Midsummer 1985
A cold wind swept over the nation of Sweden that faithful day when the countries longest (and tallest) serving Prime Minister passed away. Tage Erlander, together with his wife Aina, led a humble life, living in a usual townhouse and driving a typical Swedish manufactured vehicle. Likewise did his predecessor, Olof Palme, lead a similar life with his wife and children in the Stockholm suburb of Vällingby
It can be said that Mr. Erlander was the person whom administrated the Swedish welfare state after the original founders had left the political scene. Olof Palme inherited this stance when he became Prime Minister in 1969 and was the last politician to shield, what in Swedish is known as “Folkhemmet”, roughly translated , equivalently meaning “The People’s Home”. Olof Palme was subsequently assassinated in February 1986, just months after Mr. Erlander was laid to rest.
What is rarely mentioned is that mighty individuals within the finance and industrial complex sought, by campaigning, to dismantle the Swedish welfare state already during Mr. Erlanders reign in office. Co-workers to him have mentioned how these hateful campaigns took a significant personal toll on Mr. Erlander. The financial elite owned, and still owns, all influential media outlets and, therefor, can pursue their agendas relentlessly. Their representatives in the political elite residing in the right-wing parties contributed to undermining the resistance to the neoliberal onslaught.
The November revolution
Just months after Mr. Erlanders passing a coup led by highly ranking Social Democrats initiated the so called “November Revolution”, which was implemented without Olof Palme uninformed. The practical effect of this was the deregulation of the financial market, which in turn meant that the banks could start handing out loans, even if they did not have the resources physically. This would in time create dire consequences for the inherent equality in the Swedish society that Mr. Palme had managed to maintain. Furthermore, the move opened up for further measurers to dismantle the welfare state.
Olof Palme had erupted, “What the hell have you done?”, when he became informed about the shift in policy. In his memoirs, the architect behind this bold move, Kjell-Olof Feldt writes that Mr. Palme performed a symbolic flute gesture as the matter was being discussed. Mr. Feldt wants to lead the readers to believe that Mr.Palme had become out of touch and negligent. But there is a more sinister interpretation that by all means corresponds to the actually reality at the time. Mr. Palme had simply realised that there exists higher powers that can persuade even the largest democratic elected party to follow their desired change of course for the nation. The gesture with the flute was simply Mr. Palmes way of conveying that he was very well aware of this.
Controlled immigration versus open borders
The financial elite, however, had even more plans than just deregulations within the welfare state. A highly prioritised issue was also to open up the borders for uncontrolled immigration. Also here Olof Palme was a big obstacle since he was a staunch supporter of a strict and dignified immigration policy. As Mr. Palme himself expressed in an intervju as far back as 1977:
“Firstly we need to maintain a regulated immigration, this is something I have always supported. So, that we, in a reasonable way, relating to the quantity of immigrants, canovercome this problem. Secondly it is essential we uphold our society’s inherent equality. If one of these basis are undermined, we are at risk of getting in to terrible trouble.”
Apparent unsolvable problems in the Swedish society have arisen since both of these postulates Mr. Palme warned about have fallen completely , it may seem eerie, but such is the bitter reality.
In the Autumn of 1983 Europe’s first migration crisis occurred whereas a large amount of people with no legal basis for asylum tried to enter Europe and thus overloading the system in place. Mr. Palme became extremely concerned regarding this issue and personally took strong actions to prevent the influx of migrants to Sweden. One of his co-workers at the time, Jonas Widgren, described the situation as follows:
“But in October 1983…Kurds from Iraq started arriving at Arlanda (Sweden’s national airport)…Several hundred per week. And Olof Palme became very obsessed with this issue. Who are they and how can we stop them in some way? What is the solution to this, what is the solution regarding them?”
“But for Sweden it turned out to be easy…to threaten Honecker, because Palme simply threatened to revoke all diplomatic ties …We had nothing to loose. We had some old farms and such that Swedes would have lost. And some factories perhaps. Weighing in there was no money to be lost. Sweden was was on the few countries in the Baltic Sea the DDR had any type of relation with…and this setup proved to be successful…and thus….all the influx ceased immediately.”
Even after the assassination of Olof Palme there was still forces within the Social Democratic party that wished to continue Mr. Palmes sceptical stance on immigration. Thanks to Mr.Palmes predecessor, Ingvar Carlsson, this was realised. It all culminated in 1989 when a decision, by law, grounds for granting asylum were strongly restricted, which practically stopped the influx of asylum seekers to the country.
But this was not to last. Just two years later the new right wing government revoked the law and practically opened the nations borders and granted asylum to anybody who simply managed to reach Sweden in one way or another. That fateful day in 1991 crushed one of Mr. Palmes postulates for a functioning welfare state.
The welfare state stabbed in the back
As proven the Social Democrats after the murder still wished to uphold Mr. Palmes strict stance on immigration, but, their outlook on the welfare state had been completely altered. Privatisations quickly became the norm and dismantling of the welfare state hade begun. An eerie statement from Olof Palme:
“Television financed by advertising will be initiated over my dead body”
Private television companies startred operating in Sweden early 1987, so it can be said, it was literally introduced over Mr. Palmes dead body. This is just an example of course, since there are many other. As his predecessor, Tage Erlander, Mr. Palme was a strong opponent of any welfare companies establishing themselves, as well as loud spoken critic of assertion to the EG/EU, since it collided with Mr.Palmes vision of a neutral, blossoming and strong sovereign nation.
Mr. Palmes words chillingly echo through todays society where all his ideals promoting a secure and equal society have been dismembered for the benefit of a neoliberal agenda as cold as a coin laying in the snow on a cold winter day…
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