Program of principles

RKU was founded in 1994 to organize school and working youth in the struggle against capitalism, towards socialism. This is a struggle in our daily lives, in schools and in workplaces. We are fighting for the rights of young people such as the right to work, housing and education. We are fighting against imperialist depredations in the world. In this struggle, we are building an organization that together with others will challenge capitalism as a system.

The struggle for socialism starts here and now, in the fight for youth rights. The capitalist society proves daily to be unable to meet basic needs of all, that is why communist ideas lives on despite the fact that the upper class has declared them dead.

But socialism will be a force only when organized. A communist must be organized, only together can we influence and change. We welcome all who share the same goal to join the efforts for a better world.

Together RKU's members forge the political principles and forms of work, together we make decisions and we implement and take responsibility for the decisions made.

This program of principles is RKU’s policies and principles adopted by the association's ninth congress. The aim is to analyze the world we live in to be able to change it. In this work, we need you who no longer accept the injustices. Join RKU!

Capitalism

Class society

We live in a class society, a capitalist society. Capitalism remains, whether the Social Democrats or the Conservatives are the government. Capitalism is based on private ownership of companies. This means that production can’t be adjusted to the peoples need but simply seeks to maximize profits. Some people get rich only by owning, while all others are forced to work for the owners. This is the fundamental contradiction in capitalist society – between capitalists and workers. This contradiction is reflected in the ongoing class struggle.

The capitalist class society proves daily to be unable to meet the basic needs of all. The rich live in luxury while the majority are forced to turn over every penny to cope with life. Factories moves from Sweden, leaving workers without jobs, despite the fact that companies are making profits. At school, the books are old and worn and the classes are too big. Meanwhile, Sweden is richer than ever and companies make billion profits.

The working class is the majority of the Swedish society and can be found in health care, trade, industry, construction, mining, transportation, child and elderly care, schools and other sectors. It is only the working class's own struggle that can overthrow capitalism, because the workers can strike against the foundation of capitalist society: the search for maximum profits.

Right-wing politics and cutbacks

Capitalism is economically inefficient. Instead of letting the people's need for a good school, work, housing and sustainable ecological development direct, profit maximization is the focus. Together, the people must suffer the consequences of this through unemployment, poverty, stress, pollution and increased alcohol and drug abuse. Not even the most basic services, such as medical care and schools, are protected from profit hunting. Resources are moved from the public sector to private owners when privately run schools, clinics and hospitals are established as a result of the cutbacks. Our tax money ends up in the capitalist's pockets, while resources for public health care and school decreases.

In school the cutbacks are noticed through lessons without teachers, lack of material and more unqualified teachers. That Sweden is unable to afford to give children a safe childhood and to provide young people with good education and stable jobs is not true. Nor is it true that the public sector no longer can take care of the elderly and provide good care for all. Sweden is a very wealthy country, which the billion corporate profits are proof of. The problem is that a few capitalists seize the enormous wealth that the workers together create.

Even if all conditions are present for a just society to be built, class differences is increasing when right-wing politics and neo-liberalism is gaining ground.

The major class differences and inequalities create contradictions in the society. Countryside is set against the city, young against old and people with immigrant background against Swedes. By racism and fascism, capitalism creates divisions in the class that should fight together against the system.

Employment – a human right

Many young people are forced to go unemployed or work under insecure conditions, while those who are employed are forced to work harder. The tempo is increasing and overtime is getting more common, as well as the amount of working hours being based on the conjuncture. Work is a human right and it is a huge economic waste to force people to be unemployed. Despite this the unemployment among young people is huge. Because of the high unemployment the working class can be pushed back. Anyone who is afraid of losing jobs, and knows that the opportunity to get a new job is small, does not dare to protest the deterioration and bad conditions. The workers rights are hollowed out and the pressure on the people who are unemployed is becoming worse.

Insecure conditions of employment, degenerations for the unemployed and workers rights being hollowed out only benefit the capitalists. It is possible to share the workload, through six hours workdays with kept wage, and at the same time employ people in the public services where there is a huge lack of human resources. This would satisfy both the need for jobs to the unemployed, as well as employees of the sectors with a lack of personell.

Also, it is an obvious demand that the state should take control over the production in the factories for public services, which corporations threat to move abroad for their own profit. In that case we would be able to secure jobs in Sweden.

