The following is a summarisation of fascist activities during 1998. The text was written in the spring of 1999 and has been somewhat updated since that time. Changes are occurring constantly within the Swedish nazi movement.
The right-wing populist Ian Wachmeister attempted to recreate the success of his Ny Demokrati (New Democracy) with Det nya partiet during the general elections of 1998. The difference between Ny Demokrati and Det nya partiet was that Wachmeister had completely erased all forms of internal democracy. This was an attempt to avoid problematic local groups and fraction-building. Jan Elwesson and Ingrid Björkman were hired by Wachmeister to formulate Det nya partiet's immigration politics. Both ideologues came from the cultural-racist lobby group Folkviljan & Massinvandringen (The Peoples Will & Mass-Immigration) and Fri Information (Free Information). Det nya partiet was a total flop in the national elections and Wachmeister put the party on ice and then withdrew from public politics altogether.
The reasons behind Det nya partiet's disaster are many: They never got a party-organisation off the ground and they had no organisers at the local level. The right-wing trends that lead his Ny Demokrati to it's heights in 1991 have dramatically been reduced and the media has learned from it's mistakes - therefore they did not hype Det nya partiet as they did with Ny Demokrati, but decided to keep their megaphone mouths shut for once. There is also the fact that all of the Det nya partiets' public meetings were interrupted by AntiFascistisk Aktion, AFA and Syndikalistiska Ungdomsförbundet, SUF.
Sverigedemokraterna, SD (The Sweden Democrats) Sverigedemokraterna have not been able to keep their national organisation together since the 1994 national elections. During 1998 they only produced one issue of their internal magazine. The only obvious activity that SD had during 1998 was an outdoor summer tour organised by the party veteran Lars Emanuelsson. The tour can easily be described as a fiasco for SD. They held nearly 100 public meetings at which over half of them meet with anti-fascist protests.
However, SD has received a lift on the international scene by being elected into the French Front National's international collaboration, Euronat. In this way, they received financial support for the 1998 national elections. Since the 1994, SD has undergone an internal cleansing by formally distancing themselves from all forms of "nazism" and forbidding uniforms at their public manifestations. Collaboration with Front National and the removal of nazi tendencies have enticed a group of more intellectually-minded cultural-racists to join the party. Two of these are very interesting: Johan Rinderheim and Kenneth Sandberg.
Rinderheim was amongst the founders of SD, but soon left the party thereafter. He studied Political Science at the University of Uppsala and has written a thesis concerning the Front National's election strategies. During 1997/1998 he rejoined SD and has since then moved to Haninge - a suburb, south of Stockholm. SD's local group in Haninge consists of six individuals, many of which are family members with one another. A functioning group was just what SD needed to prepare itself for the 1998 elections. Within a short time, members from the Haninge group received leading positions within SD's national organisation. Rinderheim has become SD's leading ideologue, strategist and media contact. It is estimated that SD has received financial support from Front National to the tune of a half million Swedish Crowns (500,000 SEK), mainly in the form of printed election materials. Most of this material was used in Haninge. Four-colour brochures were distributed on three separate occasions to all 30,000 households in the community. They spread more election propaganda in this community than all other political parties combined.
Kenneth Sandberg was the leader for the local populist party Kommunens Väl (The Community's Wellbeing) in the southern Swedish town of Kävlinge, as well as chairman for Folkviljan & Massinvandringen. The strategic changes within SD hurt Folkviljan & Massinvandringen and its group in the southern region of Sweden split into two groups; Sandberg joined SD and the other fraction simply disappeared. Sandberg became SD's "name" in southern Sweden and the region of Skåne is where SD is best organised.
In the national elections in September 1998, SD received 8 mandates as compared to five in 1994. They received two mandates in Haninge, one in Sölvesborg, two in Trollhättan and they were three votes away from receiving one in Tierp. SD has previously had two mandates in Höör and they kept one of these as well as the two they previously had in Dals Ed. The mandate that they had previously in the Stockholm suburb of Eckerö was lost. In the national parliamentary (Riksdag) election SD received circa 19,000 votes as compared to 14,000 in 1994.
That SD was capable of moving forward in the elections, despite the poor shape of their party organisation, depends most likely upon two factors; the financial support from Front National and that the name Sverigedemokraterna is gradually becoming more well-known and established.
In January 1999 the French Front National split into two fractions. Up until now, SD has kept itself neutral in this conflict and has said that they do not plan on getting mixed up in "the Fronts internal affairs".
Konservativa Partiet is a little fascist party based in Stockholm. It is an organisational continuation of Riksfronten (The Reichs Front), which was lead by Leif Larsson along with the exposed SÄPO (Swedish security police) agent Leif (Zeilon) Ericsson. In 1995 they attempted to join Sverigedemokraterna but were thrown out, which resulted in them building Hembygdspartiet (The Homestead Party). In 1997 this became Konservativa Partiet with Larsson as its sole leader. The party has never consisted of more than a handful of younger activists gathered around Larsson. In the autumn of 1997 they began to co-operate with Daniel Friberg's group Alternativ Media (Alternative Media) in Gothenburg (more about this group further on). Friberg then became the leader for the Gothenburg group. Leif Larsson was able to establish a collaboration with Ny Demokrati chairperson, John Bouvin, in the spring of 1998. On the 21st of March 1998 they planned a combined meeting at Ny Demokrati's party offices in Stockholm. It was here that a collaboration pact was to be formally decided upon. AFA-Stockholm held a blockade outside of the meeting place and foul-smelling acid was thrown into the meeting spaces. Only a few individuals were able to participate in the meeting. Alternative Media's magazine, Framtid (Future) was distributed to all the participants.
As their first collaborative project, Ny Demokrati advertised a May Day demonstration at Östermalms Torg (the heart of a bourgeois neighbourhood) in Stockholm. The Sweden-wide, grassroots organisation, Nätverket mot Rasism (Network Against Racism), also applied for a demonstration permit for the same time and place. Therefore the police decided not to grant either group a demonstration permit and cordoned off the entire area. The "tactical expert" Larsson then threatened to hold a demonstration despite the ban and proclaimed that they would block and attack the Social Democratic May Day parade if they didn't receive a permit. Leif Larsson was no where to be seen on May Day. A Group a nazis, lead by Daniel Friberg and Gothenburg nazi Donald Hansson, were arrested on their way towards the Social Democratic gathering point. John Bouvin was arrested at Östermalms Torg. The entire incident was entirely too much for the local Ny Demokrati group and they got rid of Bouvin and broke all contact with Konservativa Partiet. Ny Demokrati 's flirt with a fascist sect was given large media coverage and it was the literal "last gasp for air" for Ny Demokrati. In the 1998 national parliamentary elections, they received only one mandate in one community.
On June 6th, the Swedish National Day, Leif Larsson was once again at his tactical best. He organised a demonstration outside of the central Stockholm open-air museum/zoo Skansen. The purpose was to shout slogans during the King's speech later in the evening. A total of 10 "party members" showed up but they held neither a meeting nor a disruption of the King's speech. Instead they walked around in the zoo taking in the sights of the other monkeys.
In the 1998 national election, KP announced that they were going to give their all in the Stockholm suburb of Huddinge. This was another in a long row of fiascos - all the party members on the ballot hopped off at the last moment and no one showed up at their election kick-off (that the door to the proposed space was drenched in human shit probably had something to do with that!)
During the autumn of 1998, KP organised two concerts together with the nazi music organisation Nordland (more about this group further on). The purpose was to recruit new members. About 100 nazis showed up at each concert with the Nordland band Heysel heading the bill. The first concert was advertised by Larsson as - "the largest in history" - and promised the "Viking-rock" band Ultima Thule. The second concert was a traditional Nordland concert complete with nazi-salutes and shouts of "Sieg Heil".
Ultima Thule is still a big name in extreme right-wing music circles in Europe. During the last few years they have put a lot of money and effort into building up their own recording studio in the town of Nyköping and working with their own record companies Ultima Thule Records and Attitude Records.
Ultima Thule has made it their niche to work in the grey-zone between white-power music and "Viking rock" - where they are allowed to work in relative peace without the likes of the media or anti-fascists causing problems. In 1998 they started Attitude Records, in order to launch nazi-punk and "non-political" punk and Oi. One of the bands they have worked with is Jinx. The company has been created with the sole purpose of broadening nazi-rock and thereby making it harder to define. It is not an attempt to de-politicise nazi-bands.
