SWEDEN: A TOTALITARIAN THREAT TO EUROPE

Sweden has been regarded as a modern, liberal and tolerant country for
the greater part of this century. The `Swedish Model' welfare state set a
glowing example for the Social Democratic parties of Europe to emulate.
But Recent press revelations show there is another, sinister, side to the
Swedish Model. For 40 years, from 1935 to 1976, during the time of Social
Democrat rule while the welfare state was being built, Sweden carried out
Nazi style `racial Hygiene' policies.

The leading Swedish newspaper `Dagens Nyheter' reported in a series of
articles, 20-21.8.97 that at least 60.000 people, mostly young women and
girls, were forcibly sterilised to protect the Nordic Aryan stock from
`inferior races' and `moral degenerates'.

Central to the Swedish welfare state is the concept of the `Folkhemmet'
(National Homeland) in which blonde, blue eyed, hard working lutherans
live in harmony and security. Throughout the periods immediately before
and after the Second World War Sweden was in the grip of a racial mass
hysteria. There was to be no place in the National Homeland for inferior
races, who would pollute the Swedish stock or for degenerates and
non-conformists who would upset the harmony. Dark hordes of sub humans
were seen as a threat to the Nordic ideal.

To protect themselves from this threat, the Swedish parliament in 1935,
without protest or opposition and with the blessing of the State church,
passed laws calling for the sterilisation of inferior racial types,
vagabonds, gypsies and the socially undesirable. One Social Democrat,
Alfred Petrel, suggested the possibility of exterminating handicapped
children until it was realised that these undesirables had parents who
loved them and might object. Sterilisation would be sufficient.

Most `unacceptable' behaviour was considered to be genetically determined,
including criminality, immorality and social deviation. Sterilisation was
the instrument that would eliminate these perversions from the National
Homeland. According to Health Ministry documents, the diagnosis
`psychopath' `unstable' or `weak minded' were sufficient grounds for
sterilisation. Perhaps even more chilling, if that is possible, 'showing
opposition to authority' was considered evidence of weakmindedness and
could lead directly to the operating table. The policy continued until 1976
and during this time the health service apparatus, doctors, nurses and
officials, complied without question or complaint.

Sweden, in common with most western countries, went through a period of
liberalisation in the sixties. Attitudes changed. Dark hordes of inferior
races were no longer perceived as a threat, at least by the government. A
more open and free life style with liberal attitudes was adopted,
especially by young people. Pop music and drugs were central components
of a new youth culture. This was viewed with loathing and hatred by the
establishment. Traditional Swedish morality was under attack. The National
Homeland was threatened again. K.A Westerberg, founder of The Hassela
Collective, a militant prohibitionist organisation, wrote in "Folket i
Bild" no.14. 1978: "The values of the working class, diligence and order,
solidarity and conscientiousness, a sense of honour and the ability to
behave like civilised human beings are no longer fashionable" Liberal ideas
and the free lifestyle they encouraged were identified as the new enemy.
Establishment and working class institutions were mobilised and drugs,
symbolic of the new degeneracy, were to be the focus of the attack.

Drugs were a threat to Nordic values and zero tolerance would be the
instrument that would cleanse the National Homeland from them and the
degenerates who use them. The War on Drugs would be the means of restoring
order to society and returning to traditional Swedish working class
morality. Mass movements were formed to fight drugs, liberals and the moral
decay they represented. The newspaper of the Riksforbundet Narkotikafritt
Samhalle (RNS, National Organisation for a Drug Free Society), the most
powerful and extreme of the new mass movements, compared the situation in
Sweden with that in the Weimar Republic (Narkotikafragan No3. 1977) and
claimed that pop groups used and propagated drugs and "are marked with
decadent morals that are reminiscent of the cabarets of 1930's Germany".
A leading Member of Parliament, later to become Minister of Defence, said
on television "We must defend our Sweden from drugs and foreign immigrants
who are terrorists". (reported in Expressen, 13.8.87)

Liberals and drug takers were the new sub humans to be eliminated from the
National Homeland whatever it may cost. A narcotics scare was engineered in
the media by the RNS and their sympathisers in the government and police
and within a very short time, the climate in Sweden changed completely.
Liberal ideas and attitudes disappeared overnight as Politicians competed
with each other to show who was the most hard on drugs. The chairman of the
Swedish Trade Union Movement, Stig Malm, said to the press "We have just
suffered through a period of piss-liberalism" as the aims of the RNS became
the policy of the Swedish government. The leader of the RNS, Nils Bejerot,
said in an interview in `Dagens Nyheter' 22.9.1981: "The liberal, `soft'
line represents utterly defeated lunacies" and K.A Westerberg said to the
same newspaper that "The trendy liberal establishment was stopped by
Hassela, the RNS and the working masses" Swedish drug policy and the power
that gave them to control society was now firmly in the hands of fanatics.

Sweden has been fighting the most repressive drug war in Europe for nearly
twenty years now with a range of draconian laws that would be unthinkable
in more reasonable European countries. In 1988 drug use was criminalised
and in 1993 the penalty for drug consumption was increased to 6 months
imprisonment. Police have the power to apprehend anyone they even think
looks like they are under the influence of a drug, take them to a police
station and force them to undergo blood and urine tests. This could easily
affect a foreign tourist in Sweden and any kind of high spirited or
unconventional behaviour in the presence of a policeman could mean a stay
there being a lot longer than expected.

Drug users are regarded as a low form of life by a brutal Swedish police
force. According to one policeman, using drugs in Sweden is not going to
be a "dance in the rose garden". Commenting on a television report in
which policemen were interviewed while still visibly exited after brutally
throwing suspects against a wall to be searched for drugs, journalist
Christian Gergils wrote: "Laws which are meant to protect people are used
by the police to physically beat up the most vulnerable members of society."
(Nyliberalen Nr. 3, 1994)

One abuse of police power which has come to the attention of Amnesty
International is the case of Osmo Vallo. According to Amnesty, police in
the town of Karlstad approached Osmo Vallo, who they believed to be under
the influence of alcohol or drugs. Despite the fact that Osmo Vallo was in
no way threatening or violent, the police kicked him to the ground and set
a police dog on him. After forcing him face down and handcuffing him, one
of the policemen stamped hard in the middle of his back. Witnesses reported
hearing a loud crack and Osmo Vallo died shortly thereafter. The policemen
were only fined for not keeping a police dog under control and remain in
the police force.

In 1996 a special police squad was formed with the sole task of utilising
the powers criminalisation of drug use gave them to hunt down drug users.
Named the Ravekommissionen (Rave Squad) their job is to infiltrate raves,
clubs and bars where it is suspected there may be drug users. Indicative of
how Sweden regards drug users, the Rave Squad was one of the first police
units to be given permission to test the new telescope clubs. The Rave Squad
are trained to look for the signs of drug taking. Anyone they suspect may be
under the influence of an illegal drug may suddenly find themselves thrown
against a wall while a flashlight is shone in their eyes to look for
tell-tale pupil reactions before being are dragged away for compulsory blood
tests. According to social worker Jan Quarfordt young people are nervous
about how to behave. They must always be aware that they must not lick their
lips or gesticulate or move in certain ways in case it is interpreted as a
"sign" and they end up in a police cell. (Arbetaren no. 9 1998)
Sweden must be the only country in the world where looking unduly happy,
laughing or dancing too energetically can get you arrested, with the
possible exception of some Islamic Fundamentalist states.

How the Rave Squad regard the people they apprehend was revealed in an
internal police shift report obtained by a Swedish newspaper where people
are routinely referred to as "junkie", "damned junkie, "junkie shit",
"druggie", "damned druggie" "druggie rat", "druggie whore", "junkie whore"
and "nigger kids" (Nojesguiden, 8.3.98)
How the macho thugs of the Rave Squad see themselves was revealed by
Prosecutor Stefan Bergman when he told Nojesguidens reporter that "The Rave
Squad works exactly like the Vikings who headed their raids to wherever
they expected to find something." The same newspaper article also reported
that the Rave Squad have extended their activities to spying on private
houses and hanging around in stairways where they listen at apartment doors
for sounds of drug abuse (whatever that may be).

Despite their draconian laws, drug use and drug related crime are
escalating uncontrollably in Sweden. Acording to an article in Dagens
Nyheter 5.6.98, the number of hard drug abusers in Sweden has increased
from 12,000 to 22,000 since the repressive laws were introduced in 1980.
Interviewed in Dagens Nyheter, 26.4.95, Alec Carlberg warned that "Sweden
is gliding into a new situation and it is doubtful we are prepared to
handle it. Youth unemployment is record high and smoking heroin is rapidly
escalating in Stockholms suburbs. Society has no power to act. We are
sitting on a powder keg."

The daily Aftonbladet reported 3.11.97 in an interview with Goran Petterson,
chief of the anti street pushers squad of Norrkoping (population 120,000)
that last year the small town had a handful of heroin addicts, now their are
well over 300. The article goes on to say that "Heroin has infected many of
the countries larger cities. From Halmstad, Karlstad, Eskilstuna, Lund,
Sundsvall, Skelleftea and Gothenburg come reports from the police of
heroin that has become more and more common the last two or three years."

The journal Nyliberalen No.3 1994 counted the financial cost of drug abuse
in Sweden based on figures from the police and insurance companies. The
country's 20.000 hard drug abusers spend 2500 kronor each per day to support
their habit. Because stolen goods can only be sold for 20 percent of their
value, addicts must steal goods worth 250 million kronor per day, about 90
billion kronor per year.

