The specter of Swedophobia

The far-right Sweden Democrats party is continuing its work on promoting its particular brand of hatred and xenophobic racism in Parliament. I was tipped off today by my friend Marleen to a motion submitted in the Riksdag by two SD members about "counteracting Swedophobia".

The motion itself is extraordinarily laughable, reading more like a very poorly researched report by a junior high-school student than a painstakingly assembled parliamentary resolution. Nevertheless it contains an incredible amount of anti-immigrant racism (trotting out the well-worn crime and sexuality tropes) and plays fast and loose with the few statistics it does cite (albeit indirectly), using those to propose undermining some very democratic laws designed to protect those who are actually the most vulnerable in Swedish society.

Originally I had thought to provide a point-by-point refutation of the document, but frankly it's not worth my time tracking down newspaper articles that are more than a decade old just to try to establish the contexts they were taken out of. On the other hand, there is one point well worth hashing out in some detail because the statistics are readily at hand; it is thus easy to illuminate the deceit the Sweden Democrats are using to justify trashing the law against incitement to racial hatred.

They cite at length a report by Brottsförebyggande rådet (the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention) about youth-on-youth robbery in the cities of Stockholm and Malmö. They claim that native Swedes are overrepresented as victims and immigrants are overrepresented as criminals, completely ignoring the fact that the schools covered in the study were separated into three groups based on socioeconomic conditions. Not surprisingly, the students in the lowest socioeconomic group generally had the highest percentages of students who committed robbery regardless of parentage (though it should be noted that the percentage figures for students born abroad who committed robbery actually went down from Group 1 to Group 3 in several categories). Overall, this would seem to indicate socioeconomic conditions as a greater determining factor in who commits a robbery than ethnic origin or immigration status.

Nonetheless, this has not stopped these closeted neo-Nazis from crying "Swedophobia" and claiming it is unfair that Swedes are not offered the same protection under the law against incitement to racial hatred as the minorities the law was specifically designed to protect. They would like to see the law revised and to force anti-racist organizations and schools to devote equal effort to combating this long-ignored phenomenon that threatens Swedes everywhere. As noted previously, they cite incidences of sexual harassment and bullying at school (which, it is implied, honest native Swedes would *never* stoop to commit) that occurred years ago as examples of problems for which they found "reason to assume" Swedophobia lay at the base.

What they conveniently ignore, however, is that Sweden already has a law on the books covering exactly this kind of thing: the Discrimination Act, passed in 2008. In addition, Swedish public education has a structure in place for dealing with bullying in which the targeted student can actually open a case against the principal of the school and demand damages; it was inaugurated in 2006, presumably, to deal precisely with events like the ones cited in this motion. These laws and structures cover everyone equally, which means that native Swedes are not in fact discriminated against when it comes to protection against what are in fact very serious problems.

Immigrants, on the other hand, are vulnerable in a way native Swedes have never been and will never be. Uprooted from their home countries for any number of reasons, coming to a country with very little to their names and generally unable to find anything but the crappiest jobs even if they have excellent educational qualifications, they live not only under the cloud of possible deportation but also the very real threat of racist violence that far exceeds anything the Sweden Democrats were able to come up with for their eighth-grade project they call a resolution.

Immigrants don't have thugs organized as political parties ready to trash everything they can reach when they rally and march. They are therefore in need of any and all protection the government can be compelled to provide them in order to bring their status up to even close to equal that of native Swedes. That is not special protection; that is justice. The Sweden Democrats, under what can only be described as the banner of "all lives matter", are looking to strip that justice away. Don't let the poor logic and execrable research fool you; these people are serious and must be fought every step of the way.

Below is a translation of the motion in question. It's a very good indicator of exactly what this party is up to.

(WARNING: Some strong sexist language, and talk of sexual assault.)

Proposal for parliamentary resolution

1.       The Riksdag proclaims as its intention to the Government the statements in the motion on setting up an investigation charged with surveying the prevalence and character of Swedophobia, as well as proposing measures for the purpose of counteracting Swedophobia.

2.       The Riksdag proclaims as its intention to the Government the statements in the motion on reviewing and amending the wording of Acts that permit negative discrimination of native-born Swedes.

3.       The Riksdag proclaims as its intention to the Government the statements in the motion on State support for anti-racist organizations only being provided to such organizations as also engage in counteracting Swedophobia.

4.       The Riksdag proclaims as its intention to the Government the statements in the motion on providing directives to the country’s schools that shedding light on and counteracting Swedophobia must be included as a natural part of the schools’ work on basic values.

Justification

Over the past few decades, the State has devoted a great deal of resources to counteracting, researching, and spreading consciousness concerning the negative attitudes, the discrimination, and the violence that native-born Swedes subject immigrants to. Much of this work has been good and necessary.

Unfortunately, however, almost no attention has been directed against the discrimination, the negative attitudes, and the violence that native-born Swedes are subjected to owing to their origins, despite the fact that to all appearances, Swedophobia is a serious and commonly occurring problem.

Swedophobia can be expressed in many different ways. One example is Swedes being victims of discriminatory legislation, which is illustrated by such things as the current application of the law on incitement to racial hatred.

In view of a report against a letter to the editor in the newspaper Mitt i Södermalm containing grossly disparaging assertions on “typical Swedes”, the Office of the Chancellor of Justice wrote the following in an opinion from 05 November 2003:

"The purpose establishing penal regulations on incitement to racial hatred was to ensure legal protection for minority groups of various compositions and adherents of different belief systems. A case in which someone expresses criticism towards Swedes was probably not intended to be touched by the penal legislation. Owing to what has already been said, the contents of the letter cannot be considered as constituting an incitement to racial hatred."

Native-born Swedes are thus not covered by the protection that the law on incitement to racial hatred is intended to provide. Unfortunately, there are several examples of legislation that permit negative discrimination of native-born Swedes.

Swedophobia can also be expressed in the form of harassment, violations, and derogatory attitudes linked to Swedes’ origins or appearance.

In an article on 06 May 2006 in the newspaper Uppsala Nya Tidning, a girl talked about how, after a long period of Swedophobic harassment, she no longer dared go to school:

"They hit me, spit in my face, and called me a Swedish whore. They threaten me on the internet and say that they’re going to destroy my life. They scream at me and taunt me during lessons and recess. The teachers ignore it completely even though it happens out in the open during lessons and in the corridors."

A long series of media features from around the country speak of similar incidents. An article from Helsingborgs Dagblad on 11 May 2006 reads as follows:

“Several boys kicked me while I was down. All I thought of was protecting my head.”

This brutal assault occurred last winter and was the culmination of a couple of years of harassment, threats, and violence that Jesper and some ten of his friends had allegedly been subjected to by a gang of boys with immigrant backgrounds.

“Every day they try to pick fights by shouting things like ‘fucking Swedes’. It feels like it will never end,” Erik says. They’re convinced of why they in particular are coming to grief.

 “It’s because we’re Swedish. Reverse racism is what it is, but even that it happens is something that is rarely noticed,” Anders says.

On several occasions, offensive opinions about Swedes have appeared in the established mass media that would hardly have been let through if it were about any other ethnic group. In the newspaper Expressen on 26 June 2002, for example, writer Linda Skugge wrote the following:

"I hate everything genuinely typically Swedish. Most Swedes are ugly. Fine blonde hair that’s too thin to put up in a tuft, pasty bluish skin with red patches that turn crimson in the sun–butt-ugly, plain and simple."

Ethnologist Maria Bäckman has, in several studies, reported on the vulnerability of Swedish girls in suburbs with a heavy immigrant presence. In one interview with the Norwegian scientific periodical Forskning, 31 May 2005, she speaks of things such as how blonde Swedish women color their hair to look less Swedish and thus avoid sexual harassment. Bäckman explains the background as follows:

Being a blonde girl means being ascribed an identity that is full of derogatory prejudices about gender hierarchies and female sexuality. This entails a painful visibility: cars honking, men staring and boys calling you a whore.

A third form of Swedophobia, also the most serious, is the violence and crime Swedes are subjected to owing to their origins. In several studies, the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (1996:2, 2000:6, 2005:17) has shown that immigrants are overrepresented as criminals in most categories of crime, and that native-born Swedes are overrepresented as victims. There is also reason to assume that in at least one part of these cases there is an underlying Swedophobic motive.

In Report 2000:6 (Youth who rob youth in Malmö and Stockholm), approximately 90% of the robbers in Malmö had foreign backgrounds, and a nearly equally large proportion of victims were native-born Swedes. When, several years later, sociology student Petra Åkesson conducted a study where she interviewed young robbers in Malmö regarding the motives behind their crimes, she received the following answer, according to Dagens Nyheter, 25 March 2006:

"When we’re out on the town we make war, we make war on the Swedes."

On the question of what the concept of power meant for one of the robbers, she received the response:

"For me, it’s Swedes lying down on the ground and kissing my feet."

Sex crimes are the category of crime where the over-representation of immigrants is greatest, and even here there is reason to assume that basic Swedophobic motives may be part of the explanation.

On account of a gang rape in the Stockholm suburb of Rissne that garnered a great deal of attention, Dagens Nyheter conducted a reportage series where young people were interviewed about the incident. In an interview on 11 February 2000, an immigrant boy asserted:

"It’s not as wrong to rape a Swedish girl as it is an Arabic one. (…) I don’t have much respect for Swedish girls. You could say they’ve been fucked out."

This image was confirmed in an interview with a group of Swedish girls on 18 February 2000:

" ‘Fucking Swedes, they say,’ Jessica tells us ... And it’s the Swedish girls who suffer the most. Because in addition, they’re whores. Swedish whores.(…)

Does reverse racism come into play when Swedish girls are violated by immigrants?

‘Yes, I think so,’ Jessica says.

‘Immigrant boys don’t have great respect for Swedish girls, especially not those who are dressed provocatively,’ Malin says."

In view of what has been stated above, we believe it to be high time that the Government take measures to survey and suppress Swedophobia. As a first measure, we propose that an investigation be set up with the task of surveying the prevalence and character of Swedophobia, as well as proposing measures for the purpose of counteracting Swedophobia. In parallel with this, the wording of existing Acts that permit negative discrimination of native-born Swedes should be reviewed and amended. Furthermore, we propose that State support for anti-racist organizations only being provided to such organizations as also engage in counteracting Swedophobia, and that directives be drawn up for the country’s schools that shedding light on and counteracting Swedophobia must be included as a natural part of the schools’ work on basic values.

.

Paula Bieler (SD)

David Lång (SD)

Crisis in the Riksdag, fascists at the wheel

UPDATE: Löfvén has announced a new parliamentary election. This is the first time in almost exactly a century that this has happened in Sweden; the last double election (to what was then the lower house of the Riksdag) took place in March and September 1914. I am not familiar enough with the politics of Feministisk Initiativ to say to what degree I support them, but this is an opportunity they should by no means let slip.

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It appears that the worst-case scenario for the Swedish Parliament is about to become reality with today's vote on the budget proposal from the minority Social-Democratic government. The far-right Sweden Democrats party has pledged to vote against the center-left budget proposal and instead vote for the center-right opposition proposal, which could lead to the collapse of Prime Minister Stefan Löfvén's government and new elections at the end of the month. Their rationale, according to interim party leader Mattias Karlsson, was that they would "attempt to topple every government or budget proposal that supports increased immigration and gives [the Green Party] a decisive influence over immigration policy". (Note: The Green Party had been a vocal opponent of the Sweden Democrats' staunchly anti-immigrant position and openly embraced a more active, welcoming immigration policy.)

The budget proposal put forth by the ruling coalition after a general election is traditionally the first stepping-stone for a new administration in beginning its four-year mandate. For decades, this has never been an issue as either the Social Democrats (now part of the center-left Red-Green coalition) or the Moderates (part of the center-right Alliance) have had a solid majority in Parliament and therefore no problems getting their budget proposals passed.

