Tuesday, October 30, 2007

The Unfair Slurs Against Sverigedemokraterna

The controversy that has swirled around Counterjihad Brussels 2007 since it ended ten days ago centers on two European nationalist parties, Vlaams Belang, or “Flemish Issue”, and Sverigedemokraterna, or “The Sweden Democrats”. Members of both parties attended the conference, although as individuals, not as representatives of their respective parties.

SverigedemokraternaSverigedemokraterna acknowledges that in its early years it was home to various neo-Nazi sympathizers and anti-Semites. However, a deliberate reorganization of the party early in this decade purged the neo-Nazis and Jew-haters.

Much of the negative press and disinformation put out about SD arise from questionable sources, mostly leftist and socialist organizations with an indifference to the truth and an axe to grind against Sverigedemokraterna.

Because my knowledge of Swedish politics and history is thin, I rely on my Swedish correspondents for information. I have five or six regular contacts in Sweden, and they all agree: Expo, just to give one example, is not a reliable source of information about Sverigedemokraterna. The Swedes say that Expo habitually lies, misrepresents the truth, and shades information in order to reflect badly on SD. Several Danes who follow Swedish affairs closely say the same thing.

For a good overview of the situation, here is a comment that Magnus, who keeps the Swedish blog Magnus Orerar, left on my earlier post, in response to something Carpenter said. I have corrected some typos and modified his spelling slightly:

Good information! There’s a lot of anti-Semitic stuff going on in the political left too. One thing you didn’t mention is that the Swedish left party in Sweden had a leader in the 1930s, Nils Flygt, who then started a Nazi party in Sweden. Also the left party was pro-Hitler during the Hitler-Churchill conflict (now the morons say Lenin was better than Churchill).

This is no excuse for some anti-Semitic, and also Nazi-influences, in the mainly immigrant-critical Sverigedemokraterna during its first 5-10 years. But that influence never made them a Nazi party! The last 5-10 years they have also actively kicked out politicians (and active members?) with any Nazi connection, whatever it is, and also a large amount of new members (and politicians) in the hugely growing party Sverigedemokraterna in the party are ordinary people; roughly between 10% and 25% of the people in the southern cities vote for them, and in some cities the other non-socialist parties say Sverigedemokraterna is an important party to cooperate with. Many politicians are former politicians in non-socialist parties as Moderaterna (once the “right party”) and Kristdemokraterna.
- - - - - - - - -
I don’t think Sverigedemokraterna was even close to what BNP is today ten years ago. Since a party split (I think year 2000/2001) anti-Semitic former SD members started a party (ND) which now isn’t big. That’s a heritage SD has, but former ND members are excluded from membership in SD.

The SD success I think is a natural — and in the point of view of a democracy, sound — response to the lack of immigration critics in all other parties..

I didn’t like any immigration-critical politics until about year 2000/2001, and certainly not Sverigedemokraterna. Its kind of fascist connections in the ’90s was well known. Since then I have come to realize the need of immigration-critical politics. Unlike in many other countries, there is only one immigration-critical party in Sweden, which is Sverigedemokraterna.

Also, critical points of views regarding Swedish immigration politics are more than ever stigmatized by “the political climate”; by other parties. So even if Sverigedemokraterna — now a pro-Israel, pro-Christian and very genuine democratic party — isn’t perfect, it’s anyway a fresh alternative in a dangerous situation of not only cultural but slow political change towards adoption of Islam.

I think it’s naïve of LGF to reject Sverigedemokraterna (SD) on the basis of information from the “anti-racist organization” Expo (which of course can show more than ten-year-old pictures of Nazi friendly persons in SD — although already by then expelled from the party). BTW I’m anti-racist, but Expo has also been influenced by socialist ideology. For example, recently they invited an extreme left violent movement, Anti Fascist Front (AFA) [Antifascisk Aktion or Antifa — BB], to contribute part of an Expo book. They also never confront the racist left or radical Islam.

