A-Infos (en) THE SWEDISH NAZI MOVEMENT DURING 1998 (Part 1)

["AFA Stockholm" <afastockholm@hotmail.com>]

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The following is a summarisation of fascist activities during 1998.
The text was written in the spring of 1999 and has been somewhat
updated since that time. Changes are occurring constantly within the
Swedish nazi movement.

THE PARLIAMENTARY EXTREME RIGHT

Det nya partiet (The New Party)
The right-wing populist Ian Wachmeister attempted to recreate the
success of his Ny Demokrati (New Democracy) with Det nya partiet
during the general elections of 1998. The difference between Ny
Demokrati and Det nya partiet was that Wachmeister had completely
erased all forms of internal democracy. This was an attempt to avoid
problematic local groups and fraction-building. Jan Elwesson and
Ingrid Björkman were hired by Wachmeister to formulate Det nya
partiet's
immigration politics. Both ideologues came from the cultural-racist
lobby group Folkviljan & Massinvandringen (The Peoples Will &
Mass-Immigration) and Fri Information (Free Information). Det nya
partiet was a total flop in the national elections and Wachmeister put
the party on ice and then withdrew from public politics altogether.

The reasons behind Det nya partiet's disaster are many: They never got
a party-organisation off the ground and they had no organisers at the
local level. The right-wing trends that lead his Ny Demokrati to it's
heights in 1991 have dramatically been reduced and the media has
learned from it's mistakes - therefore they did not hype Det nya
partiet as they did with Ny Demokrati, but decided to keep their
megaphone mouths shut for once. There is also the fact that all of the
Det nya partiets' public meetings were interrupted by AntiFascistisk
Aktion, AFA and Syndikalistiska Ungdomsförbundet, SUF.

Sverigedemokraterna, SD (The Sweden Democrats)
Sverigedemokraterna have not been able to keep their national
organisation together since the 1994 national elections. During 1998
they only produced one issue of their internal magazine. The only
obvious activity that SD had during 1998 was an outdoor summer tour
organised by the party veteran Lars Emanuelsson. The tour can easily
be described as a fiasco for SD. They held nearly 100 public meetings
at which over half of them meet with anti-fascist protests.

However, SD has received a lift on the international scene by being
elected into the French Front National's international collaboration,
Euronat. In this way, they received financial support for the 1998
national elections. Since the 1994, SD has undergone an internal
cleansing by formally distancing themselves from all forms of "nazism"
and forbidding uniforms at their public manifestations. Collaboration
with Front National and the removal of nazi tendencies have enticed a
group of more intellectually-minded cultural-racists to join the
party. Two of these are very interesting: Johan Rinderheim and Kenneth
Sandberg.

Rinderheim was amongst the founders of SD, but soon left the party
thereafter. He studied Political Science at the University of Uppsala
and has written a thesis concerning the Front National's election
strategies. During 1997/1998 he rejoined SD and has since then moved
to Haninge - a suburb, south of Stockholm. SD's local group in Haninge
consists of six individuals, many of which are family members with one
another. A functioning group was just what SD needed to prepare itself
for the 1998 elections. Within a short time, members from the Haninge
group received leading positions within SD's national organisation.
Rinderheim has become SD's leading ideologue, strategist and media
contact. It is estimated that SD has received financial support from
Front National to the tune of a half million Swedish Crowns (500,000
SEK), mainly in the form of printed election materials. Most of this
material was used in Haninge. Four-colour brochures were distributed
on three separate occasions to all 30,000 households in the community.
They spread more election propaganda in this community than all
other political parties combined.

Kenneth Sandberg was the leader for the local populist party Kommunens
Väl (The Community's Wellbeing) in the southern Swedish town of
Kävlinge, as well as chairman for Folkviljan & Massinvandringen. The
strategic changes within SD hurt Folkviljan & Massinvandringen and its

group in the southern region of Sweden split into two groups; Sandberg

joined SD and the other fraction simply disappeared. Sandberg became
SD's "name" in southern Sweden and the region of Skåne is where SD
is best organised.

