fredag 31 juli 2015

The Sweden Democrats - an inside picture

A number of people from the States who have read my blog as a result of the reporting on the counterdemonstration against Wednesday's "Pride parade" have expressed their confusion as to who the Sweden Democrats are. Since I consider it the job of this blog to provide a clearer picture of Swedish politics and political events for English-speaking audiences, I had planned to do a little reading and write an article about them providing a brief history of the party.

This morning, I was tipped off about a blog entry by former SD member (and municipal councilor) Jesper Nilsson, published only three days ago, detailing exactly why he has left the Sweden Democrats. After reading it, I immediately felt that translating it into English here would far better serve the purpose under these circumstances than my own research and writing.

I would also like to note that the Swedish anti-racist Facebook group "Inte rasist, men" (Not Racist, But...)  posted a link to this blog entry on their Facebook page but it was almost immediately blocked due to complaints (presumably from other, active SD members). In an article on their webpage, they note that their complaints about a group called "Legalize Rape" did not result in the page being taken down. Why is it that Facebook has no problem blocking criticism of a far-right, demonstrably racist party, but does nothing about a group that clearly thinks sexual violence is acceptable?

The original blog entry (in Swedish) appears here. These are the people who organized the "Pride parade" through the heavily immigrant neighborhoods of Tensta, Rinkeby, Kista and Husby last Wednesday. These are the people I protested against, and I hope by the time you finish reading, you will better understand why.

(A final note: I personally do not completely agree with Mr Nilsson's vision at the end of his blog entry, but I am translating it in its entirety so that the few readers I do have get as full a picture of the situation as possible.)

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Why I left the Sweden Democrats

Jesper Nilsson, 28 July 2015

As the headline indicates, this piece is about why I left SD. I was the district chair for the SD Youth in Västmanland, nominated to the Board of its association, and elected as both municipal councilor and county councilor in addition to being the vice-president of the municipal association and elected to the party's district committee; I have chosen to leave all of these positions in order to completely abandon the Sweden Democrat movement. But firstly, I'll begin by talking about myself and how I ended up in the Sweden Democrats. I really don't like talking about myself, but sometime's it's necessary in order to make things understandable. This is my story:

My childhood and adolescence were characterized by a lack of self-confidence, and I have had marked problems with creating long-term relationships, both friendships and otherwise. As a consequence I shut myself up at home, where I played video games and listened to nationalist romantic Viking rock, headed by Ultima Thule. Their lyrics gave me a feeling of identity. I've always had a great interest in history, and their songs gave me the opportunity to find out that other people felt like I did. In addition, Ultima Thule could touch me deeply, and these feelings built up my belief that the "nation's interest" should be given priority and should permeate all political decisions.

My party political process began prior to the 2009 EU elections, when I noticed that on many points, Jimmie Åkesson's1 words on national affinity and community were what I felt were desirable for the country. This, in combination with Per Albin Hansson's "folkhem"2, was exactly what I envisioned. I was a little hesitant about the Sweden Democrats, though; I'd heard about the party's background and had never been able to identify as xenophobic. In the spring of 2010, however, I met a representative of the Sweden Democrat Youth (SDU) for the first time. They themselves had a foreign-sounding name and a foreign background; moreover, he understood my concern about the party's background but referred to his own heritage as an assurance of the party's purity. At that point I couldn't do anything else than believe him, naïvely enough. And so I joined the SDU, but it would be a while before I became active.

After the "iron pipe" scandal3 was the first time I was seriously prepared to leave the association, but Åkesson's calm, trustworthy voice gave me the feeling that those involved maybe weren't representative of the party after all. Erik Almqvist was forced out, after all...

In the spring of 2013, I went to an SD meeting for the first time. I was invited to the annual meeting of the municipal organization; Björn Söder4 was there as chairperson. I got to meet him, and was struck by how pleasant he seemed. The man who was vice-president of the municipal association at the time came up to me afterwards and made an unbelievably professional, serious impression. I decided then that it was time to get involved.

I really should have smelled a rat the first time I was to visit a school with SDU, since there was a representative sitting there listening to white power music - which I naturally questioned. He shrugged his shoulders dismissively and agreed that that type of music wasn't something SD supported. All the same, it was a band whose members were openly antidemocratic and sung about things like "hanging politicians from lampposts". I interpreted it as that the party wouldn't support that, although I still asked myself how suitable it was for a representative to be listening to that music. I may pretty much have been the only one to see the problem. The reasoning was built on the principle "If no one knows about it, it doesn't matter".

