Set Persson

Set Persson (5 March 1897 – 15 July 1960) was a Swedish communist leader.

Persson was born on 5 March 1897 in , but as an orphan he was raised by relatives in Hälsingland. He was a good student in school, but left his studies at the age of 14 to start to work in the railroads. Soon he joined the Social Democratic Youth League. Furtheron, the joined the Communist Party of Sweden, which had been founded by the youth league in 1917.

Following the Ådalen massacre in 1931, Persson led a 10-day general strike in Söderhamn during which clashes with the police erupted. The following year he was, together with Anders Bäckström (leader of the 1931 Marma workers strike), the main speaker at a workers rally in Sandarne against strike breakers. After the speeches were concluded, the workers marched towards the dock area. Suddenly the rally was attacked from behind by police, using sables and smoke-bombs. Violence erupted, and three demonstrators were wounded by police bullets. Persson was arrested and charged for having taken part in organizing the rally, and sentenced to four months of involuntary labour. In total 73 months of imprisonment was awarded to different rallyists. One worker, named Zetterström, was sentenced to two and half year in jail. Moreover, Persson was fired from the railroads and lost his pension rights. Twice the government offered to pardon him, but he declined.

Following his release, Persson became a party whole-timer. In 1934 he moved to Stockholm, and was inducted into the central party leadership. He worked closely with the party chairman Sven Linderot. He served as editor for local and trade union matters for the party publication Ny Dag.

In 1940 he was elected to the Riksdag (the Swedish parliament). During the war years, he protested against the government policy of internment of communists into working camps (which were officially military units to which the communists were drafted, but in practice prison camps).

In the 1946 municipal elections, in which the party got 11.2% of the nationwide vote, Persson was elected to the Stockholm municipal council. He left the parliament to become the first communist borgarråd, with responsibility for housing. In 1947 he set up a municipal housing distribution scheme. He promoted building of municipal housing estates to solve the lack of apartments in the city. In many ways, he was a pioneer in Swedish housing policy.

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