Sweden
The Sveriges Socialdemokratiska Arbetarepartiet (SAP, Swedish Social
Democratic Labour Party) continued to lead a minority government, co-operating
with the Centerpartiet (Centre Party). The prime minister, Göran Persson,
took over from Ingvar Carlsson in March 1996, having replaced him as head
of the SAP. Other major parties include the Moderata Samlingspartiet (Conservative
Party), Folkpartiet Liberalerna (Fp, Liberal Party) and the Kristdemokraterna
(Christian Democrats).
According to public opinion polls, voter support for the SAP, which in 1996
was often in conflict with the labour unions over central policy questions,
has diminished to record low levels. The next elections are scheduled for
1998.
In 1996 the Swedish economy continued to improve (there was stabilization
of con-sumer and producer prices, lower interest rates and a stronger currency)
although the rate of unemployment had risen by over 1 per cent to 8.8 per
cent by the end of the year. The annual rate of inflation dropped frpm 2.7
per cent in 1995 to -0.2 per cent in 1996.
In a referendum in November 1994, 52.2 per cent of voters approved Sweden's
entry into the European Union (EU). During 1996 polls showed that there
was a growing and widespread discontent with Sweden's EU membership, and
that many who voted for membership no longer supported it.
In 1782 a law was passed allowing Jews to settle in Sweden without converting
to Christianity, and in 1870 Swedish Jews were emancipated. In the 1930s
and up to the end of 1942, anti-Jewish attitudes influenced Sweden's restrictive
policy towards the immigration of Jewish refugees from Nazi persecution.
In 1938 widespread fear of a massive Jewish immigration, including antisemitic
student protests at Uppsala and Lund universities, led Sweden to virtually
close its borders to Jewish refugees. Following Swiss and Swedish demands
the German authorities in 1938 began stamping a red-coloured "J"
in the passports of Jews. Also in 1938, following the Nazi example, a law
was introduced prohibiting shekhita (Jewish religious slaughter of
animals). The law remains in effect to this day, and attempts to change
the situation have so far been unsuccessful (kosher meat is imported to
Sweden).
Sweden's policies in relation to Jewish refugees changed during the course
of the Second World War, and the country actively sought to rescue Jews.
Notable examples are the escape of the Danish Jews to Sweden in October
1943, Raoul Wallenberg's attempts to save Hungarian Jews and Count Folke
Bernadotte's action as the war was ending to bring both Jews and non-Jews
out of the concentration camps.
In the late 1940s and 1950s, veteran antisemite Einar Åberg, a founder/leader
of the wartime organization Sveriges Antijudiska Kampförbund (Swedish
Anti-Jewish Action League), became a leading European antisemitic propagandist.
His activities eventually led to the introduction of a law prohibiting "incitement
against an ethnic group", according to which he was sentenced sixteen
times.
In the late 1950s and 1960s the magazine Fria Ord (Free Words), an
outlet mainly for middle- and upper-class fascists and Nazis of the older
generation and their younger new recruits, regularly carried articles espousing
Holocaust denial, affirming that the Holocaust was anti-German propaganda
concocted by communism and "international Zionism". The attack
against the Diary of Anne Frank began with an article in Fria
Ord in 1957.
In the late 1970s, with the emergence of Ditlieb Feldererwho was sentenced
to ten months' imprisonment in 1983 for violating the law against "incitement
against an ethnic group"and his Bible Researcher publishing house,
material denying the Holocaust again began to circulate, especially in schools
and public libraries. During the 1982 Israeli military campaign in Lebanon,
antisemitic expressions surfaced in the mainstream Swedish press.
In March 1987, Radio Islam, headed by an immigrant from Morocco, Ahmed Rami,
started broadcasting antisemitic propaganda in the Stockholm area. The initial
reaction of the public and the authorities was slow. Several well-known
individuals from intellectual and cultural life defended Rami and his station
for several years against the accusations of antisemitism, asserting that
his message was part of a legitimate "anti-Zionism" and criticism
of Israel. Radio Islam stopped broadcasting in October 1992 in protest against
"Zionist persecution", but resumed its activities during late
spring 1996 (see PUBLICATIONS AND MEDIA), both on the air and on the Internet.
A violent neo-Nazi skinhead culture emerged in the first half of the 1980s,
which has become the main nucleus and origin of today's racist subculture
(see PARTIES, ORGANIZATIONS, MOVEMENTS), although in the past year the number
of skinheads has declined.
There are around 17,000 Sami (Lapps) in Sweden. Sweden was the last of
the Nordic countries to allow formation of a Sametinget (Sami parliament)
to act as an advisory body to the government; it did so in 1994. Under the
current government, Sami issues fall under the jurisdiction of the ministry
of agriculture.
The Swedish government co-operates with the UN High Commission for Refugees
and other humanitarian organizations in assisting refugees. Sweden has adopted
an increasingly restrictive asylum policy. The number of asylum applications
dropped to a ten-year low of 10,000 in 1995, and to 2,715 in the first half
of 1996.
