Sture Birger Eskilsson (18 March 1930 – 5 March 2016) was a Swedish economist who was the Director of Information of the

Swedish Employers Association The Swedish Employers' Confederation ( sv, Svenska Arbetsgivareföreningen, SAF) was a Swedish employers' organization founded in 1902. In 2001, SAF merged with the Federation of Swedish Industries (''Sveriges Industriförbund'') to form the Con ...

( sv, Svenska arbetsgivareförening, ''SAF'') and chairman of the

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmental ...

Timbro Timbro is a liberal think tank and publishing company located in Stockholm, Sweden. In its present form Timbro was founded in 1978 by Sture Eskilsson and the Swedish Employers’ Association, a precursor to the Confederation of Swedish Enterpris ...

. He was born in

Kristinehamn Kristinehamn is a locality and the seat of Kristinehamn Municipality, Värmland County, Sweden, with 17,839 inhabitants in 2010. Geography Kristinehamn is situated by the shores of lake Vänern where the small rivers ''Varnan'' and ''Löt'' ...

. Eskilsson was employed at SAF as an

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...

in 1957. In 1968 he was transferred to SAF:s Department of Public Relations. There he was commissioned to set up a new strategy in order to create a counterweight against the increasing influence of the

New Left The New Left was a broad political movement mainly in the 1960s and 1970s consisting of activists in the Western world who campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as civil and political rights, environmentalism, feminism, gay rights, ...

movement. In 1970, Eskilsson was appointed as Director of Information of SAF and the following year he outlined his strategic thoughts in an internal memo on what needed to be done in order to influence the public opinion and create a stronger support for

free market In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any o ...

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private ...

enterprise Enterprise (or the archaic spelling Enterprize) may refer to: Business and economics Brands and enterprises * Enterprise GP Holdings, an energy holding company * Enterprise plc, a UK civil engineering and maintenance company * Enterprise ...

and

individual liberty Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties may ...

. Eskilsson proposed a serious, long-term work focusing on

ideological An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied pri ...

and

philosophical Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Som ...

debate. A result of this new strategy was the creation of the

in 1978, where Eskilsson served as chairman from its founding until 1998. In 2003, Eskilsson was one of the founding members of the organization Medborgare mot EMU ("Citizens Against the

EMU The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the genus '' Dromaius''. The ...

"), which campaigned against Swedish adoption of the

euro The euro (symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

in the 2003 referendum.

Bibliography

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eskilsson, Sture 1930 births 2016 deaths People from Kristinehamn People from Kristinehamn Municipality Swedish economists Swedish businesspeople