"payos", the Romany word for a non-Gypsy). This fact has led to the equation Gypsy=heroin and the criminalization of the whole Gypsy people.
A million join anti-racist action
Anti-racism: SWEDEN the nation". He, an outspoken believer in many types of "collectives" (family", "Sweden", "Europe") stated that "collectivism was the very root of racism". For decades his party has been advocating special laws for immigrants and refugees - and at the same time as this debate was taking place, members of his conservative parliamentary group were suggest-
OVER one million people took part in the demonstration against racist violence in Sweden on February 21. No one in the country between 10 and 11am could fail to notice that something extraordinary was happening. DICK FORSLUND
T HE initial appeal to all Swedish
immigrants — "Strike for one hour on the 21st to show our importance for the Swedish economy — was issued by 15 immigrant organizations. The National League to Stop Racism ("Stoppa Rasismen"') was also behind the appeal, although it is not a purely immigrant organization. After weeks, over 50 other immigrant organizations added their support to the appeal and gathered around the February 21 Committee.
An unprecedented three-month long wave of racist violence - injuring ten and killing one immigrant, accompanied by arson and other attacks against refugee camps and several bomb threats at railway stations and airports - provoked the Kurdish National League in Sweden to take the first initiative for an "immigrant strike" on January 30.
Increased Neo-Nazi activity
Knowing that the increased activity of different neo-Nazi groups was only the tip of a racist iceberg, the thrust of the call was to argue against an opinion that has become more and more widespread in recent years: "Immigrants are lazy people who don't want to work and who are an economic burden on the state, benefiting from social welfare at a time when hardworking Swedes have to face cuts in living standards and accept one austerity measure after another."
The idea was that immigrants would show in action that "Sweden would stop" without their work in industry, hospitals, schools, childcare and public transport. It caught on at once. The initiative shook the new bourgeois coalition government, which for more than a month had been the target of criticism over its passivity on the issue of racism and defence of immigrants. Some days before the strike call, the Conservative prime minister, Carl Bildt apparently unaware that he was about to lead his government into its first serious crisis, questioned in a radio interview whether the shots fired at immigrants might be the work of criminals settling accounts among themselves.
But the Liberal Party felt the pressure from public opinion and the day after the appeal for the immigrants' strike was issued the Liberal minister for social affairs came out in "support of the idea thus trying to save the honour of the coalition government and repair the damage done by his Conservative coalition partner.
The next day the LO trade union confederation, which is led by the social democrats, issued a statement in support and appealed to the employers' federation, the SAF, not to take any workers to the labour court, although the proposed strike was unauthorized.
Employers organization takes cautious line
The following week was one of frenetic activity by different establishments. The SAF responded to the LO's request, saying that they would not recommend bringing any cases to court if immigrants went on strike, but stressing that it was a bad idea to damage industry by striking and advocating a minute's silence to protest racist violence from everyone, whether Swede or immigrant.
It was evident that the employers did not want a general strike situation to develop, which would legitimize a new weapon in public consciousness which could be used again by the working class. But at the same time they felt it impossible to condemn the appeal.
SAF thus decided to play on a weakness in the appeal, one which was also brought up by Carl Bildt when he finally chose to actively intervene. The argument was that it was wrong to divide "us" and "them" in this way. "Only the racists will benefit from the division.
something together
Carl Bildt developed this into an attack on "collective thinking" when two weeks later he yielded to pressure to appear on the television and "speak to ing that immigrants charged with minor crimes should be expelled from Sweden. But now he was challenging the very notion of "us" and "them" in an effort to support the SAF's "silent minute".
At the same time a real debate started in the different workplaces. It was evident that if it were to be effective the strike had to be organized and that the local unions were crucial for this. It was also clear that it was impossible to leave "the Swedes" out, both for organizational reasons and in order to build links of solidarity between all union members regardless of nationality.
Intertwined with this there was also a sort of healthy confusion arising out of the preparations for the strike. What were the hundreds of thousands who are both "immigrants" and "Swedes" to do on February 21?
Pressure mounted on the February 21 Committee to respond to these debates. By now the large Finnish immigrant organization had joined the movement, although its members - many of them having stayed a long time in Sweden — did not feel an immediate target of racist violence.
A stab in the back from the bureaucrats
The pressure became acute after the LO issued a circular to its local unions, after secret negotiations with the less radical immigrants' organizations, saying that the "strike is cancelled and has been replaced by a silent minute for all", thus bowing down to the SAF. Despite subsequent apologies to the February 21 Committee this circular was never publicly withdrawn, continuing to be a source of confusion up until the very day of the strike.
Finally the February 21 Committee resolved its dilemma one week before the crucial day by stating that immigrants can strike for up to one hour and all others can solidarize with this in the manner they found most suitable. We welcome all support. Everybody who wants to take part in the demonstration for the full hour must be supported and respected by all the others"
Better late than never. And, although late, this appeal finally made February 21 a day to remember.
It is estimated that over one million workers and youth took part in the demonstration. The churches rang in the hour all over Sweden. Thousands of schools 27 from all over Sweden stopped their usual
International Viewpoint #224 • March 16, 1992
SWEDEN / ISRAEL activities for one hour starting at ten, and students from 7 to 18 years old gathered in demonstrations or discussions on the issue of racism. In big plants such as Volvo. in Göteborg, • Saab Scania in Södertälje or Trelleborg stopped work for five, ten or fifteen minutes with the support of the trade unions...and often with the permission of the local bosses, although they recommended the SAF "minute".
Immigrant groups more clearly identified with the call often continued for the full hour, both at Volvo and Scania, without being stopped and thus bringing production to a halt. In some factories the local bosses even hesitated to deduct the strike hour from wages. In any case there has been no official statement from the bosses saying that this "wildcat strike" will be taken to the labour court, although such statements were issued, for example at Volvo, before the strike. However there were cases, above all in towns with few immigrants and far from Stockholm, where threats from local employers stopped any action.
### Public transport halted
Public transport in the main cities and many other towns stopped for five, ten or fifteen minutes with the participation of the entire workforce. The reason for the stoppage was proclaimed by loudspeakers and placards. In the big hospitals in Stockholm and other cities, the personnel gathered in meetings with hundreds of participants which heard speakers and passed resolutions...and delaying lunch since the majority of hospital kitchen staff are immigrants. The Arlanda airport outside Stockholm was blocked for forty minutes by immigrant taxi drivers causing chaos.
And in the evening there were demonstrations and meetings - the biggest of 8,000 people in Göteborg, in dozens of
Despite confusion, various weaknesses and the efforts made by the government and established forces to divert or diminish the "Display of Grief" it ended up a success. The original call was strong enough to survive three stormy weeks. For one day the air was clear again and the basis for a deep discussion now exists in thousands of workplaces and schools about the origin of racism and how to
Although the February 21 Committee never officially used the work "strike" the demonstration has brought a useful new notion into the workers' movement in Sweden, one badly needed moment when the rightwing government is continuing its work of taking from the poor to give to the rich: The Political General Strike. "Positive" comments from bourgeois forces showed that they 28. do not let this become a habita: were aware of this dangerous aroma: