Labor Underground

Labor Underground
Arbejde Underjordisk
File:Hammer torch and cog symbol.svg
Foundation	1940s
Dates of operation	1942-present
Country	Delkora
Ideology	Anarcho-syndicalism Anti-fascism
Political position	Far-left
Major actions	Historical: Bombings, assassinations Present-day: Rioting, assault, property damage, doxing
Status	Various groups still active
Size	9,250 (estimated)

The Labor Underground (Delkoran: Arbejde Underjordisk) is an association of autonomous, far-left militant groups in Delkora. Formed in the years leading up to the depression of the 1950s, the original Labor Underground groups were revolutionary in nature and had as their explicit goal the overthrowing of the Delkoran government. Although the most violent organizations had largely disbanded by the early 1960s as a result of prosecutions and the success of the New Kingdom program, many LU groups continue to exist to the present-day, and are most known for their use of direct action, including protection of striking workers and leftist protesters, assaults of far-right demonstrators, and property damage.

Formation

Although the term "Labor Underground" was not coined until the 1950s, many in the movement trace its origins back to the 1870s, when radical industrial unions in the major cities began forming "Protection Committees" (Beskyttelsesudvalg), which were responsible for providing security at picket lines and protecting union members from police and employer violence.

Birgit Klausen, a militant socialist who later turned to anarchism, is regarded as one of the movement's most important founders. In 1942, she and several associates founded what is generally considered to be the first LU group, the Gothendral Popular Defense Committee (Gothendral Populær Forsvarudvalg). The Gothendral PF engaged in small-scale sabotage against corporations in the city, as well as physical assaults of CEOs, managers, and strikebreakers. It made national headlines during the 1946 Steel Strikes for its violent confrontations with the Førelskov State Police. Klausen would spend much of the 1940s traveling throughout the country forming contacts with other anarcho-syndicalist groups and working to build a common platform.

In 1950, Klausen met Arthur Søgaard, a student at the University of Norenstal and leader of the radical leftist group Students Against Austerity. The two spent the next three years working to organize radical student labor groups on university campuses with great success; in 1953, a coalition of these groups successfully occupied dozens of administration buildings around the country in protest against a cut in federal education spending.

These activities began to attract the attention of the government of Veidnar Albendor, which in 1952 passed the Domestic Security Act, which made it illegal to belong to organizations advocating the overthrow of the Delkoran government. The following year, Søgaard and dozens of others were arrested and later convicted for their membership in radical labor organizations. Søgaard appealed his case to the Federal Constitutional Court, which found the law unconstitutional and vacated the convictions.

These groups saw a sharp increase in their membership in the wake of the 1953 Banking Crisis, which ushered in the worst economic depression the country had seen in decades. In response to the deteriorating economic conditions, they began to provide poverty relief to their local communities in the form of mutual aid networks. These activities helped legitimate the groups in the eyes of the larger working-class and those outside of the radical labor movement.

Emboldened by its growing public support, the movement became increasingly more militant. Members began to appear at strikes and protests armed with rifles, and started to rely on more overt intimidation tactics. The movement's increasing visibility in turn resulted in more news coverage. By 1954, newspapers and television reporters had started referring to its associated groups as "underground labor organizations"; many embraced the term and began referring to themselves collectively as Arbejdet Underjordisk ("The Labor Underground").

Public disillusionment with the Albendor government's handling of the depression came to a head in 1956 with the outbreak of mass protests and rioting in the major cities and on university campuses. After a confrontation on the campus of Abenvard University in 1958 ended with Home Guard troops opening fire on student protesters, killing three and wounding seven, Klausen and Søgaard organized a meeting of several LU groups in the town of Bjerlegen, where they signed on to a declaration of war against the Delkoran government, agreeing to wage a campaign of protracted guerilla warfare.

Late 1950s civil unrest and reorganization

The first major act of violence attributed to the Labor Underground was the late 1958 bombing of the Ministry of Defense, which killed 27 and wounded 178. In response to this attack and the spread of rioting, the government of Chancellor Hjalmar Madsen declared a state of emergency and began deploying Royal Army soldiers to the major cities. Hundreds of armed skirmishes between Labor Underground groups and the police and military happened throughout the country over the course of the next two years, resulting in hundreds of casualties.