This September's results, however, provided a nasty shock as not only did neither coalition receive even a simple majority, but the Sweden Democrats -- a far-right party with documented roots in the fascist and neo-Nazi movement -- became the third-largest party in Parliament. As neither coalition have been willing to work with them, they've become the rogue element in the Swedish government -- and they seem willing to play that role to the hilt.

According to Dagens Nyheter, the liberal paper of record, Löfvén is faced with two choices: resign and allow the Speaker of the Riksdag (Social Democrat Urban Ahlin) to form a new government, or call for new elections. Many commentators believe that if he resigns, the Speaker would attempt to form a new center-left government -- but without the Green Party (Miljöpartiet de gröna), which would essentially break up the Red-Green coalition and make future collaboration on the parliamentary left that much more difficult.

If the Red-Green coalition loses MP but maintains their minority government, they will be forced to reach rightwards to some or all of the Alliance in order to get their budget proposal passed; this will mean either major concessions or a wholesale adoption of the opposition budget. This is bound to be a hugely unpopular move, as the Alliance government was thrown out on its ear last September after eight years of cutbacks and privatization of the public sector.

The most unsettling factor in all this, however, is that it is the 'respectable' face of Swedish fascism calling the tune. (This is not to say that without this influence the Red-Greens would not have moved rightward of its own volition. They have been doing so since at least the 1970s, and it was this rightward drift that made center-right general election victories possible after a half-century of unbroken Social-Democratic rule.) Whatever the outcome of the next day or so, the Sweden Democrats have established themselves as a major political force at the national level. This will only serve as further encouragement for the smaller, more violent fascist and neo-Nazi groups on the fringe. There are more Kärrtorps waiting in the wings, and the Swedish left must be prepared for them.

The dramatic gains of the Sweden Democrats in September's election, however, are not the only trend worth noting. Of all the parties competing for seats in Parliament, only two actually increased their share of votes compared with 2010: the Sweden Democrats and a far-left party called Feminist Initiative. FI, unfortunately, did not garner enough votes nationally to clear the 4% hurdle and gain seats in the Riksdag, but their relatively dramatic gain over their results four years ago was enough to indicate that the Swedish voting populace is polarizing away from centrist politics.

There is an important lesson here that the Swedish left can learn from the Sweden Democrats, paradoxical as that may sound. There needs to be a party, an organization, that stands clearly and openly for radical -- even revolutionary -- politics. Unlike the Sweden Democrats, they should not be concerned with being the respectable 'suit and tie' face of revolutionary politics -- toning down what they consider to be their more extreme stances -- but should agitate proudly for radical change and the politics that promote them. Whether it is a coalition party like Syriza in Greece or a single party like Podemos in Spain, its increased presence in Swedish national politics can have the same effect for smaller radical and revolutionary groups as the Sweden Democrats have for their rightward fringe.

Whatever else may be said about parliamentary democracy, either here in Sweden or in general, it is abundantly clear that it cannot withstand the assaults of fascism, even almost 70 years after the defeat of its last international manifestation. Radical resistance among Swedish workers -- native-born and immigrant, men and women, LGBT or straight -- must be built now. If that resistance can put a radical party into the Riksdag, so much the better, but that should not be the main -- or only -- road to building the fightback. The whole capitalist system rests on the inequality and injustice that form the soil in which fascism takes root, and our fightback needs to be organized at our workplaces and on our streets as well.

The mixed bag of the 2014 election

The results are in, and though the counting continues, it's official: the Alliance has lost its majority. After eight years, neoliberalism in Sweden has been cast out on its ear... for now. Now-former Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt will be resigning as party leader of the Moderates (the dominant party of the Alliance) next spring; very few anywhere left of center are sorry to see him go.

The Alliance's loss, however, did not translate into a gain for the center-left Red/Green bloc. Overall, the Alliance lost a total of 31 mandates (the Moderates alone lost 25), but the Social Democrats and Left party only gained 1 and 2 mandates respectively. The third party of the block, the Environment Party Greens, also lost a mandate.

