Nazis attack anti-fascist demonstration in Stockholm

by Jack R

Yesterday (Sunday 15th of December) an anti-fascist demonstration in Stockholm was attacked by 30-40 Nazis who were armed with bottles, firecrackers and even knives.

Nazi attackers seen armed with shields – photo: metro.se

The attackers threw stones and firecrackers at the crowd before charging the demonstration and attacking the protesters. Two anti-fascist demonstrators were stabbed during the commotion and were taken to hospital along with two police officers. Eventually the attackers were driven out into a nearby forest by the demonstrators, after which Aftonbladet reports that 28 Nazis were arrested, with “some” of them being charged with attempted murder. Others will potentially be charged with rioting, assaulting a police officer and hate speech according to the police.

The anti-fascist demonstration was originally called by the local community in response to racist graffiti, including swastika symbols, in the area of Kärrtorp in Stockholm. There seems to have been a very small number of police – between five and ten police officers – present at the demonstration when it began and at the point when it was attacked. This has been verified by the police, who stated that they had less than ten police officers present, as they did not believe anyone would attack the participants of the demonstration. Comments by protesters on the facebook event and activist site Motkraft have since criticised the “slow response” of the police and pointed out that it was left to them to defend the crowd, including young children, and drive the Nazi attackers away from the square where the demonstration was being held.

The attack has since been officially claimed on the home website of a Nazi group known as Svenska motståndsrörelsen (Swedish Resistance Movement), a group that “wants to create a Nordic national socialist republic consisting of the Nordic countries… and possibly the Baltic countries”. Last month the group held a march through Stockholm on the 9th of November to commemorate Kristallnacht – the night when, in 1938, the Nazi black-shirts carried out a pogrom that saw 30 thousand Jews arrested and Jewish owned property destroyed throughout Germany.

Svenska motståndsrörelsen on a previous demonstration in 2011 – photo: Nyheter24.se

Whilst such levels of far-right violence as the attack on Sunday are not a common occurrence in Sweden, the extreme right have a long history of organised attacks against anti-fascist concerts and demonstrations in Sweden. Information from expo.se also shows that white power nationalists have been responsible for at least 23 politically motivated murders since 1986.