Labor Underground groups' tactics included targeted car bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, and acts of vigilantism, which were always directed at government or corporate targets. In February 1959, Madsen was assassinated by a member of the Labor Underground during an event in Grafholmen.

Many historians cite National Labor's landslide victory in the 1959 federal election as a major factor that undercut the Labor Underground's nascent influence. With a leftist government now in office and backed by a large majority, many among the public who had been radicalized by the depression turned their hopes to parliamentary change, preventing the organization from developing a large base of support.

By late 1960, many prominent figures in the movement had been arrested, and most of the groups that had signed onto the declaration of war against the Delkoran government had effectively disbanded or been forced to go into hiding. In a move that was highly controversial at the time, the Ministry of Justice under Mette Elvensar allowed Labor Underground groups that had not been directly involved in major acts of violence to avoid prosecution by entering into agreements with the government to surrender their weapons.

The movement went through a long period of internal reorganization throughout the 1960s, with many groups turning their focus to local mutual aid work and political education.

Organization and activities

The Labor Underground consists of an association of at least 157 autonomous militant groups throughout Delkora. Scholars have long noted the difficulty in studying and classifying the group due to its decentralized structure. According to one observer, "The Labor Underground is not a single cohesive organization, but rather a broad coalition of groups united only by their broadly anarcho-syndicalist politics, coordinated use of direct action, and adoption of the 'Labor Underground' label and its associated iconography."

The last major violent action attributed to the Labor Underground was the 1986 bombing of the corporate headquarters of Royal Delkoran Petroleum. Present-day LU groups largely describe themselves as primarily defensive organizations focused on protecting their local communities from state violence, fascism, and capitalist exploitation. This most commonly takes the form of members appearing en masse at strikes and leftist protests, often armed with melee weapons and wearing masks to conceal their identities, and physically assaulting police officers and other individuals that attempt to arrest or otherwise accost demonstrators.

Many LU groups are known to organize attacks on far-right demonstrations and some have engaged in hacktivism against known or suspected fascists in recent years, including doxing campaigns. LU groups also commonly engage in targeted property destruction. A notable example of this occurred in the city of Felbørden in 2012, when members of the Felbørden Labor Committee destroyed nearly a million velds worth of construction equipment to prevent the demolition of a section of affordable housing on the city's impoverished east side.

Most LU groups are organized geographically, with each claiming to represent a particular town, neighborhood, or university campus. All function according to democratic and localistic principles. According to one expert, "There is no top-down hierarchy within the Labor Underground; there is no 'leader' or 'central committee', nor is there any procedure by which one LU group can command another to do something against its will. Although different groups can and often do collaborate, this is done strictly on a voluntary basis." Likewise, within each group, there is no leadership structure; decisions are made collectively through consensus-building and voting.

Cultural influence

Sociologists have noted that beyond its political activities, the Labor Underground has also made an important impact on local culture in many cities. Many of the mutual aid networks formed by the organization during the 1950s continue to exist to the present day, and continue to play an important role in working class neighborhoods. Some LU groups have endeavored to create alternative economies over the years, by means of local currencies, food cooperatives, and free community spaces.

Legal status

The decentralized structure of the Labor Underground has hampered law enforcement efforts targeting it because, while some groups routinely employ acts of violence, others function solely as cultural organizations that engage in non-violent political or labor activism. As a result, it is insufficient in most cases for police to demonstrate that a group or individual is associated with the Labor Underground when seeking warrants for surveillance.

A handful of LU organizations, mostly those having connections to extremist actions resulting from the 1958 declaration, have been labeled terrorist groups by the Ministry of the Interior. In 2016, ISD director Klaus Mølgaard acknowledged in testimony to the Chamber of Representatives Committee on Intelligence and Domestic Security that the agency has conducted surveillance against "numerous" Labor Underground groups.