On the liquidationism of the swedish USFI

  1. Crux
    Crux
    There has been some clear tendencies towards liquidationism lately, especially after the "red-greens" failed to win the election. It's also worth mentioning that the SP themselfes pretty much stood still. They lost their sole council seat in Köping (by just losing 17 votes, but it's still a sign of stagnation), and gained one seat in Umeå standing a candidate on the Left Party's(the ex-eurocommunist party) list.
    I'll translate the latest:
    http://www.internationalen.se/2010/1...gets-lardomar/

    The Debate on the lessons from the election defeat.

    "Only through letting a thousand flowers blossom can the alternatives be born and weaved into a new force" read the statement from the SP leadership after the election. As one platform for that process we now open the pages in Internationalen [the sp's weekly paper] for the debate on the lessons from the electiondefeat. [something about limited space in the paper but all comments that do not make it into there will be published online]

    Gus Kaage, Gothenburg:Time for reassesment: A broader way

    The election was a catastrophe for the Sweden that believes in Solidarity, Equality and a sustainable environment. The Socialdemocracy is in free fall. The Left Party stands still despite increased injustice. Femeinist Initiative [a not-righ-or-left feminist organization that is basically a onewoman project of the popular ex-LP leader Gudrun Schyman] was halved and stole most their votes from the LP. The only ones that have a reason the rejoice are the Greens. But as with justice, powerquestions[meaning basic classquestions that in one way or the other challenge or at least are percieved to challenge the system] and redistribution the green-reds[the socdem, green party and left party electoral alliance] put a gag on the environment question. The extreme left got almost extinct [my note: not exactly true the CWI actually gained across the board but then again we were almost alone in doing so]. And foremost there are no large movements in society, the protests that are are few and will pass quickly.
    Hairpulling? Maybe. A somber read? yes. Does it demand reflexion, reassesment and new ways ahead? Definitely.

    But among this despair I still find some dots of light. Some of my friends have decided to become active politically after the election. Although they choose different parties - the greens, the left party and feminist initiative- but they still wanted to do something. And I share that feeling -and the will- and I am convinced many have the same ideas. A defeat need not lead to passivity. From them you can sometimes take big steps ahead: if we were putting forward the wrong politics, which politics should we have been putting forward?

    The Socialdemocracy has put up a crisis committee and even announced an extra-between-elections congress. They will discuss four issues: The politics. Why the election was lost. A renewal of ideadebate. The Organisation.

    The newly elected Leftparty parlamentarian Jonas Sjöstedt writes on his blog: The left party needs a post-election debate and quickly.
    I don't think he is alone in thinking so.
    In tense anticipation I opened the latest Internationalen, the paper I have been following since 1976. In curiousity I looked for at least one article that put at least a small question mark on the role of the Socialist Party [USFI sweden].

    is it given the massive victory of the rightwing alliance governments privatizations, social injustice and their blind eye towards the climate crisis correct to continue a ever fading party project?
    Does the qualitatively new situation with a racist rightwing populism in the Parliament put completely different demands for a broader organizing?
    About this Internationalen is silent as the grave. this surprises me.

    I had been expecting an article with the main theme "Now it is enough, now we must gather together for something new!" A challenge and a n invitation to a broad discussion about the future directed at Lars Ohly [Left Party leader], Maria Wetterstrand[one of two speechpersons, ie party leaders of the Green party], Mona Sahlin[the Social Democratic leader], Gudrun Schyman [FI leader] and Wanja Lundby-Wedin [top bureaucrat and socialdemocrat in the Trade Union]. But also indpendents like Johan Ehrenberg [left journalist and founder of a number of small leftwing newspapers in sweden], the Arenagroup [a left-socdem think tank] and many many more. Will this suceed the SP must also bring something to the table: " After 40 years we are ready to dissolve our organization. We want to contribute with out experience. we want to contribute with our paper, all our members and a lot of sympathizers. We do this because there's a need for renewal and change."

    Of course you can't predict what such a debate would lead to. But I have faith that all those that have been woken up or re-awakened by the election will be a large vitamin injection. And last but not least
    I am completely aware that the Sp has after 40 years gone into an ever more narrow dead end. And the only way out is to walk a broader road to reach a broader audience and be able to influence society to change towards solidarity, equality and a sustainable environment.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    I'll translate the offical Sp response tommorow but it is almost as bad, meanwhile you can google translate it if you like. I apologize for any mistakes in my translation or if anything is unclear. I can also do some further explanations about the swedish political climate and environment if you like. But this is the broad road to irrelevance they are taking.