On several occasions during the summer of 1998 anti-fascists in Stockholm found themselves in conflict situations with members of Jinx. During the autumn, AFA-Stockholm was able to stop a Jinx concert by simply calling the concert venue and informing the owner about just what Jinx was all about. Towards the end of 1998, Johnny Järvenpää from the nazi band Heroes attempted to organise a music festival in Borås, Holmgång 98. The festival did not receive a permit from the community and was forced to move to a location on the outskirts of Gothenburg in the last minute. Only fifty or so people participated, the most of whom where band members.
The portion of the Swedish nazi movement that has grown the most during 1998 is the umbrella organisation gathered around Ragnarrock Records. This political umbrella encompasses both small and large groups, such as Nationalsocialistik Front (NSF), Blood & Honour Scandinavia, NS88/NS Records, Info14/Gula Korset (the Yellow Cross - a prisoners support group), Svenska Rättshjälpen (Swedish Legal Aide), Ariska Brödraskapet (Aryan Brotherhood - a prisoners group) and NS Stockholm. This all boils down to political work upon three fronts - music, organisational construction and militant commando groups.
NSF is attempting to build a traditional nazi-organisation with flags, uniforms and political meetings, all of which are carefully choreographed. Blood & Honour Scandinavia supports NSF financially as well as by distributing nazi propaganda (in the form of concerts and records). At the same time, B&HS propagate for street-level militancy and armed commando groups with the English Combat 18 as a sort of role model. Ragnarrock and NSF's organisations have been the most active during 1998. They've held five concerts, two larger meetings a month and printed between 10-15 issues of different nazi magazines. Most of these activities occur in southern Sweden. However, during the course of the year they have held activities in Örebro, Ludvika and Trollhättan. These usually gather between 50 and 100 participants and activists travel often - visiting each other and participating in each other's activities.
The two companies Ragnarrock Records och NS88/NS Records are lead by Norwegian Erik Blücher and the German-Dane Marcel Schilf. Both live in Helsingborg. In the peripheries of these two record companies, they have built the front organisation Blood & Honour Scandinavia, with groups in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. Ragnarrock and NS Records are behind a large portion of the export/import of white-power records to Germany. There is a lot of money to be made here. Since these two record companies are the strongest financial force in the international Blood & Honour network, and have the advantage of Sweden's and Denmark's liberal laws, they have not only a lot of influence within international Blood & Honour but even over B&H/Combat 18's ISD Records. They are today more important for the international B&H network than England is. B&HS produces several magazines in the English language, such as B&H Scandinavia and Route88 (the international B&H's magazine). Erik Blücher and Marcel Schilf have made Helsingborg an international meeting place and nazis from the United States, England, Austria, Germany, Denmark and Finland have worked in Ragnarrock's different projects during shorter periods of time. Ragnarrock has invested a deal of their money into a music equipment, a printing press and colour copy machines. In this way they have gathered groups around their organisation and print their propaganda as well as supply them with other materials.
On October 8th the Swedish police raided Ragnarrock's and NS88's spaces in Helsingborg. Marcel Schilf and Erik Blücher were both interrogated. In order to prove that materials were distributed (a necessity in Swedish law) Blücher was arrested as he mailed postal orders. All of NS88's master tapes to their videos were confiscated during the raid, but were later returned. Despite this police effort, Ragnarrock's and NS88's operations have continued as usual.
Blücher and Schilf make quite a bit of money through record and videotape sales. However, they even work actively to spread the "Combat 18" concept and ideas. B&HS's music-magazines are filled with articles concerning C18 as well as calls to "take up the armed struggle against the system". Many articles contain hateful remarks directed towards Nordland, nazi "pop-stars" and profiteers, all with the conclusion that white-power music must lead to action, otherwise it's simply not worth the effort. Blücher has previously always held himself in the background, but during 1998 he has taken the step into the limelight, making his authority indisputable. He writes many of the more important articles, holds speeches at concerts and meetings as well as travels throughout Europe, contacting and organising a variety of groups.
National Socialist Front was formed in 1994 in the small southern Swedish town of Karlskrona, but has only begun to grow within the last two years. In contrast to other nazi organisations that have been built from above, such as Nationella Alliansen, NA (The National Alliance), NSF has grown from the ground up. The central group is still located in Karlskrona. The leading individuals during 1998 were Anders Högström, Björn Björkqvist, Anders Örleskog, Jonas Nyberg and Kim Blomqvist. NSF produced a bi-monthly magazine Den Sanne NationalSocialisten (the True National Socialist), which is printed by Ragnarrock.
Under 1998 several new, local groups joined NSF such as those in the towns of Klippan, Trollhättan, Örebro and Ludvika. These groups has shown themselves to be very active. NSF's activities are centred around political meetings that consist of dinners or parties, where music in complemented by speeches and propaganda sales. Their meetings are often arranged in conjunction with Blood & Honour Scandinavia. Some of their larger activities during 1998 were: Hitler's Birthday Party in the town of Bromilla on the 20th of April, NSF's demonstration in the central Swedish village of Nora on the May Day, the Hess commemoration march in the Copenhagen, Denmark suburb of Greve on the 15th of August, an Ian Stuart-commemoration concert on the 19th of September and the Furugårds Dinner in Halmstad on the 12th of December. NSF/Gula Korset were forced to cancel their planned demonstration in "support of the Palestinian People" in Sweden's third largest city Malmö, on the 30th of May for fear of anti-fascist reprisals.
On the May Day, the entire NSF demonstration in Nora, consisting of circa 80 individuals, was arrested by the police for rioting after they broke through a line of riot police. This resulted in seven NSF leaders being sentenced to prison between two and sex months (prison sentences are as a rule only 2/3's of the actual sentenced time). The May Day demonstration was organised by Jonas Persson, the NSF leader in Örebro.
The new group in Trollhättan is lead by Andreas "Carrot" Johansson. They most likely shared a space with SD, but were forced to vacate the premises after the 1998 national elections.
The group in Ludvika is lead by bonehead Mikael Byman, who was previously a member of The National Alliance. NSF-Ludvika has organised several parties. During the summer of 1998, they were involved in a number of confrontations with local anti-fascists. During one of these confrontations Byman was stabbed. During the autumn they attempted to organise two counter-demonstrations against anti-fascist demonstrations, the second against AFA's "November 30th" (a traditional day of fascist demonstrations in Sweden) demonstration held on November the 28th in Ludvika.
NSF-Klippan is the largest and most active NSF group. They produce the magazine Vit Offensiv (White Offence) and probably produce the weapon-fetishist magazine Ariskt Motstånd (Aryran Resistance). NSF-Klippan received national media coverage since Jesper Ekberg stabbed an immigrant and then fired shots through the same individuals windows. On the Swedish National Day (June 6th), NSF-Klippan, along with Gula Korset, planned a demonstration in Klippan that was stopped by the local police who cordoned off the entire village centre.
NSF, together with Blood & Honour Scandinavia, have during 1998 begun to organise their own concerts, while at the same time Nordland has begun to reduce the number of theirs. NSF has two bands of their own, "Hets mot folkgrupp" (a reference to a Swedish law prohibiting Incitement against Minority groups, however the band calls itself "Racial Hatred" in the English language) from Trelleborg and "Nibelungen" from Helsingborg. Ragnarrock controls the bands Totenkopf, Storm and Odium.
During 1997, NSF procured their own farmhouse in the village of Nossebro. However, there was not much activity there. Tomas "Skunk" Qvarnström, who had hired the farmhouse for NSF, was kicked out of NSF after it became known that he had serious drug problems and had abused and threatened his girlfriend with a pistol. In February 1998, NSF attempted to hire another farmhouse outside of Helsingborg, but the local police forbid the owner from hiring out the house in the last minutes of the deal.
During the course of the year, NSF has attempted to build up a co-operation with Danmarks Nationalsocialistiska Bevegelse, DNSB (Denmark's National Socialist Movement) and Norges Nationalsocialistisk Bevegelse, NNSB (Norway's National Socialist Movement - the former Zorn88). This co-operation has been financially supported by Blood & Honour Scandinavia. They held several meeting together. The Hess Commemoration March in Greve, Denmark early on the morning of the 15th of August was a collaboration of these three organisations. The largest contingents in the demonstration came, however, from Sweden and Germany.
