People in Sweden are unsure of joining NATO – Workers World
Powers is an American war opponent from Vietnam who emigrated to Sweden, where he has been active in the anti-imperialist movement for over 50 years.
On the weekend of May 21, protesters in about 20 cities and towns around Sweden joined demonstrations and marches to oppose the government’s decision to apply for membership in NATO. The formal decision to abandon Sweden’s official policy of neutrality, which has lasted for more than 200 years, came in the midst of a fear whipped up by propaganda about the armed conflict in Ukraine and an alleged threat to Europe’s security.
The conservative opposition parties have long advocated joining NATO. But a sudden shift in position for two of the largest parties – the ruling Social Democrats’ Labor Party (SAP) and the extremely Nazi-inspired Sweden Democrats (SD) – made possible the change in government policy.
SD is an anti-immigrant, populist racist group that breaks through in the labor movement. They supported the others in this matter, hoping to be accepted as a respectable element of a new right-wing majority. They even changed their position not to accept more refugees – as long as the refugees were white Europeans with the same Christian cultural background and not from the Middle East!
The ruling Social Democrats, as recently as their last party congress in 2021, declared that their remaining in office would guarantee that Sweden would never abandon freedom of alliance. During the Cold War, Sweden, despite being non-aligned, was unofficially part of NATO’s northern flank with its huge air force patrolling much of Soviet airspace.
Under the SAP regime, Sweden has in recent decades come closer to NATO in the Partnership for Peace and US-built coalitions against terrorism in Iraq and Syria. Sweden withdrew its troops from Afghanistan after 20 years, after proving its loyalty and submissiveness to Washington. The Swedish space facilities in the north were crucial in directing the US bombing raids on Libya in 2011. Joint maneuvers have been carried out with many NATO countries, including bombing exercises in Sweden.
Identity crisis
Nevertheless, ditch neutrality causes a sense of identity crisis in Sweden. Sometimes having an independent foreign policy made it possible for a moral position to be taken, such as opposing the US war in Vietnam and being the first EU country to recognize the state of Palestine and work to promote nuclear disarmament. Nevertheless, Sweden last year refused to ratify the UN agreement on a ban on nuclear weapons, which it itself had been involved in writing.
The US Secretary of Defense simply warned publicly that the signing of the agreement would “complicate” military cooperation with NATO. Sweden backed down. The days of an independent foreign policy, already more difficult with EU membership, may soon be gone forever.
There is no concrete Russian threat to Sweden today. Still the Swedeish The government says that full membership would provide security guarantees with NATO’s nuclear weapons forces but allow it to ban nuclear weapons and any permanent foreign bases on Swedish soil!
The exact opposite is true – it would make Sweden a possible target for Russian nuclear weapons. Now we learn that the Finnish decision to join gives Sweden no alternative. But Sweden is its own country. Joining NATO would make the Baltic Sea an internal NATO lake, with 10 countries threatening Russia!
The debate on membership has mostly been one-sided. Television and radio have had panels where pro-NATO participants, mostly military research experts, discuss the benefits of joining forces. The Social Democrats arranged zoom dialogues with thousands of party members, who were allowed to listen to ministers answer predetermined leading questions from anonymous votes but could not ask any themselves. Where the vote took place, the results were not published, often negative.
The party leadership refers to the back and forth uncertain changes in public opinion in the weekly polls. But even these indicate that almost half the population, including a majority of the Social Democrats and the smaller Left and Green parties, are still either against or insecure! Party loyalists who always follow the leader may have changed their minds, but they can only accounts for 10% of voters.
The whole process has been ridiculous and a parody of democracy. All the major parties are opposed to having a referendum, as they see the issue as too complicated and address sensitive security issues. They also oppose waiting until after the planned elections in September and letting voters decide, in order to give the decision some form of democratic legitimacy. Many feel steamed by the party elite. But they are afraid of direct democracy by the people.
Speakers at the protest in Stockholm included Thomas Hammarberg, a former Socialist MP and EU Commissioner for Human Rights; Kajsa Ekis Eknman, well-known author and journalist; as well as representatives from the NO group to NATO; The People In Picture (People In Pictures); Women for peace; and the revolutionary communist youth.
The merchants of death celebrate
The ones who celebrate the most are the Swedish weapon manufacturers, the merchants of death, including SAAB Dynamics. They see opportunities to sell anti-tank weapons and possibly Swedish fighter jets to future NATO allies. That Swedish conscripts may need to be cannon fodder in NATO’s war is not included in their capitalist calculations. And Sweden has already, by broad consensus, agreed to increase military spending to 2% of its budget, the new Trump-Biden guideline for European partners.
However, it may take some time before formal membership is granted. The Turkish regime has suddenly thrown a wrench into the process. It refuses to admit new members unless it treats the Kurdish opponents of the Turkish regime as “terrorists”. The Swedish government has close ties to the US-backed Kurdish enclave in Syria and to Iraqi Kurdistan; the The Turkish regime claims that these Kurdish units provide a refuge for forces from the PKK, which are fighting the Turkish government. Sweden will not hand over refugees to Turkey. Sweden has also introduced an arms embargo against Turkey in 2019 and helped stop Turkey from joining the EU.
There is great uncertainty about how long the process can take. But it is not yet a clear deal.