Re: M-TH: Re: Swedish fascism
Thanks to Hugh and Stuart for critiquing the LA Times article. I did not intend to
endorse the political perspective of the Times writer in general or regarding Sweden
in particular, as reflected in the several aspects that Hugh points to. I was more
sending it for the sort of minimal factual content of the fascist murder(s), with a
sort of implicit question, what's up on this , comrades over there ? I got my answers.
CB
((
Stuart Sheild [EMAIL PROTECTED] 11/21/99 07:44AM
As Hugh correctly pointed out, the article from the Internet
Anti-Fascist/LA Times that Charles posted was a typical piece of crappy
journalism -- even on its own bourgeois terms. Purporting to be an in-depth
political analysis of recent 'critical' developments, featuring 'strategic'
interviews with 'key' observers, it offers nothing more than a set of
sweeping, superficial, unhistorical generalisations designed to present
Sweden as a special case, somehow different from other imperialist states,
a line incidentally long propounded by Henwood.
Hugh covered most of the points I would have wanted to make (far better
than I could have done) and there is little useful coment I can add.
However, a breakdown of the results of the last Swedish general election
should put paid to the article's preposterous assertion that "the vast
majority of Swedes array themselves among parties firmly on the political
left."
Distribution of seats by party in the Swedish Riksdag (parliament).
Proportional representation.
Moderate Party ('Tory'/neo-liberal): 82
Christian Democrats (Conservative): 42
Centre Party (Farmers' party, Conservative, pro-environment): 18
Folk Party (Liberal, pro-business): 17
Total for the 'non-socialist' bloc: 159
Social Democrats: 131
Left Party (Former CP): 43
Green Party (presently aligned with the 'socialist' bloc but capable of
collaborating with any party prepared to push some of its policies): 16
Total for the 'socialist' bloc: 190
Total number of seats: 349
Source: The National Tax Administration (Riksskatteverket)
I don't have the figures to hand but the results of last years' elections
to the European Parliament were a disaster for the 'parties of the left' in
Sweden as elsewhere, with the Social Democrats giving their worst showing
at a national election ever.
Despite the restoration to 'health' of government finances (by dint of
continued systematic dismemberment of the social welfare system) and vague
promises of "new proactive welfare measures" (see Hugh on this below),
current polls show no sign of increasing support for the Social Democrats.
Cheers,
Stuart Sheild
At 11:22 1999-11-19 +0100, you wrote:
Charles B (in the article he forwarded) and James F (in his remarks on the
reactionary bourgeois cultural icon Ingmar Bergman) highlight the strong
streak of right-wing reaction in Sweden.
I'd like to comment on some of the statements in the article from the
Internet Anti-Fascist/LA Times that Charles posted.
A HATE CRIME THE SWEDES COULDN'T IGNORE: KILLING OF CLERK
WHO PROTESTED NEO-NAZIS SEEN AS WARNING CALL THAT ANYBODY COULD BE TARGET
It wasn't a hate crime so much as a political crime against a left-wing
anti-fascist.
STOCKHOLM--No one here took much notice of the hundreds of hate crimes
against immigrants over the last few years that besmirched the image of
Sweden as a bastion of tolerance and serenity.
Most people have tended to interpret them as emotional, psychological
aberrations -- hate crimes -- and not political crimes. As for Sweden's
*image* of tolerance and serenity, that's just what it has been, an image.
And one that's been polished and maintained by outsiders more than by
Swedes themselves -- the welfare paradise of the third way, a reformist
utopia has been needed as a copout from the revolutionary socialist
transformation of capitalist society. Hence the bleating by Havel in Prague
and others about the Swedish model -- a model that was already dead and
being buried when the Stalinist regime collapsed in Eastern Europe and the
Soviet Union and the lack of a revolutionary working-class leadership
allowed the workers states to be hijacked by capitalist restoration.
Nor did many here rise up in anger over the execution-style slayings of two
police officers who foiled a bank robbery by neo-Nazis in May, or the car
bombing a month later that seriously wounded an investigative reporter who
had been documenting this country's white supremacist movement.
"Rise up" gives the wrong impression. There is too much sympathy for the
police in Sweden as it is. Not on the left, but in public opinion. But the
bombing of the reporter made a lot of people very angry -- especially at
the off-handed attitude of the police in easing off protective measures in
relation to the threats against the reporter.
