It was first proposed in 1975 by the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (or the LO); a revised final draft was published in 1976.
In particular, the Federation of Metal Workers stressed that the problems of investment planning and capital formation needed to be resolved without increasing the concentration of power and wealth in the hands of a minority.
Proponents described them as an attempt to increase the power of labour over Swedish companies, and opponents described them as large step towards socialism.
The accumulated wealth was transferred to two holding vehicles named Atle and Bure.
Famously, Minister of Finance Kjell-Olof Feldt was captured on camera while he was writing a negative poem about the funds in his bench in Parliament after they had been introduced.