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The Swedish Nazi Movement
THE SWEDISH NAZI MOVEMENT
The following is a short report from the Swedish Antifascistisk
Aktion-Stockholm (Antifascist Action in Stockholm) concerning the
nazi-scene and the extreme right in Sweden.
THE PARLIAMENTARY SCENE
The Swedish fascist scene is divided, as in many other countries,
into two subgroups: the parliamentary wing and the militant extra-
parliamentary wing.
After the failure of the left during the 1980's and a general political
swing towards neoliberalism and conservatism, the fascist party
"Sverigedemokraterna" (The Sweden Democrats) was formed by
older fascist activists.
Sverigedemokraterna tried to copy the concept of the German
Republicans, the English National Front and the French Front
Nationale. But they never reached the same level of success, largely
due to bad organizing skills, inner splits and the effective
campaigning of antifascists which smashed public meetings and
made Sverigedemokraterna dependent upon nazi skinheads for
providing "security" at meetings. After each election, their inner
organisation collapsed, and their militants left the organisation to
join arms with more extreme groups. After the last national general
election in the autumn 1994, in which Sverigedemokraterna
received 14 000 votes, their leader resigned and a oppositional
fraction formed Hembygdspartiet (The "Heimat" or "Homestead"
party).
Since then, Sverigedemokraterna have been unable to reorganize
effectively and their latest attempt at a demonstration gathered only
50 supporters! The next national general elections will be held in
the autumn of 1998, and there are signs that the small, extreme
right-wing parties will attempt to form an election coalition.
THE NAZI MOVEMENT
As the extreme right-wing parliamentary movement has collapsed
during the last couple of years, the militant nazi movement has been
on a rise. Since the middle of the 1980's, the Swedish nazi scene
has survived mainly been a subculture; within the so called "white
power" music scene. The scene began to take form in 1987 as
"Rock Against Communism," inspired and economically supported
by Ian Stuart Donaldssons British Blood & Honour. The music
scene had an big boost when the band Swedish band "Ultima
Thule" topped the Swedish music charts in 1993. Ultima Thule had
removed typical nazi symbols and sang instead of vikings, former
Swedish kings and other "national symbols".
Ultima Thules success pumped new energy into the Swedish nazi
music scene and new bands and record companies were started.
Every month, one or two nazi concerts were held in different parts
of Sweden. These secret nazi gigs, in comparison to public marches
and demonstrations, were much harder for the antifascist movement
to stop. In 1994 the white power music magazine, or "skinzine,"
Blood & Honour, was founded, and after the year afterwards it
expanded and changed its name to Nordland (Northland), named
after a volunteer Swedish military company which fought alongside
with the nazis in the Third Reich. Nordland has also started a
record company, 88 Musik (88 - "Heil Hitler Music").
The magazine and record company are run the following
individuals; Torulf Magnusson and Matti Sundqvist in the town of
Link?ping, Per-Anders "Pajen" Johansson in Gothenburg and the
mysterious "Peter Andersson" in Stockholm. Nordland is closely
connected to the leading American nazi music magazine,
Resistance, and they press all their records in the USA.
There is another nazi record company that operates alongside
Nordland/88 Musik. Ragnarock Records, was founded in the city
of Helsingborg in the very southern portion of Sweden. Ragnarock
Records was formed by the older nazis Erik Bl?cher and the now
dismissed Lars-Magnus Westrup. Ragnarock Records is closely
connected to the Danish NS88 and the English ISD Records or the
British Blood & Honour, run by Combat 18. The two nazi record
companies Nordland and Ragnarock Records have now become
bitter enemies. They are both connected to the international split
between Resistance and Combat 18/Blood & Honour, a split that
has resulted in bitter fighting. In the beginning of 1997 militants
around the Danish NS88 mailed letter bombs to English "enemies"
of Combat-18, and attempted to lay the blame upon Nordland.
Nordland has replied in trying to get all the bands in the white
power music scene to choose sides in the conflict. In the beginning
of March 1997, magazine in an attempt to try and take back the
B&H name from Combat 18.
The Swedish nazi music scene reached its peak in 1995, and it has
now begun to dissolve. Fewer bands are being formed, fewer
concerts are being held and fewer Swedish records are released.
Instead, both Nordland and Ragnarock Records have turned their
attention to the international music scene. Ragnarock has tried to
distribute nazi records to Germany and Nordland managed to sign
important international nazi bands to their label. The next
Nordland record release will be with the French band Bifrost.
NATIONAL SOCIALIST SCENE
The Swedish Nazi groups, or NS groups as they prefer to call
themselves, have emerged as political projects out of the music
scene. As quickly as they have arisen they also have failed and
collapsed. During 1990-1992 the nazi group Vitt Ariskt Motstand
(White Aryan Resistance) was formed. However, due to failed bank
robberies they were imprisoned and the organisation was
disbanded. The next project was Riksfronten (The Reich Front),
but they never became more than a small marginalized group, with
some media hype. After yet another breakdown the NS groups
reorganized as UNS-groups (Young National Socialist. These
groups put their efforts into selling nazi propaganda and nazi
magazines through mail order. With the peak of the nazi skinhead
movement behind them, 1995, Nordland and the UNS-groups tried
to form Nationella Alliansen (The National Alliance). UNS stood
for the organisation and Nordland for the economic resources.
Nationella Alliansen was hyped and promoted as the brave new
nazi organisation to be reckoned with. However, they only managed
to exist for ten months. In August 1996, Nationella Alliansen,
organised the ill fated Hess march in the small Swedish town of
Trollhattan outside Gothenburg. The Hess march is one of the most
important yearly international nazi demonstrations.
The demonstration was a complete failure; it was attacked by
antifascists and the police arrested the organizers. After the
demonstration, Nationella Alliansen was disbanded and inner
conflicts between the skinhead movement and the Nordland
movement came to a head. The collapse of Nationella Alliansen has
left a bitter political taste in the editorial department of Nordland,
and they now claim that they will not support any more political
projects and will only work for a "revolution of values among white
youths".
The remaining NS groups have tried to reorganize themselves
around the informational newsletter INFO-14! Their two main
sources of inspiration are now the "nazi international" centered
around Gerhard Lauck's NSDAP/AO and the american nazi terrorist
group The Order/Bruder Schweigend. One of the emerging new
channels for the distribution of nazi propaganda is internet. The
nazi sites have started to expand and are becoming more
professional during the course of the last few months. As an
example, Nordland have now started an e-mail based newsletter
"frihetsbrevet" (the Freedomletter) which is distributed free-of-
charge.
There are several different explanations of why the nazi and
extreme right movements have collapsed during the last few years.
Then fascists have murdered a refugee in the village of Klippan and
they have tortured and murdered of a young boy in the village of
Kode in the autumn of 1995. They have initiated a violent nazi
campaign against the liberal Swedish "antifascist" magazine Expo
in the summer of 1996 which drew the media spotlights upon the
nazi scene and created a public opinion that the state should deal
with the "nazi problem."
The state answered with a increasing repression against public nazi
meetings, and it has now become "illegal" to wear nazi symbols or
to salute in the Heil Hitler manner (to "heila"), in public. Both
Nordland and Ragnarock Records have [three] legal trials pending
for their racist song lyrics.
However, the fascist collapse should also be seen in the light of
successful campaigning from militant antifascists. With the use of
militant direct actions and demonstrations several nazi boutiques
have been closed and very difficult for the nazis to hold
demonstrations, concerts or public meetings.
love and power,
ANTIFASCISTISK AKTION - STOCKHOLM
Box 381 96
S-100 64 Stockholm
SWEDEN
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