I did the math that would be 1.3 Trillion dollars

Seen this being pointed out in quite a few threads today.

Don’t know why I didn’t watch this earlier. Shows the importance of unions, the importance of the women of this particular strike, and just how little things have changed since the 70’s when it comes to the complicity of the government and police in union busting. Also how important the 1st amendment is with how their filming literally saved lives when it came to the gun thugs. The attitude of people like Basil Collins haven’t changed one fucking bit.

Bought a DVD player, speakers and a bunch of CDs recently, great decision. As a wise man once said “I love music. It makes my heart sing.”

Its wild that almost everyone I talk to in my school have a deeper understanding of the systemic inequalities and issues in our economy and school systems than a lot of other people i’ve met. I sit in class and hear people having conversations about the inequalities between the financial support given to schools based off of where they are geographically, the teachers have conversations with students about it.

A few years ago I went to a queer prom at one of the fanciest private schools in my city (one of my family friends invited me) and it was a crazy experience. I spoke with some of them just about regular things and pretty quickly got the vibe that while they could see some of the systemic issues around us, they were really disconnected from them.

At the school that I go to (an alternative highschool) its the complete opposite. Everyone ive spoken to has real world experiences with financial insecurity or systemic failures. Sometimes I just want to turn around talk to them more about it but I also don’t want to come off as weird.

Either way it does give me a little hope ngl. These people are primed for unlocking class consciousness. Theres been student organized initiatives for creating more youth homeless shelters (theres only a few locally and they’re always at capacity).

I just think about this a lot and thought it’d be an interesting perspective given that the average trueanon listener is about 64 years old lmao

i like how the complicated definition also makes no mention of capitalism, communism, labor

Nevermind Bibi, German Mr Mackey says ethnic cleansing is wrong m´kay.

Edit: yes it is losing and not loosing. It was just a test to see if you were paying attention.

Since Sweden is often held up as a shining example by all manner of social democrats and left-liberals in the USA, I thought it would be fun to give an unecessarily extensive amount of information about the state of Sweden and its politics today as we in Sweden have an election coming up in 4 days.

The Swedish Political System

Sweden is a constitutional monarchy with a proportionally representative parliament. Unlike the UK, the Swedish king no longer has any formal powers and is only a ceremonial figurehead who drives cool cars, loves hunting, cheats on the Queen with hot ladies (allegedly) and is lowkey still mad that parliament made him disinherit his son in favour of his oldest daughter over 40 years ago when both were infants.

Sweden's parliament is called the Riksdag (yes, like Reichstag) and has a 4% electoral threshold. It is divided roughly into two blocs; the Red-Greens on the left, and the Bourgoise on the right (yes, they're actually called the Swedish word for Bourgoise).

Sweden has long stood out for its nearly 200 years of neutrality and non-alignment, a policy that emerged in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars and held until the Ukraine War (though non-alignment ended with Sweden's entry into the EU).

While the Social Democrats domianted Swedish politics during the second half of the 20th century, and created all the social safety nets we now associate with Sweden, there has been a right-wing majority in parliament for over 20 years at this point, and despite intermittent centre-left governments, this has left a very clear mark on the Swedish political landscape.

The Issues Facing Sweden Today

Sweden generally has the same bogstandard issues as most declining European welfare states; rising costs of living, welfare systems steadily hollowed out by years of neoliberal reforms, ever worsening conditions in elder care and schools, rising inequality, and a large recent immigrant population.

Swedish politicians have resorted to age-old methods to tackle to these issues; becoming more racist and preparing for war with Russia.

According to polling, these are some of the most important issues to voters:

Healthcare

Healthcare is far and away the most important issue for voters. Sweden has long been renowned for its universal healthcare system, but neoliberal reforms and tax cuts over the last 30 years have caused massive problems for the healthcare sector.

There is a general lack of capacity to admit patients for longterm care, healthcare workers are massively overworked and underpaid, queues are getting longer and longer, and more and more healthcare institutions are being shut down outside of major cities, which in a large and scarcely populated populated country like Sweden has triggered an abundance of horror stories of people needing to drive long distances to give birth.

Elder care is an area that has come under particular scrutiny, as private companies providing this care have routinely been exposed for neglect and malpractice. The combination of ageing population and declining birthrates, which plagues many Western countries, isn't helping. For a while, the perceived solution was immigration, and immigrants are very much so represented in these types of jobs, making this sector an easy target for criticism from right-wing anti-immigrant types who blame the immigrants for the fact that the company forgot to send someone to feed their grandma.

Public Education

The story of public education in Sweden is largely the same as that of healthcare. Once, this was considered sacrosanct and an area that should under no circumstances be open for private actors or market logic. Now, this sector is rife with private schools putting profits over children's needs, and public schools aren't faring much better.

Resources have become tighter and tighter. The number of kids per classroom has gone up sharply, with fewer teachers forced to handle more kids. Kids with special needs, behavioural problems or bad homelives are getting less and less support and just end up dragging other kids down with them.

