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"One of Our Greatest Friends": Mandela's Cellmate Thanks Sweden for Helping Anti-Apartheid Struggle
While the United States considered the African National Congress a terrorist organization, the Swedish government openly funded the group for decades. According to many accounts, Sweden was the largest single source of financial aid to the ANC. Olof Palme, the Swedish prime minister, was assassinated in 1986 just a week after he gave a keynote speech at the Swedish People’s Parliament Against Apartheid in Stockholm. Rumors have swirled for years about the South African government’s involvement in his killing. Shortly after he was released in 1990, Nelson Mandela came to Sweden on one of his first foreign stops after being released from prison. During an address to the Swedish Parliament, Mandela thanked Sweden for standing in the "front ranks of the international forces that have fought against the apartheid system." On Wednesday night, one of Mandela’s closest associates, Ahmed Kathrada, spoke in the Swedish town of Visby, which is hosting the week-long political festival Almedalen Week. Kathrada spent 26 years in prison, including 18 years on Robben Island.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We are broadcasting from the very windy Swedish city of Visby on Sweden’s largest island, Gotland, located about 60 miles off the southeastern coast of Sweden in the Baltic Sea. We’re in the middle of an event called Almedalen Week, a week-long political festival perhaps unlike any other in the world. Over 25,000 people are gathering on the island to hear political speeches and take part in seminars. Every Swedish political party is represented here, from the Social Democrats to the Greens to the new Feminist Initiative party.
The name Almedalen comes from a park here in Visby where, in 1968, Sweden’s education minister at the time, Olof Palme, stood on the back of a flatbed truck and gave one of the rousing political speeches for which he was renowned. Palme went on to become one of Sweden’s most transformative prime ministers, up until his assassination on the streets of Stockholm in 1986. He was shot dead just a week after he gave a keynote speech at the Swedish People’s Parliament Against Apartheid in Stockholm. Rumors have swirled for years about the South African government’s involvement in his killing.
While the United States considered the African National Congress a terrorist organization, the Swedish government openly funded the group for decades, even though it was banned by the South African government. According to many accounts, Sweden was the largest single source of financial aid to the ANC. Shortly after he was released in 1990, Nelson Mandela came to Sweden on one of his first foreign stops after being released from prison. During an address to the Swedish Parliament, Mandela thanked Sweden for standing in the, quote, "front ranks of the international forces that have fought against the apartheid system."
NELSON MANDELA: We would like to take this opportunity to salute this outstanding democratic institution, the Swedish Parliament, which has stood in the front ranks of the international forces that have fought against the apartheid system. From here has issued legislation which has made an important contribution to the process of securing the international isolation of apartheid South Africa. For many years, you have approved budgets which have enabled this country to extend invaluable humanitarian assistance to the ANC, the democratic movement and the sovereign people of our country. From here, you have provided moral and political leadership, which has inspired many others throughout the world and sustained us in those dark days in prison, when it was impossible even to guess when the terrible night of racial tyranny would give way to a new dawn.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Nelson Mandela about a month after he was released from prison in 1990 after 27 years in the apartheid prisons of South Africa. The Swedish Parliament was the first parliament he came to address.
Well, last night here in Visby, Sweden, one of Mandela’s closest associates jailed with him, Ahmed Kathrada, spoke here. Kathrada, who goes by the nickname Kathy, spent 26 years in prison, including 18 on Robben Island. He began by talking about Nelson Mandela’s famous statement during his trial in 1961.
AHMED KATHRADA: I remember his words during our trial—sorry. He ended with the words, "I have struggled all my life for a nonracial, nonsexist South Africa. It is an ideal which I hope to achieve. But if need be, it’s an ideal for which I’m prepared to die." That was his—in a part of his address to the court. And throughout the trial, the expectation was a death sentence. But in the face of the death sentence, this is how the trial was conducted under the leadership of Mr. Mandela—an ideal for which he was prepared to die.
Our whole struggle was for a nonracial, nonsexist, democratic South Africa. In pursuance of our goals, people of all communities paid the supreme sacrifice. It may not be known, but just to mention a couple of names, we had a person by the name of Ruth Slovo. She went into exile and assumed the position of a professor at the University of Maputo. She received a package from the United Nations. Unknown to her, the passage—the package, rather, went through the South African police. And the South African police planted something in that package. And when Ruth opened that package, it was a bomb. And as she opened it, the bomb exploded, and she died. Now, that was one of many who paid the supreme sacrifice in the struggle for our democracy—people of all communities. I can talk of Dulcie Hartwell—I mean, Dulcie September, rather, who was an ANC representative in Paris. She was assassinated in Paris. There’s Saloojee, there’s Timol, who were thrown off the buildings of police headquarters and killed.
Ours was historically a struggle for a nonracial, nonsexist, democratic South Africa. That is what sent many people to prison, and that is, for many, many of our colleagues lost their lives and were not alive to see the birth of democracy in our country. So we are 20 years old as a nonracial, nonsexist, democratic South Africa, but we have made quite important strides. Every university in our country is mixed now. Almost every university director is black. And one can go on and on to talk of the progress that has been made towards a nonracial society.
But coming here tonight, it’s a great honor to be here because, throughout our struggle, one of our greatest friends were the people of Sweden. They supported us throughout our struggle, whereas other Western countries, many of them, connived with apartheid, connived with the apartheid government. But Sweden, in particular, and other Scandinavian countries stood by us. When our president at that time, Oliver Tambo, got a stroke, it was in Sweden that he was hospitalized. It was in Sweden that he regained his health and was in a position to return to a free South Africa. So I want to once again take the opportunity to thank the people of Sweden for being such close friends of our struggle. We are seeing the fruits of that every day of our lives.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Ahmed Kathrada. He is speaking here in Visby, Sweden, just last night. He was one of Nelson Mandela’s closest associates. He spent 26 years in prison, including 18 on Robben Island.
