1950-1973

Growth of the welfare state

Discussions going on at the places of work during the 1950s were dominated by the rationalisations that had become a necessary prerequisite for recreating the worn-out productive apparatus. For this reason, the LO took a positive attitude to rationalisations, despite the fact that they entailed considerable drawbacks. For the very same reason, the system of consultative liaison committees at the places of work was established, but only with qualified success. Consultative liaison committees were only set up in 1/3 of all undertakings employing more than 25 workers. Furthermore, the committees turned out to be of very limited importance.

Gradually, dissatisfaction grew to considerable proportions in the work places, and in 1956 the draft proposal for a collective agreement was rejected by a clear majority of workers. The employers agreed to the proposal. The government was now faced with a dilemma identical to the one it had been faced with by the large-scale strike of 1925. But this time the government unequivocally turned against the majority of the working class, and based on the assumption that if it did not do so itself, the non-socialist parties would, it gave the proposal for a settlement the force of law. Thus, the government avoided being felled, and the majority in the Social Democratic Party considered this a primary objective.

For a time the conflict led to increased support for the DKP, which was reflected by the results of the shop steward and other trade union representative elections. The autumn of 1956 saw the insurrection in Hungary, and this event together with the CPSU's 20th Party Congress revelation of Stalin's crimes led to renewed weakening of the DKP positions. This in turn led to intensified discussion within the DKP concerning the way ahead. Aksel Larsen, who had been party president for more than 25 years, took the initiative in a move towards a regeneration of the party, but was opposed by a majority within the party leadership, and was expelled. However, large numbers of trade union and party officials joined him.

By the turn of the year 1958/59 this group consisting of highly experienced labour representatives made an effort to find a basis on which to work, and in the spring of 1959 they founded the new Socialist People's Party - the SF. The new party wanted to become a catalyst for a turn to the left within the working class and the Social Democratic Party. At the general election in 1960, the SF obtained 6.2% of the votes while the DKP only achieved 1.1% which meant that the party was no longer represented in the Folketinget. At the same general election, the Social Democratic Party made further advances to 42.1 % of the votes - in terms of votes, the three labour parties were close to a 50% share of the votes cast. In most elections held since then, the labour parties have obtained between 45% and 49% of the votes; a few times they have had a majority in terms of seats in the Folketinget, the first time being 1966.

In the labour market a break-through was achieved in 1958 in that the collective agreement provided that, over a three-year period, weekly working hours were to be reduced to 45 - but it was only now that agricultural labourers obtained the 48-hour working week - till then, it had been 56 hours. Thanks to increased mechanisation there had been a strong decline in the number of agricultural labourers since 1920. In the following years this decline continued. In terms of GNP, Denmark was now an industrialised country. In 1990 far less than 10% of the population worked in agriculture.

In the 1950s, reforms to the benefit of the working class were not prospering; this was a result of adverse economic conditions and the relatively weak parliamentary position of the labour movement. But with improved business trends after 1958 and the increased strength of the labour parties in the Folketinget in the early 1960s, conditions for building up a welfare society improved. The Social Democratic Party, the SF and the trade union movement took advantage of these conditions for building up a strong society with a large public sector whose aim was to ensure social security and prosperity for the working population.

The extension of the welfare state, however, was not without its problems. The non-socialist parties, which generally had a parliamentary majority, opposed most reforms. The labour movement was divided into several parties which did not see eye to eye concerning political goals and means. There were limits to the speed with which reforms could be implemented in a country with a strongly dominating bourgeois press. And it soon became clear that the combination of economic growth and social welfare led to unforeseen problems, such as destruction of the environment, general stress and a bureaucratic public sector. In addition to this, Denmark’s relationship with the Common Market further divided the labour movement.

The period 1958-1973 was characterised by fundamental changes in the Danish social structure and by considerable improvements in the living conditions of workers. Nevertheless, the general election in 1973 resulted in the biggest defeat for the overall labour movement since the war.

To a high degree this was a result of the structural changes which had led to the emergence of a completely new working class - a class in which, once again, first-generation industrial workers, including large numbers of women, became very important. This development had created a very heterogeneous wage earning class whose ideological and political stance fluctuated strongly. They were generally influenced by their previous life experience, and when, at the same time, the old worn out working-class slums were cleared and workers moved to new neighbourhoods, it was impossible to maintain the old types of working-class cultures. New forms were not established, one reason being that the after-effects of the Cold War prevented the emergence of a new working-class awareness. This prevented, or at least delayed integration between the old and the new working class.

During these years, the Social Democratic Party made a number of proposals for "Economic Democracy" whose aim was to change ownership patterns in favour of workers. This plan was not greatly supported by workers, nor by the other labour parties. It was impossible to get a fruitful dialogue going concerning this reform which was aimed at democratising ownership in industry. Thus it could not be implemented in its present form, nor in any subsequent modified form, but it did deepen the split in the labour movement as did the struggle for or against accession to the EEC. By now three or four left-wing parties were represented in the Folketinget as the Socialist People's Party had split in 1968 over the issue of this party's policy vis-à-vis the Social Democratic Party. The new party, the Leftwing Socialists, was a typical new-left party which had a not insignificant following in Danish universities while its support in the working class remained minute.