The Cooperation Committee of the Nordic Workers' Movement (, ,
Norwegian , ), better known by its abbreviation SAMAK, is a
social democratic
Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...
European political alliance gathering parties and
labour council
A labour council, trades council or industrial council is an association of labour unions or union branches in a given area. Most commonly, they represent unions in a given geographical area, whether at the district, city, region, or provincial o ...
s in
Nordic countries
The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or ''Norden''; ) are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe, as well as the Arctic Ocean, Arctic and Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic oceans. It includes the sovereign states of Denm ...
.
SAMAK consists of all social democratic parties and
trade union organisations in the Nordic countries, including in
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...
, the
Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands ( ) (alt. the Faroes) are an archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean and an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. Located between Iceland, Norway, and the United Kingdom, the islands have a populat ...
and
Ă
land
Ă
land ( , ; ) is an Federacy, autonomous and Demilitarized zone, demilitarised region of Finland. Receiving its autonomy by a 1920 decision of the League of Nations, it is the smallest region of Finland by both area () and population (30,54 ...
. The current president of the committee as of 2024 is
Mette Frederiksen
Mette Frederiksen (; born 19 November 1977) is a Danish politician who has been the Prime Minister of Denmark, prime minister of Denmark since June 2019, and Social Democrats (Denmark)#Leaders of the Social Democrats, leader of the Social Democr ...
, the leader of the
Social Democrats
Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, s ...
and
Prime Minister of Denmark
The prime minister of Denmark (, , ) is the head of government in the Kingdom of Denmark comprising the three constituent countries: Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. Before the creation of the modern office, the kingdom did not init ...
.
Antti Rinne
Antti Juhani Rinne (; born 3 November 1962) is a Finnish politician who served as speaker of the Parliament of Finland from April to June 2019 and Prime Minister of Finland from June to December 2019. He led the Social Democratic Party from 2 ...
is the general secretary, and
Kjersti Stenseng
Kjersti Stenseng (born 4 September 1974) is a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party currently serving as Minister of Local Government and Regional Development since February 2025. She was the party secretary from 2015 to 2025.
Career Educat ...
the chair of the board.
The committee was formed during the first Scandinavian Workers' Congress in
Gothenburg
Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...
in 1886.
SAMAK holds a congress every four years, while the board meets four to six times per year.
Member organisations

*
Danish Trade Union Confederation
The Danish Trade Union Confederation (, FH) is the largest National trade union center, national trade union centre in Denmark. On formation in 2019, it had 79 affiliated unions, with a total of 1.4 million members.
History
The confederation was ...
*
Social Democrats
Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, s ...
â˘
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
Form ...
â˘
Forward
Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward.
Forward may also refer to:
People
*Forward (surname)
Sports
* Forward (association football)
* Forward (basketball), including:
** Point forward
** Power forward (basketball)
** Smal ...
*
Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions
The Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions, usually referred to by the acronym SAK (; ) is the largest trade union confederation in Finland. Its member organisations have a total of more than one million members, which makes up about one fif ...
*
Social Democratic Party of Finland
The Social Democratic Party of Finland ( , SDP, nicknamed: ''demarit'' in Finnish; , SD) is a social democratic political party in Finland. It is the third-largest party in the Parliament of Finland with a total of 43 seats.
Founded in 1899 as ...
â˘
Ă
land Social Democrats
The Ă
land Social Democrats () is a social-democratic political party on the Ă
land Islands. In the 2023 parliamentary election, the party won 12.82% of the popular vote and 4 out of 30 seats, a gain of one.
The current organisation was found ...
*
Icelandic Confederation of Labour
The Icelandic Confederation of Labour (ASĂ) (Icelandic: AlÞýðusamband Ăslands) is a trade union centre in Iceland. It was formed in 1916 and has a membership of 104,500, approximately half of the Icelandic workforce.
The ASĂ is affiliated ...
*
Social Democratic Alliance
The Social Democratic Alliance (, ) is a Social democracy, social democratic List of political parties in Iceland, political party in Iceland. The party is positioned on the Centre-left politics, centre-left of the political spectrum and their ...
*
Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions
The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (, LO) is a national trade union center, decidedly the largest and probably the most influential umbrella organization of labour unions in Norway. The 21 national unions affiliated to the LO have almo ...
*
Labour Party
*
Swedish Trade Union Confederation
The Swedish Trade Union Confederation ( ; literally "The National Organisation in Sweden"), commonly referred to as LO (), is a national trade union centre, an umbrella organisation for fourteen Swedish trade unions that organise mainly "blue-c ...
*
Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party
The Swedish Social Democratic Party, formally the Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party ( , S or SAP), usually referred to as The Social Democrats ( ), is a social democratic political party in Sweden. The party is member of the Progressive ...
Further reading
* Mirja Ăsterberg. 2019.
âNordenâ as a Transnational Space in the 1930s: Negotiated Consensus of âNordicnessâ in the Nordic Cooperation Committee of the Labour Movement" in ''Labour, Unions and Politics under the North Star: The Nordic Countries, 1700-2000''. Berghahn.
See also
*
The Social Democratic Group
The Social Democratic Group is a social democratic party group in the Nordic Council, making up the largest group on the council. Their members come from all of the Nordic countries, and includes the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Ă
land. Their ...
References
External links
*
*
Social democratic parties in Europe
Social Democrats (Denmark)
Social Democratic Party of Finland
Social Democratic Alliance
Labour Party (Norway)
Swedish Social Democratic Party
Nordic organizations
Nordic politics
European political alliances
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