Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1998, Page 130

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NEWS AND PROGRESS 1997
started to safeguard its members from un-
employment.
In assessing the importance of Fylking in
the community of Tvøroyri in the years
since 1915, we might take the aim of the
union as a starting point. The aim was to
take care of the interests of workers and to
ensure a decent wage. This is a question
about which the individual member best
can judge because it is a goal that moves
farther away all the time. On the other hand
if we ask what workers’ conditions would
have been like in the Faroe Islands, if nei-
ther Fylking nor other unions had been
formed, we would undoubtedly all agree on
the answer.
The story of Fylking and the trade union
movement in the Faroe Islands is a part of
a bigger story: The story of social develop-
ment in the western world since the Indus-
trial Revolution in the 18th century and the
political revolution towards democracy as
we know it today. It is the story of the divi-
sion of the enormous wealth created by the
new production methods which came with
the Industrial Revolution.
The basic principle of the trade unions
has always been, and still is, that the wealth
of society must be used for the benefít of
the whole of society and form a basis for
security and for good living standards for
all.
The development of the trade union
movement in Tvøroyri and in the Faroes
has, in the main, been the same as in coun-
tries around us. The same story as in other
places: A hard, long and difficult struggle,
often at a high price for the workers. But
the outcome in the Faroes is a modern wel-
ingina í samfeløgunum í vesturheiminum
síðan ídnaðarkollveltingina í 18. øld og tær
politisku kollveltingarnar fram móti tí
fólkaræði, vit kenna í dag. Henda søgan
snýr seg um býtið av tí veldiga ríkidømi, ið
skaptist av teimum nýggju framleiðsluhátt-
unum eftir ídnaðarkollveltingina.
Grundsjónarmiðið hjá fakfelagsrørsluni
hevur altíð verið og er framvegis tað, at
samfelagsins ríkidømi skal koma øllum
limum samfelagsins til góðar og leggja
grund undir trygg og góð livikor hjá øllum.
Gongdin á Tvøroyri og í Føroyum hevur
meginregluliga verið tann sama, sum í
londunum uttan um okkum. Og søgan hin
sama sum aðrastaðni: Eitt hart, drúgt og
tógvið stríð, ið ofta hevur kostað arbeiðar-
unum nógv. Men úrslitið er eitt nútímans
vælferðarsamfelag í Føroyum bygt á hug-
myndina um vælferð og sosialan trygg-
leika.
Uttan at arbeiðsfólk tóku seg saman í
Fylking á Tvøroyri og so við og við í fakfe-
løg um alt landið og sjálv tóku sær um
reiggj at føra hetta stríð fyri at gera dreym-
in til veruleika, hevði samfelagið ikki verið
tað, sum tað nú er. Hesi fólk skaptu okkara
samfelag.
fare society built on the concepts of welfare
and social security.
If the workers had not united in Fylking
in Tvøroyri, gradually formed unions all
over the country, disciplined themselves to
carry on the struggle to realize their
dreams, our society would not have been
what it is today. These people made our so-
ciety.