By Denis Hay
Description
Defeating the 1 percent starts with lessons from Norway and Sweden, which show how solidarity, equality and public ownership built shared prosperity.
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Introduction: Learning from the Nordic Model
Across much of the world, citizens feel powerless as a tiny elite controls wealth, media, and politics. Yet, history proves that defeating the 1 percent is possible. A century ago, Norway and Sweden faced crushing inequality, poverty, and mass unemployment. By organising non-violent movements and using collective power, they built societies defined by fairness, solidarity, and democratic control of their economies.
In 1931, a peaceful march in Ådalen, Sweden, became a turning point. The shooting of unarmed workers by troops shocked the nation and united citizens behind labour reforms. As activist George Lakey later wrote, “Norway and Sweden didn’t wait for permission from elites – they built democracy from below.”
These nations transformed themselves, not through revolution but through public ownership, worker cooperation, and shared prosperity. Their story offers a living playbook for Australia today: proof that collective will, supported by our dollar sovereignty, can reclaim power from the 1 percent.
The Problem: Why Australians Feel Powerless
1. Neoliberal Policies, Strengthening the 1 Percent
Over four decades, Australia has followed a neoliberal path, privatising essential services, deregulating finance, and shrinking the public sector. Once-public institutions like Qantas and Telstra became profit engines for shareholders instead of public assets for citizens.
Read more in The Great Privatisation Swindle.
These decisions widened inequality. The top 1 percent of Australians now own more wealth than the bottom 50 percent combined (Oxfam Australia). The rhetoric of “living within our means” masked a political project: shifting power from workers to corporations and from the public to private hands.
2. Wealth Concentration and Political Capture
When wealth concentrates, democracy erodes. Large donors, lobbyists, and think-tanks now write much of Australia’s economic agenda. Public money is allocated to fossil-fuel subsidies, while social housing, healthcare, and TAFE training are left to stagnate. While Labor has slightly improved access to TAFE, these gains are still limited by ongoing privatisation and underfunding.
This imbalance mirrors pre-reform Norway and Sweden, where oligarchic families controlled banks, industry, and land, until organised citizens demanded change.
Economic injustice isn’t natural; it’s designed. By understanding how Nordic nations rewrote their economic rules, Australia can do the same, using public money for public purposes, not for corporate welfare.
The Impact: What Australians Are Experiencing
3. The Everyday Toll of Inequality
Australians are working longer hours for less security. Real wages have stagnated, rents have soared, and homeownership feels unreachable for many. Public hospitals and aged-care centres struggle for funding, while corporate profits surge.
This is not a failure of effort; it is a failure of design. Economic systems prioritising shareholder return inevitably leave citizens behind. Compare this with the Nordic model, where economic equality and shared wealth underpin social stability.
Comparison Table: Australia | Norway | Sweden
| Indicator (rounded) | Australia | Norway | Sweden |
| Gini Coefficient (income inequality) | 0.32 | 0.26 | 0.27 |
| Public Ownership Share of GDP | ~10 % | ~30 % | ~25 % |
| Universal Healthcare Access | Partial (Medicare gaps) | Full | Full |
| Free Tertiary Education | No | Yes | Yes |
| Poverty Rate | 13 % | 6 % | 7 % |
Sources: The Conversation.
Norway and Sweden show that prosperity grows when public investment builds equality. Both nations used collective bargaining, strong unions, and nationalised industries to secure lasting social mobility.
4. Who Benefits from the Status Quo
Privatisation and corporate lobbying have redirected Australia’s wealth upward. Major donors influence policy; multinationals minimise tax; citizens pay higher prices for energy, housing, and education.
In Nordic countries, strategic regulation and public ownership of key industries – energy, banking, transport – ensure profits serve citizens. These nations also prove that equality fuels innovation, not stagnation.
Australia’s challenge is not capacity but political will. As a nation with monetary sovereignty, our government can fund public purposes without “finding the money” first. What matters is using our sovereign currency to build social value instead of corporate windfalls.
