DIE BLOG DIE

this blog is officially over! it was a brief affair...but there are so many intelligent bloggers in Sweden, and the politics here is too complicated and i feel hopelessly unsophisticated.

so, i'm gonna do some more real work, and maybe one day will have some more confident message to give ya!

Penned Up, Re-Branded

The Swedish police created a cozy atmosphere for the Nazis on Saturday and they spent a lot of money doing it too.
The anti-racist / pro-democracy groups (Network Against Racism) who also had permission to demonstrate were never allowed to reach Salem---they ended up freezing, intimidated and behind bars.
The anti-racists did have official permission to demonstrate from 12pm -3pm in Salem on Saturday. But "Official permission" is meaningless if they physically prevent you from reaching the site of the demonstration.

Those who prepared to give speeches against racism, still have their unread speeches waiting soggy in their pockets. Three hundred anti-racists were made to stand several hours in the cold in some intermediate train station, before going to jail.
Evidently the Nazis were well protected by the police---you may ask protected from what?
From a fiction.
The fiction goes that left extremists that could disrupt the "peaceful" Nazi demonstration.
There is a niggling underlying paradox...can a Nazi demonstration, advocating hatred on racial lines, be peaceful?
The demonstration itself may have been peaceful but Nazis were responsible for arson attacks and physical abuse of homosexuals in Stockholm a week up leading up to their demonstration.

P.S. Finally I found a news source with substantial news : http://www.yelah.net/

Nazis and Fascists, Arson

It's worrying - the last ten days have seen a surge of Nazi activity in Stockholm : first, the burning of a cultural institution, the Kulturhuset Cyclops.
Second, the burning of the house of a prominent left wing union member, (the Syndicalists), by pouring gasoline in the mailbox. The young family (including a child of 2 and a half years old) were saved via the balcony.
And now this weekend there will be an annual march in Salem by the neo-nazis which could draw in Nazis from all over Europe - on a recruitment drive?
When I first saw the name was Salem I thought it was a joke, some reference to The Crucible by Arthur Miller --- the town in Massachussetts where the witch trials took place. A town that turned in on itself in a murderous impulse....

But Salem is actually also a Swedish town just near Södertälje. Södertälje is where most of the Iraqis and other asylum seekers are living, its near the factories where they can find work.

Stay tuned for updates...where are the Anti-fascist movements? Why aren't they more powerful?

SEX!

I like what Zizek says about society that tells us how and what to enjoy. Given that we are living in an entrenched patriarchal society, women are often subsumed in the masculine desire.
It follows that in a patriarchal society, there is a predominant coercian to enjoy sex, and that includes an implicit command to enjoy sex whatever the consequences.
No matter that women can get invasive surgery (via abortion) or take a strong hormone-altering pill (morning after pill or even the standard pill) and various STD's, the totalitarian command of the day is --- Sex is fun and liberating.
Fantasy is instilled in us all the time. Pornography and film are teaching us what to desire and how to desire it. These industries can work to further the totalitarian message and encourages the push of sexual enjoyment to its limits, with a focus on the man's satisfaction and orgasm. Flirtation becames filled with references to sexual acts, often centred around the male fantasy.
Similarly those who argue against the establishment of monogamous relationships - are forceful in their command to enjoy sex with multiple partners without contraception. With them, there is a strong emphasis to "go with the flow" ...
Reason would elevate us from the level of simple sexual fulfillment, and we should embrace sex as experienced by a female human ---with the infinite layers of complexities of thoughts, feelings and impulses.

Feminism in Sweden

In 2006, Lund, Sweden, in a trendy bar called Arimans my future boyfriend declared he was a feminist. Ignorant and apathetic I responded that I was not a feminist. For me the word carried unfavourable connotations, and could possibly mean I would have to stop flirting.

Two years later, I have a firmer grasp on the role of this term "feminism" and its role in civic society. Feminist politics and journalism are reforming society.

Feministisk Initiativ aims to be the first feminist party in the European Parliament 2009. We should welcome the focus on women's vulnerability in society, and how current laws and social conventions perpetuate their vulnerability. It is vital that we implement policies that enable women to be economically self-sufficient, and have options to have children and live in comfort.

Today is International Aids Day, and I found the following article very important in thinking about the spread of HIV, and the gender roles present in sex. http://www.corren.se/archive/2008/11/28/jzth3mxvrn6u4bf.xml

The article in Corren also argues that unprotected sex is a manifestation of misogeny, of man's latent hatred and subsequent violence against women, and the vulnerability of women in society. Diseases can be prevented via the transformation of society and the perspectives with which people view the world.

30 November

An eventful weekend in Sweden, as nationalists and socialists take to the streets, bridled by a large police presence.
Last night a cultural institution, Kulturhuset Cyclopen, was burned to the ground, and it is suspected to be a case of arson, probably by Nazis.
Today there have been demonstrations in Lund and Stockholm, apparantly stimulated by the commemoration day of King Charles XII, cheifly celebrated by right wing nationalists.