Through their contacts with Ragnarrock/Blood & Honour Scandinavia, NSF has been drawn into the international conflict between C18/Blood & Honour on the one hand and Nordland/Resistance on the other. However, even though this rivalry between Nordland and Ragnarrock still exists, there are several indications that NSF is attempting to establish a peace-pact with Nordland.
However, Blood & Honour Scandinavia have taken up this torch and encouraged the militant jargon. All of the magazines that Blood & Honour Scandinavia print have fallen back into the old Vit Ariskt Motstånd, VAM (White Aryan Resistance)-rhetoric including bomb recipes, weapon-fetishism and anti-AFA articles. This type of rhetorical style is also found in Ariska Brödraskapet's magazine "Berserkr", in the magazine "Ariskt Motstånd" (most likely from the town of Klippan), NS Stockholm's magazine and NSF's "Skydd och Säkerhet" (Protection and Security) which calls for the establishment of Security Forces (which exist on paper only) and Blood & Honour Security.
When the skinhead space namned Fryshuset closed in the traditional workers quarters of Stockholm, the island of Södermalm, the social services continued to work with young nazi skins in a project for "self destructive youth". The group was named "Stolta Skins" (Proud Skins). During the summer of 1997, many of these Stolta Skins jumped off the project, with Stefan Andersson in the lead, and built a Combat 18 group. They took the name "NS Stockholm". NS Stockholm received support from the group around Robert Vesterlund (from National Alliance and SD's Youth Group) and their newsletter Info 14. On the eve of Crystal Night, the 8th of November 1997, they held their first activity, an anti-Jewish demonstration in Stockholm. AFA-Stockholm blockaded their gathering point, but they nazis - with the help of Stockholm's police - managed to demonstrate through Stockholm, even if it was not towards their original goal, the media house owned by the Jewish family of of Bonniers.
In January 1998, Stefan Andersson took contact with a journalist at Sweden's leading tabloid, Aftonbladet. He offered to sell pictures to the journalist depicting threats made towards well-known anti-fascists. The journalist ordered two pictures, one made against the police press-contact Clas Cassel and the other against the television journalist (and immigrant) Alexandra Pascalidou. Andersson sent some friends to take the pictures of masked individuals with pistols outside of these two celebrities' apartment doors. The film was then delivered to Aftonbladet. They were printed and this lead to the well-known "Aftonbladet Case". Five nazis were sentenced to protective custody by the lower courts, but were later acquitted in a higher court. Before the pictures had been published, NS Stockholm had ordered forty passport photos (which are public documents according to Swedish law) of other anti-racists.
In April 1998, NS Stockholm attempted to open a space called "Varghaket" in a basement space in a Stockholm suburb. Varghaket was planned to be a boutique for the sale of Ragnarrock materials as well as a meeting space for NS Stockholm, NSF and Info 14. Anti-fascists destroyed the space before it could open. NS Stockholm was immediately kicked-out by their landlord.
This story had a bitter end for NS Stockholm. During the course of the autumn and winter a conflict erupted between NS Stockholm and Ragnarrock over the fact that Ragnarrock never received compensation for goods delivered in good faith to Varghaket. Since then, NS Stockholm has mainly been active with registering anti-fascists. They've even produced Combat 18 hooded, sweat-shirts.
Ariska Brödraskapet is a prisoner's organisation, or a more correct description could be a "pen-pal club" for imprisoned nazis. It was started by Niklas Löfdahl, Daniel Hansson and Johan Billing. Ragnarrock supported Ariska Brödraskapet financially and printed their magazine. After a meeting with Ragnarrock during the Spring of 1998, Löfdahl sent an unarmed letter-bomb to the Swedish Minister of Justice. Niklas Löfdahl escaped from the insane asylum he was being held at on the 17th of September 1998. After a few days on the run he turned himself in to the police in Stockholm. After his arrest he was interviewed by Aftonbladet and Swedish TV 4 and during the course of these interviews he claimed that he had broken all contact with his nazi past. This has since proven to be a lie and a bluff.
Antifascistisk Aktion - Stockholm