The school visit went well for me, however. I got a lot of praise for my debating technique and my involvement - something that was completely fantastic for me, considering my lack of self-confidence. I was totally delighted.

When it came to various member meetings, though, I started becoming hesitant. During a presentation by Linus Bylund5, there was a member who questioned the term "newly arrived", considering it as concerning "foreigners". Bylund then tried to argue that it could in fact be better to use more positive rhetoric around newly arrived immigrants. Another member then said "It's not good for Sweden, anyway!" I became uneasy, but chose to focus on the genial vice-president and the others who seemed serious. After the presentation itself, it was time for coffee. A member from a neighboring municipality struck up a conversation with me, and it was moderately pleasant until, in an extremely vulgar fashion, he asked me if I knew a woman who would want to go home with him and "be dominated a little". Such members are probably not unique to the Sweden Democrats, but I believe they will be over-represented in an environment where conservative forces are leading.

On another occasion I was eating lunch with a colleague after a school visit. He spoke about how he managed to "get some" one night at the pub. He saw a woman and overheard her saying she was attracted to firemen, at which point he went up and lied to her face, saying he was a trained firefighter. Later she figured out he wasn't, and asked why he'd said he was. He sneered and said "I wouldn't have gotten laid otherwise." I don't know when this was, but him sitting there boasting as if he'd stolen a choice trophy definitely indicated how he viewed women.

Later on, I chose to stand as a candidate for the municipality and the county council. I couldn't have dreamed then of being elected to the county council; I just wanted to fill a spot. I had a little more home for the municipality, but it wasn't anything I had confidence in.

During the summer of 2014, a statement came out from a member of the Riksdag based on arguments that women who are treated badly in marriage "had themselves to blame" and that it was "their own responsibility". This member had the opportunity to offer a sincere apology but abstained, complaining later on that the media was being nasty. Yet another statement that made me sick. Of course women in the SD dissociated themselves from this, but no call was raised for expulsion, or even to demand an apology. The reason I bring this up (I'm trying to keep things local) is that she sat on the same district committee as I did. In addition, refusing to apologize and to instead complain in front of the district that the media was being nasty is remarkable.

This same woman, at a dinner after a committee meeting, sat and talked with me about there being "an international conspiracy" that was "forcing us to be tolerant and open to things like gay rights and multiculturalism". I just said I disagreed, but my thoughts turned to the neo-Nazis' insanely preposterous ideas about Jewish occupation; it is certainly frightening that this woman sits in the Riksdag and was in addition the party's second vice-president.

In the spring of 2014 I became a district chair in the SDU. Now I was to experience the problems that existed concerning women in the association. Sexist expressions and slang that was humiliating to women occurred with remarkable frequency. In every meeting there was at least one instance where someone objectified women's bodies, and I can believe they thought I wasn't a real man because I didn't want to use that slang. I felt it was a compliment in that context. I think expressions like "Fuck, look at the body on her" and "That ass!" are horribly embarrassing and they made me feel very uncomfortable. During the 2014 election campaign for the Riksdag, there were four of us from the SDU - three men, one woman - who were going to have a meeting when my telephone rang and I have to step away for a while. The two remaining men laughed in their "masculine" way and encouraged the woman to "go up and pinch me in the ass" and other things to get me to stop talking. This is behavior I find horribly vulgar and objectionable. Who can, with good conscience, recommend that a young woman get involved in a movement that uses this kind of language? I can just imagine how it felt for this woman, but she is probably tougher than I am...

Later on during the caimpaign, a representative came out with a statement calling people parasites, the n-word, and everything else possible. SD says it has zero tolerance towards ideologically aberrant opinions. Formal "zero tolerance" is permissible, but in SD's case it extends no further than avoiding expressing certain opinions on social media. But even if those values aren't always expressed that way in the media, they're there all the same. There may be SD members who feel the same way I do: that they don't belong in the party. But at least as many - if not more - think that this is fully acceptable. Most don't care that members and representatives have these stale opinions and values, as long as they don't express them publicly. Perhaps they understand that if members weren't allowed to express them, SD would have to expel so many members it would no longer have a party left.

One clear example of the objectionable opinions that can be found within the party is the time some of us carpooled to the county council. As is rather usual, we got into a discussion concerning LGBT issues. As usual, I advocated for the right of gays and lesbians to adoption; comments like "What are you thinking?" and "Are you a feminist?" immediately popped up. I sighed, and used a rather banal example: "If a starving chiled in Uganda could have a better live with a homosexual pair in Sweden, isn't that simply a positive thing?" But no, I was clearly for "mass immigration".

