tisdag 10 maj 2011

Quick and dirty introduction

Hi there! Name's Olentzero; I'm a 41-year-old American expat living and working in Stockholm. A friend of mine back in the States is working on a project around Carl Skoglund, the Communist leader who emigrated from Sweden and helped lead the 1934 Teamsters' strike in Minneapolis. While translating a few articles and helping him find a few contacts, he suggested I start a blog about Swedish politics from a revolutionary socialist perspective for American audiences. So... here it is.

There is quite a lot ado here in Sweden, especially around health care, immigration, and an upsurge in far-right activity. The popular image of Sweden as a social-democratic paradise has long been out of touch with reality, as a decade or so of rule by the center-right Alliance (a parliamentary bloc of four conservative parties - the Moderates, the Christian Democrats, the People's Party, and the Center Party) has resulted in a tremendous rollback of living standards for ordinary working Swedes. The Red-Green bloc (Social Democrats, Left Party, and Greens) have done little to counteract this; in the case of the Social Democrats it is hardly surprising because the Alliance has merely been continuing the policies they started back in the '80s and '90s.

Last September's elections proved a nasty surprise as the far-right Sweden Democrats got into parliament - the Riksdag - for the first time. Many leading party members have (or had) ties to Swedish neo-Nazi organizations and hate groups; though they try to downplay that aspect they are still fiercely anti-immigrant.

The picture is certainly not all gloom and doom, however. One particularly bright spot in recent events is the movement against deportations. Activists have started blockading immigrant detention centers when they find out a deportation is scheduled to take place. Just a day or two ago their efforts paid off. A young Iranian named Mohammad Sirwan Forotan was to be deported back to Iran, where he faced certain death for his activities in Komala, a peshmerga resistance organization. Not only was Sirwan's deportation blocked, but he was released from the detention center and given asylum. The activists and parties involved in the blockade are understandably elated by the result, and they hope they can bring the lessons learned to future efforts.

There is plenty more to write about, and I doubt I'll run out of things to say. I'll try to keep a weekly schedule but beyond that it's all an open plan for now. I'll gladly take requests for issues to discuss, so please leave a comment if you're so inclined.

Thanks! See you all next time.