SSU ♥ Stalin and Mao

We are definitely living in strange times. When I was a teenager and joined SSU (Swedish Social Democratic Youth League), we certainly did read the works of Karl Marx in study groups, but we were all in deep agreement that we were social democrats – not communists. The latter were madmen who dreamed of revolutions and of killing their political opponents.

The my father’s parents had always been social democrats, while the parents of my mother were communists. They used to stand on each side of the entrance to the “House of the People” selling newspapers for each of their camps. My mothers’ father even had plans to move the entire family to the Soviet Union, but fortunately my grandmother thought better of it and halted those plans. And even they became peaceful social democrats.

Recently I read that the SSU branch in the district of Södra Älvsborg is running an inquisition against members who have had the audacity to propose that the annual general assembly would appoint the editor of the members’ magazine Rödluvan (“Little Red Riding Hood”). That proposal was turned down by the district leadership with the following justification:

“The foremost objective of Rödluvan is to train the broad masses within our district and increase their consciousness of the permanent struggle between the owners of the means of production and the working class … The political discussion is about what benefits you most economically, not about democracy, compassion and other justice issues. This is a very unfortunate development. In order to prevent the development mentioned, the district leadership is of the opinion that our most important medium to reach our members must not be open for anyone to write in. An editor of correct ideological conviction must make sure that only those of similar views can express themselves and counter all bourgeois infiltrators. We must be hard in the struggle against right wing dissent.

“In the Södra Älvsborg SSU district, we consider it the duty of the district management to lift and transform the spontaneous struggle into a consciousness and organized battle for the revolution. Precisely as the communist party of the Soviet Union was strengthened under Josef Stalin, precisely as the communist party of China was strengthened under Mao Zedong, our movement will be strengthened under the battle-ready district management. Thus, the district management has concluded that the district management will continue to appoint the responsible editor of Rödluvan. Referring to the above reasoning, we reject the proposal as a whole.”

Excuse me, but can this be interpreted in any other way than that these SSU managers are awaiting the revolution and dream of gaining similar power over the people as the mass murderers Stalin and Mao had? Who has actually infiltrated whom here? What are revolutionary communists doing in the youth branch of the Social Democrats?

On a daily basis, we are receiving more evidence that the left has obvious problems with the concept of democracy. Nobody not defining themselves as ‘left wing’ can hold a public demonstrations without black-hooded gangsters confronting them, screaming and throwing stones.

That democracy presupposes a variety of views and expressions has never really dawned on the leftists, and the SSU managers in Södra Älvsborg are blatantly saying that no one with opinions other than those sanctioned by themselves will be given the opportunity to argue their case.

The left used to state that religion is opium for the people and thus is to be fought against. These days, they fight like wild beasts for the spread of Islam in the Western world. Isn’t that strange?

Not really. Islam and the left have much in common – contempt for democracy, freedom of opinion and of expression, and the desire to kill those asserting their right to think and speak differently.

Swedish