Sweden has accepted over 100,000 refugees from former Yugoslavia and there
are 60,000 refugees from Bosnia-Hercegovina living in the country. The government
provides funds for Bosnians to travel to their homeland in order to determine
if they wish to be repatriated.
Although the number of attacks against asylum for refugees has gone down
since 1994, due mainly to the decreasing amount of asylums granted, overall
racist propaganda and violence in Sweden remains at a fairly steady level.
A survey carried out in 1995 by the Stockholm University-based Centre for
Research in International Migration and Ethnic Relations showed that approximately
one-tenth of the Swedish population between the ages of sixteen and seventy-six
harboured more or less extreme racist ideas and attitudes. The survey will
be published in May 1997.
In 1996 two teenagers were sentenced to imprisonment for the September 1995
stabbing of Gerard Gbeyo, an African refugee, in the small town of Klippan,
north of Malmö. The two murderers were among about thirty local youths
who had been recruited by the Reich Front (see PARTIES, ORGANIZATIONS, MOVEMENTS
and LEGAL MATTERS).
There are a number of xenophobic, racist and neo-Nazi groups in Sweden.
Some of them have set up parties or groups that operate within the parliamentary
democratic system, while others either try to influence public opinion and
the mainstream parties more or less surreptitiously or reject the political
system outright. The boundaries between the various groups are sometimes
blurred.
The main groups associated with parliamentary extremism are as follows.
Sverigedemokraterna (SD, Swedish Democrats) is a far-right political party
whose programme comprises opposition to non-European immigration. Many SD
activists have ties with the NS Movement (see below). The leader, Mikael
Jansson, is a former active member of the mainstream Centre Party. During
1996, the SD experienced a number of power struggles. The present membership
of the group is unknown, although earlier counts estimated between 1,000
and 2,000 members. It is likely that the party has partially lost its cadre
due to decreasing activity levels, competition from the new party Hembygdspartiet
(see below) and individual members leaving the SD for more radical groups.
The group continues to hold four seats in the local councils of Dals-Ed
(two) and Höör (two). The previously bi-monthly magazine SD-Kuriren
(SD Courier) now appears only irregularly, as does SD-Bulletinen
, the party's membership bulletin.
SD used to maintain regular contacts with a number of far-right and neo-Nazi
organizations in Europe, among them the German Republikaner, whose leader,
Franz Schönhuber, spoke at an SD election meeting in Stockholm in 1991,
as well as with Le Pen's Front national, in particular its youth movement
(see Germany, France).
Founded in April 1995, the Hembygdspartiet (The "Heimat" Party)
is a splinter group of the "old guard" of the SD, including members
Leif Zeilon, Leif Larsson and the former leader Tommy R. Rydén. Rydén
was appointed as party leader in 1996. The Hembygdspartiet's membership
is estimated to be between 100 and 200. The party has one representative
on the local council of Ekerö, who defected from the SD. Hembygdspartiet's
ideology and approach is reminiscent of the Nazi and völkisch organizations
of the 1920s and 1930s. The party publishes Grindvakten (The Gatekeeper)
irregularly, and a monthly bulletin. It also distributes large numbers of
flyers and stickers.
The once successful rightist populist party Ny Demokrati (ND, New Democracy)
lost its parliamentary representation in the 1994 elections. The downfall
of the ND, which is openly hostile towards refugees and immigrants (especially
Muslims), is attributable not only to parliamentary failure but also to
the internal strife that beset the party in 1994. However, recent reports
have suggested that the ND and several other small, far-right groups have
been considering co-operating in the placing of candidates for the 1998
elections.
In 1996 the activities of three anti-immigration organizations and publications
were particularly notable in forming a mainstream front against Sweden's
immigration policies, and especially against the presence of non-European
immigrants. They were the Samfundet (see below), and the groupings around
the publications Blå-gula frågor and Fri information
(see PUBLICATIONS AND MEDIA).
Even though the country's policies towards refugees and immigrants have
hardened in recent years, more in line with European policies in general,
the attacks from these three groups against the government, the media and
the "establishment" have not diminished. Style and emphasis vary,
but they all have certain characteristics in common. While Fri information
is at times blatently racist and antisemitic, the other two groups are
more cautious in their approach and concentrate on arguments about the negative
aspects of a multicultural society and the impossibility of integrating
non-European immigrants because of cultural differences. A common theme
is that of implementing policies for the return of refugees to their countries
of origin, a policy that is claimed to have the same humanitarian foundation
and to be similar to recommendations of the United Nations.
Samfundet för nationell och internationell utveckling (League for National
and International Development) has, since the end of 1994, operated with
some success as a lobby network, consisting of academics and members of
mainstream political parties who are critical of Sweden's immigration and
refugee policies. Common lobbying methods have included a call by the network
leadership to write "network letters" to government officials,
ministers, businesses and daily papers to promote the ideas of Samfundet
as well as to protest against various anti-racist and pro-immigrant campaigns.
Leading members of the League have also published articles about the dangers
of immigration in the national press.
One of the leaders, former associate professor of literature Ingrid Björkman,
has claimed in articles in mainstream newspapers that "ethnic Swedes"
will be in the minority by the year 2056 if present immigration policies
continue. Björkman regularly mentions the USA as a (negative) example
of a multi-ethnic, multicultural society. Björkman has published several
books about her ideas together with other leading members of the network.
Her latest book, concentrating on the theme of the return of refugees and
immigrants to their countries of origin, was published in October 1996 by
the respected publishing house SNS.
Officially, the Samfundet network ceased to exist in May. It was dismantled
as a reaction to the disclosures in the anti-racist magazine Expo (see
COUNTERING ANTISEMITISM) about the network's existence and its activities.
However, the leaders stated in their last members' letter that the network
was so vast that no central organization was needed and that local groups
would carry on the work. They wrote: "Throughout the country groups
are formed, networks, associations of people who react against the ongoing
destructive mass immigration, against the politicians' perfidy and cowardice,
and against the media's disinformation. It is obvious that people will no
longer accept being silenced and intimidated."
Neo-Nazi groups comprise an informal network of militant and often violent
activists who call themselves "NS-rörelsen" (NS Movement, National Socialist Movement). The number of hard-core activists in the network
is estimated today at approximately 100, with perhaps an additional 1,000-2,000
active sympathizers nationwide. The number of passive sympathizers and consumers
of propaganda material produced by various elements in the network is certainly
much larger. Many activists in the NS Movement often belong to more than
one organization within the network. Some members of the network maintain
regular contacts, mostly on a personal basis, with like-minded persons and
groups in other countries. Parts of the network voice support for Ahmed
Rami/Radio Islam (see PUBLICATIONS AND MEDIA).
During 1996 the propaganda activities of the groups linked to the NS Movement
continued without interruption, despite increasing legal setbacks (see LEGAL
MATTERS). New, often locally based, magazines appeared and the number of
neo-Nazi music bands in Sweden continued to increase (see below).
The main organizations associated with the NS Movement include the following.
Vitt ariskt motstånd (VAM, White Aryan Resistance) was promoted during
the years 1991-3 as the nucleus of an "Aryan revolution" despite
the fact that it was never a formal organization and had no formal leader.
The name was adopted by activists to a large extent due to sensationalism
in the media. VAM activists have been sentenced for a number of violent
crimes including: three cases of murder (in 1985, 1986 and 1990); several
armed robberies; burglaries in military arms depots; and violent assaults.
The last issue of VAM's magazine Storm was published in April 1993.
Riksfronten (Reich Front) is a neo-Nazi organization with an estimated 300
members. In 1995 the group underwent structural changes and replaced its
magazine, Rikslarm (Reich Alarm), with Den svenske folksocialisten
(The Swedish Folk Socialist), named after one of the most important
Nazi publications of the 1940s. The group's headquarters were transferred
to the town of Fagersta, under the leadership of Per Öberg.
Common themes in the propaganda of Riksfronten are racism, antisemitism
and de-nial of the Holocaust. Members of Riks-fronten often wear black uniforms
with various insignia. The most common symbol used by the organization is
the "Odal rune" (an ancient Norse mythological symbol of homestead,
also appropriated by Swedish Nazis in the 1930s). The women's section of
Riksfronten is Kristina Gyllenstierna (the name of a seventeenth-century
queen, appropriated by the Swedish Nazi women's organization in the 1930s
and 1940s).
Kreativistens Kyrka (KK/COTC, Church of the Creator) was the Swedish branch
of the US organization COTC (see page 50), neither of which is operative
today. However, KK leader Tommy R. Rydén continues to be one of the
most important ideologues of the Swedish neo-Nazi movement. In 1996 he appeared
for a short period as one of the editors of Nordland and is also
on the editorial board of Grindvakten (see above). Rydén also
created the De Vries Institute, which operates as a mail-order firm, and
he is integral to the running of the Einar Åberg Memorial Foundation
(see HISTORICAL LEGACY).
Werwolf is a small, clandestine organization believed to consist of core
activists from the west of Sweden. It is in all likelihood the Swedish component
of the (international) neo-Nazi terrorist group International Anti-AFA (IAA).
At the centre of Werwolf's ideology is the fight against "race and
national traitors", persons perceived by the organization as working
for the interests of the "Zionist occupation government". In October
1995, Werwolf distributed a "death list" with the names, addresses
and phone numbers of 300 Swedish citizens (among them Jews), which included
members of the Swedish parliament. In 1996 Werwolf appeared with its own
site on the Internet.
Nordiska Rikspartiet (NRP, Nordic Reich Party), an old-style national socialist
party, was established in 1956, and is headed by Göran and Vera Oredsson.
It has an estimated membership of 300. In the past, the NRP and in particular
its now defunct Reich Action Group "stormtroopers" were often
connected to neo-Nazi violence and harassment. Historically the NRP's importance
lay in its bridging the gap between the older and younger generations drawn
to neo-Nazism in the 1980s. During 1996 the group's only consistent activity
was to publish the quarterly magazines Nordisk Kamp (Nordic Struggle)
and Nordiska Riks-partiet (Nordic Reich Party), and the irregular
Solhjulet (Sunwheel).
Nationella Alliansen (NA, National Alliance) was formed at the end of 1995
by Christopher Rangne, a former VAM activist, who was released from prison
in September 1995 after serving a term for armed robbery. During the first
months of 1996 the NA seemed to be making a serious and successful attempt
at gaining the upper hand in the internal neo-Nazi power struggles and taking
over as the leading umbrella organization in Sweden.
Rangne appeared in Expressen , one of the nation's biggest newspapers,
and in an interview on national TV. With his aides he travelled around the
country, inducing local organizations to join the NA, the most important
of these being Stockholms Unga Nationalsocialister (SUNS, Stockholm Young
National Socialists), from whom the NA arrogated the magazine info-14.
However, the NA through its call for action became a victim of its own success.
After it had taken "credit" for a large number of attacks against
the printing shop of the anti-racist magazine Expo (see COUNTERING
ANTISEMITISM) as well as several of its supporters and distributors, the
Stockholm police raided the NA headquarters. Although no one was charged
with the attacks, the backlash created by their competitive violence eventually
led to the NA's complete disintegration.
The downfall of the group does not seem to have affected one of its subsidiaries,
the "Aryan War Prisoners' Solidarity Fund", Gula Korset (Yellow
Cross). Based in Gothenburg, the group has continued to arrange concerts
and other events, and was involved in the organization of the 1996 Hess
march in Trollhättan (see below).
Nationalsocialistisk Front (NSF, National Socialist Front) is a recent addition
to the growing list of neo-Nazi organizations. Based in the southern town
of Karlskrona, the group has an estimated 100 members. NSF is well organized
and maintains its own site on the Internet. After the August Hess commemoration
meeting in Trollhättan (see MANIFESTATIONS) several members of NSF
were arrested by the police and subsequently indicted and sentenced for
violating the law against incitement against ethnic groups (see LEGAL MATTERS).
NSF has recently begun to publish its own magazine, Den Sanne Nationalsocialisten
(True National Socialist), and possibly aspires to a leading role in
the Swedish neo-Nazi movement.
In recent years Sweden has emerged as the European leader in neo-Nazi skinhead
music. At one time there were as many as 1,000 skinheads in Stockholm alone,
although during 1996 this number diminished and the movement ceased to be
visible. Since 1992, seventy-eight CDs have been produced by twenty Swedish
bands. The majority of the thirty active bands are from central Sweden and
include, for example, Storm, Odium, Totenkopf, Division S, Spandau and Vit
Aggression. Exceptions are Svastika, from Linköping, and Tors Mannar
from the northern city of Gälve. For the most part CDs were ordered
through Ragnarock Records, managed by Swedish right-winger Per Jönsson.
Many are manufactured by well-known mainstream companies, such as DADC in
Austria (owned by Sony), the Taiwanese company Ritek and the US companies
Eastern Standard and Nimbus Manufacturing. The Swedish company AB (DCM)
has also pressed White Power CDs on the Ultima Thule label.
Towards the end of the year, Jönsson was charged with several offences
relating to incitement of racial hatred in producing a CD by the Swedish
White Power band Pluton Svea. The trial is expected in mid-1997.
The music has a large following away from the neo-Nazi scene, primarily
among teenagers. Interviews with these youths suggest that, while it is
important to share aspects of the "life-style" of the music, the
ideology of neo-Nazism is secondary to the cult of the music itself. This
is also demonstrated by the large circulation and importance to the youth
scene of Nordland magazine (see PUBLICATIONS AND MEDIA) and the appropriation
by Swedish youth of symbols associated with the music (see LEGAL MATTERS).
Sweden's biggest-ever White Power concert was staged in Norrköping
on 3 February, when 800 neo-Nazis from Sweden and abroad (Norway, Finland,
Denmark, England, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and France) heard
two Swedish bands, Vit Aggression and Heysel, and Brutal Attack, an English
band. The main organizers were Nordland and a local neo-Nazi group in Linköping,
and NA and Hembygsdspartiet materials were circulated. The concert, at which
Nazi flags and swastika symbols were displayed, was held at Albrektshalle,
a community-owned building. There was a large but passive police presence,
although a number of arrests for drunken behaviour were made.
In October a concert was arranged in Solna outside Stockholm, at which about
300 people from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, the USA, Germany and Holland
took part. The band Heysel from Sweden played as well as Brutal Attack and
Australian band Fortress.
Other far-right and neo-Nazi organizations active in Sweden during 1996
include the following. Virtus, a small group of university students in Uppsala
and Stockholm led by Johan Rinderheim, a postgraduate student in political
science; Rinderheim is a former member of SD, and at one time acted as a
visiting delegate for the SD at a congress of the French Front national.
Virtus publishes a magazine of the same name, which appears irregularly
and attacks "political correctness" from a "nationalist"
point of view, and is also critical of Sweden's immigration policies. So
far the group has not been overtly antisemitic. The magazine gives the impression
of being a rudimentary imitation of the German paper Junge Freiheit (Youth
Freedom), and has published admiring articles about the French Front national
(see Germany, France).
The main activity of Mimer, the clandestine, Malmö-based "association
for history and politics", is the production of a members' letter of
the same name. The letter is a mixture of neo-Nazi and antisemitic articles,
both Swedish and foreign. Mimer reflects the intellectual tendency of present-day
Swedish neo-Nazism, and has its own site on the Internet.
Jewish community reports point to a decrease in attacks against Jews
and Jewish institutions in 1996 compared to 1995. However, the overall number
of reported violations of the law against incitement against ethnic groups
increased by 4 per cent from the previous year.
At the beginning of May the Jewish community centre in Stockholm was vandalized.
This appeared to be part of a spate of activity by vandals, which affected
other Jewish sites, namely a Jewish-owned travel agency and the travel agency
of Swedish Kibbutz Friends, as well as premises and private property belonging
to the anti-racist magazine Expo , or associates/supporters of the
publication. The attacks followed encouragement by a spring edition of the
NA paper, Info-14 (see PARTIES, ORGANIZATIONS, MOVEMENTS and LEGAL
MATTERS), to undertake sabotage and vandalism of "enemy" property.
The police denied any pattern in the attacks and closed the investigation
because of a lack of leads and evidence.
In 1996 Sweden hosted the "official" August neo-Nazi gathering
to commemorate the death of Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess. The gathering
took place in the small central Swedish town of Trollhättan and was
organized by the NA through its subsidiary, Yellow Cross (see PARTIES, ORGANIZATIONS,
MOVEMENTS). Although only 300 skinheads participated (an estimated 70 of
whom were said to be from Germany and the Netherlands) the fact that the
march was held in Sweden and under the NA banner indicates the rising importance
of the Swedish neo-Nazi scene in Western Europe. No neo-Nazis were arrested
during the march, although the police made a video tape of the entire proceedings.
The march was followed by a White Power concert at which Svastika, Germania
and British band No Remorse played (see United Kingdom). Three skinheads
were arrested at the "kulturfest" for shouting "Sieg
Heil" (see LEGAL MATTERS).
On 30 November a group of neo-Nazis and skinheads held an illegal demonstration
in the town of Åtvidaberg in the vicinity of Norrköping. This
is the date of King Karl's day, and has in the past been appropriated by
racist and neo-Nazi groups, and was often a time of violence. In 1996, however,
there was little neo-Nazi presence in the major cities, and the march in
Åtvidaberg, near Linköping and Nordland 's headquarters,
was the site of the largest gathering. About 100 neo-Nazis walked through
the town shouting racist and anti-Jewish slogans, such as "White power,
Jew slaughter!". Several arrests were made, including that of Mattias
Sundquist, the singer in the White Power band Svastika, who is active in
the Nordland operation (see PUBLICATIONS AND MEDIA).
On 12 December the synagogue in Norrköping was heavily daubed with
neo-Nazi and antisemitic graffiti. This newly restored synagogue has suffered
several attacks in past years. The perpetrators have not yet been apprehended.
A review of Swedish history, civics and religion school-books used in high and junior high schools was carried out by the Swedish Committee Against Antisemitism (SCAA) and published at the beginning of 1996. Several results are noteworthy: the sections on Nazism and the Holocaust were in general very limited in scope; neither the history of the Jewish people nor the history of racism and antisemitism were allotted very much space; out-of-date notions like "race" were used without explanation or regard to more recent research. The review was later presented to the schools minister and the general director of the board of education, and attracted some media attention later in the year.
Antisemitic propaganda is central to neo-Nazi material, and expressions
of antisemitism were standard features in neo-Nazi publications such as
Nordland, Den svenske folksocialisten and Valhall, the latter an
anonymous magazine emanating from the Nazi scene in Gothenburg. The same
is true of Swedish neo-Nazi and racist sites on the Internet.
The magazine Nordland , which first appeared in early 1995, has a
professional appearance and is printed in colour. In 1996 three issues appeared,
the last two containing 88 pages ("88" is a code for "Heil
Hitler"). Nordland consists of advertisements, political and
ideological articles and interviews with White Power bands. Its circulation
is estimated to be between 5,000 and 10,000 copies, which makes it one of
the most important youth music magazines in the country (see PARTIES, ORGANIZATIONS,
MOVEMENTS).
The winter 1996 edition of the magazine carried a sixteen-page supplement,
entitled "Bonnier: Power and the Jewish Heritage", devoted to
an attack on the prominent Swedish media dynasty.
Nordland boasts co-operation with its US counterpart, Resistance
, and together the two form a front against the British-controlled C18
group (see United Kingdom).
There is also a Nordland production company; this acts as a leading distributor
and producer of neo-Nazi CDs, as well as a national and international concert
promoter. In 1996 records were produced under the 88 Music label and a White
Noise concert was organized.
Radio Islam/Svensk-Islamiska Föreningen (Swedish-Islamic Association)
is a group centred around the virulently antisemitic radio station Radio
Islam, which began broadcasting over the Stockholm community radio network
in March 1987 (see HISTORICAL LEGACY). It includes editor-in-chief Ahmed
Rami and David Janzon, who in the past was legally responsible for material
published by the organization.
Ahmed Rami is an important link between neo-Nazi, especially Holocaust-denying,
groups and parts of the Islamist movement. However, support for Radio Islam
from within the Muslim community in Sweden is rare. During its years of
silence, 1993-5, Radio Islam published a members' letter, which appeared
irregularly. Like the radio programmes, the magazine concentrated on the
themes of "Jewish power" and Holocaust denial.
However, in April and May 1996 the community radio station resumed operations,
with Tayyar Razve, originally from Pakistan, taking legal responsibility.
Rami presents the programmes on-air and the station broadcasts 18.5 hours
each week. Most of the material used is re-runs.
Radio Islam also posted a site on the Internet, with Holocaust-denial and
antisemitic material in several languages, including The Protocols of
the Elders of Zion in English, French and Swedish. However, to date,
two Swedish Internet servers, Dataphone and Win-Easy, have cancelled the
Radio Islam contract on being informed of the substance of the pages. Radio
Islam currently reproduces its pages on the Flashback web site, home
to a Swedish libertarian "magazine".
In a lengthy interview in the autumn issue of Nordland (see above), Ahmed
Rami stated that, with regard to the Jews, Adolf Hitler is "the only
European leader who really has understood what it's about".
Blå-gula frågor (Blue and Yellow Questions, a reference
to the colours of the Swedish flag) is an association (and publication of
the same name) critical of Sweden's immigration and refugee policies. In
contrast to Samfundet (see PARTIES, ORGANIZATIONS, MOVEMENTS) the association
is not clandestine. It is led by Jan Milld, a member of the SAP, and Anders
Sundholm, formerly an active member of the Miljöpartiet de Gröna
(MpG, Green Party) and a lay assessor in the Stockholm court of appeal.
Sundholm's activities in Blå-gula frågor led to his expulsion
from the ranks of the MpG in June 1996. The publication, as well as other
material published by Milld, concentrates on the economic costs of Sweden's
immigration policy and on the difficulties of integration and the impossibility
of a multicultural society. It also attacks the media-said to be an "occupying
power"-and the political establishment, claiming they are participants
in an anti-national plot. Blå-gula frågor and Samfundet
regularly promote each other's publications and materials.
The publication Fri information (Free Information), which also operates
as a close-knit network led by academics and others in mainstream life,
is strongly critical of the immigration and refugee policies of Sweden.
The only officially publicized name of the network is that of Eva Bergqvist,
a physician and a former active member of the Conservative Party. She is
responsible for its information sheet, which has at times carried antisemitic
articles and openly admires the French Front national (see page 145). Bergqvist
gained notoriety in 1990 when she actively opposed the establishment of
a refugee lodging in her home town of Kimsta. Her anti-refugee activities
eventually led to her being ostracized from the Conservative Party. In 1996
Fri information published a complimentary review of John Sack's book
An Eye for an Eye (see HOLOCAUST DENIAL), and articles emphasizing
the Jewish background of some of the financial supporters of the anti-fascist
magazine Expo (see COUNTERING ANTISEMITISM).
Israel Shahak's book Jewish History, Jewish Religion , published
in 1994 (Pluto Press) and prefaced by Gore Vidal, appeared in a Swedish
translation, by Lars Adelskogh, in 1996. The book was published by Foinix,
a publishing house owned by the obscure Institute for Hylozoic Studies,
which specializes in esoteric literature such as David Icke's The Robots'
Rebellion . Foinix also distributed two articles from the Israeli press,
translated by Shahak into English and headed "The Jews Who Run Clinton's
Court" and "The Jewish Laundry of Drug Money".
Shahak's book and the articles may also be found on Radio Islam's Internet
site, and Radio Islam acts as a retailer for the book. Adelskogh also maintains
his own home pages on the Internet, where he describes himself as a "Swedish
patriot" and where his antisemitic leanings are quite explicit; he
claims, for instance, that the EU is the outcome of a Jewish plot.
Holocaust denial is promoted mainly by groups and individuals belonging
to the far-right scene. Several of the neo-Nazi publications feature denial
articles. John Sack's book An Eye for An Eye-The Untold Story of Jewish
Revenge Against Germans in 1945 is sometimes used in neo-Nazi and racist
publications to trivialize the Holocaust and paint a picture of the Jews
as cruel and vengeful. The book was published in New York in 1993. It argues
that Stalin deliberately chose Jews to oversee concentration camps in post-war
Poland and in a spate of revenge they killed thousands of Poles. It was
banned in Germany in 1995.
Holocaust denial is also part of the White Power music scene (see PARTIES,
ORGANIZATIONS, MOVEMENTS). Lyrics often promote racism and antisemitism;
for example, the Swedish neo-Nazi rock group Storm begin their song "In
the Claws of Zionism": "The so-called Holocaust, for how long
will we have to suffer for it? A heap of lies that is kept alive . . . "
In 1996 Ahmed Rami of Radio Islam (see PUBLICATIONS AND MEDIA) was one of
the most active Holocaust-deniers in Sweden. In his radio broadcasts, Rami
broadcast inter-views with internationally known Holocaust-deniers Jürgen
Graf and Germar Rudolf. Rami's web site on the Internet also posts Holocaust-denial
propaganda, and has links to several similar sites on the net.
From time to time Holocaust-denial views are expressed by individuals who
do not belong to extreme groups or movements. One example is the pacifist
Åke Sandin, who heads TUFF, a local chapter of the Swedish Peace and
Arbitration Society (SPAS). Sandin, who in the early 1990s interveiwed Rami
on several occassions, wrote in his column in SPAS's magazine Pax (no.
2, 1996) that the Second World War "hit the Russians, Poles and Germans
terribly hard. But these peoples have been poorly represented in Hollywood
and in media lobby activities. No Swedish tax money has been used for memorials
or for lectures in schools about these 30-40 million exterminated."
These and similar themes are recurrent in Sandin's columns.
In recent years the far right in Sweden has established an underground
subculture that has seen a remarkable growth in relation to the size of
the population. Swedish society has been slow to react to these developments,
but in 1996 a noticeable change occurred, particularly with regard to the
judicial system.
This change in attitude was reflected in a series of successful cases that
fall under the laws regarding incitement to racial hatred. The first area
of increased judicial activity concerned the use of Nazi insignia.
In the case of neo-Nazis displaying swastikas on flags, badges and so on
the law is clear cut. Nonetheless, cases involving neo-Nazis tried under
a 1947 law that prohibits the use of political uniforms and insignia have
in the past resulted in acquittals.
This prompted the government to propose an addendum to the law prohibiting
incitement against ethnic groups, in which symbols were to be explicitly
mentioned. The proposed law encountered general criticism and was never
brought to a vote in the parliament.
However, in a case in October the supreme court ruled that the use of such
symbols publicly did in fact constitute a breach of the law against incitement.
This ruling by the supreme court was invoked in a recent verdict by the
district court of Gothenburg as regards the August Hess march (see MANIFESTATIONS).
During the demonstration, members of the NS Front, wearing Nazi uniforms
and displaying Nazi symbols, shouted "Sieg Heil" and similar slogans.
The court found seven defendants, identified on the police surveillance
tapes, guilty of incitement against ethnic groups in December and sentenced
five of them to two months in prison and the other two-under the age of
eighteen at the time of the crime-were fined. The sentence has been appealed.
Political and legal debate over the increasingly common phenomenon of pupils
wearing Nazi insignia and uniforms at schools continued in 1996. This phenomenon
is linked to the popularity of the White Power music scene and Nordland
magazine (see PARTIES, ORGAN-IZATIONS, MOVEMENTS and PUBLICATIONS AND
MEDIA).
In several cases in 1996 headmasters and teachers prohibited pupils from
wearing Nazi uniforms and insignia at school. The parliamentary commissioner
for the judiciary and civil administration received complaints from some
of the pupils, and asked the board of education to give its opinion. The
board concluded that the actions taken against the pupils violated their
freedom of opinion and the commissioner eventually concurred in principle.
The legal situation in the schools thus remains unclear.
Another important supreme court verdict concerned the murder case in the
southern town of Klippan in September 1995, in which two local young neo-Nazis
stabbed an African asylum-seeker to death (see RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA). The
supreme court decided that the intention of the attack was to kill, and
that the motive for it was racist. The latter decision was important, since
an amendment to the criminal code was adopted last year that makes racist
motives for a crime an aggravating circumstance. Prosecutors and courts
have so far been reluctant to use this amendment, but after the supreme
court ruling this is likely to change.
Between December 1995 and February 1996, the SCAA lodged several formal
complaints with the attorney-general against Nazi propaganda on CDs, magazines
and stickers. The attorney-general, on the basis of the material submitted,
chose to indict only the producer of one of the CDs. In December 1996 the
producer, Thomas Lindquist, was sentenced to one month in prison. The attorney-general
was criticized by the SCAA and well-known public figures, including a former
Swedish chief of police and prosecutor-general, for being too lenient.
A further case, lodged by the SCAA in February, concerned the summer 1995
issue of the clandestine neo-Nazi magazine Valhall. The cover of
the magazine carried an anti-semitic caricature of a Jew holding the earth
between his hairy and claw-like hands, and amongst the articles were antisemitic
and racist texts. Two months later the case was dropped by the attorney-general
on the basis of insufficiant evidence of incitement.
In connection with the confiscation from various record companies of neo-Nazi
material made by the police in the autumn, another investigation was initiated
by the attorney-general. A decision was made in November to indict six persons,
the producers and/or distributors of an additional seven CDs and a video
tape, on charges of incitement against ethnic groups. A total of thirty-five
songs are the focus of the trial, the date for which has not yet been set.
In the autumn police proclaimed that Info-14 (see PARTIES, ORGANIZATIONS,
MOVEMENTS) is a "printed magazine" as opposed to a "copied
magazine". Under Swedish law the magazine therefore enjoys protection
of the constitution; any legal action against the publication is the province
of the justice chancellor. The magazine spearheaded the violent campaign
against the anti-fascist journal Expo in the spring (see COUNTERING
ANTISEMITISM), and articles in the magazine have encouraged acts of sabotage
and violent attacks on opponents and their property (see below). The attorney-general
ruled that a criminal investigation into the publication should begin.
Members of the Association of Holocaust Survivors continued their frequent
visits to schools all over the country. Teachers and principals, to a larger
extent than before, have begun to acquire more knowledge about racism and
neo-Nazism and how to deal with problems connected with these questions.
The SCAA continued to arrange lectures on antisemitism, Holocaust denial
and neo-Nazism throughout the country, mostly for teachers and school personnel.
The SCAA also continued to distribute its 1995 booklet on Holocaust denial,
which is becoming well known to schools all over the country.
For the second consecutive year the city of Stockholm sent about twenty
pupils from its high schools to visit Auschwitz, Majdanek and Warsaw. The
visit was arranged by the Stockholm Jewish community and the city's director
of education. The trips, earlier made mostly by schools, now also draw the
attention from other levels of society, with politicians, social workers,
personnel of the school authorities and people working with immigrants and
refugees also taking part. In 1996 the SCAA initiated a project with study
tours to Poland, with the aim of spreading knowledge about antisemitism
and the Holocaust. The outcome was very successful and, if means are available,
trips will be organized on a yearly basis.
A special commission against racism and xenophobia was established in the
autumn by the Swedish government with regard to the 1997 European Year Against
Racism. Mona Sahlin, former vice-premier of Sweden, was appointed head of
the commission.
A special internal education programme has been launched by the police authorities
in order to educate the police force in questions concerning neo-Nazism
and racism.
Expo , an anti-fascist publication, was first published in September
1995 as a bi-monthly magazine. In spring 1996 the NA (see PARTIES, ORGANIZATIONS,
MOVEMENTS) launched a hate campaign against the magazine, its printers and
supporters. The campaign culminated in a series of violent attacks and graffiti
daubing (see MANIFESTATIONS). Because of the success of the terror campaign,
Expo lost its printer and many sales outlets, and the future of the
magazine was in jeopardy. While the police refused to take the action against
Expo seriously, the national newspapers published the story and there
was a huge public response. The two largest national dailies, Expressen
and Aftonbladet , jointly decided to publish an entire issue
of Expo as a supplement, and overnight the magazine's circulation
rose from 3,000 to 820,000. A full-scale inquiry into the affair was launched
by the police.
In 1996 the Swedish Historical Association devoted the first issue of its
quarterly academic journal to the theme of antisemitism. The articles dealt
with: the image of the Jew in the Swedish comic press, both right and left,
at the beginning of the twentieth century; the attitude of the Swedish foreign
office to the question of Jewish refugees during the Second World War; Holocaust
denial; Houston Stewart Chamberlain's antisemitism; and antisemitism in
the ideology of present-day Swedish neo-Nazism. The special issue was positively
received. There was a second printing because of the interest in the journal,
and the issue has been included in the literature of some university courses
in history and intellectual history.
The disappearance of Ny Demokrati from political life was not an indication
that the potential for a populist, nationalist and anti-statist movement
has vanished. In the 1994 elections for parliament around 100,000 voters
cast their ballots for parties whose main priority was opposition to Sweden's
immigration policies. However, the ideas of Ny Demokrati with regard to
immigration have by now, to an important degree, been incorporated into
mainstream political culture, and the government has implemented several
measures originally proposed by Ny Demokrati.
During 1996 there was a slight decrease in antisemitic incidents reported
to the Jewish communities, except in the number of cases of distribution
of antisemitic literature. As in previous years, this literature has maintained
its importance in the ideology of the far right and neo-Nazi groups. Outside
the dominions of the far right as well as parts of the far left, open expressions
of antisemitism continue to be rare. However, signs point to more open expres-sions
of anti-Judaism among some Christian quarters, and to a possibly growing
interest in various notions of "Jewish power", also outside the
traditionally antisemitic milieux.
In many parts of the country, often in smaller or mid-sized cities and towns,
there are groups of young people, mostly boys but increasingly girls, between
the ages of fifteen and twenty-five, who are becoming integrated into the
neo-Nazi scene, particularly through music. The neo-Nazi elements have found
effective means of establishing a racist subculture, which has seen a remarkable
growth in the past years. The level and amount of Nazi propa-ganda relative
to the total population is also unique internationally.
During 1996, especially, the police and the judiciary reacted more strongly
than before, which led to a relatively large number of arrests and indictments
according to the law against ethnic incitement. What the effects of this
more energetic approach will be in the long run remains to be seen.
© JPR 1997