In the national elections in September 1998, SD received 8 mandates as
compared to five in 1994. They received two mandates in Haninge, one
in Sölvesborg, two in Trollhättan and they were three votes away from
receiving one in Tierp. SD has previously had two mandates in Höör and
they kept one of these as well as the two they previously had in Dals
Ed. The mandate that they had previously in the Stockholm suburb of
Eckerö was lost. In the national parliamentary (Riksdag) election SD
received circa 19,000 votes as compared to 14,000 in 1994.

That SD was capable of moving forward in the elections, despite the
poor shape of their party organisation, depends most likely upon two
factors; the financial support from Front National and that the name
Sverigedemokraterna is gradually becoming more well-known and
established.

In January 1999 the French Front National split into two fractions. Up
until now, SD has kept itself neutral in this conflict and has said
that they do not plan on getting mixed up in "the Fronts internal
affairs".

Konservativa Partiet, KP (The Conservative Party)
Konservativa Partiet is a little fascist party based in Stockholm. It
is an organisational continuation of Riksfronten (The Reichs Front),
which was lead by Leif Larsson along with the exposed SÄPO (Swedish
security police) agent Leif (Zeilon) Ericsson. In 1995 they attempted
to join Sverigedemokraterna but were thrown out, which resulted in
them building Hembygdspartiet (The Homestead Party). In 1997 this
became Konservativa Partiet with Larsson as its sole leader. The party
has never consisted of more than a handful of younger activists
gathered around Larsson. In the autumn of 1997 they began to
co-operate with Daniel Friberg's group Alternativ Media (Alternative
Media) in Gothenburg (more about this group further on). Friberg then
became the leader for the Gothenburg group. Leif Larsson was able to
establish a collaboration with Ny Demokrati chairperson, John Bouvin,
in the spring of 1998. On the 21st of March 1998 they planned a
combined meeting at Ny Demokrati's party offices in Stockholm. It was
here that a collaboration pact was to be formally decided upon.
AFA-Stockholm held a blockade outside of the meeting place and
foul-smelling acid was thrown into the meeting spaces. Only a few
individuals were able to participate in the meeting. Alternative
Media's magazine, Framtid (Future) was distributed to all the
participants.

As their first collaborative project, Ny Demokrati advertised a May
Day demonstration at Östermalms Torg (the heart of a bourgeois
neighbourhood) in Stockholm. The Sweden-wide, grassroots organisation,
Nätverket mot Rasism (Network Against Racism), also applied for a
demonstration permit for the same time and place. Therefore the police
decided not to grant either group a demonstration permit and cordoned
off the entire area. The "tactical expert" Larsson then threatened to
hold a demonstration despite the ban and proclaimed that they would
block and attack the Social Democratic May Day parade if they didn't
receive a permit. Leif Larsson was no where to be seen on May Day. A
Group a nazis, lead by Daniel Friberg and Gothenburg nazi Donald
Hansson, were arrested on their way towards the Social Democratic
gathering point. John Bouvin was arrested at Östermalms Torg. The
entire incident was entirely too much for the local Ny Demokrati group
and they got rid of Bouvin and broke all contact with Konservativa
Partiet. Ny Demokrati 's flirt with a fascist sect was given large
media coverage and it was the literal "last gasp for air" for Ny
Demokrati. In the 1998 national parliamentary elections, they received
only one mandate in one community.

On June 6th, the Swedish National Day, Leif Larsson was once again at
his tactical best. He organised a demonstration outside of the central
Stockholm open-air museum/zoo Skansen. The purpose was to shout
slogans during the King's speech later in the evening. A total of 10
"party members" showed up but they held neither a meeting nor a
disruption of the King's speech. Instead they walked around in the zoo
taking in the sights of the other monkeys.

