Anti-racist demo in Malmö
Socialist speakers got the best response when ‘Occupy Stockholm’ and ‘Occupy Gothenburg’ rallied 600 and between 2000 and 3000 respectively. Also, in Malmö, more than two thousand protested against a racist march.
The Observer (UK) reported that: “Another 500 people gathered at a peaceful rally in Stockholm, holding up red flags and banners that read, ‘We are the 99%’ – a reference to the richest 1% of the world’s population who control its assets while billions live in poverty. ’There are those who say the system is broke. It’s not,’ trade union activist [and CWI member] Bilbo Goransson shouted into a megaphone. ’That’s how it was built. It is there to make rich people richer.’” Bilbo’s speech, arguing for trade unions to take action, got an excellent response. Other CWI members spoke on the right to asylum and against the deportation of refugees.
[For an English translation of Bilbo’s speech see the original youtube page and click ’show more’ beneath the video]
In Gothenburg, appeals for support for socialist ideas were made by two young members of Rättvisepartiet Socialisterna (RS, CWI in Sweden) and were well received. The CWI leaflet, in English and Swedish, was distributed and on the two demos combined, around 100 copies of Offensiv, our weekly paper were sold. New people were also interested in joining our party.
In Malmö the racist Sweden Democrats had picked this day to hold their ”biggest march ever”. In the end, only 135 people came to their event! This was the result of anti-racist campaigns and considerable attention in media. In the two weeks up to Saturday thousands of anti-racist leaflets and posters were distributed. Only heavy police protection, including attacks on peaceful anti-racists, made it possible for the racists to hold their event. No-one, however, could hear their speeches because of anti-racists shouting slogans. Several RS members, for example RS councillor, Mattias Bernhardsson, were quoted on mainstream media websites. RS members sold over 140 papers in that campaign and 65 more on Saturday itself. New people also joined RS and many participated in a socialist day school on Sunday.
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