On Wednesday, the party leader of the far-right Sweden ‘Democrats’ came to Gothenburg to give a speech. Of course, there was a protest.
I attended it and the turnout was disappointing, with not even a tenth of what it used to be 4 years ago. I remember how there were far more protesters than SD-supporters then. How the chants of the protesters were so loud, you could barely hear the speakers. And I remember how police put up barriers all around and escorted the SD people so that they could come and go to the event without being confronted by people opposing their fascism.
But this time the protesters were in much, much smaller numbers than the fascists. Our chants were barely heard and there were just a couple cops keeping a tired eye on us (We wouldn’t have assaulted the SD idiots anyway. Violence is only the very last resort for anti-fascists).
I remember looking around and thinking: Come on! We’re a city of half a million inhabitants. Is this really the best we can do? Where is everybody?
Maybe people don’t see the point. When a party has become so normalised their ads are on half of the city busses and trams, then what good does protest chants do? When the vast majority of the Swedish right treats a party born out of the neo-nazi movement like it’s any other conservative party, what is even the point of continued demonstrations? They obviously don’t care about their people or about basic decency. They only care about getting into power, no matter what devil they have to sell their souls to.
Even things many assumed were behind us are now normal again. Like claiming being gay is a choice. The Sweden ‘Democrats’ released last week their plan for reducing immigration. Among their goals is to deny asylum to people based on things they have ‘willfully chosen’, such a converting to another religion or ‘becoming homosexual’.
There were a few luke-warm comments from representants of the other right-wing parties, saying that wasn’t appropriate. But they are still cooperating with SD and they are still looking forward to ruling the country with them. Again: power over decency.
Protesting the Sweden ‘Democrats’ at this point feels like screaming into an increasingly expanding void. I guess I’ll keep screaming, out of principle more than anything. But a small part of me keeps hoping people will wake up in time.
Son Of Freya 