White Power Music in Sweden 1998-1999
During the 1980's and 1990's, the "white-power" music milieu, or
nazi-skinhead subculture, has been the backbone of the Swedish nazi
movement. It is from this milieu that short-lived organisational
attempts have arisen. "White-power" music has also been by far the most
prominent way of spreading "the word." During the 1990's, concerts have
played a larger and larger role, replacing demonstrations as "public"
manifestations. Concerts could be held under controlled circumstances
and at secret locations to which concert-goers could be shuttled in
buses. This greatly reduced the risk of anti-fascist resistance which
had previously occurred with regularity in conjunction with publicly
announced nazi demonstrations. On January 3rd, 1998, a turning point in
"white power" concert organisation was reached. The leading "white
power" music organiser, Nordland, held a concert in the Stockholm suburb
of Brottby. The concert was raided by the police an over 300
concert-goers were arrested.
1998 continued to be a year in which both the record company and
magazine Nordland met problem upon problem. The boutique Midgård in
Gothenburg, which had been responsible for Nordland's mail-order sales,
left the Nordland network and began it's own mail order business. With
Midgård's departure, Nordland lost a large portion of their mail order
income and were forced to undertake an expensive relocation of their
overhead to the town of Linköping. This reorganisation brought their
financial situation under an enormous strain and Nordland was then
forced to borrow money in order to continue production of their
magazine. Not only did Nordland's mail order income disappear with
Midgård, but even their Internet competence. This lead to Nordland being
forced to discontinue the publication of their Internet-based weekly
newsletter, which had until then been their most important information
and communication channel.
In March of 1998, the American CD-manufacturer Cinram cancelled their
contract with Nordland. During the same month, the Swedish security
police, SÄPO, raided Nordland's warehouse in Linköping. The next defeat
came in the month of May when a journalist revealed that Nordland's
magazine of the same name was printed at a state owned-and-run printing
facility, Printall Shop, in Estonia. The printing contract was cancelled
upon the intervention of the Swedish Foreign Department.
After yet another concert was raided by the police, Nordland was forced
to change their strategy altogether. They've now stopped organising
large concerts with concert-goers from all over Sweden being bussed back
and forth between different locations. Instead, they've organised a
series of smaller "unplugged" events for a close-knit group of
supporters. From large concerts with over 600 concert-goers they're now
forced to stage events with often fewer than 60 participants. The
Nordland organisation has been reduced to a production company with an
unreliable release of records, magazines and books.
If we conclude that Nordland has been reduced to nothing more than a
shadow of its former self, then we may also conclude that the southern
Swedish, "white power" record company Ragnarock Records has slowly grown
in importance. While Nordland chose to hold large concerts in Swedens'
largest cities, Ragnarock channelled their efforts into the countryside
with smaller concerts. Using the front organisation Blood & Honour
Scandinavia, which Ragnarock runs together with their compatriots in the
Danish NS88/NS Records, they've attempted to build a myriad of local
supporter groups with bonehead constituents. While Nordland has produced
the slickest products, but have kept the profits for themselves,
Ragnarock has produced products of lesser quality and donated a large
portion of the returns directly to the nazi movement. Complementing
Blood & Honour Scandinavia and Ragnarock is the nazi political party,
Nationalsocialistisk Front, NSF. Together they've organised circa twenty
concerts during the past two years. Most of their concerts have been
held without complications from the authorities.
The security police have, however, during the recent past begun to show
an interest for Ragnarock's record production. On the 8th of October,
1998, SÄPO raided Ragnarock's headquarters in Helsingborg as well as the
homes of it's leading figures. The material confiscated provides a
unique insight into the companies operations. Amongst other things, 8000
individuals listed in their customer database. Of these 6000 live in
Germany.
Another complication arose for Ragnarock in April of 1999 when an
anti-fascist commando group broke into their printing facilities and
destroyed the machines there. At that point-in-time, a large portion of
the nazi movement was without printing facilities.
The leading figure behind Ragnarock Records in the Norwegian Erik
Blücher and Swede Hans Pettersson. Blücher has a long history within the
Norwegian and Swedish extreme right stretching back into the 1970's.
Since his arrival in Sweden, he's held a low profile, but since the
raids against his home and the following trails, he's taken the large
steps into the limelight. Blücher has become a regular speaker at Nordic
nazi manifestations and gatherings. Hans Pettersson, who's taken the
name of Himmler, is Ragnarock's link to NSF. He's a member of NSF's
national council and is responsible for the party's security force
"Skydd och Säkerhet" (SS, Safety and Security).
Using Blood & Honour Scandinavia, Blücher has taken an active role in
attempting to fill the space left by the British B&H's disappearance and
build up an international Blood & Honour movement. He's travelled to
Eastern Europe on several occasions in order to make contacts in the
Czech Republic, Slovakia, Rumania and Serbia. He uses the pseudonym Max
Hammer to write in a number of Swedish nazi magazines. Besides starting
Blood & Honour magazines in the Nordic countries, he's the driving
figure behind the magazine for the international Blood & Honour
movement, Route 88.
During the course of 1999, the personal alliances between Blood & Honour
Scandinavia and NSF have begun to sway. NSF has chosen to follow a path
of autonomy and in this way, establish contacts with Nordland. This has
lead to a subtle demise of the feud which has been an important barrier
for collaboration in the Swedish nazi movement between Nordland and
Ragnarock Records.
Both the authorities harder stance towards nazism, and an increasingly
refined anti-fascist militancy have increased the pressure upon the
Swedish nazi movement of the late 1990's. The different nazi groups have
chosen to respond to this pressure in different ways. NSF has
reorganised itself into a political party in an attempt to escape the
authorities. Several "white power" bands have begun to tone done the
political rhetoric of their lyrics and instead spout a diffuse
nationalism in the form of "Viking Rock" and participation in a yearly
"Holmgång Festival". Blood & Honoyur Scandinavia have during the course
of 199 chosen to schedule more and more activities in Denmark, which has
a more liberal judicial system. However, the most disturbing change has
been that as the nazi movement has become weaker and their ability to
attract large numbers decreased, their leanings towards armed struggle
have increased. One of the driving forces behind this tendency has been
Blood & Honour Scandinavia which has directly imported the English
Combat 18 concept. They've especially directed their attentions to
imprisoned nazis and supplied them with money and propaganda with the
intention of organising them. Such an orgainsation, supported by Blood &
Honour Scandinavia, is Ariska Brödraskapet (The Aryan Brotherhood).
Even the magazine Nordland, which has often played down the role of
violence and chosen to propagate for a "revolution of values", has
changed their ideological course. The magazine's rhetoric now consists
of inciting the mapping of "enemies" and "fighting back." They've
recently published translations of older German SA texts as well as the
American "Turner Diaries".
During 1999, Sweden has been shaken by several violent actions from the
nazi movement. A group of nazis, lead by Tony Olsson and Mats Nilsson,
with backgrounds in the Aryan Britherhood, conducted a bank robbery tour
which ended with the execution of two policeman outside of the small
town of Malexander in May. They received logistical support from Svea
SA, an organisation that is closely connected with NSF. In Stockholm,
different nazi fractions joined forces during the Spring months, and
with the support of Nordland, they conducted an extensive mapping of the
two journalists who had exposed Nordland's CD and magazine printing
contracts. This mapping resulted in a car bomb in June in which one of
the journalists and his 8 year old son were severely injured. In
October, the Syndicalist union activist Björn Söderberg was
assassinated. Söderberg had exposed Robert Vesterlund, a leading nazi
and editor of the magazine INFO 14, closely tied to Blood & Honour
Scandinavia, after he had been elected as a local union shop steward.
Vesterlund lost his job and was forced top leave the union. The police
were able to quickly arrest a group of nazis for the murder
as they were under observation in connection with the years earlier car
bomb and had been seen in the area around Söderbergs home in the weeks
preceding the murder. The three arrested nazis were all active within
the organisation National Youth, closely tied to both Nordland and the
magazine INFO 14. Shortly thereafter, another group of yet unidentified
nazis detonated an explosive device at one of the central offices of the
syndicalist union which Söderberg belonged to.
However, these events do not necessarily mean that there is a general
move towards terrorism amongst Swedish nazis, nor the establishment of a
"new" movement. Rather, these are the responses of a hard-pressed nazi
movement and "white power" music scene in combination with the recent
release of many nazis from prison. These may be regarded as individuals
with one foot in the world of ex-convicts and another in a
disintegrating and desperate nazi movement.
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