On Saturday, 20 October, Patrik Hooghwinkel, member of Rättvisepartiet Socialisterna (CWI Sweden) and an active anti-racist, was brutally attacked by Nazis, who hit him with an iron bar until he bled.
This is the latest of many attacks from Nazis in Sweden recently, since they have stepped up their ideological and organised violence.
Rättvisepartiet Socialisterna in Gothenburg was holding an activity to launch a new anti-racist handbook from Elevkampanjen, the socialist school students’ union. Three individuals ran at Patrik from behind. He fell to the ground as the iron bar hit him in the back of his head. They then kicked him, before running away.
Patrik was taken by ambulance to the hospital, where he got six stitches and the doctors found cerebral concussion. But the consequences could have been much, much worse and it cannot be seen as anything other than an attempted murder.
It was a brutal attack directed against Patrik, but also against our party and everyone who is against Nazism. Nazis had threatened Rättvisepartiet Socialisterna earlier, as they said this is their area. Also, the weekend before, two individuals were hit by Nazis with batons in central Gothenburg.
Campaign
On Sunday 21 October, the day after the attack, 150 people participated in an anti-racist activity against the attack in central Gothenburg. "The cowardly attack by the Nazis will not silence us – we will not be scared. Instead, more people should get involved in the struggle against racism and Nazism," said Kristofer Lundberg from RS Gothenburg.
A campaign for a bigger demonstration next Saturday has now been launched by RS, with other organisations and anti-racists invited. Already at the activity on Sunday, 42 copies of the new handbook were sold.
There are clear parallels between today’s increased violence and the situation in the 1990s in Sweden. Then, increased Nazi violence was forced back by class struggle and mass mobilisations of workers and youth. Now, we must answer the Nazi violence with similar mass protests, mobilisations and campaigns in schools, workplaces and housing areas to stop their violence.
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