From: squatter (squatter@dds.nl)
Date: 12 Apr 2001 10:33 uur
Vrijdagavond vanaf 21.00u in de Vrankrijk (A'dam) en Zaterdagavond 20.30 in de
ACU (Utrecht). In beide gevallen angloglotte Info over de akties bij de eurotop
half juni te Göteborg (in Zweden, halverweg tussen Kopenhagen en Oslo).
Hier wat propaganda van http://www.motkraft.net/gbg2001
B A C K G R O U N D
Why mobilise to Gothenburg?
We are mobilising to the EU Top meeting in Gothenburg in June 2001 for two major
reasons.
The first reason is to strengthen the Swedish and Scandinavian left. There is a popular
resistance to the EU that has existed in the Scandinavian region all during the 1990's.
Both Denmark and Sweden entered the EU on very small referendum voter margins and
Denmark only entered after the citizens were obliged to vote twice! Danish comrades who
protested the results of the second vote were actually shot at in Copenhagen on the 18
May 1993 - 113 shots were fired and 9 activists injured. And Denmark recently voted no
to a referendum pertaining to the EMU.
Norway still remains outside of the EU, although they are well integrated into the
Schengen project. The reasons that Norway have remained outside the EU are many,
however it is impossible to ignore the fact that while in Sweden and Denmark, the
majority of "No to EU" activities are from the left, in Norway there is just as much
"anti-EU-activity" from the populist extreme right...
All these reasons and many more lead us to believe that a radical resistance at the EU Top
meeting in Gothenburg can result in a strengthened revolutionary left in both Sweden and
Scandinavia.
The second reason is that we want to continue the traditions that we in Sweden have had of
participating in international mobilisations; for instance the IMF meeting in Madrid in
1995, the G7 meeting i Lyon in 1996 and then the EU Top Meetings in Amsterdam 1997,
Cologne 1999, Nice 2000 and of course the IMF meeting in Prague 2000. All these are of
course coupled together with the entire "Seattle Generation" type of resistance, a
resistance movement, that, no matter what one thinks of it, we believe needs to be
nurtured in order for something truly revolutionary to come of it all.
AFA demonstration S23 in Prague
<Listen to the AFA-Prague speech from S23 [mp3 366kb]>
For AFA-Sweden's participation in, and mobilisation to, the counter summit in
Gothenburg, we have decided to lay the bulk of our attention upon the racist aspects of the
EU. This is why we will be active in the anti-racist centre of the counter summit. We
have chosen this perspective - as opposed to, for instance, a singular revolutionary
anti-capitalist perspective of the Swedish syndicalist union SAC. This is because the
fascist and nazi movements in Scandinavia thrive upon the structural racism within our
societies. And the struggle against these movements have always been AFA-Sweden's
central activity and this is where we have our believability.
We feel that by addressing the questions of the EU's racist policies, we can in that way
move our revolutionary positions forward to those who are susceptible for our
anti-racist message. Within this perspective of structural EU racism, lies not only the
immigration and refugee policies of the EU, but even the repressive instruments that they
are a product of, for instance the Pan-European police collaboration and the entire
Schengen project.
These questions will play an important role in the critique of the EU Top meeting in
Gothenburg as one of the main points on the Swedish agenda during it's presidency is the
expansion of the EU, and therefore its increased Euro-centrism and racism towards those
countries and peoples outside of the EU sphere of influence.
It is also important for us to highlight the fact that during the last 16 months, the
Swedish state has purported themselves to be "anti-racist" and "anti-fascist". They have
held conferences on anti-Semitism, organised large rallies against neo-nazi violence
through their union contacts and instructed the police forces and judicial system to take a
harder stance against crimes with racist motives. At the same time that these highly
visible "anti-racist" activities occur, the Swedish state, indeed the entire EU, is
sharpening their racist immigration and asylum policies.
AFA-Sweden also has a long tradition of working with these questions through our
co-operation in the Swedish Network Against Racism and other anti-racist projects,
such as the European-wide United network.
Who is mobilising to Gothenburg and why?
The general negativity towards the EU in the Scandinavian region and the growing
international protest movements that have had spectacular demonstrations in Seattle,
Prague and Nice have resulted in a wide variety of political parties, unions, special
interest organisations and grass-roots movements to mobilise to the EU Top meeting in
Sweden.
Along side of these popular movements, there is of course a series of state-sponsored
NGOs that are also planning "critical" activities and "face-to-face" meetings with the
EU powers-that-be. This is an attempt from the Swedish government to not repeat the
mistakes of Nice and "isolate" the EU decision-makers from "the people". Of course, it
also makes it easier to separate the "good" protesters from the "bad" ones, something that
will be necessary, as the Swedish police force does not have the sheer resources that are
available in France, or for instance Germany. This is the lead in what we expect to be a
large series of "preventive" tactics from the state and police used against "undesirable"
protest movements at Gothenburg.
In the organisational work for the counter summit activities there are two parallel
networks working towards similar projects, with dissimilar content.
The first and smallest network consists of the EU-critical wings of political parties.
