Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Former Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme: "Why I am a democratic socialist"
Translation:
"I am a democratic socialist, with pride and with joy. I got that conviction when travelling in India and seeing its terrible poverty blended with pockets of immense wealth; when travelling in the United States and seeing an in some respects even more humiliation poverty; when, as a young man, I came eye to eye with Communist enslavement and the oppression and inhuman persecution in the Communist states. And when I came to Nazi concentration camps and saw the death list of social democrats and trade-unionists.
I got that conviction when it became clear to me that it was the social democratic movement that brought democracy to Sweden, when it became clear to me that it was the social democratic movement that had lifted the country out of poverty and unemployment with its politics of the 1930s. And when I myself was campaigning for state pensions for the elderly and got up against the anti-Socialist campaigns of those with special privileges who objected when ordinary workers would secure their own retirement. That's what [the rest of] you were up to then (...)
But even more important is that I am strengthened in my conviction when I look at the state of the world, when I see the wars and the arms race and the mass unemployment and all that divides people. I am strengthened in my conviction when I see, here in our own country, an increase in injustice, unemployment, speculation and graft. When I look into the future that the right-wing has to offer, where the workers will get less and the rich will get more, where social security will be in decline and the number of luxury yachts on the rise, where solidarity diminishes and egotism increases, where the strong can help themselves and the weak will have to beg if they are to get anything at all.
Of course I am a democratic socialist. I hold that conviction with pride in what democratic socialism has achieved in our country, and with joy, because I know that we have important tasks ahead of us as a result of right-wing negligence. And with confidence, because now people know what happens with their jobs and with security and stability when the right-wing is in power. In a way I hold that conviction with a smile because I know that modern Swedish history is full of valuable reforms, which you [at first] have described as evil socialism but then later fought to get credit for when people have understood their significance."
- Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden (1969-1976, 1982-1986)
I got that conviction when it became clear to me that it was the social democratic movement that brought democracy to Sweden, when it became clear to me that it was the social democratic movement that had lifted the country out of poverty and unemployment with its politics of the 1930s. And when I myself was campaigning for state pensions for the elderly and got up against the anti-Socialist campaigns of those with special privileges who objected when ordinary workers would secure their own retirement. That's what [the rest of] you were up to then (...)
But even more important is that I am strengthened in my conviction when I look at the state of the world, when I see the wars and the arms race and the mass unemployment and all that divides people. I am strengthened in my conviction when I see, here in our own country, an increase in injustice, unemployment, speculation and graft. When I look into the future that the right-wing has to offer, where the workers will get less and the rich will get more, where social security will be in decline and the number of luxury yachts on the rise, where solidarity diminishes and egotism increases, where the strong can help themselves and the weak will have to beg if they are to get anything at all.
Of course I am a democratic socialist. I hold that conviction with pride in what democratic socialism has achieved in our country, and with joy, because I know that we have important tasks ahead of us as a result of right-wing negligence. And with confidence, because now people know what happens with their jobs and with security and stability when the right-wing is in power. In a way I hold that conviction with a smile because I know that modern Swedish history is full of valuable reforms, which you [at first] have described as evil socialism but then later fought to get credit for when people have understood their significance."
- Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden (1969-1976, 1982-1986)
13 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
