Sweden: Poster Child for Democratic Socialism

 Sweden is one of my favorite countries. It is a prime example (along with the other Scandinavian countries) of the success of Democratic Socialism (the label villainized by so many American politicians, especially Republicans). In worldwide happiness surveys, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Sweden are always at the top. Why? It’s because the governments in these democratic socialist societies use their taxes to benefit all the people. Healthcare is free (even for immigrants). Universities are free, which attracts American students. (Same for Germany...free universities) Public transportation is highly developed. It’s not necessary to own a car in Scandinavia. So according to the international polls, Scandinavians are happier than Americans are.

 Scandinavia was assumed to be safe and peaceful until Russia attacked Ukraine and the US & Israel attacked Iran. Finland had been invaded by Russia a century ago. So Russia’s attack on Ukraine raised the threat level for Scandinavia as well as the Baltic countries (Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania) which had previously been part of the former Soviet Union. A few years ago, a Russian submarine became stuck in Stockholm’s archipelago, revealing that the Russians were exploring and testing Sweden’s defenses. Sweden has built world-class jet fighters which compete with American fighter jets. It’s a shame that the wars in Ukraine and Iran show that world peace is an unrealized aspiration.

 Sweden has not fought a war in 200 years. Its neutrality in World War II led to Sweden becoming an industrial giant, since its factories were never touched by WWII violence. Sweden today has world-class corporations: Volvo & Saab (autos and jet planes), Ericsson (telecommunications), AstraZeneca (pharmaceuticals), H&M (clothing), Electrolux (appliances), Spotify (music), and many more. Sweden per capita is more successful at capitalism than the US is. There are no slums or large parts of society that are poverty-stricken as in the US. The Swedish standard of living is at least equal to America.

American politicians who fear democratic socialism are just afraid of the power of the people to demand that the government institute policies that benefit all the people, and not just the billionaire industrialists. Trump calls American Democratic Socialists “godless communists.” Swedes are actually less religious than Americans. Politicians who equate democratic socialism with communism are willfully ignorant when they can’t discern the difference between Sweden and Russia. Trump just want’s to encourage cultural prejudices by stoking the lie that Swedes are godless communists.

Hitler demanded that Sweden allow the German Wehrmacht to use Sweden’s trains to transport the German soldiers invading Norway. Hitler said that if Sweden didn’t allow this, that he would invade Sweden instead. Sweden relented and allowed the Germans to use Sweden’s rail system to invade and occupy Norway. Norway is still angry at Sweden for what happened in World War II.

 Sweden has traditionally been willing to accept political refugees of any nationality. Following the Iraq war, Germany took in a larger number of Syrian, Iraqi, and Kurdish refugees. But Sweden accepted the most refugees per capita of any country in the world. The large number on Moslem immigrants has created tensions within Swedish society, because the Moslems don’t embrace Swedish liberal social norms and the Swedes’ general lack of religion. (The traditional religion of Sweden is Lutheran.) There is an emerging Swedish rightwing anti-immigrant party that echoes Germany’s Alternative for Deutschland and the US-MAGA anti-immigrant movements.

I personally benefitted from Sweden’s acceptance of immigrants when I lived in Stockholm, Sweden, for the first time in 1971 for seven months. (I visited Stockholm at least fifteen times in the ensuing years.) After spending a year in Germany, I stayed out of the US for an additional two and a half years until the Vietnam War was over and the draft had been abolished. This was when I met my Swedish friends with whom I have been close for fifty-six years.These are the friends I have visited many times.

 I was the sole American member of a Swedish band named Mynta (”mint” in Swedish) for ten years. I toured with Mynta throughout southern Sweden and Denmark, as well as ten annual music tours to India with Mynta. My ten years as a member of Mynta are one of the high points of my lifelong music career.

From Wikipedia: Sweden officially has more islands than any other country in the world, with a recorded total of 267,570 islands! While definitions of what constitutes an island vary by country, Sweden measures them widely (any landmass surrounded by water) and holds the highest count globally.

 Stockholm is a beautiful city spread across a number of islands. The Old City has buildings dating from 1500-1600, though the oldest building, a church, dates from 1300. My Mynta tours were always in mid-winter. There were occasions when the shallow canals between some of Stockholm’s islands would be frozen solid enough to walk on. But with increased global warming the canals have not frozen over for the past few years.

I don’t speak Swedish as well as I do German. But I had fun speaking it whenever I could, with taxi drivers and restaurant personnel. Swedish television uses sub-titles rather than dubbing in Swedish. Thus the Swedish population gets to hear English and read the Swedish translation below whenever an American or British program is aired. Thus English is widely spoken. It was frustrating when I would begin to speak Swedish only to have the Swedes hear my accent and answer in English.

 This year, my Stockholm visit was focussed on visiting my friends. Some of them are in declining health. So the visit was bitter-sweet. As long as my old friends are alive, I will continue to visit them. (They don’t want to visit the US, because of Trump’s anti-immigrant policies.) Just as with my dear friends in Germany, I count my Swedish friends as being among the closest friends in my life.Thus, I look forward to visiting Stockholm again in the future.