# John Lövblad

John Erik Löfblad (Born Lövblad, 14 February 1927 – 17 January 2016) was a Swedish politician, diplomat, and trade unionist who served as Secretary General of the International Federation of Building and Woodworkers (IFBWW) from 1966 to 1989.
A longtime protégé of Swedish Prime Ministers Olof Palme and Tage Erlander, Löfblad was an active member of the Swedish Social Democratic Party and became involved in trade unionism early in his career. In 1962, Prime Minister Tage Erlander personally appointed him as labor attaché at the Swedish Embassy in Washington, D.C. Four years later, in 1966, he was elected General Secretary of the IFBWW, a position he held until his retirement in 1989.
Löfblad was a staunch advocate for improving social conditions through cooperation, firmly opposing strikes as a means of progress. A lifelong anti-communist, he actively fought against labor exploitation, humanitarian crises, and social injustices worldwide. His unwavering dedication to securing better working conditions on a global scale solidified his legacy as one of the most prominent trade union leaders of his time.

## Early life

The son of Gustaf Löfblad and Marta Ahs, John Erik Löfblad was born on February 14, 1927 on the farm "Backarna". The farm was located deep in the woods of Gunnarskog in the county of Värmland in Sweden. After 6 years of elementary school, he trained to become a lumberjack. The hard conditions of his early life marked him forever, igniting his drive for societal improvement. This led him to become a member of the Swedish Woodworkers Union (Svenska träarbetareförbundet). He was also active in local sports, in the Gunnarskog Idrotts Föreningen of which he was secretary from 1948 to 1954. He was an avid practitioner of orienteering and sports remained one of his main interests his whole life. Early in life, his family moved to the farm "Rsbrofallet". His childhood was marked by the proximity of the Norwegian border during the Second World War. It is during this time that, while listening to the radio in order to follow the world news, he learned English and German. Due to this he also developed an interest in the history of World War Two. These interests set him apart from his peers and destine him for an international life and career. His global vision was in marked contrast to his insular background as a farmer and woodcutter. He used to recount that when he ran out to announce with joy that the allies had invaded Normandy by screaming “they have arrived”, he was met with the answer “who then?” (ockre da?).

## Military service in Sweden

When called in to recruitment for his compulsory military service, John Löfblad obtained exceptionally high scores, so high in fact that his examiners believed him to have cheated due to his basic education; they thus made him repass those examinations and much to their astonishment he re-passed with high scores. Due to not having finished high school, he could not apply to officer's school, but instead was offered to serve in the military police, which he did from 1946 to 1947. He was stationed in Stockholm being a member of the guard of the royal palace (Högvakten). This experience was of prime importance in opening up his view to the world.

## Local politics

Early on, he was interested in politics and became a member of Sveriges Socialdemokratiska Ungdomsförbund (SSU-the Swedish Social Democratic Youth league). Since in 1943 there was no local party in Gunnarskog to which he could there to, he registered directly with the headquarters of SSU in Stockholm; this led to a new section Gunnarskog SDUK (Social democratisk ungdomsklubb) being created. He was elected member of the Gunnarskog Community Council from 1950 to 1954.

## National politics

In 1954, as a representative for the trade unions, he became a part of the executive council of SSU. He thus became part of the entourage of the Swedish prime minister known as the Erlander boys (erlander-pojkarna; together with Ingvar Carlsson and Olof Palme). This activity led him to attend to the Brunnsvik school in 1950, after which he taught occasionally at the Runö school. He attended further courses at the University of Manchester (Anglo-Scandinavian course of 1952) and in 1958 he attended a course on Industrial and Management Engineering at Columbia University (in the City of New York School of Engineering in November 1958). During this short period in New York, he was exposed to the USA and was enormously impressed by the lectures given at Columbia University; he also had time to briefly visit the city, becoming aware of the social problems the USA faced; being at Columbia, he roamed the streets of Harlem and get to know some of its inhabitants and became aware of the American history of slavery. Overall this experience made him a believer in the American trade union movement and he became be a life-long supporter of their positions, which at the end cost him the support of many Scandinavian trade union leaders. He had been a member of the communal council (Kommunalfullmäktige) in Gunnarskog in 1950-1954.He was also a member of the Swedish National board of Forestry from 1959 to 1963 (Skogsvårdsstyrelse-now Skogsstyrelsen). He was a member of the central committee of the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League from 1955 to 1961 together with Bertil Löfberg, Sture Hollmann, Olof Palme, Rune Molin, Paul Söderman, and Erik Nilsson among others. In the committee he was the representative of the Swedish trade unions. This committee asked the director Peter Weiss to make a movie about drug abuse in the youth that was called "Vad ska vi göra nu?". In 1958 during the SSU congress he positioned himself as favorable to the atomic bomb, which set him apart from most of his peers. He was also a member of a socialist think thank known as Bastuligan, that met well up until the 1990s, of which future Swedish prime minister Ingvar Carlsson was a member, as was Kurt Ward.