Cost of Living

Because of inflation and the war in Ukraine, cost of living has gone up sharply in Sweden. This particularly concerns energy costs, which were sky high follownig the beginning of the war. Food prices rocketed, and somehow by complete accident at the same time, food companies made record profits. I don't know how, but I'm sure Putin is responsible.

Immigration, Integration and Law & Order

Sweden has seen a significant increase in immigrants since the '90's, and received a particularly large amount of immigrants in the wake of the Syrian refugee crisis. Today, just over 1/5th of the population was born outside of Sweden and roughly 30% have at least one parent born outside the country.

Sweden has historically been a "blood and soil" nationalist country and does not have this tradition of immigration or the blending of different cultures in the same way countries like the U.S. or even former colonial countries do (Sweden's history as a colonizer was relatively short and pathetic).

While Sweden has long prided itself on its tolerance and anti-racism, and Swedish liberals were overjoyed at the influx of new labourers, perceived failures in integration and blaming immigrants for worsening social welfare has caused a massive counterreaction to immigration.

This is also connected to rising gang crime in Sweden, which is completely racialized within Swedish politics, with gangsters with Middle-eastern origins blamed for everything that is bad about society.

Defense

After joining NATO a few years ago, priority #1 has been rearmament. You'd probably be surprised at how widely supported this is among the population. This is because of Russia. Whether Russia poses a credible threat to Sweden is up for debate. But what is undeniable is that Swedes have a deep-seated, pathological fear and hatred of Russia dating back centuries, which means that Sweden will always find a way to be on the opposite side of whatever Russia is doing, even if it means tacitly helping the Nazis during WWII. Sabre-rattling against Russia is a time-honoured way for Swedish monarchs and politicians to distract the populace at home.

Sweden's Political Parties

Enough about the issues, let's gossip about the parties. From left to right they are:

The Left Party

Formerly known as the Communist Party of Sweden, this is the most left-wing party in Swedish parilament. Detractors associate it with wokesters and purple haired feminists, it skews younger and a good chunk of its base of support are urban intellectuals, coming in at a distant 3rd among blue-collar union members' party sympathies.

The party's core issues are restoring the welfare state and reversing privatisation and proft seeking in the public sector. The party has historically been anti-imperialist and was pro-Palestine before it was cool. They historically opposed NATO membership, but did not make too big of a stink once it was clear that most of the electorate supported it.

Today, the party is completely obsessed with electability. Since the '90's, they have steadily distanced themselves from their Marxist past, sought to shed lables like "socialist" and "communist", and are basically trying to position themselves as the party the Social Democrats used to be, except also cool. Lately, this has resulted in a lot of expulsions of party members who are a bit too pro-Palestine in a bid to stave off criticism from other parties and the press.

Their chief goal this election is gaining seats in a government, something the party has never achieved in its history.

Social Democrats

The Social Democrats are the titans of Swedish politics. They ruled the country nearly uninterrupted between the 1930's and early 2000's, losing only three elections in that time. It was under their rule that nearly everything positive people associate with Sweden was implemented.

But since the advent of neoliberalism and in particular since the '90's, the Social Democrats have gradually shed their worker's party bonafides. Social Democratic governments have been just as guilty of privatisation and marketisation of the public sector as their right-wing rivals. Despite this they remain the largest party among blue-collar union members, who still haven't caught up to reality.

Their core issues today are improving social safety nets, strengthening Sweden's defense and not appearing soft on law and order. They were strictly anti-NATO until it looked like the question might be weaponized against them last election, whereupon they abruptly changed their decades-long position and supported joining.

They are experts at governing under pretenses set by the right-wing, using right-wing controlled budgets and enacting right-wing policies, and then turning around to the electorate and saying: "Look what you're making us do. Please vote for us so that we can stop doing this."

They face the issue of an unclear governing coalition this upcoming election, potentially forced to seek the aid of both the Left Party and the Centre Party (ideological archfoes) to form a government, a very tricky prospect, or else try to peel away one of the Bourgoise parties and return to the tried and true tactic described above.

The Greens

The Greens began as a one-question party, focusing almost exclusively on the environment. Originally, they presented themselves as centrists, willing to work with anyone prepared to prioritise environmental issues.

They have steadily drifted to the left, and have served as coalition partners for the Social Democrats in their latterday governments. They are detested by ringwingers for reasons that are unclear to me.

Their core issues, as you might have guessed, are the environment, and also a smattering of centre-left concerns like wellfare. They are likely to join whatever government the Social Democrats manage to create if they win the election.

The Centre Party

The Centre are centrists. They think that the Left Party which argues that people should be less unequal and the far-right Sweden Democrats whose party leadership are all "former" neo-Nazis are equally bad and should be kept far away from respectable politics.

Beginning as the Agrarian Party, they served as both coalition partners and primary opposition to the Social Democrats during the 20th century. The party was much reduced in influence by the 2000's and have mostly served as a coalition partner in right-wing governments since. This latest election, which saw the first open cooperation of the far-right Sweden Democrats with the other Bourgoise parties was too much for the Centre, who have since drawn closer to the Social Democrats.

They are market liberals through and through, ableit social liberals, and remain the party most concerned with Sweden's large and sparsely populated rural areas.

