A handwritten poster: “Palm is talking shit up here. Come on! Everyone has the right to laugh†. In the hall: Young men and women with checkered shirts, straight bangs and sunglasses indoors, who could just as easily have been today’s students. That barracks occupation in Stockholm in 1968 is still relevant.
Two weeks ago said 50 researchers that having to wait one’s turn to speak is a step towards fascism. Now they claim again that it is right to disrupt political meetings and silence dissenters if the government does not adapt to their opinion (Sydsvenskan 6/5). In their latest text, the researchers write that “in a well-functioning democracy, even a prime minister and other people in power can put up with being disturbed†– not least because of how they handled the war between Israel and Hamas .
And of course: The situation in Gaza is terrible, that need noticed, and the government should required to do everything it can. But that doesn’t give people carte blanche to behave however they want.
That one of the signatories is Hamas supporter and eco-terrorism spokesman Andreas Malm is not surprising
The researchers themselves mention that students also “in other countries†protest. True. In the US, Palestine activism has in some ways taken place through occupation, damage, anti-Semitism and violence. The researchers never treat this escalation with their argument as a reasonable next step. That one of the signatories is Hamas supporter and eco-terrorism spokesman Andreas Malm is not surprising.
At the same time, this concerns two debate articles in which the most extreme Swedish academics expressed their opinion. Education Minister Mats Persson would like to regard them as typical representatives of the academy in its vendetta against Sweden’s higher education system, but it is actually more likely that the 50 students who wrote a critical reply to the researchers represent the universities of greater degree. Most people in Sweden don’t want to keep up with vandalism, and don’t do it either.
Photo: Pressens Bild/TT
Back to it that hall, in 1968 when the students in Stockholm occupied their own police station. It doesn’t sound so radical. But in response, Olof Palme took the apostle horses there and endured boos, taunts and debate. And in Uppsala, the protests against the education reform led to students being given a seat at the university’s meetings.
We know that you can be heard without compromising democratic principles. No amount of flirting with authoritarian tendencies can change that.
Read more:
Max Hjelm: Being forced to raise your hand is not fascism
Isobel Hadley-Kamptz: Accusations of anti-Semitism become weapons in culture war over students
Editorial board: Don’t let Eurovision in Malmö go down in history for Jew hatred, riots and terror
