The experience of the solidarity movement for independent workers’ struggles in Partille
The page “Support the Staff’s Struggle Against Repression in the Municipality of Partille” today stands as one of the most significant records of workplace struggle in contemporary Sweden. It began with a specific and urgent purpose: defending two workers and exposing the repression directed against them and their colleagues during an independent workplace struggle in Partille.
Initially established as a support committee for Iraj Yeke-Rusta and Atbin Kian, the page aimed to defend these two workers, who were among the key organizers of the struggle. They soon became targets of direct attacks from management and local political authorities. In the presence of the municipality’s chief personnel officer, they were suspended from their jobs in what was clearly a politically motivated act designed to intimidate the workforce and pave the way for their dismissal.
Instead of silencing the struggle, this repression sparked a wider solidarity movement. The support page rapidly became a platform for sharing information about the workers’ struggle, exposing managerial repression and mobilizing broader social support. Through this process, what had initially been a workplace conflict gradually moved into the public sphere.
One of the most important aspects of this experience was the deliberate shift of the arena of struggle from the workplace to the public space of the city. Workers understood that the workplace was largely controlled by the employer and, in many cases, mediated by the official trade unions. Under such conditions, protests within the workplace could easily be neutralized through legal and contractual mechanisms. Moving the struggle into the public arena therefore became part of a conscious strategy.
As a result, demonstrations spread from the small town of Partille to Gothenburg, Stockholm and even to cities in northern Sweden. Many activists later remarked that before these events they barely knew where Partille was located. Yet through this solidarity movement, the town became widely known as a symbol of workplace resistance.
Over time the page developed beyond a simple support platform and became a communication hub for militant workers’ circles across Sweden. It served not only to report on the struggle in Partille but also to connect different groups of workers and to mobilize solidarity with other labor struggles.
Through this network, meetings and seminars among workers’ groups were organized in various Swedish cities. These gatherings enabled activists to exchange experiences of struggle, discuss organizing methods and strengthen bonds of solidarity.
The page also became a living archive of the development of a workers’ struggle. Statements, petitions, open letters, reports and photographs documenting the struggle were systematically collected and published. Today the page stands as an important historical record of a multi-year workers’ struggle.
Another crucial dimension of this experience was the workers’ attempt to neutralize the mechanisms through which official trade unions often contain workplace struggles. Workers in Partille realized that the unions frequently functioned as mediators between employers and employees, seeking to confine conflicts within the framework of collective bargaining agreements. As a result, workers attempted to organize independently and select their own representatives.
This struggle also revealed how repression often operates through cooperation between employers, local political authorities and established union structures. Within the Swedish collective bargaining system, strikes or collective protests during negotiations can be treated as violations of agreements, placing workers’ job security at risk.
Recognizing these constraints, workers concluded that their struggle could not remain confined to the workplace. Moving it into the public sphere was therefore a way to break the mechanisms of control.
It was in this context that the slogan “Break the silence in the workplace” and the demand for freedom of expression and publication at work became central to the movement.
From this perspective, the Partille support committee is far more than a website. It stands as a concrete example of how class struggle in practice can evolve from a workplace conflict into a broader social and political movement.
As Karl Marx wrote in his famous letter to Friedrich Bolte in 1871:
“Every real movement of the working class is a political movement.”
The experience of Partille illustrates precisely this dynamic: a struggle that began with defending workplace conditions evolved into a wider social and political movement and created a network of workers’ solidarity on a broader scale.
IWO- April 2018
To explore the full documentation of this workers’ struggle, visit the page here. The page is in Swedish, but you can use Facebook’s automatic translation feature if needed.