During another carpool, a rather angry woman mentioned how awful it was with all the beggars outside the ICA supermarket - but it was hardly out of compassion for these people. She mentioned that she couldn't believe her eyes when she saw a neighbor (whom she'd known all her life) giving money to a beggar. Is it the height of treachery to try to help a socially vulnerable person by giving?

Experiences within the youth association, moreover, assert that sexism is completely OK, provided that it's handled internally and that everyone involved is "OK with it". On one such occasion I tried to protest that all the same, it legitimates a negative view of women and that in addition it could be difficult for the person being subjected to it to say no, but then I was clearly too influenced by political correctness. The man I was speaking with also said it was biologically unnatural for men and women to be friends.

When I was out having a few drinks with a colleague, we got - as usual - into politics. I seem to remember that I brought up the problem of the party being seen by many as Nazi. My colleague played it down by saying "those saying that don't know any better" - but then came the really shocking part: "Actually, Hitler was a model example." Now, it should be said that both I and his live-in partner told him off in no uncertain terms, and that it all ended up with him apologizing. Despite all this, it was something said during the substantial intake of intoxicating beverages - something that makes a mess of things for everybody - but I don't think that matters at all. Calling a person with the blood of millions on his hands, who turned a democracy in to the worst sort of dictatorship, a model example is pure lunacy. Your values don't disappear just because you've been drinking. On another occasion he was there when we were manning a literature table together with other youth associations in Västerås. A woman, originally from a country occupied by the Nazis during the Second World War and whose parents had been sent to one of the Nazis' concentration camps, came up to us. When she told us this, he laughed! It may possibly have been out of uncertainty over how to handle the situation, but just the same I cannot imagine a more disrespectful way to handle it. I'll leave it unsaid whether this person has Nazi sympathies or not, but obviously he doesn't find any big problems with expressing himself that way. The sympathy for antidemocratic opinions within SD is obvious.

At another literature table in a school during the election campaign, we were given a pot of coffee, which was welcome; at that point my male colleague said to our female colleague: "As a social conservative, I think it is your job as a woman to pour me some coffee." It may have been an attempt at a joke, but it was unbelievably unpleasant and inappropriate. It's true that the location was rather empty of people at the time, but what would a passerby think upon hearing that kind of "joke" being made? This person was actually warned by the Dalarna/Västmanland district then in charge, although if you're reading this, by now you probably understand that it presumably wasn't because the statement indicates a hostile attitude towards women from the party concerned, but because it would be damaging if anyone had heard those opinions expressed...

Let's return to homophobia: It is not at all unusual for homosexuality to be compared with sexual intercourse with animals. A preposterous comparison, in my opinion, but difficult to protest with the "open and tolerant" Sweden Democrats! I will never forget how the youth association, at its annual congress, voted no to advocating the right of homosexuals to civil marriage. One of the arguments - seen by many as the strongest - was: "That is ideologically aberrant". Personally, regardless of their ideology, I could never look a gay or lesbian in the eye and say, "You may not build a family because it's against my ideology." It's obviously a completely unreasonable argument. Moreover, it's already permitted under Swedish law. All due respect to the caution of conservatism, but there's nothing cautious about making a U-turn straight back to hell. Within this movement, however, it is fully legitimate to be of the opinion that LGBT persons are a group of degenerates.

In addition, we have all these references to the so-called "alternative media". Avpixlat, Fria Tider, Exponerat and the Flashback forum, and so on. These pages often contain downright untruthful articles completely lacking in scientific grounding. Despite this, I still ought to say that these are by far the most read pages among ordinary Sweden Democrats who take the words written there as an absolute truth, and that is what's so tragic. The naïveté is evident; I was also naïve, I willingly admit. But I have always rejected these media outlets, since the texts published there are often racist, sexist, and homophobic.

These opinions are not always outwardly visible, but they permeate the entire party; I feel there are extremely few people who are prepared to actively oppose them. I hope the Sweden Democrats who see this problem thank me for saying how things stand so that they can overcome their problems once and for all! But as long as they're part of this "national" movement they'll attract these kinds of forces; I can state definitively that many within SD would love to see members of the former Svenskarnas Parti (5) come over to them now that it's shut down - something that runs directly opposite to my own thinking and values.

For those of you who do not sympathize with SD: I want to confirm the image of SD you have. Under that polished surface is a rotting corpse. My vision has always been to cut off the unhealthy branches in the party and get the tree to grow large and flower, with the desire to build a 'folkhem' based on equality, consideration, collaboration, and helpfulness just like the one Per Albin Hansson laid the foundations for. But I have been forced to realize that the tree is so infected that it is better to rescue the healthy branches: the ones that understand the dangers of racism, sexism and homophobia. Those of you in SD for the same reasons I was have to understand that it is the wrong way to go. There are other parties to involve yourselves in; although Åkesson's words "sound good", I hope you will think a step further and come to the same insights I have.

Five years in the association, with merely two years active in the party - how could I advance so quickly? Well - the party doesn't have better people. That's saying nothing about me, but a lot about SD. I believed in them, but after months of reflection and regret, I was forced to realize that everything I believed in and fought for is an illusion I painted in my head but doesn't actually exist. This insight is probably the toughest I've arrived at, but sometimes you just can't grit your teeth and keep going. It's better to admit that you were wrong and apologize, which I'm doing here and now. I would also like to thank those of you who were magnanimous enough to be friendly towards me despite my choice of party. With these words I leave SD forever, and they probably think I'm a disloyal traitor. If am "betraying" the Sweden Democrats now, I am doing the majority of society a huge favor.

In conclusion: Why am I writing this? SD is climbing higher and higher in the opinion polls, and I don't think they deserve it. I want to illuminate, for the average citizen, what they actually choose to vote for, and which representatives they put their trust in. I have insights into the party that most outside don't have access to; when I myself realized that I had chosen the wrong political direction, it would actually have been a shame not to tell what I'd seen and heard. I should, of course, have left the movement earlier, but I hope that my readers understand that this - leaving all my positions although I like politics in general, realizing that people will turn their backs on me, and understanding that I will never be able to return - is no small step to take. I also realize that I have put my entire political credibility at risk. This text could also be seen as a formal end to my journey. I would perhaps never be able to go further if I didn't get to speak about my experiences.

With this, I realize that my role in the party has been played out. I oppose all forms of racism, sexism, and homophobia, and I therefore do not wish to represent the Sweden Democrats. It took a longer time than most for me to realize what a stale party it is, but as the old Swedish proverb says, "sent skall syndaren vakna" (the sinner awakes too late). I turn to those of you who sympathize with - and who are interested in - SD. I encourage you to think again. Even if SD brings up issues the other parties are cautious with, they do not have the solution. In the end, the immigration question is the only one SD cares about; considering what kind of party it is, there is a great risk that they are counterproductive on the issue.

If I were to summarize my choice of party in some way, I would express it as the right observations, but the wrong conclusion. I saw major problems with welfare; I saw major problems with the immigration policies being pursued; I saw major problems with criminality. I turned to SD, which sees the problems but (as I discovered) definitely does not have the solution. Again, the only thing their politics stem from is reducing immigration by asylum seekers and immediate family members; the rest of their politics is filled out with bottomless populism - something that is immediately dangerous to society, whose politics should be governed by opinions based on facts.

Footnotes:



1 Current party leader and MP.
2 Social-Democratic politician and Prime Minister of Sweden from 1932 to 1946. Hansson's "folkhem" policy consisted of a social corporatist welfare state, class collaboration, and a reformist agenda. Wikipedia
3 An incident from 2010 (publicized in 2012) in which three members of SD, including two MPs, race-baited Swedish comedian Soran Ismail, harassed passersby, and armed themselves with iron pipes from a nearby construction site when confronted. Wikipedia
4 Former Party Secretary and parliamentary group leader of the Sweden Democrats; currently MP and second deputy speaker of the Riksdag.
5 MP since 2014; Åkesson's former press secretary and chief of staff for the SD parliamentary group.

torsdag 30 juli 2015

Brief report back from the anti-"SD Pride" protest

The march yesterday by supporters of the far-right Sweden Democrat party under the guise of a Pride parade did not go unnoticed in the press both domestically and internationally. It was good that the ploy by these unashamed racists was exposed for what it actually was - an attempt to pit immigrants and the LGBT community against each other - but that level of attention was not matched on the ground by an equal level of organization in the areas where the march actually occurred.

This is not to say that nothing was done; there was a spirited demonstration of more than one hundred anti-racist, pro-LGBT activists at the spot where the march was supposed to have ended. The marchers themselves - numbering less than twenty - instead stopped a few hundred meters away. It is not clear whether they did so of their own volition or were stopped by the police accompanying them, but in an interview after the march, organizer Jan Sjunnesson was clearly unwilling to be confronted and called out on his thinly-disguised provocation by a group five times the size of his own.

The march started in my own neighborhood - Tensta, a suburb to the northwest of Stockholm that is heavily populated by immigrants from a number of countries and that also has a large Muslim presence. A fellow activist and I went to the location where the step-off was to occur, to see how things would start off. Though the group itself and the police presence attracted a great deal of attention from area residents, it quickly became clear from talking to several of them that very few were aware of who was actually organizing the march. With that low level of awareness, it fell to the handful of protesters to organize visible resistance, which - though it attracted a fair bit of media attention - actually accomplished very little. The march stepped off exactly at 12 without a hitch.

As noted earlier, there was a demonstration at the planned location for the end of the march: Husby, another northwestern suburb with a heavy immigrant population and Muslim presence. (The march, in fact, wound its way through several similar suburban areas.) It definitely had a greater effect - stopping the march a little earlier than planned - but my impression was that it failed to attract and retain a significant number of the actual residents of Husby, both for the demonstration itself and for the picnic and hangout afterwards.

I cannot speak for Husby or most of the other neighborhoods plagued by this farce on the part of the Sweden Democrats, but in Tensta there was absolutely nothing done in the week or two leading up to the march to raise residents' awareness of the event and to try to organize a more neighborhood-based resistance to it. Had that been done (even if it had been just something like putting up flyers) we might have been able to have a demonstration of equal size at the start of the march, possibly preventing them from stepping off at all. That would have been a far greater victory.

This, for me, is the key lesson to draw from yesterday's events - we experienced activists need to make sure we're reaching out to the working people in our own neighborhoods when our neighborhoods are forced to play host to racist provocations. If they're not aware, they can't join the fight; if they don't join the fight, we'll never have a hope of winning - whether it's stopping a handful of racists staging a parade, or building a world without racism in the first place.

tisdag 21 juli 2015

Dirtying the mantle of Pride

The activist community in Stockholm has been roused to anger and action this week by an upcoming event - a two-hour Pride march through Tensta and Husby, two northwestern suburbs of the city. This is, however, no ordinary Pride march; it is being organized by one Jan Sjunesson, former editor of Samtiden - the paper of the right-wing racist Sweden Democrat party - and currently collaborator on the homophobic hate site Avpixlat.

Despite Sjunesson's claims that this is a defense of LGBT rights in neighborhoods where a Pride parade has never been held before, the timing and location of the event indicate this is intended to be a clear Islamophobic provocation. Tensta and Husby are two districts with a heavily immigrant and Muslim population, and the march is scheduled for next Wednesday, July 29th, at 12:00 noon. The only people who would be around to witness the event - and possibly confront it - are schoolchildren, high-school students, stay-at-home parents and the unemployed.

It's not hard to out Sjunesson as an unrepentant racist and Islamophobe; his Facebook page is littered with all kinds of hate-filled propaganda. Word about this march and who's behind it will certainly spread through Tensta and Husby like wildfire and people will turn out to protest - as well they should. But as noted, it is likely to be largely immigrants and Muslims who will be able to come out at that time; Sjunesson will no doubt use it as fuel for his arguments that Muslims are an intolerant bunch of homophobes who have no business coming to a peaceful country like Sweden that embraces diversity and living off its generous welfare benefits and refusing to integrate.

The rest of the Swedish far right has predictably rallied to Sjunesson's cause, expressing bewilderment that the main gay rights organization in Sweden, RFSU, has officially distanced itself from the event and decrying the left as hypocrites for organizing to protest the march when they supposedly stand for the defense of gay and lesbian rights. (They've also accused the organizers of the annual Stockholm Pride march of hogging all the glory for themselves, afraid to let others stage Pride marches when and where they wish.)

This event is a thoroughly disgusting mockery of everything the real fight for gay rights has ever stood for. Anyone and everyone who supports LGBT liberation should, if they are able, turn out to counterdemonstrate along the route of the march and attend the Pride picnic organized by genuine LGBT activists at the location where the march is planned to end.

There are surely residents of Tensta and Husby who are both gay and Muslim. Perhaps this would be a good opportunity to call Sjunesson's bluff and organize an openly Muslim LGBT contingent to jump in at the front. Tensta and Husby are their districts; why should they not be represented?

I'll be taking the day off to protest. If such a contingent comes into being and gets into the march, I will most assuredly be with them.