## Trade union career

The hard work as a lumberjack led him to enter trade unionism. He thus entered the Swedish Woodworkers Union, becoming its secretary in 1960, which is why he moved to Gävle. A major influence on his way of thinking was Arne Geijer, the head of landsorganisationen, LO (the Swedish labour organization). Löfblad was a firm believer in improvement of social conditions through cooperation between social partners and not through confrontation (he did not believe strikes to be productive) and was a staunch anti-communist. He remained the embodiment of the politically active trade unionist his whole active life. He remained preoccupied with workers' security as well as the well-being of the environment, two critical issues stemming from his time as a lumberjack. In 1962 he was a candidate to become the president of the Swedish Woodworkers Union after Charles Winroth, but was not chosen. He was then given 24 hours by the current Swedish prime minister, Tage Erlander, to take up a position in Washington D.C. He retained strong ties with most of the Swedish trade Union leaders during his tenure as general secretary, such as Hans Ericsson of the Swedish transport union. He remained a member of Unia until his death.

## Diplomatic career

In 1963 he was appointed as labour attaché at the Swedish Embassy in Washington D.C. During this time he travelled the United States to make contact with Swedish Immigrants, as well as establish life-long contacts with labour leaders in the USA such as George Meany and Jay Lovestone. He reported back to Sweden on the on-going welfare improvements in the USA. These travels by car led him to visit all states except Hawaii. These contacts remained of prime importance for him for the next phase of his career. These contacts continued with Lane Kirkland and John Sweeny. He lived at that time in Bethesda, Maryland and commuted to the Swedish embassy.

