The Anthology

The Anthology
127
had not managed to get away, and a group of antiracists
was senselessly hitting this figure in dark clothes
lying on the ground. The crowd that had gathered
around the statue of Charles XII, the end point of
the commemorators’ march, was screaming “Kill
the fascists! Kill the fascists!” Together, some others
and I managed to escape into one of the surrounding
backyards.
In the alleys surrounding Kungsträdgården, the
police had rounded up various activists – they were
sitting in rows against the walls – and had directed
intensely bright flashlights at them. I keep running
towards the subway station, where a group of people
of different ages had gathered behind the counterdemonstrators.
At first glance, until they suddenly
started to change clothes, they appeared to be counterdemonstrators
or ordinary people caught up in
the chaos. A man with a camera was approaching the
group, believing that they, like him, were counterprotesters;
but he realized his mistake and disappeared
into the alley. A younger man, suddenly dressed in
camouflage gear and a black military-style beret
turned towards me, laughing: “You didn’t recognize
us either, did you?” For him it was part of his identity
as an white supremacy activist, and he had extensive
experience with riots and activism across Europe; he
was skilled in the art of changing identity during an
event, skilled in planning events and controlling riots,
as far as possible.
That night’s riot was part of a yearly ritual – part
of a long tradition: riots have occurred at the same
place since 1853. King Charles XII is one of the most
controversial figures in Swedish history.
Antiracist activists climbing the statue of King Charles XII.
My colleague Anders Lange, who was among the
counterdemonstrators, described them in this way:
“When on 30 November 1991 I witnessed the
confrontations between demonstrating “racists”
and counterdemonstrating “antiracists” in Kungsträdgården
in Stockholm, this note came to mind
– the behavior of the antiracists made me very ambivalent
in a way that could not be reconciled with their
so-called progressive goal. In many heated speeches
the racists were called “slimy, vulgar, primitive characters”
that should as soon as possible be “smashed,”
“exterminated,” and “cleaned away” from “our
streets.” The more I listened, the more the racists
took on the face of almost subhumans with certain
phenotypic characteristics. A race?” 268
268 Anders Lange, Reflektioner kring rasism, Fest serien
(Stockholm: CEIFO, 1994), 13.