European Workers Party
Encyclopedia
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
without parliamentary representation. The party is the Swedish section of the LaRouche Movement
LaRouche movement
The LaRouche movement is an international political and cultural network that promotes Lyndon LaRouche and his ideas. It has included scores of organizations and companies around the world. Their activities include campaigning, private intelligence gathering, and publishing numerous periodicals,...
.
History
The movement was established as the European Labour Committees (ELC) in 1974 by two American LaRouchians, William "Bill" Jones and Michael Vale. Bill Jones had lived in Sweden since 1968, as an apparent Vietnam war deserter. The movement started to build its organization around the young Swedish student Kerstin Tegin, later Tegin-Gaddy, and her American husband to-be Clifford G. GaddyClifford G. Gaddy
Clifford G. Gaddy, an economist specializing in Russia, holds a joint appointment as a fellow in the Brookings Institution's Foreign Policy Studies and its Global Economy and Development program...
. However, the party never became much bigger than a handful of people. During this period, Sweden was one of the few countries that openly harboured and encouraged American GIs in Vietnam to defect, and it is often insinuated that EAP was set up in Sweden by the CIA in order to label the defectors as left-wing extremists.
The EAP launched campaigns based on what was described by the Swedish government as "extreme hatred of Palme" against the Swedish Prime Minister. A 2002 government report stated:
It became increasingly common in the media to characterize the EAP as "fascist" or "right-wing extremist". One reason for this was the pronounced anti-sovietism [of the party], its extreme hatred of Olof Palme, and its adherence to anti-semitic jargon and conspiracy theories.
After the Olof Palme assassination
Olof Palme assassination
The assassination of Olof Palme , the Prime Minister of Sweden, took place on 28 February 1986 in Stockholm, Sweden, at 23:21 hours Central European Time . Palme was fatally wounded by gunshots while walking home from a cinema with his wife Lisbet Palme on the central Stockholm street Sveavägen...
in 1986, the group was for a time suspected by the police of being connected to the murder, although this theory was soon dropped. Victor Gunnarsson
Victor Gunnarsson
Victor Gunnarsson was a former Swedish right-wing extremist, who was a suspect in the 1986 Olof Palme assassination. He was later in turn murdered in 1993 in North Carolina by former police officer Lamont C...
, who had been a member for a year before being kicked out in 1985, was arrested and questioned by police about the assassination before being released. Dean Andromidas, from the LaRouche organisation's
'Executive Intelligence Review' claims there was a radio broadcast on Swedish National Radio in August 1992 by Herbert Brehmer, former leading operative of the East German Stasi
Stasi
The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), commonly known as the Stasi (abbreviation , literally State Security), was the official state security service of East Germany. The MfS was headquartered...
and author of Auftrag: Irreführung. Wie die Stasi Politik im Westen machte. Andromidas claimed that Brehmer "explained how his Department 10, responsible for disinformation, put into motion a preplanned disinformation operation to pin the blame for the murder of Palme on LaRouche and his Swedish associates." According to another LaRouche associate, Jeffrey Steinberg, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n interests lie behind the murder and the EAP was to blame for the murder. LaRouche issued a statement on the allegations made against his organization.
However, as a result of the hard pressure put on the EAP after the Olof Palme assassination
Olof Palme assassination
The assassination of Olof Palme , the Prime Minister of Sweden, took place on 28 February 1986 in Stockholm, Sweden, at 23:21 hours Central European Time . Palme was fatally wounded by gunshots while walking home from a cinema with his wife Lisbet Palme on the central Stockholm street Sveavägen...
, the party was thrown into disarray, numerous members left the party, the party left its Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
headquarters and more or less went underground, and leaders of the party - the Gaddys - abandoned the party and left Sweden for the USA, where they eventually pursued successful academic careers.
The Paris office of the party received minor damage in a bomb blast in April, 1986.
Election history
The EAP had its best election in 1985Swedish general election, 1985
Elections to the Swedish Riksdag held 15 September 1985.-Election campaign:At a campaign meeting in Sundsvall on 22 August, Minister of social welfare Sten Andersson promised to increase the state pensions as a compensation for the price increases following the devaluation of the krona in 1982...
when they received 369 votes.
In the '90s, the party kept a relatively low profile, but it has resurfaced in the early 21st century and ran for national parliament and the local assembly of Botkyrka in the Swedish election in September 2006
Swedish general election, 2006
A general election was held in Sweden on 17 September 2006, to elect members to the Swedish parliament. All 349 seats were up for election: 310 "fixed seats" in 29 constituencies and 39 members at a national level for what are called "adjustment seats", used to ensure that parties have...
. The party only received 83 votes (0.0015%) in the election for the national parliament, and 64 votes (0.16%) in the local election in Botkyrka.
Party leaders
- Kerstin Tegin-Gaddy, 1974/76-1986
- Michael Ericson, 1986–2003
- Ulf Sandmark, 2003–2007
- Hussein Askary, 2007-