## General Secretary of the International Federation of Building and Woodworkers

Earlier in his activist life, he had been as a visitor to a congress of the International Federation of Building and Woodworkers (IFBWW) and had been profoundly impressed by this organization. When the position of General Secretary of the IFBWW became vacant, due to the departure of Arne Hagen, he chose to apply. He was discouraged to take this position by Sweden's Minister for Finance Gunnar Sträng, due to its low salary. However, in 1966 at the IFBWW Congress in Oslo, he was elected General Secretary of the International Federation of Building and Woodworkers, a position he held until 1989. He was re-elected at the 13th congress in Ostende, the 14th Congress in Stockholm in 1975, the 15th Congress in Vienna in 1978, the 16th Congress in Madrid in 1981, and the 17th Congress in Geneva in 1985. During his tenure, the Presidents of the IFBWW were James H Mills, Abraham Buys and Konrad Carl. Initially this federation was located at Ewaldsgaede in Copenhagen Denmark, but due to his frequent travels to the ILO in Geneva, John Löfblad moved the organisation to Geneva in Switzerland, where it is still located. It was initially located in the centre of the city at the rue de la Coulouvrenière, close to the Rhône river. During his tenure the organization grew to achieve the stature of a world-wide trade union secretariat with 3.5 million members across the globe. This was achieved by his endless traveling the globe and making contacts with new trade union secretariats. He established personal contacts with the leaders of the AFL-CIO, such as their historic president George Meany, as mell as many leading American labour leaders such as Edward J. Carlough. In 1982 he was a special guest lecturer at the Congress of the Sheet Metal Workers International Association. He integrated many trade unions from the United States (most notably the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers and the International Union of Operating Engineers), Japan as well as Africa and South America during his tenure. He attended the yearly conference of the AFL-CIO in Florida. In Europe he also had contacts with Irving Brown. He also travelled extensively to Africa and South America in order to promote education for trade unionists. He also visited repeatedly countries such as Turkey and Chile. During his visits to Turkey he visited Turkish Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit in prison. Visits to convicted trade unionists in dictatorships was one of his missions. When he joined the IFBWW, it was mostly a Northern European Federation; through his tireless work he built it into an organization with millions of members all over the globe. When he left in 1989 he had established regional offices in Kuala Lumpur (Asia-pacific), in Lomé (Africa) and in Panama City (latin America). He was globally respected because of his roots that were firmly placed in the working class, despite taking some controversial positions such as his anti-communist policy that upset his Swedish colleagues. This belief came from his position that freedom was necessary for the development of worker's rights. Over the years he had heated differences with Veikko Porkkala from Finland but nevertheless visited him on his 100th birthday. In September 1968, following the Soviet invasion of Chekoslovakia, he famously contested the Soviet presidency of the ILO's 8th session of Building, Civil Engineering and Public Works Committee. During his last years as General Secretary he continued to fight for the improvement of worker's conditions, becoming especially interested on the impact of asbestos on their life. He organized the IFBWW's first meeting on the environment in 1988. Due to his vast experience he lectured internationally at trade union conferences all around the globe, except for the those in the communist block. During his last tenures, tensions increased between the representatives of the building and wood trades, slowly tiring him, especially the endless and needless tensions with the Swedish representatives from the building trades who resented a woodworker being the leader of what they considered their international. Also, tensions between the Scandinavian trade unions and the American trade unions became a problem for him since he was very Swedish at heart but at the same time admired the American trade union movement.Being from the woodworkers Union, tensions with the Builders had been constant and growing, especially in Sweden paradoxically. He stepped down at the 18th congress in Singapore (December 4-7, 1989). His successor was Ulf Asp. While in Geneva he also participated annually at the ILO's international labour conference. During his tenure he had built up an organization centered in Scandinavia into a real international trade secretariat. In December 2005, the IFBWW merged with the World Federation of Building and Wood Workers (WFBW) to form a new global union federation, Building and Wood Workers' International (BWI). Today, BWI represents over 12 million members worldwide.
In the early 1970s, the renowned Swedish journalist Erik Goland of Swedish television produced a documentary on John Löfblad, documenting his ascension from a life as a lumberjack without education to becoming a diplomat and then leading an international organization. It was called "Ut i världen vill jag" (translation: I want out into the world): it highlighted the subjects' desire to rise above his humble beginnings and to become a citizen of the world. He kept closed ties to both Goland and Sven Thiessen, who hailed from the region.

## International Labour Organization

He was the Secretary of the Worker's group at the first session of the Forestry and Wood Industries Committee of the ILO, from September 15 to 18 1985. He was the secretary of the Worker's group at the 11th session on Building, civil engineering and public works committee in April 1987. John Löfblad represented the IFBWW at the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and served as a member of the governing board of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions from 1983 to 1986. He was a representative of the International Trade Secretariats on the governing board of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions from 1970 to 1990. After retiring he was active as a member of the Board of Directors for the Hassan Fathy Institute from 1999 to 2005, now the International Construction Institute. Besides this, he largely abstained from activity in the trade union field. Having seen the Berlin wall fall, his work was done, there was no need for a separation of trade union movements. Also, having been an avid traveller who flew more than 200 days a year, after September 11 2001 he no longer travelled except for his visit to Porkkala.

## Personal life

On March 21 1959 he married Ingrid Anna-Lisa Johannesson, whom he met through his work with SSU, they had one child, Karl-Olof Lovblad, born in Gävle, who is a professor in Neuroradiology at Geneva University Hospital. After retiring, John Löfblad stayed in Geneva where he remained until his death on January 17 2016 following a subdural hematoma. He was a member of the Vasa Order of America and was a member of Utlandssvenskarna. Despite living outside Sweden, he remained a Swedish citizen, stating: "Whatever I did, I did it for my country". His wife died shortly afterward, of cardiac failure, on February 20 2016.