In the 1998 national election, KP announced that they were going to
give their all in the Stockholm suburb of Huddinge. This was another
in a long row of fiascos - all the party members on the ballot hopped
off at the last moment and no one showed up at their election kick-off
(that the door to the proposed space was drenched in human shit
probably had something to do with that!)

During the autumn of 1998, KP organised two concerts together with the
nazi music organisation Nordland (more about this group further on).
The purpose was to recruit new members. About 100 nazis showed up at
each concert with the Nordland band Heysel heading the bill. The first
concert was advertised by Larsson as - "the largest in history" - and
promised the "Viking-rock" band Ultima Thule. The second concert was a
traditional Nordland concert complete with nazi-salutes and shouts of
"Sieg Heil".

VIKING ROCK

Ultima Thule and Heroes
Ultima Thule is still a big name in extreme right-wing music circles
in Europe. During the last few years they have put a lot of money and
effort into building up their own recording studio in the town of
Nyköping and working with their own record companies Ultima Thule
Records
and Attitude Records.

Ultima Thule has made it their niche to work in the grey-zone between
white-power music and "Viking rock" - where they are allowed to work
in relative peace without the likes of the media or anti-fascists
causing problems. In 1998 they started Attitude Records, in order to
launch nazi-punk and "non-political" punk and Oi. One of the bands
they have worked with is Jinx. The company has been created with the
sole purpose of broadening nazi-rock and thereby making it harder to
define. It is not an attempt to de-politicise nazi-bands.

On several occasions during the summer of 1998 anti-fascists in
Stockholm found themselves in conflict situations with members of
Jinx. During the autumn, AFA-Stockholm was able to stop a Jinx concert
by simply calling the concert venue and informing the owner about just
what Jinx was all about. Towards the end of 1998, Johnny Järvenpää
from the nazi band Heroes attempted to organise a music festival in
Borås, Holmgång 98. The festival did not receive a permit from the
community and was forced to move to a location on the outskirts of
Gothenburg in the last minute. Only fifty or so people participated,
the most of whom where band members.

BLÜCHERS UMBRELLA

The portion of the Swedish nazi movement that has grown the most
during 1998 is the umbrella organisation gathered around Ragnarrock
Records. This political umbrella encompasses both small and large
groups, such as Nationalsocialistik Front (NSF), Blood & Honour
Scandinavia, NS88/NS Records, Info14/Gula Korset (the Yellow Cross - a
prisoners support group), Svenska Rättshjälpen (Swedish Legal Aide),
Ariska Brödraskapet (Aryan Brotherhood - a prisoners group) and NS
Stockholm. This all boils down to political work upon three fronts -
music, organisational construction and militant commando groups.

NSF is attempting to build a traditional nazi-organisation with flags,
uniforms and political meetings, all of which are carefully
choreographed. Blood & Honour Scandinavia supports NSF financially as
well as by distributing nazi propaganda (in the form of concerts and
records). At the same time, B&HS propagate for street-level militancy
and armed commando groups with the English Combat 18 as a sort of role
model. Ragnarrock and NSF's organisations have been the most active
during 1998. They've held five concerts, two larger meetings a month
and printed between 10-15 issues of different nazi magazines.  Most of
these activities occur in southern Sweden. However, during the course
of the year they have held activities in Örebro, Ludvika and
Trollhättan. These usually gather between 50 and 100 participants and
activists travel often - visiting each other and participating in each
other's activities.

