*Background*

In december 2000, the young nazi Daniel Wretström was fatally stabbed during a fight between 2 youth gangs in Salem, a suberb of Stockholm. The fascist and extreme-right sects in Sweden declared him a martyr and have organised a "rememberance" march every year since. The fact that Daniel's family are involved in the far-right groups such as Sverigedemokraterna (the Swedish BNP) has attributed to this. The fascicsts claim Daniel's death was an example of anti-swedish behaviour, rather than the loss of a boy who may have probably grown out of his skinhead-phase ( or a case of 1 down, 999 fash left to go, depending on your viewpoint :-) ).

(In Sepetember this year a 14 year old boy was also killed during a gang fight in Sollentuna. When the fascists tried to declare him as another matyr of their cause, the killed boy's family refused to have anything to do with them and said they did not want another Salem - there have been no nazi demonstrations there.).

Every year, anti-fascists and ant-racists have been in Salem to try stop the fascist gathering. With c.a. 800 riot police acting as bodyguards for the fash, this has not been fully successfull.

*This Year*

This year AFA (Anti Fascist Aktion) of Sweden, Norway and Denmark devised a new plan. The central train station in Stockholm was to be occuppied at 14:00 to prevent the nazis getting to Salem. A anti-fascist manifestation was also arranged in the central Stockholm at 16:00, and autonomous actions to occur afterwards.


The 2 weeks leading up to Salem saw an increase of nazi activity on the streets, mostly leafleting in town centres to get people to go to their nazi-party in Salem. This was met with stiff resistance by anti-fascist aktivists. In Göteborg (Gothenburg), anti-fascists aktivists had a full and frank political discussion with nazis leafletting in town, using flowerpots and bottles amongst other things. On Wednesday, nazis were ambushed under a hail of bottles near the central station in Göteborg and had to be driven home by the police. In Jönköping, people have consistently forced the nazis off the steets, with the police saying they are concerned for the safety of well-known nazis! This is just a sample of resistance to the fascists thru out Sweden.

On Saturday, the AFA action at the central train station in Stockholm didn't go entirely as planned. A huge police presence kept many out, and 120 anti-fascist aktivists were bussed out of town by the police. However, the nazis were too scared to use the central station and had to travel by other, longer routes, with much disruption. The anti-rascist manifestation went well, with around 4000 people there.

At Salem, there were c.a. 1000 nazis at the manifestation - half that of last year. Groups of nazis leaving Stockholm were attacked and had to flee. A minibus of nazis from Helsingborg (near Malmö in the south of Sweden) picked the wrong petrol station to stop at on their way home. They had failed to noticed the bus of 60 anti-fascists - the minibus left in a hurry very shortly after it arrived without having filled up, minus its windscreen and its scared occupants battered.

The fight against fascism continues...

"What shall we do? Smash the Nazis! When? Now! When? Now! When, when, when? Now! Now! Now!"