Expo just a few days ago called any anti-Jihad blog a racist blog which boosts the political violence; LGF included, I suppose… (on TV-4)

I think it’s good if Sverigedemokraterna are monitored regarding fascist connections (which they certainly are, by Expo and others), but there is no point in accusing them of things which are in fact history now. I’m sure Sverigedemokraterna themselves agree on this.

The accusations against Sverigedemokraterna are, based upon what I’ve here described, unfair.

I will be posting more detailed information on SD as it becomes available and when I have time. The volunteers at CVF are busy even now compiling and translating the material.

For a preliminary view, see Christine’s post on the CVF blog.

12 comments:

PRCalDude said...

Can you guys get a 'recent comments' widget? I suspect you're going to be getting a lot more comments from here on out.

Anonymous said...

I'm skeptical of anyone who accuses another of being 'racist' these days. The word has lost its meaning. Its use is a worn out tactic to squelch honest debate.

The only goose stepping, 'Seig Heil' salutes, and rallying calls for genocide I've heard in my lifetime have come from the PLO, Hamas, Hezbollah, Fatah, and Iran, and various other Muslim imams in the UK, US, Australia, and Europe.

I expect those supportive of other political parties or agendas will be more than happy to jump on demonization bandwagon. So I'll take what I hear with a grain of salt, fully aware that anyone who dares to rock the PC boat is going to get called every name in the book.

Until proven otherwise, I'll give
Sverigedemokraterna the benefit of any doubt.

'Every saint has future, every sinner has a past'.

Baron Bodissey said...

PRCalDude --

Fortunately for me, Conservative Swede did all the work for me and set up GoV Comments for that very purpose!

Anonymous said...

I crack me up sometimes. It's

'Every sinner has a future, every saint has a past!'

carpenter said...

Magnus:
Kunde inte sagt det bättre själv (I couldn't say that better myself)

ziontruth said...

The Baron wrote: "I have five or six regular contacts in Sweden, and they all agree: Expo, just to give one example, is not a reliable source of information about Sverigedemokraterna. The Swedes say that Expo habitually lies, misrepresents the truth, and shades information [...]"

Sounds like it's the Swedish equivalent of Haaretz.

God bless.
ZY

Cincinnatus said...

Hi all, I briefly posted on LGF when the mess erupted, but exited of my own accord before Charles slammed the door behind me. It's just gotten worse there (as you know), and now I've stopped reading the LGF comments, because they give me the same yuck feeling as DailyKos comments. Charles is revealing his America-centrism, a condition of which I'm sure he's unaware, and deliberately will remain so. In retrospect, I'm in a pretty good postion to understand both the European and American perspectives, as I am Dutch born but American educated, and always felt like a bit of a spectator in American society.

Beyond that, Charles is insisting that no organization (or person) can outgrow its origins. For that dogma to be so fundamental to Charles, shows that he is living it himself. So Charles is beholden to his own origins. So he is lapsing back to his leftwing roots, and the lessons of 9/11 are falling off him now. Well, that's one way to beat LGFwatch.

I know that the LGF echo chamber is beyond reasoning now, but for the rest of us, one of their key "evidence" is that photo of a "white power" flag at a "Vlaams Belang rally", the top picture of
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=27674_About_Vlaams_Belang_and_Sweden_Democrats&only
Odd that they can't identify it better. Well, I can. This rally is actually a VJW (Youth of West Flanders) rally in Brugge, a town of 120,000 in the West of Flanders. See the 5th picture of
http://nieuw-solidarisme.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html ,
on which you can see the same background (red umbrellas below a green awning) as in the LGF picture. Note at the top of the page the flag-in-a-circle -- it is the same "white power" flag that has Charles in a lather. VJW is a repulsive mix of nationalism, socialism, anti-Israel and anti-USA (lots of burning USA flags), but mostly, as far as I can see, it is a bunch of twenty-eens who haven't outgrown the leftist education which was pumped into them in high school. Still, their pages have moments of high comedy, see (seriously, don't miss this one) the excellent comic of Asterix halfway down the page of
http://nieuw-solidarisme.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html

