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Related: About this forumFormer Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme: "Why I am a democratic socialist"
Translation:
I got that conviction when it became clear to me that it was the social democratic movement that brought democracy to Sweden, when it became clear to me that it was the social democratic movement that had lifted the country out of poverty and unemployment with its politics of the 1930s. And when I myself was campaigning for state pensions for the elderly and got up against the anti-Socialist campaigns of those with special privileges who objected when ordinary workers would secure their own retirement. That's what [the rest of] you were up to then (...)
But even more important is that I am strengthened in my conviction when I look at the state of the world, when I see the wars and the arms race and the mass unemployment and all that divides people. I am strengthened in my conviction when I see, here in our own country, an increase in injustice, unemployment, speculation and graft. When I look into the future that the right-wing has to offer, where the workers will get less and the rich will get more, where social security will be in decline and the number of luxury yachts on the rise, where solidarity diminishes and egotism increases, where the strong can help themselves and the weak will have to beg if they are to get anything at all.
Of course I am a democratic socialist. I hold that conviction with pride in what democratic socialism has achieved in our country, and with joy, because I know that we have important tasks ahead of us as a result of right-wing negligence. And with confidence, because now people know what happens with their jobs and with security and stability when the right-wing is in power. In a way I hold that conviction with a smile because I know that modern Swedish history is full of valuable reforms, which you [at first] have described as evil socialism but then later fought to get credit for when people have understood their significance."
- Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden (1969-1976, 1982-1986)
deutsey
(20,166 posts)Diclotican
(5,095 posts)gobears10
And he got shot - and the real murderer are still on the loose - as no one really know who killed him...
And Olof Palme, was for his day - a radical democratic socialist - who had, and should have made Sweden, and by example - scandinavia far better than it ended up being... Neo-literalistic ideology was something he frowned upon - and he would have been fighting it nail and tail..... He was a great prime -minister for Sweden - and a giant in the nordic way of thinking when it come to the nordic model...
Diocletian
uhnope
(6,419 posts)uhnope
Possible - as he had been a pain in the famous ass for swedish neo-nazis for years - always on the hill, fighting the good fight against neo-nazism.. One can wonder what he would have been telling, when SD, sverige-demokratene, a far right party is seen as the second largest party in the Swedish parliament - I suspect he would have been all flame if he had been alive today....
Diclotican
uhnope
(6,419 posts)always good to get yr info. thank you
uhnope
Your welcome - I do remember when the news of the killing was on the late evening news - the living room fall silent - and the sound of the TV was louder than it was at that time of day... i was in grade school in 1986 - 3th or 4th grade - but I do remember how silent it was in the next room - even under the late evening news, it often was some shatter between my foster parents - you know, few messages here and there about things that was important that evening - but when the news of Olaf Palmes killing was known - the living room just fall silent...
And the next day - the newspaper was all about the killing - all national newspapers had changed the news, to be about the killing - and NRK even had extra airing of news as they was known - something that seldom happened at all (this was back when one had just one, national tv channel, and a news desk who had news at 6 9 and 11 in the evening - as clockwork... After Palmes killing - the news desk was on most of the time - even if ordinary airing had to go on as usual too... And as this was maybe the biggest news for decades - it was on for days at the end - as new informations from the swedish authorities was made public...
It was one of this things that could be seen as a shange from the time when even a prime-minister could walk around, as a ordinary man/woman, withouth fear of being killed by anyone... The security around the prime minister, most of the ministers, and of course the royal familiy was tighted after this - even if compared to other parts of the world - even today it is more easy to interact with the power to be - than let say in the US, where you have a allmoust water tight cloak around political leaders... A president - or a king..
Diclotican
uhnope
(6,419 posts)of mighty times
w0nderer
(1,937 posts)Palme":i see into a future where obviously the 'paid becomes poorer' and 'the rich becomes richer'
where the strong can take what the want, and the not so strong, can just deal
geretogo
(1,281 posts)and never will work is being forced on us by evil Fascists that want it all for themselves to the
destruction of this Banana Republic called America .
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)If you think you don't know Swedish, just relax, listen, follow the text, and you will hear lots and lots of words that sound very much like our English words, and you may understand more than you thought you could.
Swedish is not that different from German and English if you listen with your ears open to the sounds and don't close off your mind.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)Thankfully we have finally found the right candidate to help repair the damage in this country also done by right wing Corporate entities and their paid-for politicians.