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Far Right Sweden Democrats Topple Social Democratic Party, What’s in store for the LGBTQ+ movement.
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Tune to this program on Out-FM on Tuesday, Nov. 22nd.
from 8:00-9:00 PM EST, on 99.5FM WBAI/NY & listen at https://www.wbai.org/listen-live/ or click here for the iphone Pacifica app or Google Play app
See below for sound file of a 87-second program promotion.
Jimmie Akesson, leader of Sweden Democrats, a party with Neo-Nazi Roots
Tune to Out-FM on Tuesday November 22nd at 8pm EST on WBAI/NY 99.5FM and wbai.org. On September 11th this year the Sweden Democrats, a far right party with a history of leaders with Neo-Nazi roots stunned the world by winning 20% of the vote and thus will be the kingmaker as it forms a government with center and right parties.
This is a seismic shift in the politics of Sweden occurred with the end of the rule of the Sweden Social Democratic party, which since the 1930s has held power and created a much more humane capitalist social democracy than exists anywhere else in the world. What caused it to lose power and what lessons does it teach?
Rightwing parties are winning state power in several countries in Europe, including the far-right Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party. Out-FM is preparing a mini series about this trend in Europe to address essential questions. What will these governments mean for working people and what will it mean for LGBTQ+ people there? We want to see what can be learned about politics from the experience of these countries.
As background, on July 29, 2015, Aljazeera.com reported that a rightwing gay march called Pride Järva (phonetic: Yarva, a suburb of Stockholm) was planned to take place in this community, which is home to many Muslim immigrants. The so-called pride march was organized by the former editor of the right-wing Sweden Democrats. At the time, Jan (phonetic: Yawn) Sjunnesson (phonetic: Hoonison), the Pride Järva organizer, estimated 100 would attend the rightwing march, but only 30 actually did. Meanwhile the local LGBTQ+ community mobilized and hundreds attended their antiracist counter-demonstration.
Professor Emeritus of Sociology Göran Therborn
Joining us to discuss some of these issues is Goran Therborn. Professor Emeritus Göran Therborn is a Swedish professor of sociology at Cambridge University and is amongst the most highly cited contemporary Marxian-influenced sociologists. Therborn in 2018 wrote a paper called "Twilight of Swedish Social Democracy," detailing the electoral decline of the Sweden Social Democratic party.
Professor of Gender Studies Katharina Kehl
Also joining us is Katharina Kehl of the Gender Studies Department at the University of Lund in Sweden. Professor Kehl authored a 2018 paper published in the journal Sexualities titled "‘In Sweden, girls are allowed to kiss girls, and boys are allowed to kiss boys’: Pride Järva and the inclusion of the ‘LGBT other’ in Swedish nationalist discourses."
Communists in Closets: Final Part (Part 3)
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This aired on Oct. 25, 2022.
See below for sound file of the show.
Communists in Closets: Final Part
Tune in for the final part of Bob Lederer's interview with Bettina Aptheker, author of the exciting new book, Communists in Closets: Queering the History, 1930s–1990s. You’ll hear Professor Aptheker discuss the inner workings of the U.S. Communist Party’s nearly 60-year ban on openly gay and lesbian members – as well as both the damage done by that shaming and exclusionary policy, plus the heroic contributions by queers who remained in the party despite the obstacles thrown at them. You’ll also hear about two important white lesbian intellectual and activist feminist leaders of the party, Betty Millard and Eleanor Flexner, who kept their memberships by never discussing their sexual identities. And we’ll again air the inspiring back story behind the political development of brilliant Black playwright Lorraine Hansberry, who according to Professor Aptheker, was schooled by what she calls the Black communist intelligentsia surrounding the Party in the 1950s. This time, we’ll also air excerpts from WBAI’s 1967 documentary titled "Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words," courtesy of the Pacifica Radio Archive. You’ll hear excerpts from major Hollywood names, including Paul Robeson, paying tribute and reading Hansberry’s writing.
Aptheker's book explores the history of gay, lesbian, and non-heterosexual people in the Communist Party USA, which banned lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people from membership between 1938 and 1992. Based on a decade of archival research, correspondence, and interviews, Bettina Aptheker explores this history, also pulling from her own experience as a closeted lesbian in the Communist Party in the 1960s and ‘70s.
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On all three programs, we'll be offering copies of Bettina's e-book as thank-you gifts to those who donate at the $50 level. We urge those of you who value this type of programming to make a donation so this listener-sponsored, progressive radio station can survive. Only by refusing to take corporate funding can this station, and its parent Pacifica network, keep radical voices on the air. Funding is more at risk now than ever. Any donation, however small, will make a real difference. Please visit give2wbai.org or call (any time) 212-209-2950. Thanks so much for your support.