1920-1940

Depression and labour government

1920 saw the most serious parliamentary crisis in Danish history. The King dismissed his government - without it having had a majority against it in the Folketinget (1. chamber of the parliament) - and appointed a new one. This made the Social Democratic Party issue a warning that it would call a general strike, and by means of skilful tactics, Thorvald Stauning managed to intimidate the weak King to such an extent that, against the wishes of his advisers, he dismissed the new government and left it to the Folketinget to appoint another. The Social Democratic Party responded so radically in this instance because it was convinced that its way to power would go via the conquest of a parliamentary majority. Any threat to parliamentarism was tantamount to a threat to the very foundation of social democratic strategy. This perception of parliamentarism as the  road to gaining power also made the social democrats reject the Russian Revolution. Furthermore, they saw the DKP as a party dividing the working class which, until then, had stood united, thus weakening its position in the confrontation with capitalism and its political parties. Throughout the inter-war years, the DKP pursued a very fluctuating policy in conformity with Comintern oscillations and, thus, the party remained weak and could easily be isolated and ignored. Its fluctuations made the party seem unreliable to most workers.

By 1924, the Social Democratic Party had become the largest in the Folketinget with 55 seats out of 149. This was by no means a majority, but in the Folketinget it could reckon on a certain amount of support from its old allies, the Radical Liberals. In the upper house, the Landstinget, the party confronted a solid majority. Nevertheless, the party formed a government, and thus was soon faced with the eternal dilemma of labour parties, that of administering a capitalist society at the same time as endeavouring to strengthen working-class positions.

As early as in 1922, through a major industrial conflict, employers had attempted to force back workers to their pre-1920 positions. This had been prevented, but only just. 1925 saw another major conflict in the labour market, which, however, also turned into a conflict within the working class itself - between skilled and unskilled workers; this conflict was resolved at the expense of the unskilled workers as they also incurred the displeasure of the government which felt threatened. The conflict was a text-book case of the problems with which a party is confronted when it has to consider the wider social implications as well as trade union interests, when it wants to be the government of the whole people and that of the working class at the same time.

In Denmark there is a separate national trade union for unskilled women, today it is one of the largest in the country. In the early 1920s when women accounted for about 35% of the labour force it was not yet so powerful. The organisation did not develop a policy of a sex-specific nature, rather it fought to gain any kind of recognition. But that such a sex-specific policy was in fact possible was demonstrated by the communist opposition within the national union. However, it never gained sufficient strength to influence the general policy of the union.

The government fell in 1926 and for three years an extremely liberalist government was in office; it pursued a policy of retrenchment vis-à-vis public employees, pensions and social security benefits. It also attempted to curtail the possibilities of trade unions to take industrial action and to organise workers -everything in the name of the liberty of the individual. This policy failed, and in 1929 the Social Democratic Party advanced to obtaining approx. 42% of the votes. Together with the Radical Liberals the party now formed a majority government which survived until 1940. Obviously this government did not pursue a socialist policy, the Radical Liberal coalition partner and the majority in the upper house saw to that. But the government could pursue a policy which had the effect of strengthening the working class, preventing the consequences of the economic recession having to be borne by the workers exclusively, fascism from gaining a foothold in Denmark and favouring further democratisation of public concerns.

To a relatively wide extent these endeavours were successful, and workers supported social democratic policies which also had a following among salaried employees and other lower middle-class groups who joined the strongest political force in the land. At the general election in 1935, and even more so in 1939, a vague dissatisfaction with the government's trade union policy and its efforts to combat unemployment - it meant that it entered into agreements with farmers' organisations and their political representative, the Venstre - became discernible among certain groups of workers. The result was that some workers did not use their right to vote and that the DKP enjoyed modest gains, up to 2.5% of the votes cast; however, the social democrats continued to get about 43% of the votes.

What was important in this period of extremely high rates of unemployment was that a major complex of social legislation was enacted which had as a governing principle that social security benefits were a right and should not be considered as alms leading to loss of civic rights. This principle is fundamental for the development of the welfare state.

The government - and Thorvald Stauning in particular - tried to conclude agreements with the other democratic countries to enable the country to pursue a policy more independent of Nazi Germany despite its extreme dependence on agricultural exports of which a large share went to Germany. It was a failure as the western powers were not interested in establishing a firm alliance against Nazi Germany. Therefore, Denmark barely changed its military policy and was virtually defenceless against the German invasion in 1940.