Ny International editor Catharina Tirsén chaired the meeting. Speakers included Filip Tedelund, a student here and a Young Socialist, and Anita Östling, a meat packer. Both are CL candidates for the Stockholm city council and for parliament in the September 17 elections. Also on the panel were Paul Davies of the Communist League in the United Kingdom and Greg McCartan, one of the more than 200 supporters of the communist movement worldwide who, as members of the Printing Project, make production of these books possible.

“I have sold New International no. 12 on the streets of Stockholm and at the world youth festival in Caracas last year,” Tedelund said. “Finally it is available in Swedish so I can understand it even better.”

Östling said Ny International no. 4 is a major tool in the Communist League election campaign since it explains the crisis of world capitalism and points to a road forward for working people. She noted that the central planks of the CL election campaign platform include: “No to Swedish troops in Afghanistan or Lebanon. Organize all workers, Swedish- and foreign-born, including those who are from countries in Eastern Europe. They are our co-workers and new forces that can strengthen the labor movement.”

At one meatpacking company in the slaughterhouse area near the Militant Labor Forum hall, Latvian workers get lower pay than Swedish-born workers, work longer hours, and have a special break room to keep them separated from the rest of the workers, Tedelund said. “The capitalists use these divisions to lower wages for all,” he said. “Working people need to unite to fight these divide-and-conquer tactics.”

The conservative coalition led by the Moderate Party has a chance of winning the election and replacing the Social Democrats, the ruling party for decades.

Östling said whatever bourgeois party wins the election what matters for the working class and its allies is struggles to unionize all workers and mobilize union power to fight attacks by the bosses and government on wages, job conditions, and social programs. “We are for anything that increases the self-confidence and fighting capacity of working people,” she said. “Voting for any other party is a waste! Vote Communist League and support our election campaign!”

—DANIEL NORDSTRÖM AND DAG TIRSÉN