#ljusne

A photo of Ljusne iron factory from circa 1920s. You see the people in the boat down at the river?

Those are employees of the factory working at sorting the timber via the very much not advanced technology "very long stick"

Very dangerous work, if one make a mistakes one can fall into the river, and be swept underneath the woodstocks. You can clearly see they got no safety harness or anything. Only stick and small boat.

While the river might look still on the picture it got quite a current, otherwise it could not have been used as such a timber transporting river

(The timber would have floated, moved foward by the rivers own power until the on porpuse built blockage in Ljusne, were the timber was sorted, picked up and processed)

Yes, this is the factory village were the family Hallwyl, the ones with the super expensive house built in 1890s, owned.

Med morföräldrar som medvetet flytande ifrån en av flottningens stora epicentrum, ljusne bruksamhälle, är detta en tanke jag aldrig ens hört talats. Nu flyttade de ju till Stockholm, vilket innebär att de historier jag hört om flottning främst är vidarberättlser ifrån min mor, om berättelse hon hört om hur fullständigt livsfarligt det var. Det, och hur även flottarna var

"förjävliga emot en, som alla andra i Ljusne" - citat min morfars pappa, del av längre harang om hur "alla i Ljusne är för fan förjävliga emot en."

(min morfars pappa var alltså ströarbetare, som nog sågs ned på av vissa flottarna pga ej hade nåt jobb som kunde ge en status i kontexten av Ljusnes bruksamhälle anno 1920 - 30 tal. Eller iallafall tolkade han det så)

Men jahapp tydligen finns det folk som romantiserar denna yrkesgrupp. Nyheter för mig.

Flottning

Det där är en riktigt älv de står på, stockarna har fastnat i den...

förmodligen hade jag några släktingar som sysslade med flottning pga att de var arbetare som bodde vid flottningsälvar (och dessutom bodde i bruksamhälle som var sorteringstationen för Ljusnes flottning i de släktingarnas fall), men för tillfället är min morfars fars åsikt om flottare den enda jag kan komma på.

Min morfar far var btw inte själv ifrån ljusne, men var anställd som byggarbetare för en folkpark i Ljusne. Väl där fick han ihop det med en 19 åring, som blev gravid (med min morfar skall tilläggas). Så kanske var han inte den mest städade individen själv när han hängde i Ljusne, möjligt det finns en viss bias där, ifrån denna citatkälla 😉

(min gammalmormor blev alltså med barn, och först tänkte han sticka till USA, utan henne och barnet. Oansvarigt! Men sedan fick han dåligt samvete och stannade kvar när han säg hur totalt förkrossad hon blev över den planen. Så slutet här, blev bättre än det kunde bli...... Men, som sagt kan ta funnits en orsak folk i Ljusne var lite sura på honom, frikopplad till yrkestillhörighet, möjligtvis haha)

Are you a 19th century swedish female forest baroness? That is, are you the owner of a village were you are manipulating everyones life style to revolve around your factory. You have basically created a Feudal factory village, were your workers are your serfs.

Also you do not really pay your workers. You pay them in food etc. But they can only buy the goods in YOUR food store.

In Addition to that! Your factory makes weapons, navy objects and wood. Which it sells, with much profit, to european nations, who are busy colonisaling and murdering the people outside of europe? Is your trade Colonial Death tm?

But you are still not done with awfulness! The raw material for your factories comes from stealing land and rescources from sami people and also from landsowning peasants. Indeed your factory directly stole the land from the parents of many of your factories workers! And you did not pay them! No you were 100% shady in how you got your hands on your raw material!

As you might suspect your workers really really hate you. But you are still not done.

You see, as many white women of the 19th century, you Believe yourself to be moral and good.

So one 1 time per year, you invite your own child workers to juice and cookies. It is own the death day of your own daughter you see. And you except this children, your own child worker serfs, to be grateful and bow happily for going to a cookie tea party at your place 1 time a year. At least you claim that your intentions are the actions “of a chartible women”.

The child workers forced to smile for cookies DO NOT LIKE YOU. In fact they hate, so fucking much. All their souls are full with contempt

So much contempt that i the blog admin, the grand child of a working class boy born in this forest baroness village, got this story retold to me. Her workers truelly hated her.

[this is a story about the 19th century forest baroness of Ljusne Factory, in Hälsingland, Sweden. This particular forest baroness was dead when my grandfather was born, and the majority of her factories production had gotten moved aboard before his birth. he was born in the 1930s you see, and by then sweden started to get so rich that factory production got moved aboard to find places were they could keep paying the workers below a living wage. 

this workers union banner of ljusne social democratic workers union from 1905 deserve more love

I have never seen something, looking so much like it could fit unto any tumblr blog of a leftist today, but which is more than a 100 years old.

[Wilhelmina von Hallwyl 1844-1930. she was the owner of the semi - feudal industry community, a bruksamhälle, in Ljusne]

i happen to descend from workers who lived in Ljusne on my mothers side, and i just keeping their deep bitterness about this so called “brukspatron” alive. Wilhelmina is mostly famous today in sweden for being a collector of expansive art and similiar things, which she showed of in her palace in stockholm named “Hallwylska huset”. it is today a musuem.

but she also, forbid workers unions among her workers, and was in general. shite towards her workers.

the tale that is told with much bitterness about her i have heard, is that she in a act of “charity” once a year invited her own child laborers to cookies and juice. and that she wanted them to behave like they were so happy about this etc, but that most of the children considered the entire things humiliation from her.

imagne it.

she be like “oh just lost your arm? from my factory which refuses have basic work place safety, uses child labor, and keeps a monopoly on all businesses in the region, so you basically have to work in my factory or starve? and therefore i can also press down your wages very low? well I will give you one cookie a year as compensation! i am such a good person!”

baaaaad. *shakes fist keeping up the bitterness of my ancestors*

picture source

Henrik Oinas lax 12,8 kg