The parties are both mainstream parliamentary parties as well as some smaller leftist
parties. The by far driving force in this network is the, locally strong in Gothenburg,
KPMLr - Communist Party Marxist Leninist revolutionaries. The activists in this
network are the same as the leading activists in the steering committee of the local
Gothenburg section of the Swedish "No to EU" movement. This network revolves around
two main Swedish parliamentary political questions, "Sweden out of the EU" and "No to
the EMU". This network is planning a lecture series and a demonstration on Friday
evening the 15th of June. A permit for 1000 people has been applied for.
The second and largest network consists of principally all the popular, grass-roots and
extra-parliamentary movements in Sweden as well as their Nordic counterparts. For
instance, the "No to EU" movements in Denmark, Norway and Finland are apart of this
network and not the network that their Swedish counterpart is working within. Even
many of the youth organisations of the leftist political parties involved in the first
network are active in this network. Also worth mentioning are that many of the leftist
political parties involved in the first network are members of the Swedish Network
Against Racism, which is involved in the second network.
The second network is based upon three main social questions; environmentalism,
anti-racism and the feminist struggle. On an economic level, there are groups working
with capitalist critiques, such as the Swedish revolutionary syndicalist union, SAC, and
the Nordic anti-EU movements. This network has drawn up a common platform which
covers most of the major social and political questions that the various groups within the
network work with, without binding any one group to the others special interests.
The organisations involved with these questions are all planning lecture series and
international meetings with their counterparts in the Nordic region and Europe. For
instance, the European-wide, anti-racist network United is planning to hold its
bi-yearly meeting in Gothenburg and the SAC will be meeting with its sister unions
from amongst others, France, Spain and Italy. The same is true for the environmentalists
within ASEED and Friends of the Earth.
Together, all the groups will hold a series of common panel debates and seminars. On
Saturday the 16th of June there will be a common demonstration. A permit for 20000
people has been applied for. AFA-Sweden plans on participating in this demo with an
anti-fascist block.
Other groups both within and outside of the network are engaged in practical activities
such as entertainment and mobilisation towards the EU Top meeting. For instance, a long
series of minister and special question meetings will be held in Sweden all during the half
year that Sweden holds the EU presidency and there will be protest meetings and
demonstrations held at many of them. In the north of Sweden, a demonstration involving
both Finnish and Swedish groups will converge on a minister meeting being held in that
area. AFA-Sweden is involved in many of these mobilisation and protest activities.
The biggest question for both networks is the mobilisation of the radical elements of
Swedish LO, or Lands Organisation union. Sweden is unique in the fact that nearly 90% of
the work force are union members, mostly in the social democratic LO. As the social
democrats are in political power and hosting the EU presidency, there is little hope of the
union leadership supporting any type of system critical activities in Gothenburg. For
instance, the large union mobilisations in Nice went all but unmentioned in the Swedish
LO press. Therefore, both networks are now planning strategies to mobilise the radical
local sections of the LO to partake in the activities and demonstrations in Gothenburg.
Within the first network, the leftist political parties are using their activists to mobilise
in local union clubs and in the second network, the SAC is appealing for union
mobilisation. As yet, it is still too early to judge the effects of either attempt or the
number of LO members who will partake in the mobilisation.
On a whole, the entire counter summit is expecting between ten and twenty thousand
activists to converge on Gothenburg during the EU Top meeting.
AFA block in Euro March at Cologne, June 1999
Mobilisation outside of the Nordic region.
The major portion of the mobilisation will be occurring within the Nordic region. In a
worse case scenario, we can expect 7000 to 10000 Nordic participants. With good
mobilisation we expect more. This helps us achieve the goal of strengthening the Swedish
and Scandinavian left.
But the questions of the EUs policies and the EUs role in globalisation of capital are not
limited to Sweden and Scandinavia. That is why we are mobilising outside of Scandinavia.
As mentioned, many of the groups and organisations involved in the planning of the
counter summit are members of international networks and organisations. The
environmental movement, women's movement, anti-racist movement and alternative
union movement all have their international counterparts and sister organisations to draw
international mobilisation and support from. AFA-Sweden would like to have the
support from the entire European anti-fascist movement.
There are even a number of extra-European guests being anticipated. For instance, the
SAC is inviting members of the union of landless farmers in Bangladesh and the IWW in
the United States.
In order to gain optimal media attention some well known international figures are
expected as well, for example Naomi Klein.
Activists from Sweden were present in Prague and Nice and propagated for Gothenburg
and there will be activists at a number of meetings and demonstrations happening across
Europe up until Gothenburg.
Is there a fascist mobilisation to Gothenburg?
The Swedish fascist political party Sverigedemokraterna, the Sweden Democrats, are
opposed to the sacrifice of "Swedish" national character and traditions in exchange for a
Pan-European culture as proposed by a capitalist EU.
However, as mentioned, the "No to EU" movement in Sweden is a leftist affair and the
mobilisations to the counter-summit, in "Seattle Generation" style, are also specifically
leftist and social liberal in character.
AFA-Sweden does not expect a fascist mobilisation to Gothenburg. More likely than
not, the Swedish fascist movement will align itself to mainstream appeals for increased
police control of militant activists.
However, the city of Gothenburg has been the seat of violent nazi activity during the
larger part of the 1990s and has one of the largest nazi populations in Scandinavia.
Although not a threat for the arrangements of the counter summit, they may be able to
cause problems for individual or small groups of activists on the city streets.
See you on the barricades!
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