When we come back, we’ll be speaking with the head of the Left Party here in Sweden. We’ll also be speaking with the head of the Feminist Initiative, a radical feminist group that already has a position in the European Parliament. Will they take a seat in the Swedish Parliament? And we’ll speak with Congressmember—the former congressmember—Dennis Kucinich, who’s here at Almedalen in Gotland in Sweden. Stay with us.
As Neo-Nazis Rally, Sweden Poised for Election-Year Shift of Power Balance from Right to Left
Sweden is in the middle of a "super election year" with elections taking place for the European Parliament, as well as local and national elections. After eight years of a right-wing government, our guest says the balance of power is set to shift to a red-green alliance between the country’s Left Party and Green Party. "There is a lot at stake for a lot of people," says Andreas Gustavsson, editor-in-chief of the daily Swedish newspaper Dagens ETC. He discusses key issues in the election, and recent protests against the Party of the Swedes, a neo-Nazi party whose members oppose immigration and have joined in fighting alongside fascist groups in Ukraine.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. We’re broadcasting from the Swedish city of Visby. It’s on Sweden’s largest island, Gotland. We’re in the middle of an event called Almedalen Week. It’s a week-long political festival where all of Sweden’s political parties gather. It’s almost as if, you know, the Democratic and Republican convention in the United States, they were all held together. Twenty-five thousand people have gathered here.
For those who are watching, you can see it is very windy. It is pouring rain. We’re hoping it won’t be a thunderstorm, but you’ll hear the rain hitting against the mic, if that’s the case.
And we’re joined right now by Andreas Gustavsson. He is the editor-in-chief of a new newspaper, daily newspaper in Stockholm, has come over to the island, as so many journalists have, to cover this unusual week, that has been going on since Olof Palme, the former Swedish prime minister who was assassinated in 1986, came here years before that and just started giving speeches. And so this convention, this festival continues.
Andreas, welcome to Democracy Now!
ANDREAS GUSTAVSSON: Thank you. Thanks for having me.
AMY GOODMAN: Talk about the significance of this event and the journalists who come here, why you come.
ANDREAS GUSTAVSSON: [inaudible] quite a super election year. We have the Parliament, the EU Parliament. We have the national elections, as well, and local elections, all at once, all in the same year. And we’ve got eight years with a right-wing government. Sweden has totally changed during these eight years. So, there’s a lot at stake for a lot of people.
AMY GOODMAN: The name of your newspaper and what it means in English?
ANDREAS GUSTAVSSON: It’s calld Dagens ETC, which is basically The Daily Etc., the story that continues.
AMY GOODMAN: And so, talk about the critical issues that people are debating now. This, clearly a surge in the polls for what they’re calling the red-green alliance—who these parties are?
ANDREAS GUSTAVSSON: First, we’ve got the biggest party in Sweden, the Social Democrats. They are about 30 percent of the, yeah, electoral base. And then there’s the Left Party, which is currently almost outside of a future government. The Social Democrats are preferring the Green Party; they are having close discussions together. So, there will be a change of government in September. I’m fairly sure of that.
AMY GOODMAN: And what are the issues of the day that are most hotly debated?
ANDREAS GUSTAVSSON: Jobs. We’ve got mass unemployment—on a Swedish level, mass unemployment.
AMY GOODMAN: Which is about how much in percentage?
ANDREAS GUSTAVSSON: Eight percent.
AMY GOODMAN: Eight percent.
ANDREAS GUSTAVSSON: Eight percent, yes. And climate change and feminism—or, feminism, yes, because of the Feminist Initiative.
AMY GOODMAN: And the Feminist Initiative is this new political party.
ANDREAS GUSTAVSSON: Yeah, yeah. It’s not new. It’s been around for a couple of years, but there’s been a backlash regarding feminists here in Sweden. But it’s back with a vengeance. So, they’ve got seats in the EU, the European Parliament, and I’m fairly sure they will get seats here in Parliament here in national Parliament after September.
AMY GOODMAN: Just as I was coming to this broadcast walking through the island, there was a mass protest of what are called here anti-racists.
ANDREAS GUSTAVSSON: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: Hundreds of them protesting the speaking of the Party of Swedes. Can you explain what this Swedish Party is?
ANDREAS GUSTAVSSON: The Swedish Party are not in Parliament, but it’s a Nazi party.
AMY GOODMAN: Nazi party.
ANDREAS GUSTAVSSON: Yeah, it’s a Nazi party, no discussion about it. They want to throw out every migrants, immigrants from Sweden. And they don’t even believe in the democratic system, but they are taking part in the elections this autumn. And they are—there are the Swedish Democrats. They are already in Parliament. They are not Nazi, but they are racist. So, first we’ve got the Swedish Democrats, and now we’ve got this—I’m ashamed of them.
AMY GOODMAN: This Swedish Party, also allied with it, the Swedish Resistance Movement. Explain who they are.
ANDREAS GUSTAVSSON: Yeah, yeah. That’s the violent part of the Nazi movement here in Sweden. They have attacked several people just this year, almost killed one person in Malmö on the 8th of March. And now they are taking part in combat in Ukraine, with fascist groups in Ukraine.
AMY GOODMAN: Now, explain that. So, in Malmö, in one of the Swedish cities, on International Women’s Day, one of these Nazis knifed one of the anti-racists on the street.
ANDREAS GUSTAVSSON: That’s correct. That’s correct.
AMY GOODMAN: He had just come from—the Nazi, from Ukraine, fighting on whose side?
ANDREAS GUSTAVSSON: In the coup in Ukraine, there was a fringe movement of fascists. We’ve got Svoboda—that’s one major party—and the even more extreme-right sector. And the Swedish fascists are involved with both Svoboda and the right sector.
AMY GOODMAN: So now he—was he arrested after he knifed this Swede?