The woman and the double oppression

Working class women in Sweden, and in most places of the World, suffer from a double form of oppression. They are not only oppressed by capitalism, but also from the patriarchal structures. Even if capitalism and the discrimination of women are two separate forms of oppression they are both connected to each other, and capitalism takes advantage of the oppression against women. For an example, the porn industry is a huge market that makes profit out of women, and makes many people, above all men, very wealthy.

The oppression of women appears in different forms in society. Prostitution, pornography and trafficking are just a few examples. Beauty ideals and gender pressure create great psychological stress, above all for young girls. Men earn more in wage than their female colleagues, only because they are men. Women within health care are tearing themselves apart, working on insecure part time conditions, and are forced to speed up their efforts as politicians are cutting back on the common welfare to make rationalizations. Beside that, women are working twice as hard as they still take on most of the responsibility at home and for the family.

The oppression of women is also noticeable in school and at work, where men still are allowed to take more place. This oppression gets worse as the neo-liberal politics continue to make way for aggressions on the common welfare. The ground for equality – the economic independence – is getting further and further away with the sector for public services being slaughtered, and woman are once again at risk of being forced to be home maids. Consequences are, for example, that women who want to divorce their husbands hesitate to do so, because subsequently they will experience problems with their maintenance.

Feminism today is a very wide concept. For the working class woman, and for the working class in whole, the idea of feminism becomes interesting only when it’s filled with a meaning of class struggle and socialist ideas. The struggle for the emancipation of women must be part of the class struggle and the struggle for socialism.

The EU – Constituted right-wing politics

The European Union is an imperialistic project created by the mightiest capitalists in Europe to put pressure on the workers. Through free movement of capital between countries resulting in wage dumping, through struggle on inflation which creates unemployment and poverty and through constituted right-wing politics, the capitalists try to increase the exploitation of the working class.

The EU moves the power from the Swedish parliament to Brussels and is more and more developed into some kind of United States of Europe. With common constitution, currency, flag, military and national anthem the building of the union is accomplished. The big military capacity of the EU shows that EU is a war project. The reason is to build up a military force that can secure the profits of the European capitalists. With a strong common economy and army, the EU will be able to ride up as a challenger to USA as the leading imperial power.

At the same time, the EU is quickly developing into a fortress and a police state. The Shengen agreement builds walls against the rest of the world, which complicates the possibilities to asylum for refugees. The Swedish peoples’ No vote to the Monetary Union of the EU showed the upper class that the resistance against their project is big and the demand for a resignation of the union is an obvious demand for democracy and for the working class. Through class struggle in the each member nation, the EU can be broken up and substituted with an order where every nation keep their independence. The path to a red Europe is not through the capital’s EU.

State and capitalism

During the 20th century, the workers movement fought for reforms that expanded the democratic rights. Universal suffrage, union rights, labour laws and the general welfare is the result of class struggle. Throughout history, the communists have demanded maximal political influence for the people. This is because the working class has everything to gain by maximal political freedom, whilst the bourgeoisie since it came to power has no interest of sharing it. It is therefore completely natural that the political right-wing was against the introduction of universal suffrage in Sweden and other countries. But the democracy that the working class have fought for in Sweden is also limited.

For example, the people’s majority has no influence over the decision to move a factory to a low-wage country. The democracy today halts at the private property and is therefore half. The capital-owners are not within the range of democracy.

The function of the state has since its birth been to guarantee the power of the ruling class. In the capitalist society, the state is in the hands of the bourgeoisie – and has a clear class characteristic. Within this framework, the state’s institutions still have a certain grade of independence. Its actions are dependent on the relative strengths in the class struggle and who has governmental power. Therefore, the working class has the ability to force changes in the state, even if this doesn’t change the basic class characteristic of the state.

The class society is preserved first of all through ideology, but also through more obvious repression. The role of the ideology is to convince the oppressed to accept the power of the ruling class, or to convince them to believe that a change is impossible. For example, in school and in media the current class society is described as the only functioning society. In this way the bourgeois ideology is prevailed.

The power of the media is especially evident. In spite of the formal freedom of speech, the people haven’t the same opportunity to make themselves heard. The media is owned and controlled by only a few. This ownership is the final guarantee for a distorted influence of public opinion that confirms the power of the capitalists.

The repressive side of the state is noticed through police, military, courts and prisons. Among other things it is manifested by the registration of political opinions that SÄPO (Swedish security police) still conducts against communists contrary to Swedish laws.

