"I live in Salem, and I don't want any racism here," Andreas Olsson, 20, told the Militant at a rally prior to the antifascist march. Pointing to a well-known day of mobilization by rightists during the 1990s, Olsson said, "I don't want there to be another November 30 here." Working people and youth were reminded last year of the fascist threat when a 17-year-old skinhead was killed, providing ultrarightists with an opportunity to mobilize their forces nationally.

Prior to December 8, the Conservative Party–led community administration distributed leaflets to households, urging parents to "watch over the whereabouts of their children." During the march to Salem two women in their 40s said jokingly, "Of course, we do what the administration is telling us." Afterward the police downplayed the action, telling the press only 400 to 500 people participated.

"I'm disappointed that so few people came, but I think most people who live here are against these skinheads coming here," said Mohamed Abdula, 18. He and his friends Amir Mahdi, 19, Jens Kristensen, 16, and Robin Berg denounced the efforts by Salem capitalist politicians to discourage participation in the antifascist march.

"A week ago," Mahdi said, "a skinhead at the pizzeria told me, 'Next Saturday, you'll be dead.' When I asked him if he wanted to fight, he didn't dare to on his own. These people have cowardice written in the forehead."

"They say immigrants are criminals," Abdula continued. "Look at the guy organizing their march--his list is full."

The organizer of the ultrarightist march, Robert Vesterlund, is a central figure in the Swedish ultraright. In 1999, after being elected to the local leadership of the Retail Workers Union, he was exposed as a fascist by unionist Björn Söderberg, who worked in the same warehouse. Vesterlund was expelled from the union. A month later, on October 12, Söderberg was shot and killed in his home by two associates of Vesterlund.

Following union-sponsored actions that mobilized some 30,000 people in 20 towns and cities--close to 10,000 in Stockholm alone--Söderberg's killers were convicted of first-degree murder charges. The district attorney dismissed the charges that Vesterlund had ordered the murder.

"There are not many immigrants here," Berg explained, "because the Salem community administration broke loose from that of Botkyrka," a neighboring community with a large immigrant population. "That's also why the skinheads come here," said Kristensen.

"They come to Salem in gangs as often as they can," Mahdi concluded. "I joined this march because I want to live here without being chased by these cowards."

Hours after the antifascist march some 1,000 ultrarightists marched along the same route, protected by 300 cops in riot gear who sealed off the city's streets. The fascists called their action a "march of sorrow," continuing to use the death of the rightist skinhead as a pretext for their antiworker mobilization. The big-business media aided this fraud by also using the "march of sorrow" when referring to the action. The Sweden Democrats, the main fascist outfit fielding candidates in the 2002 parliamentary election, did not officially participate in the action but wrote favorably about it in their paper.

Daniel Ahl is a member of the Industrial Union in Stockholm, Sweden.  
 
 
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