ANDREAS GUSTAVSSON: Some of the Nazis were arrested, but one of them, he’s still at large.
AMY GOODMAN: And he went back to Ukraine?
ANDREAS GUSTAVSSON: We don’t know.
AMY GOODMAN: So, the issues here around immigration, that ties into these far-right parties, do you see this as part of a European sort of resurgence of the right?
ANDREAS GUSTAVSSON: Yeah, yeah, we see it. And both the Swedish Democrats and the more extreme Party of Swedes have close connections to all these groups, from Le Pen’s party in France to other Nazis in Greece. They are closely knit together. And there’s a brown fascist surge in Europe right now.
AMY GOODMAN: Johan Gustavsson, I want to thank you—I mean, I want to thank you, Andreas Gustavsson.
ANDREAS GUSTAVSSON: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you very much for being with us, editor of—why don’t you pronounce it yourself—of the new newspaper. In English, it’s Etc., E-T-C.
ANDREAS GUSTAVSSON: Yes, Dagens ETC, it’s called. Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: Thank you so much for being here.
Swedish Left Party Surges in Polls with Focus on Climate Action & Fighting Privatization
As we broadcast from Almedalen Week, a unique political festival in Sweden, we are joined by Jonas Sjöstedt, Swedish chairperson of the Left Party and member of the Swedish Parliament. Sjöstedt describes the Left Party as a modern socialist, left-wing party with roots in the labor movement and a new focus on tackling climate change and privatization. "Sweden has become kind of an experiment for privatization, especially in the education system, in healthcare and the homes for the elderly," Sjöstedt says. "We want to ban all profit-making companies from these welfare sectors."
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We turn right now to, well, a very familiar face in U.S. politics. Well, it looks like before we turn to that very familiar face in U.S. politics, we’re going to turn now to a familiar face in Swedish politics. He is head of the Left Party here. We are turning right now to one of the leaders of the Left Party. We’re broadcasting from the Swedish city of Visby. We are at a political gathering unlike any other in the world. We are joined right now by Jonas Sjöstedt, chairperson of the Left Party. But I’m going to start off by asking him to pronounce his own name—people speaking for themselves.
JONAS SJÖSTEDT: Yeah, my name is Jonas Sjöstedt.
AMY GOODMAN: Jonas Sjöstedt, talk about what the Left represents here, the Left Party in Sweden, especially given it looks like your party is surging in the polls and this red-green alliance may well soon take power in the September elections.
JONAS SJÖSTEDT: Well, we are a socialist party. We have our roots in the labor movement, but we realized many years ago that we need to broaden our perspective, so we consider ourself being a red-green party. The climate issue is essential for us. And we’re also a feminist party. So, you could say that we are a modern socialist, left-wing party. There are similar parties in the other Scandinavian countries.
AMY GOODMAN: And what are the issues that are most important to you right now?
JONAS SJÖSTEDT: The main issue we’re campaigning on is against privatization. Sweden has become kind of an experiment for privatization, especially in the education system, in healthcare and in the home for elderly. And we said that we want to ban all profit-making companies from these welfare sectors, meaning that we would have the public sector working as it should be, but also allowing other nonprofit actors, like churches or cooperatives, etc. We can see these devastating effects from the privatization in the Swedish society—schools closing down in the middle of the education of children. We can see that many of the home for elderly that are run by big venture capitalists lack fundamental resources like educated staff. They have very few employees. And they make huge profits from taxpayers’ money. So this is our main topic. It’s something that we have had great support from Swedes, in general.
AMY GOODMAN: Climate change?
JONAS SJÖSTEDT: Climate change is, of course, essential. I mean, if we don’t solve the climate issue, other discussion becomes meaningless. And we want Sweden to be kind of a role model. We want Sweden to really take a big step ahead and prove that we can be a modern welfare society and an industrial nation and still cutting greenhouse gas emissions substantially. And the only goal we can have is zero emissions.
AMY GOODMAN: And so, how do you achieve that?
JONAS SJÖSTEDT: Well, first of all, we have a major program of investments—rebuild our old houses, have railroads instead of heavy lorry traffic on the highways. We have investment in renewable energy, etc. But we think that even if we do all this investment that we need to do to swift into another kind of society, when it comes to energy systems, etc., we need to reconsider our way to look at economy and growth. We think that the classical way of measuring the success of a society by economical growth is useless when it comes to climate. We have to take into account that we use resources that have certain limits and that we are destroying the climate of the world. So, we also, for example, favor shorter working hours. We think that it’s a lot easier to achieve a solution of the climate issue if we have a more equal society. It’s about distribution of limited assets, globally and in Sweden.
AMY GOODMAN: And how does shortening the workday achieve that?
JONAS SJÖSTEDT: Well, we think that instead of using the increased productivity for higher salaries, we use it in more spare time, more time for families, more time for culture, more time for gender equality.
AMY GOODMAN: Right now, what’s happening in the Palestinian occupied territories and Israel is escalating. Can you talk about the Left Party’s position on Israel and Palestine?
JONAS SJÖSTEDT: We have a long tradition of supporting the Palestinian struggle for an independent state. We think that the fundamental problem is the occupation of the Palestinian territories. As long as that is going on, it’s very hard to find any kind of solution of the conflict. We are, of course, favoring a peaceful solution through negotiations, but this is not a conflict between two equal parties. It’s one country occupying another people, the Palestinian people. So that is the whole core of the issue. And so, we think that Sweden should be an active supporter of a two-state solution and that we should recognize the Palestinian territories as an independent state.
AMY GOODMAN: And the role of the United States in dealing with Israel and Palestine?
JONAS SJÖSTEDT: I think that’s crucial. I think the recent—
AMY GOODMAN: What is your assessment of it today?