The other 29 mandates that switched hands in this election went to the far-right Sweden Democrats party - the front of respectability for the Swedish neofascist movement. In effect, SD more than doubled their gains of the 2010 election, when they first entered the Riksdag with 20 mandates.

This development is all the more troubling because the Red/Green bloc is unable to form a majority government on its own, having received less than 50% of the overall vote. As a coalition with SD is (as most hope) out of the question, this means there will have to be some measure of collaboration with the more centrist elements of the Alliance. Though the parliamentary left in Sweden has not been a force for real change for a long time, this situation is likely to lead to even the feeblest of reforms having a tough time getting enacted.

There was one other party in the election that made major gains over its 2010 results - Feminist Initiative. They are a radical party on the far left and would have made a welcome addition to the Riksdag, making it easier for the Red/Greens to form a government. Unfortunately, they did not receive enough votes to pass the 4% bar and are thus on the sidelines again.

Their improved performance this year (3.1%, up from less than 1% in 2010), however, is an indicator that the political polarization in Swedish society is not completely one-sided. There is still space for a radical left in Sweden; activists and revolutionaries must take every opportunity available to agitate and organize to build it up. It is the only way we can hope to challenge and ultimately defeat the nascent far right here.

One first step is being taken: a demonstration has been called for 5:00 this afternoon outside the Riksdag building to protest the SD. I sincerely hope is it larger and louder than the demonstration against the SvP three weeks ago. It will be a good way to estimate the strength of the movement in numbers, and give us the opportunity to build the networks we need to carry this movement forward.

The spirit of resistance was also on display last night during the election watch parties being hosted around Stockholm. Continuous live coverage was provided by Channel 1 from each location, so all the parties could see what the others were doing; as SD party leader Jimmie Åkesson took the stage to celebrate becoming the third biggest party in the Riksdag, the cameras cut to the Left Party event, where the entire room was facing the screen and chanting "No racists in our streets!" and letting a few select fingers also do the talking. As long as we still have that, we'll have the strength to fight back.

Reflections on an antifascist demonstration

Last Saturday, the racist Svenskarnas Parti staged a demonstration and march through downtown Stockholm. I was there for several hours waiting for them to pass by, and the counterdemonstration was a heartening sight. Some estimates place the crowd at around 14,000; it's possible that was the total crowd count along the entire route of the march, but from where I was observing in Kungsträdgården (a large downtown park) there were easily 3-4,000 people packed behind the barriers. Unfortunately that number decreased somewhat substantially over several hours as SvP apparently tried stalling the march to wait us out, but by the time they did come by they were still greeted with a thunderstorm of boos, whistles, and chants of "No fascists in our streets!"

No doubt the events in Kärrtorp, a suburb south of Stockholm, last December had a great influence on this weekend's turnout. The violent attack by members of another fascist organization, Svensk motståndsrörelse, on a peaceful anti-racist demonstration of not only activists but residents and families of Kärrtorp (which was, fortunately, driven back by a large part of that demonstration) roused a great deal of shock and anger, reflected in the attendance of nearly 20,000 people at a follow-up demonstration called as a response a week later. This blatant display of fascist thuggery in a country most still consider to be highly democratic and egalitarian is not something people could soon forget.

Another factor contributing to this atmosphere of militancy is the upcoming national elections on Sunday the 14th. The 2010 elections delivered a bombshell in the form of the far-right, anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats gaining seats in the Swedish Parliament for the first time, and several national polls indicate that they are set to keep those seats, if not gain additional mandates. This has not gone unnoticed or unanswered among anti-racists and anti-fascists - there have, for example, been a stream of incidents in the news where SD billboard advertisements in subway stations have been defaced.

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The militant mood and encouraging turnout notwithstanding, there was a lot about Saturday's counterdemonstration that left much to be desired.