Ragnarrock Records/NS 88
The two companies Ragnarrock Records och NS88/NS Records are lead by
Norwegian Erik Blücher and the German-Dane Marcel Schilf.
Both live in Helsingborg. In the peripheries of these two record
companies,
they have built the front organisation Blood & Honour Scandinavia,
with
groups in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. Ragnarrock and NS
Records are behind a large portion of the export/import of white-power
records to Germany. There is a lot of money to be made here. Since
these two record companies are the strongest financial force in the
international Blood & Honour network, and have the advantage of
Sweden's and Denmark's liberal laws, they have not only a lot of
influence within international Blood & Honour but even over B&H/Combat
18's ISD Records. They are today more important for the international
B&H network than England is. B&HS produces several magazines in the
English language, such as B&H Scandinavia and Route88 (the
international B&H's magazine). Erik Blücher and Marcel Schilf have
made Helsingborg an international meeting place and nazis from the
United States, England, Austria, Germany, Denmark and Finland have
worked in Ragnarrock's different projects during shorter periods of
time. Ragnarrock has invested a deal of their money into a music
equipment, a printing press and colour copy machines. In this way they
have gathered groups around their organisation and print their
propaganda as well as supply them with other materials.

On October 8th the Swedish police raided Ragnarrock's and NS88's
spaces
in Helsingborg. Marcel Schilf and Erik Blücher were both interrogated.
In order to prove that materials were distributed (a necessity in
Swedish law) Blücher was arrested as he mailed postal orders. All of
NS88's master tapes to their videos were confiscated during the raid,
but were later returned. Despite this police effort, Ragnarrock's and
NS88's operations have continued as usual.

Blücher and Schilf make quite a bit of money through record and
videotape sales. However, they even work actively to spread the
"Combat 18" concept and ideas. B&HS's music-magazines are filled with
articles concerning C18 as well as calls to "take up the armed
struggle against the system". Many articles contain hateful remarks
directed towards Nordland, nazi "pop-stars" and profiteers, all with
the conclusion that white-power music must lead to action, otherwise
it's simply not worth the effort. Blücher has previously always held
himself in the background, but during 1998 he has taken the step into
the limelight, making his authority indisputable. He writes many of
the more important articles, holds speeches at concerts and meetings
as well as travels throughout Europe, contacting and organising a
variety of groups.

Nationalsocialistisk Front, NSF (National Socialist Front)
National Socialist Front was formed in 1994 in the small southern
Swedish town of Karlskrona, but has only begun to grow within the last
two years. In contrast to other nazi organisations that have been
built from above, such as Nationella Alliansen, NA (The National
Alliance), NSF has grown from the ground up. The central group is
still located in Karlskrona. The leading individuals during 1998 were
Anders Högström, Björn Björkqvist, Anders Örleskog, Jonas Nyberg
and Kim Blomqvist. NSF produced a bi-monthly magazine Den Sanne
NationalSocialisten (the True National Socialist), which is printed by
Ragnarrock.

Under 1998 several new, local groups joined NSF such as those in the
towns of Klippan, Trollhättan, Örebro and Ludvika. These groups has
shown themselves to be very active. NSF's activities are centred
around political meetings that consist of dinners or parties, where
music in complemented by speeches and propaganda sales. Their meetings
are often arranged in conjunction with Blood & Honour Scandinavia.
Some of their larger activities during 1998 were: Hitler's Birthday
Party in the town of Bromilla on the 20th of April, NSF's
demonstration in the central Swedish village of Nora on the May Day,
the Hess commemoration march in the Copenhagen, Denmark suburb of
Greve on the 15th of August, an Ian Stuart-commemoration concert on
the 19th of September and the Furugårds Dinner in Halmstad on the 12th
of December. NSF/Gula Korset were forced to cancel their planned
demonstration in "support of the Palestinian People" in Sweden's third
largest city Malmö, on the 30th of May for fear of anti-fascist
reprisals.

On the May Day, the entire NSF demonstration in Nora, consisting of
circa 80 individuals, was arrested by the police for rioting after
they broke through a line of riot police. This resulted in seven NSF
leaders being sentenced to prison between two and sex months (prison
sentences are as a rule only 2/3's of the actual sentenced time). The
May Day demonstration was organised by Jonas Persson, the NSF leader
in Örebro.