JONAS SJÖSTEDT: Well, I’m sorry to say that I think the reason why the Israelis can be so self-confident in their occupation is that they feel that they have a silent support from the U.S. administration. And that’s also why the U.S. partly has the key to a peaceful solution. They have to put pressure on the Israelis.
AMY GOODMAN: Iraq?
JONAS SJÖSTEDT: Well, I think we now harvest the bitter fruits of the Iraq War, and it’s very sad to see the suffering of the Iraqi people in the sectarian violence. And we—
AMY GOODMAN: The U.S. first invading Iraq in 2003?
JONAS SJÖSTEDT: I mean, that’s where the problem got worse. And I think the peace movement was right that the military intervention and occupation would make things worse. And now we are in the situation, but we cannot abandon the Iraqi people. We have to support the good forces that speak up in favor of living together regardless of your religion or your ethnical background.
AMY GOODMAN: Amnesty International and other groups have been here protesting the Swedish arms trade. Most people might be surprised to know that though this is the home of Alfred Nobel, founder of the Nobel Peace Prize, that Sweden is one of the largest exporters of arms in the world.
JONAS SJÖSTEDT: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the Left Party’s position on this?
JONAS SJÖSTEDT: Well, we would like to ban all export of arms. We think what we can achieve the next four years, if we go into government and form a progressive majority, is to have an effective ban on the export of arms to dictators, to countries that violate human rights or that are involved in an armed conflict. For example, one of the big receiving countries of the Swedish arms export is Saudi Arabia, which is bizarre. And Pakistan is another country that’s importing a lot of arms. And I think this does a lot of harm to our potential role as a peacemaker and someone who speaks up in favor of disarmament, because it shows that we are hypocrites, as long as we continue this arms export.
AMY GOODMAN: Most people know Saab in the United States as the auto company; they don’t know it as the major weapons manufacturer of Sweden.
JONAS SJÖSTEDT: They certainly are, and they make a very expensive fighter jet that Sweden tried to export all over the world. And I would be so much happier if we exported things that we are better in doing, like environmental technology and children literature.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask you about a case that is known around the world—it is the case of Julian Assange—and the position the Left Party takes on him. I got a chance to question the foreign minister yesterday, Carl Bildt, because this week there was an appeal by his Swedish lawyers, and it’s around the issue of this pre-charge detention. It’s something that is not—people, I think, in other countries are not as familiar with, but that he has been dealing with this for four years—
JONAS SJÖSTEDT: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: —without charge. And he’s concerned that if he were to come to Sweden, if he were extradited to Sweden, he would then be sent to the United States, wanted by the United States for WikiLeaks.
JONAS SJÖSTEDT: Well, I think that the Swedish juridical system is to be trusted. We would not send him to the United States. I think no one in Sweden believes that we would do that. And we look on the crime of sexual assault as a very serious crime. And if he’s under investigation, he should be questioned by the Swedish police. There might be an opening in doing so in London instead of in Sweden. But I think that the claim that you cannot trust the Swedish juridical system is not true.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, what about that issue of the Swedish police meeting him, well, at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London and questioning him there?
JONAS SJÖSTEDT: I think if there was such a solution, that would be very positive. Now there’s a complete deadlock that is good for no one.
AMY GOODMAN: What would break that deadlock?
JONAS SJÖSTEDT: I don’t know, maybe some kind of initiative from the Swedish juridical system, but also some sign of goodwill from Assange himself maybe.
AMY GOODMAN: Any words to people in United States, here at Almedalen, of this kind of gathering? There are more than 25,000 people here.
JONAS SJÖSTEDT: I think this is something good. There is a very open political debate, and anyone can come to me as a party leader and speak to me on the street or take a photo or just discuss their favorite topic. I lived, myself, in the U.S. for a couple of years, and I think—
AMY GOODMAN: Where?
JONAS SJÖSTEDT: In Brooklyn. Where else? And then, I think there’s a lot to learn from the U.S. in campaigning methods, in public initiatives, etc. But there’s also something to learn from Sweden.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you very much for joining us.
JONAS SJÖSTEDT: Thank you so much. Thanks, Amy.
AMY GOODMAN: We’ve been speaking with Jonas Sjöstedt, who is the chairperson of the Left Party since 2012. He has been a member of the Swedish Parliament since 2010 and, before that, was a member of the European Parliament from 1995 to 2006. When we come back, we’ll hear from the head of the Feminist Initiative and also a very familiar face in U.S. politics, Dennis Kucinich. Stay with us.
How Sweden's Feminist Initiative Party Became First of Its Kind to Win a Seat in European Parliament
In May, Sweden’s Feminist Initiative party won a seat in the European Parliament, becoming the first feminist party in history to do so. We are joined by the party’s co-founder, Gudrun Schyman, a former member of the Swedish Parliament. Schyman talks about the Feminist Initiative’s focus on climate change, anti-racism and connecting the violence in intimate relationships to the violence in international relations. "The patriarch structure is global, and it shows in all fields of society, in your intimate relations, in the labor market," Schyman says. "We have to ban violence, and we have to see that the role of violence is always control, always power."
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. And we’re broadcasting from a very windy and rainy Visby. That’s the Swedish city of Visby on the island of Gotland in the middle of an event called Almedalen Week, a week-long political festival. Over 25,000 people come here. It’s unlike any other political event in the world. We’ve come to the island to hear these speeches. People come here to take seminars. Politicians from all the country’s parties are here.
Here in Sweden, there are nine political parties with representatives serving in the Swedish Parliament or the European Parliament. They’re the Swedish Social Democratic Party, the Moderate Party, the Green Party, the Liberal People’s Party, the Centre Party, Sweden Democrats, Feminist Initiative, Christian Democrats, Left Party. In May elections, the Feminist Initiative earned over 5 percent of the vote and won a seat in the European Parliament, becoming the first feminist party to do so.