The threats against the bourgeois democracy

The formal political rights are now frenetically attacked by an authority that in different ways tries to take away the opportunities to influence. We communists must defend the democracy against further limitations.

In this struggle, RKU stand up for freedom of opinion, speech, association, the press, off assembly, religion and the right to strike and to protest. We oppose every restriction of the democratic freedoms and rights.

The authority’s aggressions against the democracy are mainly manifested through our membership of the European Union, which has undermined the democracy in Sweden. Decisions are moved from the popularly elected in the Swedish parliament to Brussels, out of range from view, on a safe distance from protests and other expressions of opinions.

Even at home, the bourgeoisie tries to limit the fundamental rights. They restrict the freedom of speech and assembly by referring to communists as undemocratic. Politicians in every level shield themselves from the people and are protected against protests. Important issues are not allowed to be determined in popular votes, referring to that experts know better. Several new so-called terrorist and supervision laws furthermore eliminate the legal security. Individuals can be put on trial without knowing what they are prosecuted of and without their lawyers taking part of the evidence. At the same time, the state is allowed to supervise us all through more and more bugging and wiretapping, which increases the possibilities of repression. RKU opposes this development. We defend the popular influence at all levels in the society and demand that the politicians are held responsibility for their decisions in front of the voters. We demand that Sweden leave the European Union, so that the political power once again moves closer to the people.

Imperialism

Injustice in Sweden corresponds to even greater injustice between rich and poor countries. This difference is one basis for the wealth in the rich countries of the world. The over consumption in the western hemisphere wouldn’t be possible if the workers who produce these commodities would have the same wages as we have in Sweden. Workers in the rich countries live in plenty compared to those who work in poor countries. Meanwhile the workers in the west constantly live with the threat of loosing their jobs as factories move abroad to low wage countries. In this way the workers of the world are being played off against each other, this only benefitting the big corporations. The capitalist system that rules the world creates a system of oppressors and oppressed, of exploiters and exploited. This creates an unjust world order that can only be obtained by military violence, also known as imperialism. This world order is an inseparable part of capitalism, to get rid of imperialism we must get rid of capitalism. Imperialism will endure as long as capitalism does and vice versa. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, capitalism has been on the advance and now practically the entire world is under the control of the market economy. This new stage in the world economy is generally called globalisation. We don’t think globalisation is something completely new, rather it’s a deepened form of imperialism. Globalisation was rendered possible by technological advancement that makes it possible to transfer huge amount of capital between countries on different sides of the planet with just a mouse click, which is also made possible with less and less regulation.

With economical and political threats, or even war, the poor countries are forced to subjection. Through terror and war USA, the biggest imperialist force today, have consolidated its position as the only remaining superpower and domination in world politics. Country after country has been bombed by USA in the name of democracy and the war on terror. Actually the biggest terrorist is USA itself. The imperialist supported state of Israel is conducting, in contradiction to public international law, an illegal occupation of Palestinian soil since 1948 and is terrorising the Palestinian public.

At the same time Sweden has adapted its foreign policies and sided with American war politics. The Swedish army has changed from a popular invasion defence to an attack force to be used abroad. This is a result of Sweden secretly joining NATO and participating in the new EU army. The Swedish neutrality is abandoned.

RKU defends the right of all people and countries to resist imperialist pressure, invasion war and occupation with whatever means possible and necessary. Regardless of how resistance is organised, it may be armed struggle, as in Palestine and Iraq, or through increased political and economical solidarity, as between the revolutionary Venezuela and the socialistic Cuba. It's not just right to resist, it's necessary. No occupation army or invasion force has ever given up voluntarily. It has to be thrown out.

RKU fights for national right of self-determination. This right apply on all nations and all people. We strive after a world of equal nations where no one is oppressed. Against this approach are today’s imperialists, by referring to the upheaval of nations they strive to recolonise them. This puts the will of the strong before the national right of self-determination and smashes the democracy that exists through the UN system and public international law.

Socialism

Capitalism cannot satisfy the needs of humanity, but creates injustice, war and rifts between classes. Therefore we want to build a socialist society in Sweden. We cannot decide how future socialism will look like, it has to be formed by the people building it based on their needs, knowledge and skills. Here follow our visions of a socialist Sweden and the principles that we think should guideline such a society. Even though we can't tell what the future will bring, we can assume that with our developed production apparatus, well-educated working class and long tradition of democracy we have the prerequisites to build a democratic, just and socialistic Sweden. Socialism is based on the conviction of all people’s equality and makes this principle reality. The freedom of the collective will also be the freedom of the individual. No one is exploited and the human rights such as education, work and housing can be real.

