Det gäller inte bara potatis : En innehållsanalytisk jämförelse mellan brödupproret i Jönköping 1855 och hungerdemonstrationen i Västervik 1917

Sammanfattning: This thesis examined people and the motives behind their actions while participating in uprisings caused by famine and social injustice. Based on Hannah Arendts theories on uprisings and revolutions, the thesis focused on two uprisings in Sweden, the bread uprising in Jönköping 1855 and the hunger demonstration in Västervik 1917. Arendts distinction between liberty from restraint and the establishing of a constituted public freedom in a political sphere guided the research and analysis of the source material in this thesis. Both towns had undergone severe famine caused by poor harvests but most notably due to the upper classes, traders and venture capitalists exploiting the situation by purchasing the foods available in volume and exporting it or selling it for profit. The results showed several similarities regarding the motives the participants stated as causes to their participation in the uprisings. One noticeable difference that was revealed was that the participants in the hunger demonstration in Västervik 1917 held some motives higher than others: right of representation, reinstated right to vote, restored and higher income, right to 8-hour working days, long-lasting actions against poverty and political influence in decisions. This is radically different than the motives stated by the participants in the uprising of Jönköping 1855 in and of that the motives stated in the uprising in Jönköping where merely regarding the factual circumstances of the famine. Lower prices, banning buyout, exports of foods and the distilling of liquor. In no circumstance did the participant require influence in the politics or civil rights in any way; they only saw the peripheral problems and not the causes of their marginalized position in society. The results of the research turned out to be synonymous of Arendts distinction between liberty and freedom in that the participants in the uprising in Jönköping only wanted to be liberated from the temporary famine whilst the participants of the uprising in Västervik wanted to step out of the historical timeline and demand civil rights to govern themselves and gain influence in the political sphere and workplaces. The participants where exclusively working-class people, craftsmen, and people of the lower classes. The study showed that the participants of the uprising in Västervik were highly involved in working labor unions and some of them were devoted socialists. This shows that ideology likely influenced the motives of the participants in the uprising of Västervik. To sum up, research has been conducted in the field before but only regarding the uprisings separately. This thesis fills in the gap between the 62 years that separates them and contributes to the understanding of uprisings and revolution in Swedish historical research.