The youth were arrested March 18 after a brutal cop assault on a house they were occupying in Linköping. The young people had intended to occupy the abandoned building for 48 hours to press their demand for a public youth center. But eight hours after the occupation began, cops attacked the youth at 3:00 a.m. without any warning, according to participants.

The march went through the central parts of town and stopped at the police station, where the young people are still being held more than a month after the incident. At the station there was a speak-out that condemned the treatment of the young people by the cops. A choir sang and music was played, in order to raise the prisoners' morale. Youth came from Malmö, Jönköping, Linköping, Västerås, and Stockholm.

The Sweden Young Socialists also had a book table, which attracted a lot of interest. Three subscriptions to the Militant and six books and pamphlets were sold.

The police had a heavy presence and filmed the participants.

One of those in the protest had also taken part in the house occupation. She preferred not to give her name but told a story of the cop violence at the scene.

"When the police arrived, the occupiers went down from the roof of the building. Cops with dogs advanced at the same time as all the camera lights were switched off. The occupiers obeyed the cops' order to lie down on the ground. They shouted at them and kicked them," she said.

According to the youth activist, cops grabbed her arms and held her in such a way that she had difficulty breathing. A police dog was allowed to attack, biting her in the ear. She further said that she wasn't taken to the hospital until after interrogation at the police station. Once there she was forced to undress in front of three male cops.

As the cops were arresting the youth, one remarked: "Times are different now, there is zero tolerance." The police have tried to establish the right to mass-arrest protesters for many years in Sweden.

Three of the original 30 arrested were released, two of them are minors and one is said to have confessed. The police attack was followed by a large campaign against left-wing activists. The media has reported that the occupants had "a large arsenal of weapons." The march was the first attempt to protest cop violence and to counter the pro-cop campaign in the bourgeois press.  
 
 
Arizona YS: U.S. Navy stop bombing Vieques! 
 
BY WILLIE COTTON  
TUCSON, Arizona--The Young Socialists here assisted in organizing a May 1 rally to support the struggle to oust the U.S. Navy from Puerto Rico. Forty people joined a protest in response to the announcement that the U.S. government was sending in federal troops to remove the protesters from the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico. The demonstration occurred outside the federal building here. Protesters held signs with slogans such as "Independence for Puerto Rico" and "Not One More Bomb on Vieques!"

Alana Soler, a public administration student at the University of Arizona who is from San Juan, Puerto Rico, came after a day of classes to protest what the U.S. government is doing to the Puerto Rican people. "We can die for the U.S. but we don't matter," Soler explained. In her talk she advocated independence for the U.S. colony.

This action, which was organized in 48 hours, is the latest in a series of rapid response demonstrations in the Tucson area. On less than a week's notice, many here showed up to support the struggle against deportations and to open the U.S. borders. On April 26, a press conference was called by Derechos Humanos, an immigrant rights coalition, to demand government action against the vigilante-organizing campaign taking place in Douglas, Arizona, a U.S.-Mexico border town.

Under the guise of "Neighborhood Ranch Watch," Roger Barnett and other ranchers in the area have mailed a brochure across the country, inviting people to come to an already-hostile and increasingly militarized zone.

Their stated purpose is to "help keep trespassers from destroying private property" and to report "trespassing illegal aliens." They also demagogically urge others to become "part of the American Way team."

Participants protested this outright invitation to form hunting posses against workers and their families coming across the border in search of jobs.  
 
 
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