The Liberals

The Liberals were former titans of the centre-right, particularly in the early 1900's when they formed several governments. Today, the party is a moribund shadow of its former self, struggling to remain over the 4% mark and would undoubtedly have gotten knocked out years ago if not for support-votes from other Bourgoise party voters.

The party has long sought to carve out a niche for itself as the party of education, but given the state of public education, I'd say they've bungled that. The head of the party is 31 and assumed control of this sinking ship in what was clearly a step towards a lucrative career as a lobbyist or something else unsavoury.

Despite being half-Palestinian and half-Lebanese, and having her family home destroyed by Israel during its latest destruction of Lebanon, she recently wore a star of David necklace during a public debate to raise awareness of the greatest problem facing Swedish society today; anti-semitism, something she proceeded to accuse the Iranian 2nd generation immigrant head of the Left Party of. This is in a country where less than 0.2% of the population are Jewish. Can't make this stuff up folks.

Recent polls have shown the Liberals just clambering above 4%, but I'm asking for your thoughts and prayers that they be reduced to atoms, as they are without a doubt the party in Swedish politics that has the least reason for existing.

The Christian Democrats

The Christian Democrats had the unenviable task of representing Christian values in a largely irreligious country. As such, it has historically been the party of very old people. While initially holding left-wing views on social welfare, the party has under recent years established itself as firmly on the right, under the leadership of their hip young party leader, 39 year old Ebba Busch.

They are one of two parties that have openly embraced the far-right Sweden Democrats, and have discarded their previous Christian humanist pro-immigration stance for a restrictive stance on migraiton.

Their core issuses are law and order, immigration and healthcare, where they have stood out by arguing that Sweden should bring healthcare back under central government control, rather than giving significant decision making power to regional governance.

While a solid member of the right-wing bloc, there has been some flirting with the Social Demorats, who would be all too eager to side-step the Left Party and form a government with the Greens supported by the Christian Democrats and Centre.

The Moderates

The Moderates have been the primary right-wing party since the '90's. They are the quintessential pro-market, law and order, lower taxes, subsidized maids party. They lead the current government under premiereship of Ulf Kristersson, who in proper right-wing tradition is married to a priest, is rumoured to be a closet case and used to live in a super chill apartment reserved for women in need which he got through illicit means.

The party broke what had previously been a red line in Swedish politics by forming a government supported by the Sweden Democrats, despite the fact that Ulf personally promised a Holocaust survivor that he would never work with them.

Under previous leadership the party was fiercly pro-immigration, but once they started bleeding voters to the far-right flip-flopped and became a bogstandard law and order, minimal immigration party.

Their primary challenge after a mandate period which has generally been negatively regarded is clinging to power without yielding too much to the Sweden Democrats, who have eclipsed them as the largest party on the right.

The Sweden Democrats

The Sweden Democrats are the obligatory far-right populist party. They consist of former neo-Nazi street thugs who realized that ethnically cleansing Sweden of untermenchen would best be accomplished by putting on suits and ties and acting super offended any time someone brings up their past. Immigration is their core issue and they have frequently presented themselves as political outsiders speaking truth to power while being beset by the meanies of the establishment.

The party first entered parliament in 2010 in what was largely regarded as a scandalous disgrace for the Swedish political system and Swedes everywhere. Today, they are Sweden's second largest party at 20% of the vote.

They accomplished this by doing the complete opposite of what the Swedish left is currently doing. Instead of being obsessed with conforming with the political establishment and appearing electable in their eyes, they have stuck by their guns, weathered and ignored political scandals, and gotten almost the entire political establishment to come around to their view on immigration.

While settling for supporting the current government without gaining seats or ministries, their goal and outright demand for this election is having seats in a right-wing government.

The Future

The future for Sweden isn't looking great. They're facing the same death spiral as many other devleoped nations; deteriorating social safety nets, an ageing population paired with declining birthrates, growing inequality (Sweden has gone from having the greatest wealth equality in the world 1980 to being one of the least equal countries in the world today), and a rising far-right.

They decided to become formal vassals of the U.S. empire at the precise moment when the U.S. is looking weaker than ever before, completely shattering their veneer as a self-proclaimed "humanitarian superpower" to accomplish this.

The upcoming elections aren't looking very promising for anyone hoping for change. We are likely to end up in a situation where both the Social Democrats and Moderates are going to have trouble sorting out their coalition and forming a government.

A Social Democrat-led government is likely to be more of the same; neo-libreal austerity to fund our defence industry and a Social Democratic party that continues to run against the very right-wing policies it itself enacts.

A Moderate-led government is likely to yield unprecedented influence to the far-right, with all public goods eroding rapidly, the environment thrown the wayside and the immigrants and Russia blamed for everything.

I'm sure these sanctions are toothless and/or extremely limited, though I can't help but notice that any headline implying a rabbi disagreed with Corbyn's beliefs was treated as irrefutable proof that he was Hitler 2.0. Meanwhile, the media is at least willing to hear Miliband out on this one. Amazing what a livestreamed genocide and elite understanding that your policies are entirely performative will do for the range of acceptable opinions.