The Solution: Lessons from the Nordic Model
5. Australia’s Dollar Sovereignty as a Tool for Reform
Nordic nations restructured their economies through coordinated planning, nationalisation, and cooperative ownership. Australia can go further; our sovereign dollar means we can never run out of funding for essential services created in our own currency.
Read more in Australia’s Dollar Sovereignty.
Key insight: monetary sovereignty removes the false constraint of “budget surpluses.” Like Sweden during the 1930s, Australia can use public investment to achieve full employment and social security simultaneously.
6. Key Reforms to Reclaim Democracy
To follow the Nordic path, Australia must:
- Rebuild public housing cooperatives to guarantee affordable homes.
- Make education and healthcare free at every level.
- Introduce progressive taxation that narrows wealth gaps.
- Nationalise essential services – energy, water, and transport – so profits serve people.
- Establish a Job Guarantee, ensuring anyone who wants to work contributes to national rebuilding.
- Enact media and lobbying reform to end corporate capture of politics.
These policies echo the Swedish and Norwegian vision of shared prosperity, an economy that works for everyone.
Myth vs Fact: Public Spending and Taxation
| Myth | Fact |
| “Higher public spending means higher taxes.” | Australia, as a currency issuer, can spend first and tax later to manage inflation. Public money is not limited like household budgets. |
| “Deficits burden future generations.” | Productive investment today, in housing, education, and infrastructure, creates wealth for future generations. |
| “Private ownership is always more efficient.” | Evidence from Nordic nations shows public enterprises can outperform private ones when guided by social purpose. |
Frequently Asked Questions
- Can a diverse nation like Australia really follow the Nordic model?
Yes. Norway and Sweden overcame deep class and regional divisions. Australia’s diversity is an advantage; solidarity can unite citizens around shared goals such as housing, jobs, and healthcare. - Would adopting Nordic-style reforms require higher taxes?
No. Australia’s monetary sovereignty allows the federal government to fund programs with new public money. Taxes manage inflation; they don’t fund spending. - What makes the Nordic model sustainable?
Strong unions, progressive taxation, and public ownership protect against inequality. These nations prove that equity strengthens economies, rather than weakening them. - Could this work in a resource-rich country like Australia?
Absolutely. Norway’s success partly came from publicly owning its oil sector. Australia could mirror this with renewable energy, ensuring profits serve citizens, not multinationals.
Final Thoughts: Building an Australian Model
Defeating the 1 percent is not just an economic goal, it is a democratic necessity. The Nordic model shows that when citizens unite around fairness and public purpose, entrenched power crumbles.
Australia has every tool to build a society where prosperity is shared, not hoarded. We have natural wealth, educated citizens, and, most importantly, a sovereign currency that allows us to invest without constraint.
As George Lakey reminds us: “Power concedes nothing willingly – it yields only when people organise.” The challenge is not resources, it’s resolve. If Norway and Sweden could dismantle oligarchic control through solidarity and smart reform, Australia can too.
Let us build an Australian model grounded in equality, cooperation, and economic democracy, our own playbook for defeating the 1 percent.
What’s Your Experience?
What parts of the Nordic model do you think Australia could adopt first – public housing, free education, or full employment?
Call to Action
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Resources
YouTube: Is our Prime Minister a Lobbyist for Gambling Corporations?
Films for Action: Playbook for Defeating the 1 %
OECD: Income Inequality Data 2024
Oxfam: Australia’s Inequality Report
Social Justice Australia: Australia’s Dollar Sovereignty
This article was originally published Social Justice Australia
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Over 50 years ago when I lived in Scandinavia, it was a much less unequal society than it is today. But it also couldn’t avoid falling prey to the neo-liberal fever that swept across western economies during the 70s and 80s. Still, it’s far better than ours today.
The imposition of neo-liberal social and economic policies in Australia was preceded and accompanied by subtle cumulative legislations that cemented the transformation of public ownership to private coffers. Passive resistance by the public only activates punitive reactions – Australians don’t have the heart for a revolution so there is no chance for meaningful change in the for-seeable future.