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swedish police up in arms over satire |
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On August 31, the Swedish Ministry of Justice charged the anarchist magazine Brand with incitement to insurrection, a breach of the freedom of the press according to Swedish law. The Brand issue in question was released on International Women's Day, March 8, 2000, and immediately caught the attention of the Swedish Secret Police (SÄPO). Brand was established in 1898, and the current editorial collective was formed in 1995. To mark International Women's Day, the collective put together a special issue highlighting the sex roles and stereotypes portrayed in Swedish women's magazines such as VeckoRevyn and Frida, as well as Swedish men's magazines such as Slitz and Café. The issue contained satirical columns with sex tips and test-yourself questionnaires. The front cover was a take off of VeckoRevyn. Among the articles was a satire based on VeckoRevyns's "How to make your party a success", which was entitled "How to make your riot a success, from A to Z". It is this article - which ironically is a parody of some of the self-righteous posing that is evident within the anarchist movement - that has SÄPO and the Swedish state up in arms. Included are entries on "barricades", "cobble stones" "Zebra patterned sports jackets" and "Xena the Warrior Princess". Advice includes the useful tips that "It is extremely easy to riot in high heels" and that "Zebra sports jackets are no longer fashionable in riot situations". The text was laid out with a baby-blue and pink colour scheme, and was accompanies by a picture of the Spice Girls. Why did the article cause such a storm? Well, according to the geniuses at SÄPO, a spectacular house squat in Linköping on March 17 - just a week or two after the issue hit the streets - was directly inspired by the article. The only witness in the upcoming trial against Brand will be a policeman from Linköping who is to testify that the squatters used the article as a guide in their action! |
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Within various philosophical schools, this sort of thing is usually called a "faux pas". "Brand wrote about barricades and cobblestones, the squatters used barricades and cobblestones, and the squatters did this because they had read Brand." Yet Swedish anarchists have been squatting buildings for the last fifteen years. And there has been an abundance of rioting during the same period. The squat in Linköping was not at all unique. Examples are the squat of Folkungagatan in Stockholm in 1990 and the squat of the "Gamla Mejeriet" in Västerås following the results of the EU referendum in 1994. At both of these squats the same methods were used. Squatters used barricades and masks, they threw stones and Molotov cocktails and they fired projectiles with slingshots in order to keep the violent Swedish police at bay. These means of proletarian struggle are well described in a number of handbooks and manuals, and what appeared in Brand was nothing new. The Ministry of Justice aims to confiscate all the copies of the magazine they can come across. However, the issue in question was so popular that it has sold out completely. You can view it on the Internet (minus the offending article) at:
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