The new group in Trollhättan is lead by Andreas "Carrot" Johansson.
They most likely shared a space with SD, but were forced to vacate the
premises after the 1998 national elections.

The group in Ludvika is lead by bonehead Mikael Byman, who was
previously a member of The National Alliance. NSF-Ludvika has
organised several parties. During the summer of 1998, they were
involved in a number of confrontations with local anti-fascists.
During one of these confrontations Byman was stabbed. During the
autumn they attempted to organise two counter-demonstrations against
anti-fascist demonstrations, the second against AFA's "November 30th"
(a traditional day of fascist demonstrations in Sweden) demonstration
held on November the 28th in Ludvika.

NSF-Klippan is the largest and most active NSF group. They produce the
magazine Vit Offensiv (White Offence) and probably produce the
weapon-fetishist magazine Ariskt Motstånd (Aryran Resistance).
NSF-Klippan received national media coverage since Jesper Ekberg
stabbed an immigrant and then fired shots through the same individuals
windows. On the Swedish National Day (June 6th), NSF-Klippan, along
with Gula Korset, planned a demonstration in Klippan that was stopped
by the local police who cordoned off the entire village centre.

NSF, together with Blood & Honour Scandinavia, have during 1998 begun
to organise their own concerts, while at the same time Nordland has
begun to reduce the number of theirs. NSF has two bands of their own,
"Hets mot folkgrupp" (a reference to a Swedish law prohibiting
Incitement
against Minority groups, however the band calls itself "Racial Hatred"
in the
English language) from Trelleborg and "Nibelungen" from Helsingborg.
Ragnarrock controls the bands Totenkopf, Storm and Odium.

During 1997, NSF procured their own farmhouse in the village of
Nossebro. However, there was not much activity there. Tomas
"Skunk" Qvarnström, who had hired the farmhouse for NSF, was kicked
out of NSF after it became known that he had serious drug problems and

had abused and threatened his girlfriend with a pistol. In February
1998,
NSF attempted to hire another farmhouse outside of Helsingborg, but
the local police forbid the owner from hiring out the house in the
last minutes of the deal.

During the course of the year, NSF has attempted to build up a
co-operation with Danmarks Nationalsocialistiska Bevegelse, DNSB
(Denmark's National Socialist Movement) and Norges
Nationalsocialistisk Bevegelse, NNSB (Norway's National Socialist
Movement - the former Zorn88). This co-operation has been financially
supported by Blood & Honour Scandinavia. They held several meeting
together. The Hess Commemoration March in Greve, Denmark early on the
morning of the 15th of August was a collaboration of these three
organisations. The largest contingents in the demonstration came,
however, from Sweden and Germany.

Through their contacts with Ragnarrock/Blood & Honour Scandinavia, NSF
has been drawn into the international conflict between C18/Blood &
Honour on the one hand and Nordland/Resistance on the other. However,
even though this rivalry between Nordland and Ragnarrock still exists,
there are several indications that NSF is attempting to establish a
peace-pact with Nordland.

"Commando groups"
The English music movement, Blood & Honour, was taken over in the
mid-1990's by the militant commando group Combat 18, which had it's
roots within the football hooligan scene. Since that time, internal
conflicts and skirmishes have eradicated C18 as a group, but it's
"concept" lives on. It's spread through magazine articles and T-shirt
sales. Within the nazi movement, C18 is often referred to as a
"T-shirt movement". Swedish magazines from Nordland and NSF have for
the last few years toned down this rhetoric of armed struggle and
"violence against the enemy".

However, Blood & Honour Scandinavia have taken up this torch and
encouraged the militant jargon. All of the magazines that
Blood & Honour Scandinavia print have fallen back into
the old Vit Ariskt Motstånd, VAM (White Aryan Resistance)-rhetoric
including bomb recipes, weapon-fetishism and anti-AFA articles. This
type of rhetorical style is also found in Ariska Brödraskapet's
magazine "Berserkr", in the magazine "Ariskt Motstånd" (most likely
from the town of Klippan), NS Stockholm's magazine and NSF's "Skydd
och Säkerhet" (Protection and Security) which calls for the
establishment of Security Forces (which exist on paper only) and Blood
& Honour Security.


