Hope for Sweden?
Brodin, Eric
Eric Brodin: Hope for Sweden? Although anti-Americanism still appears to be one of the main ingredients of Sweden's political life, there are encouraging trends which would indicate a reaction to...
...Out of adversity has grown hope, from repression of political variability has grown a new resiliance...
...It was organized in 1967 by fifteen people in order to engage in the battle against "communism, nazism, fascism, and racism...
...But for the first time this author has some hope (hat Sweden might be turning in the right direction...
...The activities of the Alliance are manifold, and are evidences of the devotion of its young members, often drawn from high-school and university students, and coming not infrequently from wealthy homes...
...They will not feel comfortable having been mentioned together in this article...
...But for the young people left behind one of the most important tasks is the advocacy of a non-socialist alternative, and the attempts, through political action, to displace the institutionalized socialists to whom it could be said "ye've sat too long for the good ye've done...
...They represent a new and hopeful generation in Sweden today...
...It is inspiring to be with and to talk with these young people who are performing an admirable task against such odds...
...The socialists won only 36.5 percent of the youth vote, whereas in the general elections they gained 45.3 percent...
...A distinguished roster of sponsors lend weight to the organizations intellectual image...
...The book has received much - and mostly favorable - attention and has presented a picture of the United States and of American students seldom seen in Sweden...
...Good publicity has attended the lectures, seminars, and debates which they have sponsored...
...What would appear an even clearer sign of future direction was revealed during the "mock-elections" in 1970 during which 384,500 students indicated their political preferences...
...Political and philosophical ideas are studied and discussed from Burke to Kirk...
...It is the best organized party, and has a larger percentage of its voters as dues-paying members than any other party...
...Although the group is numerically small (it has about 200 members in five university towns), its impact has been far beyond its numbers...
...What may be even more significant is that - in spite of the fact that the radical Left gets the newspaper headlines - most active political group at the universities are the Conservative party's student groups...
...Young Conservatives Although the Conservative party of Sweden (now called Moderate Coalition party) may not be so characterized in the United States, given Sweden's political frame, it is the only party with a clearly defined non-socialist alternative...
...Increasingly, Swedish students study abroad - and after completing their studies they often elect to stay away from Sweden...
...And it is only through them that such a change will ever be accomplished in Sweden.mplished in Sweden...
...They sponsor study circles, invite speakers, arrange public meetings, and hold massive demonstrations against communism with between 500 and 1,500 participants...
...They sell a semi-official newspaper called Argument for Freedom and Justice, they have sold more than 100,000 lapel-pins, a fourth of which picture the American and Swedish flags crossed with a clasped hand in friendship shown underneath...
...It has even an international influence and Democratic Alliance groups are to be found in Sweden's neighbors, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and even in England, where they have forty MPs as sponsors...
...During a recently concluded lecture-tour of Sweden, the author had the opportunity to make a personal assessment of three youth organizations that might well contribute to a welcome change in Sweden's political climate in the near future...
...The Democratic Alliance is carrying on an excellent job of political education and activism against formidable odds - often with little help from their elders in the form of moral or financial support...
...One reaction to the forty-year socialist hegemony, to be sure, has been simply to leave Sweden, and the "brain-drain" by the educated and skilled has been considerable, whether it be businessmen, doctors, dentists, teachers, or engineers...
...It is also the only youth organization which stands (it would appear) to the Right of its parent organization...
...And representatives of the conservative trend among the young are already to be found in the Parliament the youngest MP in Sweden's history,at twenty-six, is an eloquent defender of conservative ideals and ideas...
...Their activities have resulted in a series of articles in one of Sweden's best daily newspapers under the title "Is Conservatism Possible?' which has later been published in book form (Kampande Km-servatism...
...At the four main universities the communists and socialists have been in control only 116 days at Lund and one year at Uppsala...
...Although anti-Americanism still appears to be one of the main ingredients of Sweden's political life, there are encouraging trends which would indicate a reaction to the four decade-long regime of the Social Democrats, which has taken a definite leftward direction since Olof Palme became Premier in 1969...
...To be sure, many obstacles remain before the leftward direction of Sweden's political life can be arrested and changed to a right trend...
...Today the largest student organization is the conservative one...
...What is more significant in our context, however, is the fact that its youth and student organizations are strong, and sponsor an impressive array of educational and political activities...
...Although the party has continually lost votes and in the last election, 1970, drew only 10 percent of the voters...
...When news of and literture about the American conservative movement of the 1950s finally reached Sweden in the 1960s, a nucleus of university students began to entertain ideas of organizing a non-partisan study group along ISI lines...
...Nor is a political change going to come from the middle-aged parents who have been imbued with the postwar materialism, who are afraid of ideas and ideals, and cynical about their application in Sweden's political life today...
...This author has written many sad accounts about Sweden - even in this pages of this jolly journal - but for the first time there appear glimpses of hope for Sweden...
...Struggling against acts of violence by Maoist thugs, individual Alliance members have been beaten up, their offices ransacked, their meetings interferred with, and at a recent anti-totalitarian demonstration in Goteborg it took 200 police to protect them from the Communist "counter-demonstrators...
...Forum for Conservative Ideas If Democratic Alliance resembles the political activities of Young Americans for Freedom, the Forum for Conservative Ideas (Konservativt Ideforum) could be said to reflect the aims and form of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (until 1966 known as Intercollegiate Society of Individualists...
...The change can only come from the young Swedes as represented by the hardworking, often idealistic youth in the groups mentioned...
...Otherwise these organizations representing 90,000 students have been led by conservative dominated bourgeois-party coalitions...
...For one thing the relationship between the three groups mentioned is not good...
...This trend has brought about a counter-reaction toward the Right by many young Swedes, especially the young students who are sut-fering through the new, rigid, politically motivated, educational reform, as -well as by those Swedes with independence, initiative, and a desire to see some concrete results from a hard day's work...
...Had the youth vote been the decisive one the socialists-communists would have lost with 44.9 percent against the three non-socialist parties, whereas they won the 1970 elections by a combined 50.5 percent of the votes...
...Even more significant was the publication by the group's two co-founders of Amerikansk Nykonserva-tism (American Neo-Conservatism) which is an excellently written book about the rebirth in the 1950s of conservative ideas and debate in the United States...
...After having grown up entirely under an increasingly powerful and imperious socialist regime, it is good to know that many young people in Sweden today have the belief that their actions can bring about a change in the political direction of their nation...
...As the Forum for Conservative Ideas slowly grows, and its impact becomes more widespread there is no doubt but that it will add its intellectual strength to the party-political work of the Young Conservatives and the political activism of Democratic Alliance, for the good of Sweden and a healthier political climate there...
...They have not as yet the spirit of cooperation which, in the main, exists between YR, ISI, and YAF in the United States, and the Alliance and the Forum often lack funds...
...Today one evidence of its success is that the group has about 3,000 members, and chapters in all of Sweden's major cities...
...Democratic Alliance A relatively new, political activist organization is Democratic Alliance whose activities resemble very much the international aspects of Young Americans for Freedom...
...The change in Sweden's politics is not going to come from the large number of pensioners who are still operating with the "depression-years syndrome...
...During the past five years 32,876 persons have permanently emigrated and since 1967 the number has increased 1,000 a year...
...As its American prototype, the Forum is neither a partisan, nor a directly political group, but is educative in character...
...At a recent demonstration the author was photographed, close up, no less than ten times by Communists simply for wearing that pin...
Vol. 6 • December 1972 • No. 3
