The European Workers' Party (, EAP) is a minor political party in Sweden without parliamentary representation. The party is the Swedish section of the
LaRouche Movement
The LaRouche movement is a political and cultural network promoting the late Lyndon LaRouche and his ideas. It has included many organizations and companies around the world, which campaign, gather information and publish books and periodicals. ...
.
History
The movement was established as the European Labour Committees (ELC) in 1974 by two American LaRouchians, William "Bill" Jones and Michael Vale. Bill Jones had lived in Sweden since 1968, as an apparent Vietnam war deserter. The movement started to build its organization around the young Swedish student Kerstin Tegin, later Tegin-Gaddy, and her American husband to-be Clifford G. Gaddy. However, the party never became much bigger than a handful of people. During this period, Sweden was one of the few countries that openly harboured and encouraged American GIs in Vietnam to
defect, and it is often insinuated that EAP was set up in Sweden by the CIA to label the defectors as left-wing extremists.
The EAP launched campaigns in the 1980s based on what was described by the Swedish government as "extreme hatred of
Swedish PM Olof Palme
Sven Olof Joachim Palme (; ; 30 January 1927 – 28 February 1986) was a Swedish politician and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 1969 to 1976 and 1982 to 1986. Palme led the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1969 until as ...
". A 2002 government report stated:
It became increasingly common in the media to characterize the EAP as "fascist
Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...
" or "right-wing extremist
Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...
". One reason for this was the pronounced anti-sovietism f the party its extreme hatred of Olof Palme, and its adherence to anti-semitic
Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
jargon and conspiracy theories
A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources:
*
...
.
After the
Olof Palme assassination in 1986, the group was for a time suspected by the police of being connected to the murder, although this theory was soon dropped.
Victor Gunnarsson, who had been a member for a year before being kicked out in 1985, was arrested and questioned by police about the assassination before being released. Dean Andromidas, from the LaRouche organisation's ''
Executive Intelligence Review'', claims there was a radio broadcast on Swedish National Radio in August 1992 by Herbert Brehmer, former leading operative of the East German
Stasi
The Ministry for State Security (, ; abbreviated MfS), commonly known as the (, an abbreviation of ), was the Intelligence agency, state security service and secret police of East Germany from 1950 to 1990. It was one of the most repressive pol ...
and author of ''Auftrag: Irreführung. Wie die Stasi Politik im Westen machte''. Andromidas claimed that Brehmer "explained how his Department 10, responsible for
disinformation
Disinformation is misleading content deliberately spread to deceive people, or to secure economic or political gain and which may cause public harm. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic dece ...
, put into motion a preplanned disinformation operation to pin the blame for the murder of Palme on LaRouche and his Swedish associates." According to another LaRouche associate, Jeffrey Steinberg, South African interests lie behind the murder and the EAP was to blame for the murder. LaRouche issued a statement on the allegations made against his organization.
However, as a result of the hard pressure put on the EAP after the
Olof Palme assassination, the party was thrown into disarray, numerous members left the party, the party left its
Stockholm
Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
headquarters and more or less went underground, and leaders of the party – the Gaddys – abandoned the party and left Sweden for the USA, where they eventually pursued successful academic careers.
The Paris office of the party received minor damage in a bomb blast in April 1986.
Election history
The EAP had its best
election in 1985 when they received 369 votes.
In the 1990s, the party kept a relatively low profile, but it has resurfaced in the early 21st century and ran for national parliament and the local assembly of
Botkyrka in the
Swedish election in September 2006. The party only received 83 votes (0.0015%) in the election for the national parliament, and 64 votes (0.16%) in the local election in
Botkyrka.
Allmänna val 17 september 2006
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Party leaders
*Kerstin Tegin-Gaddy, 1976–1986
*Michael Ericson, 1986–2003
*Ulf Sandmark, 2003–2007
*Hussein Askary, 2007–present
References
*''Dagens Nyheter
(, ), abbreviated ''DN'', is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It is published in Stockholm and aspires to full national and international coverage, and is widely considered Sweden's newspaper of record
A newspaper of record is a major nationa ...
'', 10 November 1968, on ADC and Bill Jones in Sweden
*''Dagens Nyheter
(, ), abbreviated ''DN'', is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It is published in Stockholm and aspires to full national and international coverage, and is widely considered Sweden's newspaper of record
A newspaper of record is a major nationa ...
'', 24 October 1975, on EAP and Lyndon LaRouche
Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche Jr. (September 8, 1922 – February 12, 2019) was an American political activist who founded the LaRouche movement and its main organization, the National Caucus of Labor Committees (NCLC). He was a prominent conspiracy ...
*''Aftonbladet
(, lit. "The evening paper") is a Swedish language, Swedish daily tabloid newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. It is one of the largest daily newspapers in the Nordic countries.
History and profile
The newspaper was founded by Lar ...
'', 13 and 14 October 1975, on ELC, Kerstin Tegin and Ulf Sandmark
*''Aftonbladet
(, lit. "The evening paper") is a Swedish language, Swedish daily tabloid newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. It is one of the largest daily newspapers in the Nordic countries.
History and profile
The newspaper was founded by Lar ...
'', 2 August 1976, on EAP and Kerstin Tegin
Notes
External links
*
{{Authority control
LaRouche movement
1974 establishments in Sweden
Political parties established in 1974
Minor political parties in Sweden