Well, on Wednesday here in Gotland, I spoke to the party’s co-founder, Gudrun Schyman, who used to head the Left Party. I asked her about the founding of the Feminist Initiative.
GUDRUN SCHYMAN: Well, this question is about gender equality, high enough up on the political agenda. So I started discussions with different kind of feminists, from the peace movement, from the environmental movement, from the anti-racist movement. And we were discussing how to do, because women very often has the function of being a lobbyist in their own political parties. And they go together in special women groups, and then they try to have an opinion for the political—the real political questions and the real political party. And we thought it will be a time now to go from the status of lobbyism to parliamentarism. So we created an independent Feminist Initiative with an own independent ideologic platform.
AMY GOODMAN: Now, your party has made it into the European Parliament?
GUDRUN SCHYMAN: Yes, we just did in May. We had election to the European Parliament, and we ran for office. And we had 5.7, I think. We had one member. Sweden has 20 members, and we got one. And that was a big success, absolutely. And now we are going further when it comes to the national and regional and local election, which we all have on the same day in September.
AMY GOODMAN: Talk about the different platforms, the different positions you have in your platform, on everything from military spending to, what, climate change.
GUDRUN SCHYMAN: Yeah, I mean, this is questions that also the other political parties deal with—security policy, defense policy and environmental questions. But we have another knowledge about that we have paternal power in society that makes women, as a group, to be seen as less worth, which means salary gap, which means men’s violence against women—all that what you have all over. It’s a global structure. The patriarch structure is global. And it shows in all fields of society—in your intimate relations, in the labor market. And we connect this idea of violence, that is in our relation, with the idea of violence in the international relations. And we see we had to take a civilistic step forward and ban violence as a tool for solving conflict, because the world is not getting more secure when you have more weapon. And this comes to Sweden, and this comes to our civil society, and this comes to our intimate relations. We have to ban violence, and we have to see that the role of violence is always control, always power.
AMY GOODMAN: So, you’ve proposed a cap on military spending?
GUDRUN SCHYMAN: Yeah, we want to see militarism out from our society. That is the vision. That is the long run. And I think—we think that Sweden should start with cutdowns on military and change the idea of security policy into security policy not for territories, not for countries, not for nation, but for people, which means that we want Sweden to do what the United Nations organization for banning men’s violence against women told their member countries to do: cut spending on military and build a security policy for people.
AMY GOODMAN: For people listening or watching outside of Sweden, they might say that can’t be too hard for Sweden, you know, home of Alfred Nobel, the founder of the Nobel Peace Prize, but it might surprise people to know that Sweden is one of the largest military exporters in the world.
GUDRUN SCHYMAN: Absolutely. And we are criticizing this heavily, because this way of behaving is also—has also the result that poor people don’t get their needs in the countries where we sell weapon to. We sell, for example, these airplanes. JAS, they are called. It was sold to South Africa when South Africa needed the money for educating of and for healthcare for the children. Now it’s Brazil. Brazil has a lot of problems with a lot of poor people. They don’t need airplanes. They need social welfare. So this is very embarrassing, we think. And it’s a contradiction to the idea of cutting military expenses.
AMY GOODMAN: The issue of global warming, how do you propose to deal with it?
GUDRUN SCHYMAN: We have to make sustainable environment way of behaving in every level in society, and we have to work with the tools that we have, which means taxes, which means changing energy systems. We have to go to sun and wind and water. We have very good possibilities in Sweden to do that. But there are different opinions. We don’t want—among the political parties. We don’t want nuclear power, for example. Some political parties want. But we are quite on the same view upon this question as the Green Party, which is now ending the scene back here. It’s their day today.
So, but what makes us different from other political parties is that we put in a lot of knowledge about discrimination, how it works in society, the knowledge about that we have structures in our society that turns people into different positions because of gender, because of ethnicity, sexuality, and things like that. And all this kind of discrimination are working together in the same time. And we have had very clear, the last years, that it is not an equal country, Sweden. Gender equality is not reached. It has also been very clear that we have structural racism. We have a lot of problems with men’s violence against women and things like that.
AMY GOODMAN: You were speaking out here at Almedalen around the issue of the anti-immigrant fervor in some parties. There was a very small protest surrounded by hundreds of anti-racists, but of those who are seriously opposed to immigration.
GUDRUN SCHYMAN: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about how to deal with that in society?
GUDRUN SCHYMAN: Well, we think that we should have—in the long run, we should be a country, Sweden, that is open to people that comes from other parts of the world, people that have to flee from their own situation because of war or other things. And in the long run, it should be possible for people to go free and to come free. And we mean that we are a country, Sweden, that are a rich country. We have a good welfare. We haven’t had a war in our territory the last 200 years. We have the possibility to be generous, and we should make it easy for people that want to come. We should open our doors.
AMY GOODMAN: Gudrun Schyman, co-founder of Sweden’s Feminist Initiative, which recently became the first feminist party to win a seat in the European Parliament, and she could well take a seat in the Swedish Parliament come September.
Dennis Kucinich on the Iraq Crisis & What the U.S. Can Learn from Sweden's Political Diversity
Former U.S. congressmember and presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich speaks to Democracy Now! while in Sweden to observe the political festival Almedalen Week, which brings together people from all points on the political spectrum. Kucinich says the United States needs a similarly inclusive political process. "You come here and you see so many different political persuasions represented, and our politics back at home are monochromatic," Kucinich says. "We need to awaken those sentiments in America and one way to do it is proportional representation." On the crisis in Iraq, Kucinich says: "If we learned anything from our experience, it should be that interventionism is not the wave of the future." Kucinich served in the in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1997 to 2013, and ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008 and 2012.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: And we end today’s show with a very familiar voice in U.S. politics, here at the University of Uppsala in Visby, Sweden.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. We’re broadcasting from Visby, Sweden, from the largest Swedish island of Gotland, where Almedalen is taking place. That is this mass gathering of tens of thousands of people of every party debating the issues of the day, sort of like a political convention in the United States except all of them together and more.