 First and foremost was the use of Black Bloc-style tactics by a group of anarchists who, numerically speaking, comprised an insignificant minority of the demonstration as a whole. Over the course of the demonstration they threw homemade explosives - designed more for sound than for damage - in the direction of the march, even though the route was a couple hundred yards from the barriers and they had no chance whatsoever of getting the projectiles near it. The only thing it concretely achieved was heightening tension among the demonstrators. (They employed similar tactics at a counterdemonstration against the English Defence League's visit to Stockholm a couple of years ago; the result was cops rushing in on horseback and breaking up the demonstration.)

At one point, a group of them tried rushing the barrier, sending demonstrators fleeing in a panic. It was at that point the crowd took up the chant of "Stop! Stop! Stop!" - which, unfortunately, had little effect. People in the immediate area remarked how we could have missed the SvP marching by because we were so tied up in sorting out the internal drama these tactics had created. Ultimately, after the SvP passed, the cops pushed into the crowd and started a street battle that pushed into the park behind us.

The outcome for me only served to emphasize the fundamental problems with these pointless confrontations: they're planned and carried out without the knowledge and consent of the rest of the demonstrators present, and more often than not they are directed at the police rather than the actual target of the counterdemonstration. Time and time again, all this has done is to provoke a direct conflict with the police for which the rest of the demonstrators are unprepared and in which they are therefore very likely unwilling to participate. The panicked reaction that sets in not only draws attention and focus away from the people we should be demonstrating against, it increases the likelihood of demonstrators getting seriously hurt in the rush to get away. Over the long run this is going to make people less interested in demonstrating because they now think that if this is what demonstrations involve, they're not going to risk life and limb to attend.

This is not to say the police were innocent bystanders, nor that they were not deserving of the contempt hurled in their direction. It was, after all, the police who granted the SvP permission to march (apparently in direct contravention of Swedish and UN law regarding the promulgation of hate speech), came out with riot gear, brought in mounted and K-9 squads, continuously patrolled the march route, and made sure the counterdemonstration was far enough away to have little more than a mildly disrupting effect. In short, they did everything to give the SvP the impression that the police were on their side. (It becomes even more galling when compared with the protection they gave the original Kärrtrop demonstration at first: six beat cops with minimum equipment for a demonstration that was easily 2,000 people strong.) After the march, when the police stormed the counterdemonstration, the chant "Dagens polis skyddar morgondagens Hitler" - The police of today shield the Hitler of tomorrow - struck a deeply resonant chord among those of us who were left.

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We might look past the disparity in police protection I mentioned above and argue that the police weren't protecting the SvP but, rather, their right to freedom of speech. It is here with no small amount of relief that I note that Voltaire never said "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"; if one of the Enlightenment's leading advocates of liberation didn't make freedom of speech an inviolable principle, there is probably little reason for us to do the same.

Freedom of speech is not a principle, but an instrument. As such, it proves itself through the results of its use. We need look no further than Nazi Germany to understand the results of giving the freedom of speech to hatred, and we cannot afford to let that lesson go unheeded now when the far right is again on a slow but indisputable rise. Whether the police were protecting the SvP or their right to freedom of speech becomes an irrelevant point; the result - increased confidence among the potential future butchers of the Swedish working class and their footsoldier thugs - is the same.

Freedom of speech best serves as an instrument when it is wielded against oppression and used to carve out space for the oppressed to speak for themselves. This necessarily must involve not only confronting the neofascists but the capitalist system that allows them to grow and flourish. This is, of course, an unacceptable state of affairs for society's rulers, and they depend on an armed, deputized organization - the police - to keep that challenge in check. It's become increasingly clear over the past decade or so how far those who wield real power in the State are willing to go to do so, with the events in Ferguson being just the latest example. Should reliance on the police ultimately prove ineffective, however, they will be frightened enough to bring in fascist organizations to do their dirty work for them.

That last point is crucial to understanding that fascism must be fought; failing to challenge freedom of speech for them could ultimately result in obliterating freedom of speech for a much larger majority. They are still small and relatively disorganized; if an anti-racist and anti-fascist movement can learn how to organize and fight to smash them, we'll have learned how to organize and fight to smash the system that might see the need for them one day. Then, and only then, will the rush of demonstrators be towards the breach in the barriers instead of away from it.