Young at heart

Hinke Bergegren (who died in 1936) was a notorious socialist agitator in Sweden. Originally an anarchist and supporter of the "Young Socialist Party" (SUP), he later became a Communist and ended his life as a supporter of the Socialist Party (which had political positions similar to those of the POUM). During his life, Hinke was accused of preaching everything from terrorism to free love (he *did* support the latter idea). Despite his notoriety, virtually the entire labor movement sent representatives to his funeral. Both Zeth Höglund and Albert Jensen, mentioned by me in other reviews, spoke at the funeral ceremony. Critics have charged Hinke with a purely verbal radicalism and an inability to actually organize anything, and this eventually turned him into a harmless icon.

"Ungsocialismen: historik" was published in October 1917, at a time when Hinke was still seen as dangerous. The small book, only available in Swedish, contains a short history of the SUP. The origins of the Young Socialist "Party" (really an anarchist or anarchistic group) can be traced back to 1892, when the Socialist Children's Club in Stockholm decided to change its name to the Social Democratic Youth Club. The club really did consist of precocious working class kids - no member was allowed to be older than 15 years! Of course, this was later adjusted upward as the members became older. The most interesting part of Hinke's book consist of vignettes from these early days, with the kids partying, discussing politics, writing (more or less frivolous) minutes, and listening to older socialists lecturing on "The Swedish working class and its relation to the bourgeoisie", "Rousseau and his influence on the French Revolution" and "White slavery and the Gentile mission" (sic). During merry-making sessions, the "Negro comedian Broks-Dunkan" was particularly popular!

The rest of the book is more serious. The Social Democratic youth were often more radical than the party leadership, and in 1903, the majority of the youth organization broke all relations with the Social Democratic Party, instead forming the Young Socialist Party. The new organization soon achieved herostratic fame for anti-militarist propaganda, conscientious objection to military service, agitation for a general strike, and (above all) the violent attack on the scab ship Amalthea in 1908. The SUP also supported the formation of the dual syndicalist union SAC in 1910. Although no longer a youth organization sensu stricto, the group kept the "Young Socialist" designation. They were, in a sense, young at heart, accusing the Social Democrats of selling out.

This is all interesting stuff, but Hinke Bergegren treats it in a very cursory manner. Instead, he says quite a lot about which local branches sent delegates to which SUP congresses! This makes his book seem strange and awkward, a bit like writing the history of the Russian Communist Party without mentioning the October Revolution... "Ungsocialismen" became progressively less interesting as I read on.

Still, I suppose this could be of some interest to students of the Swedish labor movement, so I award it three stars.