Naziattack against CWI Sweden

[Crux]

Mattias Bernadsson, one of our members and elected councillor in Haninge (a suburb of Stockholm) has been attacked by three people, two of them armed with knuckle brass and a knife respectively, undoubtly by nazis but no group has claimed responsibility as of yet. Mattias suffered a light concussion and some smaller cuts to the face, as he managed to knock the knife out the hand of the person wielding the knife. The incident has been reported to the police, and it has been in both local and national media. We are planning to hold a protest meeting on thursday in Haninge, and over all this attack shows us that the physical threat from the extreme right is still very present. We have sucessfully managed to blockade the nazis on several occassions in Gothenburg, hopefully we will be able to drive them back in Stockholm aswell.
Messages of solidarity and support can be sent to: [email protected]

[LOLseph Stalin]

Wow! That's brutal. It could definitely wake people up to the fact that Nazis are still a very real threat. Many people don't take it seriously and just think that Nazism/Fascism died out after WW II. However this isn't the truth despite how much I wish it was. :(

[Holden Caulfield]

Send my 'best wishes' to the comrade in question, this should be a warning to members of the CWI (and others) that fascism still poses a physical threat to us and that anti-fascism for our own defence, as well as political goals, is important.

[Pogue]

Solidarity and best wishes with our injured comrade. I think, as Holden said, this shows how we need a strong, dedicated anti-fascist movement ready to defend against these thugs and protect ourselves and our movement.

[Pirate turtle the 11th]

I wonder if this happend to the SWP or any like minded groups if they would defend themselves or if they would just increase the manufacture of placards.

[Pogue]

I wonder if this happend to the SWP or any like minded groups if they would defend themselves or if they would just increase the manufacture of placards.

Either way I know if this happened to the SWP I'd be out with them in any solidarity actions and be ready to defend them and all others against fascist scum, whilst trying to spread anti-fascist ideas to our class.

[Coggeh]

Felt sick to my stomach when i heard about this last night . Sneaky nazis don't even have the balls to organise properly because they know they'd get their faces battered so they retreat to these scum tactics .


*Sends solidarity*

[Rjevan]

I heard about the nazis getting more aggressive in Sweden and it seems that this was no lie.
It's really about time that people realise that the fascists are not just some crazy nationalists who do nothing but shouting slightly offensive slogans and walk around with "cool" tattoos but a dangerous threat to society.

Solidarity to our comrade!

[Sasha]

its not sommething new; not long ago in sweden the house of a couple of tradeunionists got atacked with petrol poured down the letterbox while the fascists new the couple (and i think even some kids) where at home.
and at the end of the 90's there were even bomb atacks on known tradeunionist their cars, i think one got killed.

[pastradamus]

Those dirty, dirty fascist scum. I will send my solidarity to him. Mattias should feel proud of himself for being able to stand his ground and knock that knife out of the Fascists hands.

Solidarity.
¡No Pasarán!

[Crux]

City councillor Mattias Bernhardsson viciously assaulted by Nazis

Community revulsion at attack on well known socialist campaigner
socialisterna.org (CWI Sweden)

On Sunday 22 March, Mattias Bernhardsson, who is a city councillor for Rättvisepartiet Socialisterna (RS – CWI in Sweden) was the victim of a brutal, planned assault by a group of Nazis. The attackers, armed with a knife and knuckledusters, followed and then set upon Mattias near his home in the working class district of Jordbro, at around 7pm. Their blows were aimed at his head and face.
"They tried to kill me", said Mattias, who was rushed to hospital, but is fortunately not gravely injured. He managed to disarm the assailant wielding the knife and by landing some punches himself, scared the attackers away. They ran to a getaway car, where at least one other assailant was seated.
"It's obvious it was Nazis behind this attack," said Mattias, who has received many threats in the past because of his consistent work against the deportation of refugees and against racism and fascism. 29 year-old Mattias is one of two RS councillors elected to the city council in Haninge, a suburb of Stockholm, in 2006, with the party's anti-racist campaigning work an important factor in this victory. Jordbro, where Mattias lives, is a solidly working class district with a high proportion of residents born outside Sweden. RS got the third highest vote (of nine parties elected onto the city council) in Jordbro. RS has responded to this extremely serious attack, in an area where the Nazis do not dare to show themselves openly, by calling for a demonstration on Thursday night, 26 March.
Communuity’s revulsion at attack

The daily paper, Svenska Dagbladet, reported on Tuesday 24 March:
”In Jordbro, Mattias Bernhardsson is a well-known figure. Jeanette Saliba, who works in the local tobacco shop, had tears in her eyes when she heard what happened. ‘He is great. He thinks in the right way.’ she says.”
The paper makes the point that in Jordbro, one voter in ten voted for RS. “Everyone with citizenship votes for them and it’s because of him. He speaks about the future”, says Ali Mirza. Veronika Johansson, who knows Mattias, said she was shocked by the news. “He has stood in this shopping centre, speaking out against racism and other things”.
This is the most serious recent attack in a chain of attacks by the fascist groups in Sweden. Several RS members in Stockholm and Gothenburg have been injured in the last three years. Just one day before this attack on Mattias, he and another RS member, Joel Eriksson, were attacked by a group of Nazis after an anti-war demonstration in central Stockholm.
The attack on Mattias, as an elected city councillor, has been a major item in the national media. By appearing in numerous television interviews, just hours after this attack, Mattias has helped to expose the real nature of these "Swedish nationalists" and the threat they pose to all those who dare oppose them. He has also demonstrated that working class representatives will not be intimidated.

http://www.socialistworld.net/eng/2009/03/2402.html


Leftist politician attacked in Stockholm

Published: 23 Mar 09 06:55 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/18384/20090323/
Dictionary tool Double click on a word to get a translation (http://www.thelocal.se/15662/20081113/)


A 29-year-old leftist politician from the Stockholm (http://www.thelocal.se/tag/stockholm) suburbs was beaten and attacked with a knife in Jordro south of Stockholm on Sunday night.

Bullet sent to Sweden's finance minister (http://www.thelocal.se/18344/20090320/) (20 Mar 09)
Neo-Nazis 'part of violent German-Swedish network' (http://www.thelocal.se/17752/20090221/) (21 Feb 09)
Two convicted over Hitler salute (http://www.thelocal.se/17738/20090220/) (20 Feb 09)
Mattias Bernhardsson sits on the local council in Haninge, a suburb south of Stockholm, and is a member of the Rättvisepartiet socialisterna, the Swedish chapter of the socialist Committee for a Workers' International.

According to Bernhardsson, he was followed by several people who then attacked him with brass knuckles and cut his face with a knife.

He is convinced the attack was carried out by Nazis.

“I noticed that three men were walking behind me. When I turned I saw that they were skinheads,” he told the TT news agency.

Bernhardsson then began running, but the stalkers caught up to him.

"One of them pulled on a mask and came at my face with a knife. Another had brass knuckles,” he said.

Bernhardsson managed to maintain his balance during the attack, after which the men jumped into a waiting car and sped off.

The incident was Bernhardsson's second brush with violence over the weekend.

On Saturday, he and a colleague were attacked by several men in connection with a demonstration in central Stockholm against the United States’ involvement in Iraq.

“It’s obvious to me that there’s a connection. It seems like they were waiting for me and followed me,” he said.

Bernhardsson sustained minor injuries and was taken to hospital for treatment.

The Sunday attack has been reported to police.

[pastradamus]

Fantastic post and very informative. Great to see he'll be able to get back on his feet and continue with his good work. Thats a huge relief.

[aty]

The nazis in Sweden is getting more and more desperate. They dont dare to show themselves in daylight so they sneak up on local politicians instead, fucking scums. They know that they will pay for this eventually.

[Melbourne Lefty]

Sneaky nazis don't even have the balls to organise properly because they know they'd get their faces battered so they retreat to these scum tactics .


I got no sympathy for nazis...

But remember the BNP guy who got hammered?

This is an underground war, seriously dont dish it out if you are not prepared to take it.

The fash get attacked a lot more these days than our side does, if fact since WW2 they probably always have, acting all indignant when the nazis strike back is childish in the extreme.

You hit people, they will hit you back.

[retaxis]

Yes but the nazi sneak up on people late at night unlike the other case where the fascist politician was beaten in the open.

[pastradamus]

Melbourne Lefty, This isn't a tit-for-tat ,back and forth between leftists and Nazi's. Antifa itself only came about as a reactionary measure against Nazi militancy. Back in the days when they were physically attacking Demonstrations and peaceful protesters.

The fact of the matter is that Fascists, Skinheads and Nazis are all militant groups who advocate physical violence against opposition ideals and their followers based on racial, political and cultural hatred. In the USA and Russia this is most obvious when we see groups training with rifles, Martial arts and violent weapons as opposed to using peaceful political means to obtain their goals. This just goes to show that they are fully invested in creating a cowardly, criminal organization who thrive by attacking unarmed, single members of society with a view to terrorizing the person and even killing he/she. They usually (as in this instance in Sweden) only attack when there is overwhelming odds in their favor - do the math 2 nuckledusters + 1 knife + 3 people vs 1 person (unarmed).

Those who do use political means attempt to distance themselves from fascism and Nazism such as the BNP, though its clear what agenda they hold as many BNP members are also members of redwatch and Combat 18. Theirs is a philosophy based on pure hate. No right thinking individual would ever consider an ideal and its members simply because of this one idiotic agenda.