So, we’re joined by Dennis Kucinich. That might surprise some of the people who are listening and watching right now, the former congressmember who lives in Washington right now. What are you doing in Almedalen?
DENNIS KUCINICH: Well, I found out about this amazing event here, and I had to see it for myself. Can you imagine where people of every political persuasion come together in an open space, freely discussing and debating in a sense of joy, like a festival? And the thinking is very deep. And it’s consequential. I believe that what’s happening here has the potential to catch on all around the world, in terms of improving the level of political dialogue and enabling people to try to find a way to reach common ground.
AMY GOODMAN: Joy in politics, you said?
DENNIS KUCINICH: Yeah, absolutely. There should be. I mean, the fact that we don’t have that is a testimony to our disconnecting ourselves from our own hearts, what it is we desire. You know, life should not be a funeral march to the grave. We should have the capacity for being able to lift up not just public dialogue, but lift up each other in a greater cause of nationhood. And so, when you see the kind of internecine conflict that happens in the United States—the partisan divide, the dichotomous thinking, the separation from each other—there is a different thing happening here in Sweden at Almedalen, which is a sense of a common bond as citizens with a common purpose for the nation. And people come together here. And the thing that impresses me is how quickly on the street you can get into the deepest discussions that have consequence. And so, that’s why—you know, having been here only for two days, I’ve had a chance to meet people from every level of society, decision makers as well as citizens, and there’s a sense that things matter in these kind of discussions, which are direct, relatively low-key, nonconfrontational, matter-of-fact. And behind it is—what animates it is a sense of commitment to each other and to the nation.
AMY GOODMAN: Proportional representation is really the name of the game in Sweden, right? Anyone who gets—I think it’s 4 percent of the vote, can be represented in Parliament. Can you comment on this? It’s a growing movement in the United States.
DENNIS KUCINICH: Well, it should happen. So, it’s really, you know, a step towards democratization, so that points of view that are held in the general populace are not squelched because they don’t reach some numerical significance that we call a majority. You know, majority politics are all very interesting, but what’s happening in the United States, with an increasing—increasingly blurring the differences between the two parties, there’s a hunger for alternatives, and there’s a hunger for those alternatives to find a means of inclusion into the process. So, certainly, you know, that’s one way to do it. And we need to broaden our discussion in America. When you come here and you see so many different political persuasions represented, and our politics back home are monochromatic—I mean, increasingly. It’s grey, and you can’t really tell the difference. Here, you can. But at the same time, there’s a common commitment to the nation. We need to awaken those sentiments in America. And one way to do it is proportional representation.
AMY GOODMAN: Congressman Kucinich, the issue of Iraq? I mean, for many of the years you were in Congress, this was a battle, not only all over Iraq, but a battle in Congress.
DENNIS KUCINICH: It was, yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you feel needs to be done right now?
DENNIS KUCINICH: Well, first of all, we have to recognize that the American people were lied to. Our country was taken into war against innocent people, and the consequences have been disastrous for the people of Iraq, who perhaps had a million extra deaths during that period, the destruction of their country, for the people of the United States, who saw their own men and women led to their deaths or grave injuries, and at a cost of perhaps anywhere from $3 [billion] to $6 billion long-term. This thing was a catastrophe.
And if we learn anything from our experience in Iraq, it should be that interventionism is not the wave of the future. We need to reassess this whole idea that somehow we have the right to intervene in the affairs of other nations. And we have to put away the pretense that we do it for some higher principle. The fact of the matter is we went after Iraq for oil. And the fact of the matter is that the United States has degraded our role as a great nation by attacking this nation that had no capacity to attack the United States and no intention of doing so, that didn’t have anything to do with 9/11, didn’t have weapons of mass destruction. It wasn’t a mistake, Amy. It was a lie.
So, what about Iraq today? Iraq today, we have to stop the games that our government is playing of subterfuge, of duplicity. The double game that’s being played in Iraq is a violation of what America should be about. And as we should be honest with people, we should be straightforward in our international policies. But we seem to be constitutionally uncapable of doing that. And that’s a problem. That’s a problem that involves a broad national discussion, involving people at every level, because the consequences of our continued interference in the internal affairs of nations is to create blowback, as Chalmers Johnson and others have written, and to create the conditions where America will always be at risk in the future of a loss of our ability to be able to meet the needs of our own people and of leading the planet toward destruction, because this planet that we have—you can talk about global climate change, but war is a form of ecocide. This planet that we have is not guaranteed to us. If we are faithful stewards of the planet, we also have to be mindful of our capacity to create peace, that we cannot imagine that peace will be created of itself. We have to be architects of peace. We have to be—we have to change our relationships with nations so that America is no longer a nation above nations, but a nation among nations. And I think that if we take that approach, we won’t find ourselves trapped in situations where we really violate the basic wisdom that our founders gave us in saying, "Beware of foreign entanglements." And we have entangled ourselves willfully, duplicitously, and America is better than that.
AMY GOODMAN: Former U.S. congressmember and former presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, yes, speaking with me here at Almedalen Week on the island of Gotland in Visby, Sweden, where over 25,000 people have come to attend this unique political open-air festival. That does it for Democracy Now!
Democracy Now! has two job openings — administrative director, as well as a Linux systems administrator — and fall internships. Visit democracynow.org/jobs for more information.
Special thanks to our crew here in Sweden: Lars Thörnqvist and Gunnar Hoass and to John Hamilton and Denis Moynihan and Mike Burke.