The socialist revolution

The social democracy has since long claimed that you can achieve socialism with reforms within the limits of the capitalist system. Even though the social democrats has been in office half of the 20th century, we still don't se many traces of socialism in the Swedish society. Many decisive decisions aren't made in the government or parliament, but instead in big corporations and banks out of reach for our elected representatives. In order to change this the capitalist system must be replaced by a socialist one.

A socialist society calls for a revolutionary change of the capitalist society, economically and politically as well as socially. The private owning of means of production must be upheaved and production itself must be changed to meet the needs of the people.

The socialist revolution can be a long process, but also a rapid change that takes both parliamentary and extra-parliamentary forms. Only support in parliamentary assemblies is not enough for the introduction of socialism. It requires a mobilization of the whole society, in workplaces and schools, for the change to be organized democratically, and not be something imposed from above. No organization or self-appointed elite can impose socialism on its own.

Only the people’s own activity and awareness that capitalism is no longer sustainable can bring about a revolutionary transformation of society in a socialist direction. The liberation of the working class must be the work of the working class itself.
All historical experience shows that no ruling elite voluntarily surrendered power to the majority of the people. They will instead defend their power and their privileges with violence. The socialist democracy must be defended against the counter-revolution, by any means permitted by law.

A society owned by the people

In the capitalist society companies have only one goal: bigger profits. It doesn’t matter which consequences it has on the community or on the employees. Under socialism, the community owns companies, banks, insurance companies and natural resources, etc. The production apparatus and the economy will be under the control of the people. Production will be planned after what both the environment and the people needs. Instead of increasing profits the goal will be to secure the welfare of the people. The right to work, housing, education, welfare, culture and quality spare time will be a matter of course during socialism.

During socialism the development of technology and science is to be used to create more wealth. It would make it possible to shorten working hours. Shorter hours are necessary to give people the time and power to really participate in the daily democratic process.

The socialist democracy

Socialism means a revolutionary deepening of democracy when companies are jointly owned and subject to public power. Then no factories are moved abroad, and healthcare and schools receive the resources they need. Democracy will also apply to the economy, and democratic rights and freedoms will be real.

For the socialist democracy to function, new democratic institutions must be created to supplement state power, through which people can exercise a direct and daily influence on society.

The creation and management of society becomes an issue for the majority of the people, due to the fact that debate and decisions are taken daily - in neighbourhoods, workplaces, trade unions, social movements and through many other forums.

The elected representatives under socialism are elected with a free debate and free expression. No one is allowed to gain privileges and shield themselves from their constituents. The elected officials have to report to their constituents and can be fired at any time during the term of office, if they break their election promises and a majority of voters demand it. The political representatives live under the same conditions as the general population and there is no financial gain in taking a political mission. Socialism does not distinguish between legislative and executive power, instead the elected are to work and take responsibility for their decisions.
The socialist democracy safeguard the freedom of thought, expression, press, strike, assembly, demonstration, religion and organization.

International solidarity

Socialism is always defending the oppressed in the struggle against imperialism and for national liberation. A socialist society is opposed to all imperialist aggression and pursues a foreign policy that puts the right of nations to self-determination, peace and sustainable development in focus.

Fight against oppression

Socialism is in its nature opposed to all forms of oppression, whether based on sex, colour, sexual orientation, religion, disability or opinions. Under socialism, there will be a conscious struggle against the oppression and artificial divisions. In the socialist society, based on collectivist ideas instead of individualism and egoism, man can eventually learn to think in new ways.

This is a process that will take a long time, but in a society where everyone is needed and appreciated, such a development is possible, it is not today.

Communism

The classless society

Socialist society is simply one step – a transitional period – towards the abolition of class society. Our ultimate goal is the communist, classless society. While socialism is a society where contradictions are still there, communism is characterized by a society of equality and solidarity among people. There will be no exploitation of others, sex, country or people for profit.

Communism follows the principle: From each according to ability, to each according to needs.

Socialism is a process in which the class character gradually phases out. When all traces of class society have been overcome, both the economic and the political and social, enters the classless society: communism.