The Swedish Police Authority (Rikspolisstyrelse) reported in march 1996 that
police exceeded their budget in 1995 by 1 billion kronor and that they are
being swamped by rising crime. The amount of solved crime is falling and the
backlog of crime waiting investigation is rising. The categories of crime
the police cannot keep up with are crimes of violence, narcotics offences
and economic crime. In April 1997 police and public prosecutors were called
to a crisis meeting to discuss the rapidly deteriorating situation. The
desperate tone of the meeting was summed up by Christer Van Der Kwast of
Stockholm public prosecutors office who said in a statement to the press:
"We are very disturbed by the situation, especially as it is not a question
of small time crime, but crimes of violence. We are sitting on a time bomb."

In 1996, in a major offensive to control exploding drug abuse and to show
the effectiveness of repressive action, Swedish police launched, amidst a
blaze of publicity, a sweeping and intensive campaign against Stockholms
notorious drug taking area 'Plattan'. Called "Operation Clean Plattan"
police mobilised their resources, continually harassing drug users, pulling
them in for compulsory blood tests. Drug users were to get no peace. Plattan
was going to be drug free. The results were a massive waste of time and
resources. Writing in Dagens Nyheter, 16.2.98, Alec Carlberg called the
action "A fiasco" and went on to say "Those who still believe in the
effectiveness of expensive shows of force like Operation Clean Plattan are
recommended to visit Plattan today where it is just as it always was despite
all the public muscle flexing"

Shortly after the public exposure of the Operation Clean Plattan
catastrophe, came another blow to yet another high profile Swedish drug
prevention scheme. An evaluation of the Swedish `Vaga' project was
published in the journal Nordisk Alkohol och Narkotika Tidskrift (Vol 15,
Nr1, 1998) . Modelled on the American `DARE' programme, policemen went into
classrooms to teach kids to `just say no'. According to researchers Peter
Lindstrom and Robert Svensson "Children who have taken part in the project
do not have a more negative attitude to drugs than children who have not.
The efforts of the police can therefore be questioned."

Faced with rising crime and drug use, the authorities will have to act,
but considering the level of police state repression they already have, it
is hard to imagine what else they can do. Writing in Dagens Nyheter,
24.3.97, three experts, Alec Carlberg of the RFHL, Leif Lenke, lecturer in
Criminology, Stockholm University and Sune Sunesson, professor in Social
Work, Lund University say it is time to admit that Swedish narcotics policy
has collapsed. Since the repressive policy started in 1980, drug use has
risen along with the increase in penalties and police actions. At the
beginning of the 1980's courts handed out 1000 prison years per year for
drug offences. Today the figure is 2000 prison years per year and the drug
problem keeps on growing. According to the writers "The policy has not
worked as intended and soon there will be no hard measures left to take.
The frustration must be great when the last thumbscrew has been tightened
to the last thread and we are back where we started"

Drugs hysteria in Sweden is so great that any liberalisation is out of the
question. The only way the Swedish drug warriors can go is in the direction
of more repression. The Social Minister, Margot Wallstrom announced 8.5.98
that that the drug problem is getting out of hand and the government is to
set up a commission to review drug policy, to be led by Swedish EU MP Anneli
Hulten. Margot Wallstrom said on setting up the commission that "In an ever
more drug liberal world, it is essential that Sweden holds fast to its goal
of a drug free society"

The catastrophic repression policy in Sweden might be considered just a
curious tale of a small country self destructing in an orgy of puritan
insanity were it not for the fact that Sweden is a member of the European
Union and have vowed to carry their crusade to the rest of Europe. In 1994
Sweden founded ECAD, European Cities Against Drugs and are pushing hard for
the rest of Europe to adopt the 'Swedish Model'. The stated goal of ECAD is
a drug free Europe by the year 2012 (ECAD newsletter No 29, 1996). As a
first step in that direction ECAD, in co-operation with the government of
Iceland, signed an agreement on 6.2.97 to work for a drug free Iceland by
2002. The ECAD representative on the committee to plan a drug free Iceland
is the Swedish drug warrior Ake Setreus, who said in an interview in Dagens
Nyheter 29.4.1995 that the communist Chinese policy of sending prostitutes
and drug abusers to forced labour camps is an effective way to fight drugs.
ECAD held a major prohibitionist meeting in Stockholm 12-13 May 1998.
Called 'World Cities Against Drugs - A Global Perspective', representatives
from 500 towns and cities from across the world gathered in Stockholm to
hear of the 'success' of the Swedish Model. At the close of the meeting a
"Global Declaration on Drugs" was launched. The Declaration was presented
to the Secretary General of the United Nations at the UN General Assembly
Special Session on Drugs in June 1998.

Despite all the repression, Sweden has not produced a drug free society, or
even a society in which drugs use is decreasing. All the signs are that the
repression will get worse and Sweden will have nothing to show for their
efforts other than eroded civil liberties, crime and ever escalating drug
problems. It is to be hoped they do not succeed in fooling other European
countries that the Swedish Model actually works.