An important point is that the VJW is no fan of the Vlaams Belang! See, for example, the 14 January 2007 entry on
http://nieuw-solidarisme.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html
which reads "Vlaams Belang wants to recruit new Flemings" and states that Vlaams Belang is recruiting among the Muslims!! This is much to VJW's disapproval. Actually, I think the article is nutty (as VJW is nutty), but it is difficult for me to read. Maybe a Belgian can give the full sense, but the article concludes (sarcastically), "We wish the Vlaams Belang much success with their open door politics".

This total mis-interpretation is just one example of the new-found certainties which are driving LGF into a small corner of the political spectrum. It's just time to leave that behind. But GOV is a great blog, as is BrusselsJournal, etc. Nice to be here. Cc.

kepiblanc said...

Charles Johnson of "Little Green Footballs" has fallen into a trap invented here in Denmark. It's called "Guilt by Association". This spring a young MP representing the Danish People's Party" went to the Copenhagen amusement park Tivoli together with a lot of other politicians from all political parties in order to celebrate the park's summer opening. An old tradition. As always they had quite a few and our young politician got a bit more than his share. In fact, he got drunk as a skunk. Now, this young man likes opera and music and when 'in the mood' he likes to sing as well. And he really is good at it. So, surrounded by beautiful women and 'good friends' he started to sing opera, folk songs, drinking songs, national anthems and whatnot. One of the more 'singable' national anthems is the German one, called "Das Lied der Deutschen". It was written by Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben in 1841. The first stanza goes like this:

Deutschland, Deutschland über alles,
Über alles in der Welt,
Wenn es stets zu Schutz und Trutze
Brüderlich zusammenhält,
Von der Maas bis an die Memel,
Von der Etsch bis an den Belt -
|: Deutschland, Deutschland über alles,
Über alles in der Welt. :|


During the Nazi regime 1933 - 1945 this beautiful and very peaceful anthem became misused by the regime. Especially the line "Deutschland über Alles" which can be interpreted as "Germany above all others" - whereas its original meaning is "Germany before everything else". This song is still the national anthem of present-day, democratic Germany, but nowadays they try to avoid the quoted stanza for those historical reasons. Instead they sing the third stanza:

Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit
Für das deutsche Vaterland!
Danach laßt uns alle streben
Brüderlich mit Herz und Hand!
Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit
Sind des Glückes Unterpfand.
|: Blüh' im Glanze dieses Glückes,
Blühe, deutsches Vaterland. :|


Now, our young politician - usually a very bright and intelligent fellow - couldn't remember the third stanza (who can - even in sober condition?) so he intoned the first one. Nobody cared, of course. The party went on 'until the fat lady sang'. As it should. And all was well.

Except for two devilish details:
1) This young man's ancestors immigrated from Germany several generations ago. His family name is "Messerschmidt". Spelled and pronounced exactly like the dreaded German fighter plane
Messerschmidt ME109.
2) The MP's weren't alone at the venue. Present was another "Charles Johnson"-type, namely a journalist from the Danish tabloid B.T. - A chit-chat daily mostly filled with gossip, rumours, sex scandals and smuttiness of all sorts. This 'journalist' had brought a camera.

The next morning - while Morten Messerschmidt was still asleep with his severe hangover - the tabloid B.T hit the street with this headline: Applauds Hitler in Tivoli. - Tableau: Guilty by association! - Dear reader, please study the photo carefully and tell me what you think....