NS Stockholm
When the skinhead space namned Fryshuset closed in the traditional
workers quarters of Stockholm, the island of Södermalm, the social
services continued to work with young nazi skins in a project for
"self destructive youth". The group was named "Stolta Skins" (Proud
Skins). During the summer of 1997, many of these Stolta Skins jumped
off the project, with Stefan Andersson in the lead, and built a Combat
18 group. They took the name "NS Stockholm". NS Stockholm received
support from the group around Robert Vesterlund (from National
Alliance and SD's Youth Group) and their newsletter Info 14.
On the eve of Crystal Night, the 8th of November 1997, they held their
first activity, an anti-Jewish demonstration in Stockholm.
AFA-Stockholm blockaded their gathering point, but they nazis - with
the help of Stockholm's police - managed to demonstrate through
Stockholm, even if it was not towards their original goal, the media
house owned by the Jewish family of of Bonniers.

In January 1998, Stefan Andersson took contact with a journalist at
Sweden's leading tabloid, Aftonbladet. He offered to sell pictures to
the journalist depicting threats made towards well-known
anti-fascists. The journalist ordered two pictures, one made against
the police press-contact Clas Cassel and the other against the
television journalist (and immigrant) Alexandra Pascalidou. Andersson
sent some friends to take the pictures of masked individuals with
pistols outside of these two celebrities' apartment doors. The film
was then delivered to Aftonbladet. They were printed and this lead to
the well-known "Aftonbladet Case". Five nazis were sentenced to
protective custody by the lower courts, but were later acquitted in a
higher court. Before the pictures had been published, NS Stockholm had
ordered forty passport photos (which are public documents according to
Swedish law) of other anti-racists.

In April 1998, NS Stockholm attempted to open a space called
"Varghaket" in a basement space in a Stockholm suburb. Varghaket was
planned to be a boutique for the sale of Ragnarrock materials as well
as a meeting space for NS Stockholm, NSF and Info 14. Anti-fascists
destroyed the space before it could open. NS Stockholm was immediately
kicked-out by their landlord.

This story had a bitter end for NS Stockholm. During the course of the
autumn and winter a conflict erupted between NS Stockholm and
Ragnarrock over the fact that Ragnarrock never received compensation
for
goods delivered in good faith to Varghaket. Since then, NS Stockholm
has mainly been active with registering anti-fascists. They've even
produced Combat 18 hooded, sweat-shirts.

Ariska Brödraskapet (The Aryan Brotherhood)
Ariska Brödraskapet is a prisoner's organisation, or a more correct
description could be a "pen-pal club" for imprisoned nazis. It was
started by Niklas Löfdahl, Daniel Hansson and Johan Billing.
Ragnarrock
supported Ariska Brödraskapet financially and printed their magazine.
After a meeting with Ragnarrock during the Spring of 1998, Löfdahl
sent
an unarmed letter-bomb to the Swedish Minister of Justice.
Niklas Löfdahl escaped from the insane asylum he was being held at on
the 17th of September 1998. After a few days on the run he turned
himself in to the police in Stockholm. After his arrest he was
interviewed by Aftonbladet and Swedish TV 4 and during the course of
these interviews he claimed that he had broken all contact with his
nazi past. This has since proven to be a lie and a bluff.

AntiFascistisk Aktion-Stockholm
Box 38196
100 64 Stockholm
Sweden
+46-([0]70)-566 5135
PG 4849894-3
afastockholm@motkraft.net
http://www.motkraft.net/afa
[PGP keys available at web site]

Mot sexism, rasism, kapitalism och homofobi.



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