BY CATHARINA TIRSÉN AND BIRGITTA ISACSSON
STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Some 300 demonstrators protested
racist violence here May 18. The youthful crowd denounced
the publicly funded skinhead youth center Fryshuset where
several violent attacks have occurred. "I'm here because I
know what the Nazis did to mental patients in Germany in the
1930's and during the war," said one protester.
"I have personal experiences of racist violence, because my son and husband are Black. My sisters and brothers are dark, although they are Swedish, and have also been targets of racist violence," said another young demonstrator. Her friend came because she had passed by a racist gathering and was offended by speakers' references to "dirty Black people" and "true Swedish patriots."
A representative of Soderbor mot racism (Neighbors against racism) came to protest the increased violence in her neighborhood.
Demonstrators targeted two stores suspected of selling Nazi literature and the skinhead facilities at the youth center.
Twelve immigrant rights and political organizations wrote a letter to government officials in March questioning the public financing of the rightist facilities. "On Saturday, February 4," they wrote, "a Chilean family and other passengers were beaten up by a group of skinheads at the Slussen subway station. That weekend skinheads had come to Stockholm from all over Sweden.-They gathered among other places at the facilities that Stockholm municipality finances at Fryshuset.-Those who tried to defend the family were also beaten up."
Others have been beaten by skinheads near Fryshuset. A 16-year-old high school student was attacked and maimed on New Year's Eve. Two months later, a janitor was assaulted. He is paralyzed and cannot speak. Doctors predict he will not recover. The night before the demonstration, a middle- aged man was beaten in the hall.
Mats Hult, the Social Democratic Party elected chief of finances of Stockholm municipality, organized a June 6 hearing to discuss the skinhead hall at Fryshuset and a publicly funded project led by skinheads to teach Nordic mythology, survival camp, self defense, and other programs. Residents pointed out that beer is served at the skinhead hall, visited by youth 14 and older, something not allowed at other publicly-funded youth programs.
In another development, a June 4 tribunal for the right of asylum will present cases of immigrants being deported in defiance of existing laws. Recently the government denied 5,000 Bosnian Croats asylum. The escalation of the fighting in Croatia delayed their deportation.
Friends of Hasan organized an antiracist demonstration and festival June 6, a national holiday in Sweden. The organization was formed by friends and neighbors of Hasan, one of 11 immigrants shot by the so-called laser man in 1990. The laser man killed one of his victims.
Birgitta Isacsson is a member of the metalworkers union and Catharina Tirsén is a member of the brewery workers union in Stockholm.