Carl Winberg, (born 6 July 1867 in

Karlstad Karlstad (, ) is the 20th-largest city in Sweden, the seat of Karlstad Municipality, the capital of Värmland County, and the largest city in the province Värmland in Sweden. The city proper had 65,856 inhabitants in 2020 with 95,167 inhabitants ...

, died 22 February 1954 in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

) was a Swedish

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

politician and newspaper editor.

Biography

Winberg was worked as a locomotive cleaner from 1891 to 1906 and belonged to the ''Kilboms'' faction in the Swedish

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

. He was a member of the ''Swedish Rail Workers’'' Union from 1906 to 1909, a faction in the

Swedish Trade Union Confederation The Swedish Trade Union Confederation ( sv, Landsorganisationen i Sverige ; literally "National Organisation in Sweden"), commonly referred to as LO (), is a national trade union centre, an umbrella organisation for fourteen Swedish trade unions ...

, and in 1909 became an editor for the union's newspaper ''Signalen''. He was from 1911 to 1914 an

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(social democrat) in the Swedish Riksdag's

lower house A lower house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house. Despite its official position "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has co ...

(also known as

Andra kammaren The Andra kammaren (lit. Second Chamber) was the lower house of the bicameral Riksdag of Sweden between 1866 and 1970 that replaced the Riksdag of the Estates. The upper house was the Första kammaren. At the time of its abolition the chamb ...

or Second Chamber) for the Stockholm City constituency and from 1912 till 1914 for Stockholm City second constituency. He wasn't reelected at the March general elections but returned in the September general election and served from 1914_Sep till 1917 (social democrat) for the same constituency. Together with the left-socialist opposition inside the social democrats, he left the party in 1917 and formed Sweden's Social Democratic Left Party, with the ''Social Democratic Left-Group'' as their parliament party. From the early Riksdag from 1919 to 1930 (communist) Winberg belonged to the

upper house An upper house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house.''Bicameralism'' (1997) by George Tsebelis The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smalle ...

of the Riksdag (

första kammaren The Första kammaren (literally "First Chamber", often abbreviated 'FK') was the upper house of the bicameral Riksdag of Sweden between 1866 and 1970 that replaced the Riksdag of the Estates. During the bicameral period, the lower house of the Rik ...

or First Chamber) for the constituency of

Norrbotten County Norrbotten County ( sv, Norrbottens län; se, Norrbottena leatna, fi, Norrbottenin lääni) is the northernmost county or '' län'' of Sweden. It is also the largest county by land area, almost a quarter of Sweden's total area. It shares border ...

until 1921 and from 1922 onwards, he served the constituency of

Västerbotten Västerbotten (), known in English as West Bothnia or Westrobothnia, is a province (''landskap'') in the north of Sweden, bordering Ångermanland, Lapland, North Bothnia, and the Gulf of Bothnia. It is known for the cheese named after the provi ...

and

. Winberg belonged to the faction inside the Social Democratic Left Party that changed the name from Social Democratic Left Party (SSV) to Sweden's Communist Party in 1921. During the 1924 split in the communist party, he joined the

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

-friendly faction, and when there was another split in the Moscow-friendly faction in 1929, Winberg joined the Kilboms-faction that later became the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

. Together with Ture Nerman, they were the only two communists in the First Chamber. Later in 1929, Winberg was expelled together with the majority of the Communist Party's members as the Party followed the

Stalinist Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory o ...

course. In the 1930s, Winberg was active in the Communist opposition led by

Karl Kilbom Karl Kilbom (8 May 1885 – 24 December 1961) was a Sweden, Swedish politician and one of the founders of the Left Party (Sweden), Communist Party of Sweden. Youth As the son of a blacksmith, Karl Kilbom grew up in a working class family of Wall ...

, independent from

and opposing Stalinism. Winberg's memoir titled ''From Kvarnberget to Helgeandsholmen: the fate of a crofter's boy's fate'' (Från Kvarnberget till Helgeandsholmen : en torparpojkes livsöden) was published in 1945.

Revolutionary committee

In 1917 during the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...

, and the (Swedish July riots), Winberg had assembled a secret revolutionary committee with the purpose of appointing a revolutionary government. It was decided to pause the development of the committee and to wait for a signal.Anton Nilson: ''Dömd till döden för Amalthea''. Bonniers 1962, page 244.

References

* ''Tvåkammarriksdagen 1867-1970'' (Almqvist & Wiksell International 1992), volume 5, page 446

More literature

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Winberg, Carl 1867 births 1954 deaths People from Karlstad Swedish Social Democratic Party politicians Members of the Riksdag from the Left Party (Sweden) Socialist Party (Sweden, 1929) politicians Members of the Andra kammaren Members of the Första kammaren