work in these facilities is its methodical and structured character. In many workplaces management attempts to divide the workforce between formally trained specialists and workers who possess practical experience.
In Partille this managerial strategy was challenged. During a period when Iraj Yekeh-Rosta was responsible for developing work methods, a structure emerged in which staff with different forms of expertise worked together in joint teams. Knowledge and experience could therefore circulate among workers.
This was not merely a technical matter. It was part of a broader struggle over control of the labour process. When workers themselves could influence how work was organized, initiative shifted from management to the workforce.
Another decisive factor in the development of the struggle was the unity between different groups of workers. Management repeatedly attempted to divide the workforce by offering limited privileges to certain skilled employees.
However, these attempts were exposed by the workers’ core group on the workplace. Many skilled workers refused such offers because they understood that their purpose was to weaken collective solidarity.
Training sessions on working methods formally appeared as professional education. In practice they became forums where workers discussed working conditions, organizational problems and possible improvements.
Through these meetings both solidarity and collective awareness grew among the staff. Only after many years did management begin to realize the political significance of these gatherings.
The decision to create a workplace newspape: a collective method of writing
After years of shared struggle, workers began discussing the need to document their experiences and express their demands in written form. The discussions about starting a workplace newspaper took time.
The central question was how such a publication could truly become a collective project rather than the work of a few individuals.
To solve this problem the workers developed a collective method. One colleague prepared a questionnaire about working conditions, working methods and the experience of collective struggle.
Each worker answered the questions based on their own experience. These responses were then edited into publishable texts.
This method allowed almost the entire workforce to contribute to the newspaper.
The process took several months. Draft texts circulated among workers so that everyone could comment on the content. In the end around ninety percent of the workforce participated in producing the first issue of Pedagogical Work.
The strengthening of workers’ organization and the publication of the newspaper alarmed management and local authorities. Soon a decision was taken to renovate the building where the facility was located – a measure that in practice was used to disperse the workforce and relocate them to different workplaces.
Workers responded with an open letter exposing these actions. Shortly afterward two key activists – Atbin Kyan and Iraj Yekeh-Rosta – were suspended and effectively dismissed.
However, this repression had the opposite effect. The struggle moved beyond the workplace and sparked protests in Partille, Gothenburg and other cities.
The newspaper Pedagogical Work became more than a means of communication. It became a tool for collective learning and organization. It enabled workers to document their experiences and share them with other workplaces.
Conclusion
The experience of Partille shows that workers’ struggles are not limited to wages or administrative issues. They are also struggles over control of the labour process, over the defense of professional knowledge, and over solidarity among workers.
The newspaper Pedagogical Work was born out of this struggle and demonstrated that workers themselves can articulate their experiences and spread them to others.