BY DAG TIRSÉN AND MARIA HAMBERG

TROLLHATTAN, Sweden -- The local authorities in Trollhattan gave permission for Neo-Nazis to march through downtown here on August 17. The event is a yearly celebration to commemorate Rudolf Hess, who worked closely with Hitler and was imprisoned in Spandau in Berlin until he committed suicide 1987. Last year the march occurred in Roskilde, Denmark. All nazi-marches have been forbidden in Germany.

Trollhattan is the city where there was a brutal attack against two Somali youth and a Muslim mosque was burned down 1993. That year there were many ways working people in the town opposed the attacks. For example, several Christian churches organized fundraising activities to help pay for the reconstruction of the mosque.

When it became known that local politicians gave permission for the right-wingers to march, there was a storm of protests in Trollhattan, and nationally. Protest meetings and counter demonstrations were announced to be held in Trollhattan. They were all denied permission, making it illegal to demonstrate. But the protests forced the local chief of police to change the permit of the nazi march to a standing meeting.

Forces opposed to the counter mobilization -- Amnesty International and the Red Cross -- arraigned a meeting in a suburb, five kilometers south of the center of Trollhattan. The social democratic government threw in its support and sent the minister of justice, Laila Freiwalds, to speak at the meeting.

The government together with most local politicians, except the Liberal Party and the Young Left, asked all people living in Trollhattan to stay inside and avoid the nazi-meeting. They said in a public call that ignoring the nazis, not giving them any special attention was the best thing to do.

The statement insisted if people wanted to protest the nazis they should do so at the meeting where the minister of justice spoke, or at a big arrangement at the carnival, Liseberg, in Gothenburg. At the carnival there would be a gathering of famous Swedish artists to protest racist violence, especially a brutal murder of a 14-year-old boy, John Hron, last August.

In spite of this campaign to halt protest actions, the Liberal party and the Young Left (the youth organization of the Swedish former Communist Party) mobilized for a counter demonstration. At least 800-1,000 people gathered in front of the railway station. Many were angry local people, both Swedes and immigrants, but there were also hundreds from other cities in Sweden and several bus loads of anti-fascist youth from Norway and Denmark.

Some 600 cops, with horses, dogs, and anti-riot equipment were guarding the nazi-meeting.

The crowd prevented the nazis from appearing in front of the railway station where the cops had permitted them to gather. Instead, the cops directed the racists to a hidden corner in the rail yard.

Cops attack counterdemonstration
The counterdemonstration gathered calmly and orderly, but after a while four cops mounted on horses attacked the crowd riding rapidly back and forth pushing people to the sides. One woman was pushed to the ground and was hurt by the hoofs.

Groups of anarchist-influenced people disguised by handkerchiefs hurled a rain of rocks against the attacking mounted cops, hitting the cops and onlookers. They also made repeated rushes away from the crowd attempting to get through the cops lines from behind.

Behind the cops lines the nazis held their meeting carrying pictures of Rudolf Hess, shouting "sieg heil," and made the nazi salute. Before the demonstration the cops pledged to arrest every one that shouted any fascist slogan. But, as it turned out, no nazi was arrested.

After some time, they were escorted out from the rail yard from behind into buses provided by the cops. They were driven to a concert at an "unknown" place -- a nazi concert in a Gothenburg suburb.

The police arrested 13 participants in the counter demonstration, the youngest 12 years old. One woman was arrested for handing out leaflets, the reason given was that "no political activities was allowed in the area." One of the arrested has been kept in jail accused of carrying a "bomb."

Evelina, a 20-year-old jobless worker, and Anders, a 19-year- old student, who came with friends in a car from a town a couple of hours drive away, told the Militant they "came to show resistance, not tolerance, racist violence has gone way to far". One young woman, Liselotte, 25, who had spent one year in Spain and feared the rightists all over Europe, said she thought the politicians in Trollhattan and the government was wrong. " I doubted myself if I should go out, they did tell us we should stay inside. If they had not said so more people would have been here. I am afraid of the nazis and skinheads, but I forced myself to come here". She added, "we were seeking a safe place near a house wall to escape the police horses."

Kristin Ohman, an unemployed community worker, 42, said she was there "to fight. It is wrong that the nazis can meet here, and I think it is good that people from other places have come here."

Maria Hamberg is a member of the Metal Workers Union, at Scania truck plant in Sodertalje and Dag Tirsén is a member of the Food Workers Union, at Goman meat packing plant in Stockholm  
 
 
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