But when a mild-mannered warehouse clerk was gunned down in his Stockholm
apartment last month after protesting the election of an avowed neo-Nazi to
the board of
M-TH: Re: Swedish fascism
Charles B (in the article he forwarded) and James F (in his remarks on the reactionary bourgeois cultural icon Ingmar Bergman) highlight the strong streak of right-wing reaction in Sweden. I'd like to comment on some of the statements in the article from the Internet Anti-Fascist/LA Times that Charles posted. A HATE CRIME THE SWEDES COULDN'T IGNORE: KILLING OF CLERK WHO PROTESTED NEO-NAZIS SEEN AS WARNING CALL THAT ANYBODY COULD BE TARGET It wasn't a hate crime so much as a political crime against a left-wing anti-fascist. STOCKHOLM--No one here took much notice of the hundreds of hate crimes against immigrants over the last few years that besmirched the image of Sweden as a bastion of tolerance and serenity. Most people have tended to interpret them as emotional, psychological aberrations -- hate crimes -- and not political crimes. As for Sweden's *image* of tolerance and serenity, that's just what it has been, an image. And one that's been polished and maintained by outsiders more than by Swedes themselves -- the welfare paradise of the third way, a reformist utopia has been needed as a copout from the revolutionary socialist transformation of capitalist society. Hence the bleating by Havel in Prague and others about the Swedish model -- a model that was already dead and being buried when the Stalinist regime collapsed in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union and the lack of a revolutionary working-class leadership allowed the workers states to be hijacked by capitalist restoration. Nor did many here rise up in anger over the execution-style slayings of two police officers who foiled a bank robbery by neo-Nazis in May, or the car bombing a month later that seriously wounded an investigative reporter who had been documenting this country's white supremacist movement. "Rise up" gives the wrong impression. There is too much sympathy for the police in Sweden as it is. Not on the left, but in public opinion. But the bombing of the reporter made a lot of people very angry -- especially at the off-handed attitude of the police in easing off protective measures in relation to the threats against the reporter. But when a mild-mannered warehouse clerk was gunned down in his Stockholm apartment last month after protesting the election of an avowed neo-Nazi to the board of his trade union, Swedes got the message that any open-minded person could be an enemy or a victim of racist radicals. Bjoern was not so much mild-mannered as likeable, radical and determined. (I've got a picture of him carrying a banner I can send as an attachment to anyone interested.) The message was not that "any open-minded person" could be targeted but that any determined unionist who took a stand against the Nazis could be targeted. "Bjoern wasn't an anti-Nazi crusader. He was just an average guy who did what any decent person would have done, which is to stand up and confront something that is wrong," said Anna-Clara Bratt, editor of the Arbetaren labor journal. "Almost 90% of Swedish workers are trade union members, so his murder served as a warning call that anyone could be next." He wasn't an average guy, he was a syndicalist union organizer, a local workers leader. The argument that he did something "any decent person would have done" is neither here nor there -- actions of this kind are rarely spontaneous expressions of moral fibre. The high level of union organization is important here, though. But the threat is not to ordinary union members -- yet. It's to organizers and people who take the initiative to speak up for their fellow-workers. And Arbetaren is not a labour journal. It's an anarcho-syndicalist paper with a heavy cultural slant. The fact that "arbetaren" means "the worker" is misleading. Before Soederberg's slaying, Bratt said, Swedes tended to avert their eyes from the ugly assaults and harassment of immigrants and refugees, who now make up as many as 1 million of Sweden's 8.9 million residents. "Swedes" were just as divided in their response after the killing as before it. There is a groundswell of support for immigrants and radicals among ordinary people in Sweden that rarely makes the headlines, as Bob M can testify and often has, as opposed to the louder and more visible anti-immigrant, anti-radical lobby. Since 1995, there have been at least four slayings of foreigners attributed to neo-Nazis, and police have investigated hundreds of racially motivated attacks each year, said Margareta Lindroth, deputy director of Sweden's SAPO security forces. The only interest the secret police have in this is to use the Nazi threat as an excuse to home in on the socialist left under the cover of vague "anti-democratic" charges. Of course, certain of the Social-Democrats want the secret police to stop the Nazis targeting them, but hey, no pain, no gain. Sociologists and historians attribute the recent surge in neo-Nazi violence to desperation among a small but powerful minority that has come to