Headlines:
•Israeli Settlers Blamed for Murder of Abducted Palestinian Teen; Dozens Wounded in West Bank, Gaza
The occupied West Bank is seeing its worst clashes in years following the abduction and murder of a Palestinian teenager. The badly burnt body of 17-year-old Mohammed Abu Khudair was found in a forest near Jerusalem on Wednesday. Palestinians blamed Israeli settlers for carrying out a revenge attack for the murders of three teenage settlers, whose bodies were found earlier this week. Khudair’s father said Israeli police failed to adequately respond to his son’s abduction.
Hussein Abu Khudair: "They kidnapped him, took him and left. The guys chased them. They went in the direction of Ramot by the train tracks. The whole road is covered in cameras. The guys called the police. They came immediately and told us, so we called the police. His phone was working. We gave the police his phone number and everything. They didn’t help at all."
Hours after Khudair’s body was found, Israeli forces fired rubber-coated bullets at scores of Palestinian youths in the streets of East Jerusalem and other parts of the West Bank. More than 200 Palestinians were reportedly wounded, including four journalists. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas blamed Israel’s settlement policy in the occupied West Bank for Khudair’s death, saying: "settlers are attacking the Palestinian people every day." The Palestinian teen’s killing follows calls for revenge from Israeli political leaders and a march that saw demonstrators chanting "death to the Arabs." In response, hundreds of Israelis gathered in Jerusalem on Wednesday to protest violent incitement.
Mia Diamond: "We’re not here to make a political statement or anything else. For a child to die under any circumstances is horrific and sad. As the speakers here are saying that the response to death and violence should not be more violence."
Israel has also launched overnight strikes on the Gaza Strip, wounding around a dozen people, one seriously. Palestinian militants fired rockets at southern Israel hours earlier.
•White House Condemns Murder of Palestinian Teen
The Obama administration has urged all sides to exercise restraint. In Washington, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the U.S. condemns the killing of the Palestinian teen.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest: "The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms the heinous murder of Palestinian teenager Mohammed Hussein Abu Khudair. We send our condolences to his family and to the Palestinian people. We note that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has called upon law enforcement authorities to work as quickly as possible to identify the perpetrators and motives behind this heinous act, and we hope to swiftly see the guilty parties brought to justice."
•U.N. Rights Chief Condemns Gaza Rockets, "Excessive" Israeli Strikes
The latest unrest also follows massive Israeli raids on the West Bank and airstrikes on Gaza that have killed around 12 Palestinians since mid-June. Critics say the Israeli government has exploited the teens’ abduction to punish the Palestinian Authority for a unity deal with Hamas and for recent efforts to seek international recognition by joining U.N. conventions. Speaking today in Geneva, U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay said: "From a human rights point of view, I utterly condemn [Palestinian] rocket attacks, and more especially, I condemn Israel’s excessive acts of retaliation."
•Report: ISIS Leaders on U.S. Kill List
The Obama administration has reportedly placed leaders of the Sunni militant group ISIS on the U.S. kill list. According to the Washington Free Beacon, U.S. forces can now kill Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and other ISIS commanders through targeted strikes, such as drone attacks. Baghdadi has been named the leader of the caliphate ISIS recently declared in the seized areas of Iraq and Syria under its control. In a message to supporters, Baghdadi called on Muslims worldwide to join the group.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: "We call on Muslim clerics, scholars, doctors, engineers, military personnel and fighters to join the Muslim Umma and to avenge wrongs committed against Muslims worldwide."
•Activist: Anti-Immigrant Protest Marks "Worst of the American Spirit"
Immigrant rights activists have staged a rally in southern California to show support for undocumented immigrants confronted by right-wing demonstrators. The migrants were traveling in three buses after being flown in from an overcrowded detention center in Texas. But they were prevented from reaching a federal immigration facility in the town of Murrieta after the right-wing demonstrators blocked the road and chanted anti-immigrant slogans. The buses were carrying dozens of children, part of the wave of unaccompanied youths fleeing violence and poverty in Central America. Enrique Morones of the group Border Angels said the children were subjected to hate.
Enrique Morones: "What I saw was one of the worst things that I have ever seen in my life. I have been involved as an observer and a protester and a human rights advocate for a long time. We saw the worst of the American spirit. How is it possible that these children that simply want to live — these are refugees, these are migrants that are escaping a very violent situation in Central America."
The anti-immigrant activists were encouraged by local officials, including Murrieta Mayor Alan Long, who called the migrants a public safety threat.
•ACLU: Obama Waiver Violates Child Migrants’ Due Process Rights
In response to the migrant crisis, the Obama administration has asked Congress for fast-track authority and additional funding to speed up the deportation of children. A proposed waiver would authorize the deportation of children without the protections afforded by a transfer to the Department of Health and Human Services, which is mandated to look out for their welfare. In a statement, the American Civil Liberties Union criticized the proposed changes, saying: "The procedures proposed for these children in crisis lack fundamental due process and deny fair treatment. It is imperative that these children receive a fair process to ensure that they are not being returned to life-threatening situations."
•U.S. Increases Security Measures at Overseas Airports
The Department of Homeland Security says it is increasing security measures at overseas airports with nonstop flights to the United States. Anonymous U.S. officials have cited concerns about bombs being smuggled onto U.S.-bound planes. The heightened security measures will take effect at airports in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
•Missouri Gov. Vetoes 72-Hour Abortion Wait Law
Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon of Missouri has vetoed a law requiring a 72-hour wait for an abortion. Missouri had been poised to become the third state forcing women seeking an abortion to wait three days after consulting with their doctor. But Nixon said the waiting period was based on a "paternalistic presumption that rape and incest victims are somehow unable to grasp the horror that has befallen them."
•Georgia Enacts Widened Gun Permit Law; Christie Vetoes Limit on Gun Magazines
A new law has taken effect in Georgia massively expanding weapons permits in public places. The law lets gun owners take weapons into bars, churches, government buildings and schools under certain conditions. Meanwhile in New Jersey, Republican Gov. Chris Christie has vetoed a measure that would have reduced the legal ammunition magazine from 15 bullets to 10. Christie said the restriction would have done nothing to prevent mass shootings, but critics accused him of catering to Republican primary voters ahead of a potential run for president.
