“Imagine all the cracking when everyone straightens out their backs. It would sound like thunder.”
But their one persistent thought about the poster is the feeling that those who are sustaining the whole structure seem so amazingly real to them. Once, when Oskar is lying in bed, he says that they are out there in the kitchen, supporting and supporting and supporting.
On April 24, 1949 the Social Democrats celebrate their sixtieth anniversary. A large celebration is held in the Stockholm Concert Hall. August Söderman’s “Swedish Festival Music” is performed on a stage filled with flowers. The festivities reach a climax during the demonstrations on May 1, which are entirely given over to the anniversary.
Oskar and Elvira get up early. They set out at half past eight and it is warm and still. They leave the town and follow a gravel path into the forest. Once they are under the trees, in the shade, it is cooler and they walk side by side, quickly, to keep themselves warm. The ground is dry and there is a crackling underfoot. They walk in silence and follow the gravel path up the gently sloping ridge, for four kilometres, until the path merges into a clear-cut in the wood. There are three large stacks of stripped and unsorted pinewood there. The air is heavy with the smell of resin and they lean against one of the piles, careful not to get their clothes sticky. Then they close their eyes and turn towards the sun.
They stand there for a long time, silent and with their eyes shut, listening to the sighing of the forest.
In the afternoon they join the march, in the last third of the procession. The demonstrators are walking six abreast and both Oskar and Elvira are singing along. During the course of the demonstration they sing all the verses of the Internationale twice over and hum along to the tune of “The Sons of Labour”. Both take care to stay in their line of six and all the time they make sure to keep in step.
In the People’s Park the local chairman, a sixty-year-old metalworker, makes a speech. He sticks to the topic of the jubilee throughout and quotes each of Axel Danielsson, Branting and Ernst Wigforss. The only specifically political questions he raises are to do with house construction and the continued and expanded building of homes for the elderly. He talks about collective laundries and closes with a mention of the congress that same autumn in London, which will establish the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.
He is speaking from the bandstand and has a strong voice. Oskar and Elvira are almost at the front by the podium, and standing there motionless and looking up and taking in every word.
That evening, as they sit in the kitchen and talk about the demonstration, Oskar suddenly points at the poster on the wall.
“But if you look at this picture, compare it to our situation today, you can see how little is being achieved.”
“You can’t say that, surely.”
“I can. Because in some strange way it’s as if what is happening is that some of those standing and bearing the weight down at the bottom suddenly get to climb up to the dining table, while their place as bearers is taken by some others. And then it’s as if those at the top, the kings and the priests, are leaning forward and showing their faces, so that those down there, who are holding it all up, can see them. But the pyramid is still a pyramid. I mean, those doing the supporting get new clothes, eat different food, but they’re still left way down there, waving their flags, and those up at the top are still right up there.”
“But it’s not as though they can still do whatever they want.”
“Agreed, but all the same they’re still up there at the top.”
“How do you mean, ‘up there’?”
“Well. They don’t earn any less just because we get a bit more. And they don’t get to decide any less just because we decide more, if indeed we do.”
“But how would the government get anything done then? And they genuinely do.”
“I don’t know. But the ones up there are up there. Where would we be standing in the picture?”
“Down at the bottom, where else?”
“For how long?”
“It takes time. These things don’t happen overnight. One can’t expect that.”
“No. I understand that.”
“Don’t you believe me?”
“The point isn’t whether I believe you or not, is it? It’s how things are.”
“Yes.”
“And that is the way it is.”
“What do you mean?”
“That the ones up there are up there. And we’re here. Standing at the bottom and raising our heads up behind the sofa.”
“Surely not everyone hangs their poster behind a sofa?”
“No.”
“I’m not sure I really understand what you mean.”
“What I mean is, the only thing that’s really happened is that now we see things for what they are. Other than that, nothing has changed.”
“I don’t agree. Just look at how we live!”
“Fair enough. But a pyramid which reflects the situation in Sweden today wouldn’t look any different. It simply wouldn’t. Just slightly different clothes. And planes instead of cannon.”
“They’ve still got cannon, haven’t they?”
“These days it’s more and more planes.”
“That doesn’t make it any better.”
“No. But the pyramid is still the same and that was printed in 1911. It says so down in the corner.”
“I’ve seen that.”
“So something’s wrong. And things are not exactly moving fast.”
“Obviously not.”
“Is that so obvious? It feels as if it’s all slowing down.”
“What should we do, then?”
“Become communists, maybe.”
“Will that make it happen any faster?”
“It should do. They’re more direct, after all.”
“But there aren’t enough of them.”
“That can change.”
“I don’t think it will.”
“But it might well.”
And the poster seems so real to them, and Oskar looks at those who support and support and support.
“Domö ought to have that poster.”
“The conservative leader? Why?”
“It wouldn’t do any harm.”
“You think so?”
“Yes.”
“But he’s stepping down now, isn’t he?”
“Is he?”
“I think so. I read it somewhere.”
“Who’s replacing him?”
“I don’t know. Maybe they don’t even know themselves.”
“No. Maybe not.”
Then they go to bed and the poster hangs over the sofa.
One night, one of the yellow drawing pins in the right-hand corner of the poster comes loose. When Oskar sees it in the morning, he thinks that at least this pyramid has finally collapsed. To see if Elvira notices, he turns it upside down on the wall. She only sees it that evening and they laugh and they put it back the right way up together.