"I went there just to find out if I could do something", said Hannah Ohlén, who did not know the family before. "I know Helen, who is married to the young man in the family--that’s why I went there," said Sophie Sjögren.

Dozens, and eventually hundreds, of young people in Hagfors, a small town in central Sweden , joined the fight to prevent the Immigration Department from deporting a family back to El Salvador, where they faced a death threat from an ex-husband. Many of the youth who joined together did not really know each other before this fight, which lasted four weeks, until the family was finally deported December 19.

A growing number of workers have immigrated to Sweden from around the world, including from Latin America. The number applying for asylum on humanitarian grounds has risen from 16,000 in 2000 to 33,000 last year. A majority come from the Balkans, Iraq, and the former Soviet Union.

Over the past several years the Swedish government and big-business parties have been pushing to restrict the rights of immigrants, scapegoating them for the social ills of capitalism.

The resulting polarization has been registered both in the development of ultrarightist groups that target immigrants, on one hand, and a response by some layers of young people and workers who are repelled by these anti-working-class attacks. The Hagfors youth provide one example.

"Pretty soon we made a schedule, where three different teams took turns guarding the house of the family," said Ida, who did not want to give her last name. "We also decided that no alcohol or other drugs would be allowed on the picket line or around the house where the family lived, so we would always act the right way."

The youth soon arranged to set up a fire barrel, to help those on picket duty stay warm in the cold winter weather. "When we ran out of firewood, we would mention it on the local radio, and 10 cars would come by and give us more wood," Jessica explained. When the temperature dropped even further, the youth got permission to use the shelter room in the basement of the apartment house where the Salvadoran family was living.

"And we got food from the local stores," Ida reported. Several of the young people pointed to the support from people who had come to visit them at the picket line. "The owner of a hotel here gave us a lot of food left over from a Christmas dinner he had served that day," said Ida.

A woman had brought an envelope "with a little money". When the youth opened it, the envelope contained 1,000 Swedish Kronor ($110). "That money we gave to the family to buy food," Ida explained.

Since they were going to be deported, they received no money from the Immigration Department. "And the authorities said all refugees live under the minimum for existence, so they could not help anyone. In the end they got 42 Kronor a day for all three of them!"

"We’ve learned a lot of things in this fight," said Ida. "We have learnt how the Immigration Department and other authorities function. We have learnt how the border police act," Ida explained. "They just told the family, ‘You’d better just pack up your bags and leave, there is nothing more for you to get here.’"

The youth organized a demonstration for the first time. "We had placards that said, ‘Let the family stay, let them live’, Stop the deportation’, and ‘Stop state racism,’" Jessica Karlsson explained. "That day," said Tomas Lundberg, "only 6 or 7 students went to school at Asplundsskolan," one of the local junior high school that Rebeca and other youth active in the fight were attending.

"When the border police came to get them that morning, I just wanted to stop them at all costs," Ida explained. "But we respected the family’s will. And the border police told them that if they did not leave voluntarily, they would have police escort all the way to El Salvador, and they did not want to arrive publicly like that," Ida said.

Explaining how the events had opened her eyes, Hannah said, "You hope things should be fair, but then you realize they aren’t. And you thought that Sweden maybe is a little bit better, but it isn’t."

The youth and the family had hoped the family would have been able to stay for a new investigation of their case which was under way. But the investigator took a sick leave, they explained angrily. Now the family is back in El Salvador, and they have to restart the whole process of applying for asylum.

The 15 to 20 youth who were at the center of the fight still meet daily. Different ideas about what to do next have come up. "One organization wants us to go to El Salvador and make a documentary about the family," said Jessica. "We have talked about forming a youth club of some kind," Ida said. "Maybe we can help others. Maybe we can continue to fight this state-organized racism," said Stefan.

After hearing about the case of Róger Calero and his fight against deportation in the United States, the youths took materials about the defense campaign. Within a few minutes they had divided up where to take the different petitions. "Well, there are a lot more people here than will fit on this list", said Hannah. "I’ll just make some more copies at work," said Ida. "Just let us know if you will organize a demonstration, and we will try to come."

Åsa Holmström, a member of the Young Socialists, contributed to this article.  
 
 
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