•Target Bans Guns in All Stores Following National Petition
The retail giant Target has banned the carrying of guns in all of its stores nationwide, even in states where it is legal. In a statement, Target said carrying weapons "is at odds with the family-friendly shopping and work experience we strive to create." The move comes after the gun control group Moms Demand Action launched a national petition in response to pro-gun advocates who openly carried their weapons at retail stores.
•Occupy Activist Cecily McMillan Freed from Prison
Occupy Wall Street activist Cecily McMillan has been released after nearly two months behind bars. McMillan was convicted in May of assaulting a police officer at a 2012 protest. She says she struck out instinctively when her breast was grabbed from behind. Speaking to reporters just after walking free, McMillan said she will work to make sure the voices of women prisoners reach "outside the prison system."
Cecily McMillan: "If Judge Zweibel, [District Attorney] Cyrus Vance or Michael Bloomberg set out to make an example out of me to dissuade dissent, this has had the exact opposite impact. I am absolutely and further committed to fighting for rights and freedoms that I did not even realize had been eroded to the extent that they have. I will work tirelessly to make sure that these women’s voices reach outside of that prison system. And I feel like we have finally made a real and concrete step towards effecting a true possibility of the statement, 'We are the 99 percent.'"
•"The Farm" Founder Stephen Gaskin Dies at 79
The activist Stephen Gaskin has died at the age of 79. In the 1970s, Gaskin founded The Farm in Tennessee, one of the nation’s longest-lasting communes. In 1980, Gaskin became the first winner of the Right Livelihood Award, known as the alternative Nobel Peace Prize, for his work as founder of the global relief and education group Plenty International.
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"Almedalen: A Swedish Export the U.S. Could Use" by Amy Goodman
VISBY, Sweden—Sixty miles off the coast of Sweden, in the Baltic Sea, sits the island of Gotland. Every summer, for one week, tens of thousands flock here to participate in a unique public event known as Almedalen (pronounced ALL-meh-DAH-len). The name comes from a park in Gotland’s main town of Visby, where, in 1968, Sweden’s education minister at the time, Olof Palme, stood on the back of a flatbed truck and gave one of the rousing political speeches for which he was renowned. Palme went on to become one of Sweden’s most transformative prime ministers, up until his assassination on the streets of Stockholm in 1986. The speech that Palme gave in Visby planted the seed for what has grown into Almedalen, a vibrant, open, festive and freewheeling week of debate and dialogue, demonstration and dissent. A dose of this would no doubt benefit the ailing, gridlocked body politic in the United States.
As a parliamentary democracy, the Swedish government is formed by coalition. Smaller parties have a role here, thanks to the proportional representation voting system, which ensures that any party that gains at least 4 percent of the vote nationally will be represented in parliament. The parties that can create a coalition with more than 50 percent of the members of parliament will then run the government, deciding amongst themselves who gets chosen as prime minister, foreign minister and so on. It is a system of governance that rewards participants for finding common ground. Contrast this with the U.S. government, chosen in “winner take all” elections that marginalize small parties and shore up our dysfunctional, polarized two-party system.
Here in Almedalen, all the major political parties in Sweden come and showcase their ideas, with each party featured on one day of the week. On the morning we arrived on Gotland, the Green Party was featured, with environmental issues at the fore. A crowd gathered around a fair-trade coffee stall, where Per Bolund, Green Party member of parliament, was questioning corporate CEOs about environmental regulations they would like to see. And they were actually responding! Sound pie in the sky?
While Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt of the center-right Alliance coalition led a parade nearby, followed by 50 chanting college-age supporters in matching orange T-shirts, current polling suggests that come September’s elections, they will lose to the Red-Green coalition, which includes the Social Democrats, the Greens, the Left Party and the new Feminist Initiative party. The Feminist Initiative has enjoyed recent success at the polls and is expected to send the first radical feminist to a national parliament.
Many at Almedalen are exerting pressure from outside of the political parties. I spoke with the first-ever female archbishop of the Church of Sweden, Antje Jackelen. I asked her how long it took for a woman to get that job: She smiled, “850 years.” She is now leading her church in a major fight to curb climate change. Among her strategies: “cutting the emissions, of course, and divestment from the fossil fuel industry.” But it is not just a matter of the economy, science or technology. It goes to the question, she said, of “what is the role of the human being in the world? So it’s utterly an existential and religious question, and we should address it as people of faith.”
As one of the large Gotland ferries arrived from the mainland, a group of antiwar protesters dressed as a Swedish-made weapon greeted the new arrivals. The protesters, organized by Amnesty International, were highlighting the role of arms exports in the Swedish economy. Although Sweden is the birthplace of Alfred Nobel, the founder of the Nobel Peace Prize, Sweden is one of the top arms-exporting nations on the planet.
Another participant at Almedalen this week is Martin Smedjeback. He has been sent to prison on three separate occasions for entering arms plants and hammering on weapons bound for export. “It’s actually a strong majority of people who want to stop the weapons export,” he told me. He said Saab, the car manufacturer, actually accounts for 50 percent of Swedish arms sales. As people spilled off the ferry, I asked Smedjeback how long he was willing to protest: “I’ll happily stop if they stop selling weapons to people and using them in wars ... That’s what I’m doing here in Almedalen.”
Democracy demands a vigorous debate, an informed and engaged populace and a diversity of parties and positions. As we in the United States celebrate this nation’s independence, let’s question the strength and vitality of our system, and what we could learn from the late Olof Palme and a week like Almedalen.
Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.
Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 1,200 stations in North America. She is the co-author of “The Silenced Majority,” a New York Times best-seller.
© 2014 Amy Goodman
Distributed by King Features Syndicate
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