The organization at Almex is not protected by legislation or national agreements either. So it is a vulnerable situation.

But the people at Almex have a lot of things going for them. They have proved that workers are capable of running the actual production on their own. Productivity has increased even though they went from piecework rates to hourly wages. Profits are up. The company does not have to pay for foremen, ratesetters and all of this bureaucracy that most companies have created to control their workers.

So at Almex everybody has come out on top.

Almex shows what can be done in the field of industrial democracy within the restrictions of the present economic system.

But it is not a true democracy. The real decision-making still rests with the stockholders.

The proposal that emerged--the Meidner Plan is still a bit sketchy; many problems are still not solved. But the principle is quite simple.

In short the proposal calls for 20 per cent of companies' pre-tax profits to be transmitted into employee funds. This capital should not leave the companies, but stay as collectively owned stock capital, administered by the employees through their representatives.

This scheme does not give any benefit to the individual employee. The benefits come in the form of 1) more secure jobs as the stock capital of the firm is increased, making more investment capital available, 2) more influence on company decision, and 3) a more equal distribution of wealth.

There has been a lively and sometimes fierce debate in Sweden over this proposal, which--if it was adopted by parliament--over a period of about 25 years would turn over the majority of the shares of most companies into the hands of the employees. Whether this plan will come off or not I don't know, but there is a general agreement in Sweden--with the exception of the conservative party and the employers associations--that some scheme has to be put into effect to raise more investment capital, to create a more equal distribution of wealth and influence by spreading the shareholding in some way.

Capitalism limits the political democracy by putting crucial economic decisions into the hands of the large corporations. And the large corporations are certainly not democratic organizations.

According to the views of the Swedish trade union movement true democracy cannot be achieved until all members of the society have real power to influence their total lives.

This means that in addition to the political powers they have through their voting rights and their political organizations, they should also be able to participate in the decision-making in the workplace. They must be able to influence company decisions at all levels, from the shop floor to the board room.

Only then, when all decisions affecting the lives of people, are taken in a democratic manner, can we speak of a truly democratic society.

The political democracy was the first step on the road, social democracy, giving everybody a decent standard of living was the second step. And we are now making our first moves to take the third step: industrial democracy.

I hope I will live long enough to be able to come here and tell the future Harvard students how it all worked out.