in the municipal government he also became, for a brief period, the chairman of the police committee of the city. In 1948 he declared publicly that the Stockholm police would not follow the central anticommunist guidelines when recruiting new policemen. He lost his position as borgarråd after the 1950 elections. Persson became identified with the leftist minority within the party. Several issues were at stake in the internal party debate, especially concerning the relationship to the governing Social Democrats. After the conclusion of the Second World War, the idea that a peaceful transition to socialism was possible gained ground in the international communist movement. In Sweden the origin of the concept may be traced back to 1944. There was a growing trend in the Communist Party of Sweden to seek to create alliances with the Social Democrats and to give more emphasis to the parliamentary struggle. Linderot had launched the idea of a 'united front' with the Social Democrats, and argued that it had been a mistake to perceive the Social Democrats as identical to the state power. The party adopted a new trade union policy, which was less conflictive than the previous line. Persson and Nils Holmberg formed the nucleus of critics of the new development. In the 1952 parliamentary by-elections in Jämtland and Kristianstad, the party had decided to withdraw their lists, in order to enable that Social Democrats would not lose the elections. The party leadership argued that communists had to make an effort to "ensure a labour majority in the Riksdag". Moreover, the two concerned counties were electoral districts where it was highly unlikely that any communist MP would be elected. However, Persson and the people around him saw the new line as a capitulation to the Social Democrats. Another issue concerned the youth league. The party took an initiative to create a broad-based youth movement, looking at similar developments in countries like Finland. In 1952, Democratic Youth (Demokratisk Ungdom) was founded as a broad youth movement, parallel to the existing Young Communist League of Sweden. Persson and his associates saw this as diluting of the political character of the youth movement. An issue of high symbolic importance was the decision of the party to promote joint May Day rallies with the Social Democrats. Yet another issue was the decision of the party to give financial support to the "labour press", which was essentially in the