Der Kampf um einen anderen ÖPNV in Schweden

In the organizer's words:

The fight for a different public transport system in Sweden
What does the fight for different public transport in Sweden look like? Activists from the group "Allt åt alla" (All for All) report on their experiences and discuss the fight for climate-friendly public transport together with activists from the "We ride together" campaign.

The group "Allt åt alla" (All for All) has been involved in organizing public transport since a three-day wildcat strike on Stockholm commuter trains in March 2023. The strike demanded the reinstatement of train attendants. In order to save costs, the train operator MTR had begun to dismiss all train attendants and transfer their duties to the train drivers. This left the drivers alone in emergencies and too busy informing passengers about the constant delays and cancellations. The strike was widely supported by passengers and quickly raised 300,000 euros in strike funds.

In Sweden, public transport is only an important mode of transport in the large urban areas. In Stockholm, half of motorized transport is carried out by public transport and most Stockholmers use it on a weekly basis. But half of the Swedish population uses public transport less than once a month.

SL, the acronym for public transportation in Stockholm, has been marketed since the 1990s. Today, a few multinational companies compete for 10-year contracts. As wages are fixed by collective agreements, companies compete mainly by increasing working hours and outsourcing cleaning and maintenance work. SL is financed 50% from two sources: Tickets and income taxes.

For the past year, the group has been experimenting with different approaches to public transport: they are organizing together with the unions for the remunicipalization of SL (i.e. ending the market model and handing over all tasks to the public sector), distributing information in the subways and publishing information about "corrupt" politicians/company representatives who profit from the SL market.

Their long-term goal is to socialize and democratize SL through an alliance of workers, drivers and climate activists.

Together with the experiences of the "We ride together" campaign, we want to discuss with the speakers from Sweden what a fight for climate-friendly public transport can look like.