Per Ahlstrom, Editor of the Swedish Metal-Workers Union Newspaper, came to Harvard before Christmas during a three-week trip to this country. He delivered a speech at the Kennedy School of Government, part of which is excerpted below.

The Metal-Workers Union, the second largest in Sweden, has been involved in many experiments in "industrial democracy" on the shop-floor during the past decade. These include the famous experiments with both Saab-Scania and Volvo which aimed to abolish the assembly line in favor of group assembly in what have come to be known as "autonomous groups." However, Ahlstrom says that in almost all these experiments, "the companies kept control. I don't know of a single experiment that was initiated by the companies that really changed the work organization in such a way that the workers experienced a true change and so that the organization of the whole company was transformed into a more democratic organization."

Below, Ahlstrom describes a recent experiment that has gone beyond its Swedish predecessors and the role of shop-floor democracy within what he calls a "truly democratic society."

I am, of course, very proud to have been invited to speak here at Harvard. I was even a bit nervous coming here. I have had people come up to me and say that this is a really important speech. Don't foul it up.

Just the name Harvard created respect. They looked upon me with respect not because of knowledge I might possess, but because I was going to Harvard.

These reactions really say a lot about our western culture--how we look for authorities, how we respect academic learning more than learning from real life, how little respect we have for the knowledge we acquire from living and working.

I think this shows what we are up against, trying to create democracy in the industrial workplace--a workplace ruled by a hierarchy ever since industry came into existence.

It is strange--but it is a fact--that once inside the company fence members of the city council, people who are trusted to vote in national elections, responsible fathers and mothers, suddenly are treated as children. They are told by the foreman what to do, how much they are to do and in what time they are to do it. They are told which tools to use, how fast the lathe should be running--and the rate setter decides how hard they are working.

This old authoritarian system creates passive people. People who are treated as if they couldn't think for themselves soon stop to think for themselves--just watch the behavior of otherwise active people when they are on a group tour.

This system causes the workers to lose interest in their job. The academics say that they develop an instrumental attitude toward the work. Which means that they work for the paycheck and nothing else.

This system causes blue collar blues.

And blue collar blues is not good for productivity. So companies started to look for ways to avoid blue collar blues. Autonomous groups became one solution. Job rotation was another. Group assembly was hailed as the revolution that did away with the boredom of assembly lines.

We have one company pointing the way. It is not a big company, it is not very well known, and there is really nothing special about it, except for its democratic work organization and its profitability.

Its name is Almex. It makes ticket machines for public transport, parking meters and ticket markers. Ninety-three per cent of its production is exported. It has about 270 employees.

Let's take a look at the Almex autonomous departments: