Dear friends and comrades,

I am a trade union delegate in the Teachers union in Stockholm and member of the national negotiation delegation. I am here as a representative of the newly formed party Solidaritet (Solidarity).

First, I would like to stress the importance of this conference, in a situation marked by the development of pure barbarism all over the world. Let us never forget what is going on right now in Gaza, in Lebanon, on the West Bank and in the trenches in Ukraine. Let’s that be present among us!

All the expressions we have heard about in this conference about the barbarism, are also present in Sweden. What is specific for Sweden is the full integration of Sweden and Finland in Nato. Which of course is an historic event and very important for Nato itself, because of the geographic position of Sweden and Finland. If you have seen the” leaked” map on the troop transportation in case of an escalation the war. One of the main ways is through Norway, Sweden and Finland, to the Russian border.

What is happening right now is a preparation for Swedish troops to be based in Latvia, at the Russian border. Alson the deployment of Swedish military aircraft in the integrated Nato defense of the Baltic Sea, with the Swedish military aircraft fabricated by workers in Sweden by the company Saab, that some of you might know as a car, but that closed and now it’s only military production.

Then we have the famous Defense Corporation Agreement – DCA – between Sweden and the US. It’s about the right for military Us forces to install in 17 military bases in Sweden. A sort of cover-up for the creation of real US-bases, because they have the right to reconstruct these bases, including building parts will be closed for the Swedish authorities. 17 baes in Sweden! I encourage you to read this agreement, but I will mention one thing that is normally not discussed. There is a quite long paragraph about the right for the US to use their own military police and the impression is that they are preparing for huge numbers of US soldiers in Sweden. Otherwise they wouldn’t need that detailed description about how military police should keep the soldiers in order.

Besides, Sweden of course has a collaboration with Israel regarding all the aspects: military, scientific, exchange between universities, economic and so forth. So Sweden is among the governments completely co-responsible for the atrocities going on right now.

On all these questions I have mentioned, there is a huge propaganda, including attacks on all forms of resistance. Attacks on the thousands of participants in the demonstrations against the massacres in Palestine, taking place every week in several Swedish cities, accused of being “antisemites”. Attacks also on the trade-unions, against trade-union meetings against the massacres, which are not that numerous, but they do exist. I have a personal experience of this, trying to organize a meeting within the Teachers union, that was attacked both from within the union itself and from outside, including by Zionist forces criticizing us in the media.

There are also attacks on members of the Left party. Some of their members want to go a little further in their defense of the Palestinians and they have been exposed and attacked in the media, from the rightwing parties and the extreme-right, but with the particularity that the leadership of the Left party itself has continued these attacks. There have been several exclusions from the Left party, including of leaders on a regional level forced to leave and an elected of a municipal council expelled. Many others have found it necessary to leave the Left party because of the attacks.

Hundreds of Palestinians and activists in the demonstrations in defense of Palestine, are now turning their back to the Left party. It is in this situation that we have launched a new party, last week. The fundamental program of this new party could be resumed by the very points in our European appeal:

– Stop the genocide of the Palestinian people!

– In Palestine as in Ukraine, immediate ceasefire!

– Stop arms deliveries!

– No to any military intervention by NATO forces in Ukraine!

I would like to add one more point that is central for this new party and that is the clear and unequivocal support for a one state solution in Palestine – from the river to the sea!

You can imagine that we will be attacked by the media and other parties, but it is an extremely important step, the formation of this new party. And the process continues. The day before we launched our party, there was another local leader of the Left party expelled. This means that another hundreds of militants are now searching to create a new party. Of course we are trying to fuse our forces.

This is not easy, it will be a very difficult task to build this party, against the oppression and all the dirty methods used to slander us, but I will end on a positive tone. As some of you have mentioned, especially the delegate from France, the situation within the trade-unions is important. There is one important example: the local trade-union of the big factory of Scania trucks, having a huge plant just outside of Stockholm. The trade-union of this plant has 4 800 members. They made a declaration a couple of weeks ago, named “Condemnation”. And what they condemn is the genocide in Palestine.

Even more important is that in this same declaration they raise the question if it’s right to continue to export trucks to Israel. This is a start of a movement that can actually block the sending of weapons and other facilities used by the Israeli army.

By the way, one of the spokespersons of our party – an ex-deputy of the Left party and actual president of Ship to Gaza – is trying to convince the Dockworkers union. An independent union that has taken an independent stand on many important questions, including on an international level through their network. Unfortunately so far, they have done nothing to block the arms deliveries to Israel. We are now trying to open a discussion with them, with inspiration from what is going on in Italy, in the port of Genoa etc.

Thank you, comrades, let’s fight forwards!