Morten Messerschmidt couldn't believe his own eyes and couldn't remember applauding Hitler, of course. As a member of the most pro-Israel and anti-Jihad political party known to mankind he firmly denied having done so, but - in order to spare his party the embarrassment - he resigned his membership. And then the whole affair backfired: The editor of the tabloid B.T. lost every bit of any remaining credibility he might have had, was ridiculed for not knowing the story behind Germany's national anthem and Morten Messerschmidt is back in the "Danish People's Party" where he is that party's spokesman against present-day fascism, The Third Reich's successor, EU.

Why do I suddenly remember such minor controversy....?

Kafir_Kelbeh said...

I've always been this way, but am even more so now...I view all comments about racism with severe skepticism.

Maybe it stems from when I was called one...for requiring homework from one of my minority students (I'd call him African-American but that implies first generation from Africa, in my English Teacher linguistic assessment).

I calmly replied that I may be racist, but his homework was still required. I was only 23 then...*sigh* I guess not much has changed, has it?

PapaBear said...

Lets all remember that the US Democratic Party, until the 1960's or so, was dominated by White Supremacists, and was aligned with the Klan (see the history of Democrat Senator Byrd)

Parties change. As new members enter, and old members switch to other parties, the culture of the party will change

Vasarahammer said...

Anybody who uses guilt by association to smear Sweden Democrats deserves contempt of the worst kind.

No other party in Sweden opposes mass immigration or even dares to talk about it. The liberal conservative alliance are not any better than Social Democrats in this respect.

These people are sacrificing their lives and careers for working against mass immigration and impending islamization.

Anyone who's even vaguely familiar with the hostility that these people have to face from other parties, government officials and MSM, cannot help but respect them. It takes guts to do so in Sweden, in which every negative word about immigration is always, and I mean always, interpreted as racism and xenophobia.

Therefore I cannot help but regard LGF's self-righteous moral self-flagellation as despicable and worth only of contempt.

Fagelbacken said...

As an introduction to this thread I ought to say how politically affiliated I am. However, that´s not too easy any longer. I consider myself a socialist and also a democrat so I would like to say that I´m a social democrat. But there is no such thing in Sweden since the death of Olof Palme. So I don´t know what I am. The closer I look, I find that none of the existing parties represent my principles. So I suppose I am nothing at all. But that´s not unusual these days.

I know very little about Sverigedemocraterna but I doubt if I´d find my principles represented there either. So why am I writing this post? And why am I writing it here, to you? Because I believe in democracy.

There have been a lot of scandals within Swedish politics lately but they are always dampend and blow over within a very short time and the guilty individual carries on with his/her political duties as though nothing had happend. So why all the hard slander against the Sverigedemocraterna, you may wonder. I think that I know why.

We pride ourselves on being „non racist“ in Sweden. We take thousands upon thousands of immigrants every year for the purpose of proving our „non racist“ demeaner to the outside world. Calling anyone a racist is probably the worst thing one can say about another citizen, here in Sweden. The thing is, I don´t believe that our society has put forward enough evidence to indicate that Sverigedemocraterna is a racist party. But that´s not really the main point anyway, but more than likely merely a „red herring.“

Sverigedemocraterna is being slandered because it does not represent mainstream political Swedish philosphy. Even that wouldn´t matter except for one thing: It is gaining popularity within the Swedish community.

Now, in a democratic goverment people choose the party that most closely represents their individual social convictions. So if more people are looking at Sverigedemocraterna as a positive influence on our government then it is too ovbvious that the other political parties do not reflect our hopes, dreams, and expectations. With all the slander against Sverigedemocraterna it cannot be doubted that our political masters want to eliminate them. Think about what that means. My country wants me to vote for a party that represents me LESS than the party of my choice(!) or it would prefer that I do not vote at all! Is that their strategy for gaining support and votes? In the democracy that I admire, the various main stream political parties see, listen, and hear the voices of its´ citizens - not ignore them. Gaining popularity for Sverigedemocraterna – and the forces against them – prove that mainstream Swedish politics is failing and is in a state of de-democratisation.

Don´t condemn Sverigedemocraterna – give us something „better“, if you can!