Inequality
is the real backstory to Sweden’s riots
·
·
February 23, 2017
Mohandas
Gandhi famously said that the root of violence is inequality. His view helps us
understand what’s behind the headlines about recent rioting in immigrant
neighborhoods in Sweden.
No one was
killed, although one police officer did actually shoot at a rioter — an
exception to Swedish police policy. Over the four nights of rioting in the
vicinity of Stockholm, a restaurant was burned down, more than 30 cars were set
on fire and police were attacked. Rioters damaged stores, schools, and even an
arts and crafts center.
According to the Guardian, the
immediate trigger for the riots seems to have been the police killing of a
69-year-old man wielding a machete in the suburb of Husby, which evoked
accusations of police brutality. However, as I learned while researching my
book “Viking Economics,” this is not
a complete anomaly for Sweden. Outbreaks of rioting occurred in 2010 and 2013
in the same neighborhoods.
The deeper
story teaches something about the interplay of racism — a reality in Sweden —
and economic inequality. The intersection of class and race was familiar to
Martin Luther King, Jr., James Baldwin and other civil rights leaders in the
United States.
Surprising in
social democratic Sweden?
Sweden has
distinguished itself as the European country that took in the most refugees per
capita from war-torn Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East. Further, it
invites immigrants to take advantage of free health care, language and job
training, even university education. Mainstream Swedish leadership — cultural
and political — continuously speaks out against racism and for generosity and
social justice.
What’s changed
is that Sweden has been retreating in recent decades from its earlier
commitment to economic equality. Although average living standards are still
among the highest in Europe — and Sweden has nothing like the U.S. income gap —
its economic inequality has grown faster than that of its Nordic cousins.
One symptom of
this is high youth unemployment, affecting immigrant communities the worst —
almost three times the rate of unemployment for immigrants compared to native
Swedes.
Poor compared
with what?
Sweden is
light years ahead of the United States on immigration policy and equality of
opportunity, and the other Nordic countries even more so. However, a
study by Norwegian peace researchers revealed just how relative such
assessments are. The researchers found that what counts most is the perspective
on the ground — how people compare their own situation and that of people they
can see who have it much better. Unemployed immigrant youths in the Stockholm
region can see their age peers not far away spending freely. They feel left
behind.
Further, they
get messages from Swedish racists that their disadvantage is their own fault
and that they, as “inferior beings,” are not wanted in Sweden.
Aggravating
the situation is social isolation. Camila Salazar, who works for Fryshuset, a
Stockholm youth organization, told the Guardian: “For a lot of people who live
in segregated areas, the only Swedes they meet are social workers or police
officers. It’s amazing how many have never had a Swedish friend.”
Sweden cut
back its public spending in recent decades, preventing it from maintaining a
cornerstone of social democracy: full employment. Making those cutbacks while
cutting taxes on the wealthy and corporations was asking for trouble.
Economic
inequality incentivizes native Swedes to justify their privilege by expressing
racist sentiments, making up false stories like increased crime. (Sweden is
still equal enough to have very low crime rates.) For native Swedes who
hesitate to express prejudice, politicians will step up to express it for them.
The Swedish anti-immigrant party has become third-most popular.
Needed: more,
not less, of what works
Racism and
anti-immigrant feeling among the Scandinavians is nothing like as strong as in
the United States, but both sides of the Atlantic can learn from noticing what
works. I’ve seen how poverty in the United States supports the white racist
narrative that black and brown people are inferior. Institutionalized scarcity
pits people against each other, within racial groups and across them — despite
the fact that many roads to advancement depend on cooperation and
collaboration. The overall class narrative brands people who are poor as
“losers,” which then erodes the confidence of all but the most hardy.
What
economists call the Nordic model is the only one with a solid track record for
minimizing absolute poverty. A living wage for all is fundamental — in
Copenhagen the workers at McDonalds receive $20 per hour. Full employment and
wealth redistribution reduce inequality.
As the 2016 vision of the Movement for Black Lives recognizes,
the chance to make major progress against racism depends on economic justice.
When we build into our campaigns the vision of both racial and economic
equality, we know we’re on the right track.
Vision is what
the Swedes need to return to. Having made enormous strides by the 1960s and
‘70s, their movement for economic equality went on the defensive, seeking to
maintain their gains. “Maintenance” is not, however, a feasible strategy in the
unceasing class struggle that goes on in all countries. By the 1980s the
Reagan-Thatcher offensive, on behalf of neo-liberalism, was influencing Sweden
as well.
Danish workers
recognized the neo-liberal threat and in the mid-1980s waged a general strike.
Their Swedish cousins needed to accept the inspiration in the neighborhood and
re-launch their own nonviolent offensive for more equality, especially in light
of the wish to accept more immigrants. I realize, however, that it can be hard
to remain ready for battle when your country has already reached “the top of
the heap” in terms of achievement of justice.
Getting the
top international ratings is not our problem in the United States, as we rate
very far below the Nordics on criteria of equality and economic well-being.
This is evidenced by the recent news that we are our losing ground on
life expectancy. Many of those who voted for Trump know this
reality in their bones and diminished circumstances.
The challenge
for U.S. activists is that we allow the pretense of democracy to weaken our
willingness to do what works — nonviolent direct action campaigns — and up the
ante. Simply put, we Americans need to go ahead and wage our nonviolent
revolution.
—
George Lakey co-founded Earth
Quaker Action Group which just won its five-year campaign to force a major U.S.
bank to give up financing mountaintop removal coal mining. Along with college
teaching he has led 1,500 workshops on five continents and led activist
projects on local, national, and international levels. Among many other books
and articles, he is author of “Strategizing
for a Living Revolution” in David Solnit’s book Globalize Liberation (City
Lights, 2004). His first arrest was for a civil rights sit-in and most recent
was with Earth Quaker Action Team while protesting mountain top removal coal
mining.
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center,
325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email:
mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the
subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to
gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and
everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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