Unga Örnar was founded in November 1931. Over the years, Unga Örnar has created community, run activities and carried out policies to improve children's lives, nationally and internationally. Unga Örnar is a people's movement with children in focus, where solidarity, equality and democracy are watchwords! We are the children of the labor movement and a youth organization.
Here you can explore and contribute parts of Unga Örnar's long history, read reports about eagles and see what children in our organization think about what would happen if children were allowed to decide more in the world.
Read about Ali and his political commitment and the will to change instead of complaining.
Read Fredrik Lundh Sammeli's inspiring words about persevering when it's tough..
Young Eagles are founded! The Social Democratic Youth Union wanted to be able to create activities for young people between the ages of 12 and 15, and after a period of planning, Unga Örnar's first leadership was appointed on November 7, 1931. Unga Örnar's roots are in the storytime movement, which had activities for workers' children. The idea was to do democratic nurturing work for the young people, where creativity and independent thinking could be strengthened. Unga Örnar's symbol became a flying eagle, which stood for freedom.
Unga Örnar breaks away from SSU and becomes its own national confederation.
Unga Örnar has a strong collaboration with ABF. When Unga Örnar was going to stand on its own two feet, we soon got an inspector from ABF - and we had one until 1954. Since 1937, we have been members of ABF. Since 1957, there has been a representative from ABF on the Young Eagles' association board. The eagles had study circle activities early on, where they learned more about, among other things, health care and knowledge of associations. The picture comes from Arbetarbladet Gävle.
Starting in 1938, eagles were welcome from the age of five. The members were divided into three groups: members aged 5–8 were called solar eagles, from 9–11 years young eagles and between 12 and 15 years young eagles.
From the start until the 1960s, people used to wear an "eagle suit", a kind of uniform, in the business. The eagle costume consisted of a blue shirt with an embroidered eagle, a red mustache and a cord that could be green, blue, red or white depending on the wearer's age and function.
Unga Örnar had its own "law" that members had to live by.
1. A young eagle is a good and faithful companion.
2. A young eagle is always willing and helpful.
3. A young eagle respects any honest belief, even if it conflicts with his own.
4. A young eagle always willingly follows the decree of the chosen leader.
5. A young eagle is brave and resourceful.
6. A young ear is truthful, reliable and punctual.
7. A young eagle strives for purity in thought, word and deed.
8. A young eagle is opposed to all intoxicating drinks.
9. A young eagle nurtures and hardens its body.
10. A young eagle loves and protects nature.
During the 1969 congress, the union decided to replace the eagle symbol with the symbol we have today - Four children in a ring. The symbol had already been adopted by the international organization IFM-SEI.
Unga Örnar has pursued various issues over the years. The picture shows an example of a question from the 70s, that you shouldn't buy war toys. The text on the poster on the right reads: “WAR is not a game! DON'T BUY WAR TOYS urge Young Eagles.” Photo taken by Örebro courier.
In 1991 Unga Örnar and IFM-SEI organized a "World Camp" at Himmelstalundsfältet in Norrköping. Approximately 9000 people from 52 different countries participated in this giant camp!
On January 1, the Convention on the Rights of the Child finally became Swedish law! Unga Örnar had been involved in fighting for that reform for a long time.
Do you remember anything big that happened in Unga Örnar? Email us and tell us and we can share it with more people.
In Unga Örnar, we think it is important that children and young people have influence and are involved in society and in democracy. We have collected here some drawings and ideas about what society would look like if children and young people were allowed to decide more. The answers come from children in Unga Örnar Forsbacka and Unga Örnar Vivalla.
These are the questions the children have started from: