Scandinavia

Flame and Citron

There are many films about the anti-fascist resistance to the Nazis in occupied Europe. This, I think, is one of the best. Released in Denmark in 2008, Flame and Citron tells the story of two resistance fighters, based on real life figures, in Nazi-occupied Denmark. Flame (real name Bent Fuarschou Hviid) and Citron (Jorgem Hogen Schmith) are part of the famous Holger Danske resistance group. They operate as a kind of “hit squad”, assassinating collaborators. Initially they are reluctant to kill any Nazis, fearful that this may mean retaliatory killings meted out to the Danish population. They...

Will Sweden’s workers humble Musk?

Mechanics servicing Tesla’s electric cars in Sweden, members of the IF Metall union, have struck for over a month to demand a collective bargaining agreement — the first strike, or sustained and widely reported one at least, in the company’s history. But Elon Musk and his hierarchy are facing off not just with the mechanics, but large numbers of other Swedish workers. Starting with metal workers at a supplier, solidarity action has spread to dockworkers, post and delivery workers, cleaners and car painters among others. There are also reports of potential spillover to Germany, where Tesla...

The dark side of Ikea

As a company based in Sweden, which is home to some of the world’s most powerful unions, you would think that IKEA would be an employer that understood the importance of workers’ rights. And if you read what the company says about itself, it sounds wonderful. On their website, IKEA says that it takes into consideration “at a minimum” the following: “the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.” That...

A spectre is haunting Europe

A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of fascism. We caught a glimpse of that spectre in Sweden last weekend [11 September] and we are likely to see more of it next weekend [25 September] in Italy. It is not just that right-wing parties are winning elections. That would be bad enough. What we are seeing now happening in some parts of Western Europe is something new and terrifying. Political parties that have their roots in Nazi or fascist movements have emerged as mass organisations — and as parties of government. This is something that should keep democrats awake at night. In the Swedish...

Political ripples from the war

On 17 June Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev discussed world politics with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg. Tokayev repeated his refusal to recognise the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics in eastern Ukraine, formally recognised by Russia two days before the invasion on Ukraine on 24 February. In January Russian troops had helped Tokayev snuff out a crisis in Kazakhstan. But Kazakhstan has a long border with Russia and a large ethnic Russian minority in its northern areas. Russian MPs then threatened Kazakhstan. Konstantin Zatulin said,...

Omicron: lessons from Denmark

Denmark dropped all its Covid curbs on 1 February. The move, by the country’s right-wing social-democratic minority government, is supported by most of Denmark’s other parties. The official infectious-diseases agency has said : “mortality has followed a declining trend in all age groups as from Week 1 [of 2022] and is now approaching the normal level. “This occurs even though the number of deaths in which the patient had a positive PCR test is increasing [i.e. more people dying of other causes have Covid too]...” The prime minister says: “I dare not say that it is a final goodbye to...

No to the "Swedish model"

The Scottish Government has launched a consultation on sex work legislation, closing on 10 December. It follows a battle spearheaded by MSP Ash Denham, the government’s community safety minister, to introduce the criminalisation of the purchase of sex work (the “Nordic model”, or “Swedish model”, also implemented in France and Ireland). Currently in the UK, the purchase and selling of sex is legal, though various associated activities such as street work and workers operating from the same premises are not. National Ugly Mugs (an organisation that provides support and representation for...

Marxists and “left governments”

“We are not a government party; we are the party of irreconcilable opposition… Our tasks... we realise not through the medium of bourgeois governments... but exclusively through the education of the masses through agitation, through explaining to the workers what they should defend and what they should overthrow. Such a “defence” cannot give immediate miraculous results. But we do not even pretend to be miracle workers. As things stand, we are a revolutionary minority. Our work must be directed so that the workers on whom we have influence should correctly appraise events, not permit...

Letters

I would like to add a couple of comments to Barrie Hardy’s review “Sweden in the 1930s: a shithole country”. Barrie mentions the strikes in Adalen in the 1930s. The Swedish director Bo Widerburg made an interesting film featuring these events: Adalen 31 (1969). I haven’t seen it for a long time but if you can find a DVD check it out. Widerburg also directed a film about Joe Hill in 1971. Barrie mentions the Native American Party, noting that they were “appropriately dubbed the Know Nothings”. No doubt they were as thick as planks but their name, as far as I am aware, doesn’t originate in their...

Sweden in the 1930s: a “shithole country”

“It’ll be a pleasure to leave this impoverished shithole of a country behind,” says the main character Harry Kvist in the Stockholm Trilogy of historical crime novels by Martin Holmen. Sweden is now reckoned one of the top ten of countries in the world for quality of life, but eighty years ago much of the population lived in abject poverty. Holmen’s three novels — Clinch, Out For The Count and Slugger — paint a grim picture of the life of the urban poor in 1930s Stockholm. Most of them suffer flea bites, their bedsheets doused in strong vinegar to keep the pests away. Summer months bring...

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