Part 2: Sweden Democrats and Hollywood Nazis

Worries and warnings have been raised that we had invited crypto-Nazis to the Counterjihad summit in Brussels. One of the prime examples mentioned of such an alleged crypto-Nazi is Ted Ekeroth of the Sweden Democrats. This claim is completely ridiculous. Ted Ekeroth is a Jew and Sweden's most high profile pro-Zionist. For this he was awarded with the prestigious Herzl Award last year.

But the Sweden Democrats, were they not crypto-Nazis in the past? Isn't this enough reason to never associate with them? Before I go into that, let's just clarify that it was not the Sweden Democrats as a party, but Ted Ekeroth as an individual, that was invited to the conference. Furthermore, Ted Ekeroth is not one of the leaders of the Sweden Democrats, as has been claimed. He is simply treasurer of the local branch of the party in the town of Lund. So regardless of the historical baggage of the party the Sweden Democrats, the discussion about the presence of or connection to crypto-Nazis of the Brussels Counterjihad conference can end already there.

But the issue is bigger than this of course. It's about the future of Sweden and Europe, and whether we should cooperate with the Sweden Democrats at the top level in the future. So what about the past of the Sweden Democrats? Of course, about the present there is no doubt. The Sweden Democrats is the most philo-Semitic party in Sweden, and the only one that takes a clear pro-Zionist and pro-American stand regarding the Israel/Palestine issue (Sweden is otherwise generally a hellhole regarding this issue.) As Pamela at Atlasshrugs put it so well:

I will make the case for the Europeans desperate to save their country(s). I did research (and continue to) and see the ghosts but VB [Vlaams Belang] or more particularly the Swedish Democrats have done nothing in recent years that I need to worry about. The Swedish Democrats have had their purge a few years ago and are now clean. I see a pattern of such transformations in several European countries. If they want to become respectable, pro-Israel, I am thrilled to be part of the process.

- - - - - - - - - -
But then again, what about the past of the Sweden Democrats? Charles Johnson at LGF has raised strong concerns about that, and he exemplify it with the following photo from the Swedish site expo.se:


With the following caption:
"Tina Hallgren Bengtsson, member of city council for the Sweden Democrats in the town of Höör, in full Nazi regalia. During this time it was still common for people to attend in uniform during Sweden Democrat meetings. New party leader Mikael Jansson grew tired and banned the use of uniforms. The following message could be read in the Sweden Democrats internal news bulletin: ‘The Sweden Democrats have gotten a bad reputation on account of certain ‘Hollywood nazis’ and other people in uniform-like apparel joining the Engelbrekt march. [...] People of such weak conviction that they feel the need to dress in this manner and thus ridiculing the party are asked to stay at home.’ Out of caution, this message was repeated in the internal bulletin for several years." (I made some corrections to Truumax' translation at LGF)

We get the image of a party that a decade ago was a hardcore Nazi party having meetings with Nazi flags and where the speakers of the meetings came in Nazi uniforms. This is such a strong image, and such an appalling one, that we back off in fear. And by now you will already have forgotten everything that I wrote above. You have the image of the Sweden Democrats once being a hardcore Nazi party, and that they therefore never should be trusted. Consequently, Ted Ekeroth is therefore either a fool or a devious devil, and the Counterjihad summit has been tainted by these Nazi connections.

Case closed. That's it, isn't it? Let's announce our verdict and the jury can go home. But as in the movie 12 Angry Men I think a jury should keep their heads cool, and do there job before leaving so hastily. Let me be Henry Fonda for you here.

Let me first say that I have never seen this picture before. It's never been published in Swedish mainstream media, and the MSM here publish everything there is that can be compromising for the Sweden Democrats, and then some more (even if it requires dishonest shoehorning). Already the fact that it hasn't been in MSM suggests to me that the image painted probably cannot be properly backed up. Furthermore, the organization Expo is well know for its connection to violent leftist "activists" (and state funded of course), and has often presented tendentious writings. So to start with, let's not take this claim at face value.

Five years ago when I started taking an interest in the party the Sweden Democrats -- because I saw that it had the potential of changing from being just a fringe group to becoming a significant political force in Sweden -- I followed up many claims like the one above, and investigated them. Often I found that the claims were spurious, but also that Swedish people didn't care when facts were presented "'cause they are Nazis anyway!". And then my search for facts was turned against me. What was my motive for "defending" these "Nazis"? I must be a Nazi myself; there's no other explanation, right? Therefore they are right (by default) at a "higher level", and I'm always wrong, no matter what facts I presented. Tendentious and spurious claims are fairly easy to put together, but rather tedious to debunk. So I gave up on this, since people didn't listen anyway. The fear of ghosts was so strong in them, that they simply couldn't take a disinterested view on the issues.

OK, so let's start my job as Henry Fonda here. I google "Tina Hallgren Bengtsson" and find this Wikipedia page in Swedish. It tells us that she left the Sweden Democrats (SD) in 1996 and joined Nationalsocialistisk Front (NSF), the Nazi Party. The picture above is from 1996, so this suggests to me that the picture has been taken during one of the Nazi rallies of NSF. This is the typical modus operandi of Expo, to paint the tendentious image that the photo is from an SD meeting. I can assure you that if this were a valid claim--that SD indeed have had meetings where people attended in Nazi uniforms--it would have been all over the Swedish MSM. But it's not. This kind of photo+caption of Expo instead serves another purpose: as the pretext for leftist stormtroopers (Antifa) before harassing SD individuals by swinging an axe into their door, or rocks through their windows. Or when they violently sabotage public meetings of SD. And to these leftist stormtroopers it doesn't matter that SD is Sweden's most pro-Israel party, to these leftists the Israelis are Nazis too.

But hey wait? If there were no Nazi uniforms at the meetings of SD, how come the party had to ban them in 1996? Ha ha, gotcha! There's even the quote to prove this, right?

Well, read again and pay attention. The quote is correct, and hard fact. But the ban of uniforms referred to the Engelbrekt march. Not to SD meetings. Expo spuriously link this quote to the picture by wedging in the sentence:

During this time it was still common for people to attend in uniform during Sweden Democrat meetings.

But this is simply not true.

So what is this Engelbrekt march anyway? It's been a manifestation of nationalist parties of Sweden since the beginning of the '90s. As far as I know it was not instituted by SD, but they saw it as an important manifestation for them in the beginning of the '90s, since this was their only opportunity, apart from the National Day, when they could demonstrate centrally in Stockholm. The problem was that back then--with nationalism being so throughly suppressed--that if you organized a nationalist demonstration, ordinary people feared to come (or were not even interested in the issue back then). Manifestations in the streets attracted mainly those who had nothing to lose anyway: outcasts, losers, people in Nazi uniforms. SD saw the hopelessness of trying to achieve proper manifestations in the streets, and abandoned the Engelbrekt march altogether by the end of the '90s. The quote by Mikael Jansson above was a step in this process. He saw the problem of people joining the march in Nazi uniforms and wanted to do something about it. But in the end, the only way through was to leave the march altogether. Today the Engelbrekt march is upheld by the National Democrats (the bad eggs who left SD in 2001).

OK. So I think it's clear to you by now that the dark past of SD is no way near as bad as suggested by the link to Expo that LGF posted. But as a decent citizen you will still ask: Isn't it bad enough? Yes, the history of SD is still checkered. There's no doubt that there have been crypto-Nazis in the party. We have seen too many examples of people coming or going from Nazi organizations to the party in the '90s. The Sweden Democrats did not hold a clear distance enough to Nazis and crypto-Nazis back in the '90s. It was simply not a serious party back then, in the beginning.

So then why at all gather around this party for counter-jihadism and cultural defense? Isn't that just stupid? A way to make things far more complicated than they had to be? Well, in a normal world I would wholeheartedly agree. But because of the constitution and the immensely oppressive power structures of PC in Sweden, staring a new party was simply not a possibility. It's been tried and devastatingly killed. The only option was to take over the Sweden Democrats as it was, and then transform it and clean it up. And this process is now fully completed. It's far from perfect, but this is it. Support it or oppose it, there is no other party in Sweden if you want to oppose Islamization and national suicide. Staying idle means letting the Islamo-leftists win, and the end of Sweden as we know it.

In my next post, I will describe more in detail the political theater in Sweden and a short history of the most important anti-establishment parties of Sweden (and the failed attempts), to explain beyond doubt to you, why taking over the Sweden Democrats and clean it up was the only way through.

More:

Part 1: Counterjihadism changing the European political map
Part 3: It's a riddle
Part 4: The effect of the constitution in Sweden
Part 5: Sweden and Denmark, closed and open systems
Part 6: Brief history of anti-establishment parties in Sweden
Part 7: The New Party and how it was crushed