This article is based on an empirical study of ‘the antifascist kick’ as a formative cultural practice in the history of transnational antifascism. It scopes from the 1930s and the era of opposition to classic fascism, through to the twenty-first century where antifascism encounters political processes of globalization, fragmentation, neoliberalism, and neofascism. The article discusses the ‘antifascist kick’ in different historical contexts, from 1930s Sweden to Germany and the United States today. The article reveals that ‘the antifascist kick’ works in various cultural directions: as a political conception of those who are only worth contempt, as a symbolic representation of the antifascist struggle, and as a practical instruction for how to treat fascists in the streets.

This article deals with an active personality in the European World War II-context, the Englishman and diplomat Peter Tennant. Officially, he served as press attaché at the British legation in Stockholm and become a popular companion in the capital’s conviviality with a significant social network. Unofficially, he was called “Karlsson” and led the Swedish section of Special Operations Executive, S.O.E. In this role he organized clandestine espionage and sabotage against German interests. This article primarily uses previously confidential archival sources from the civil Swedish counter-espionage to find out more about Tennant’s activities in Sweden during the war and what kind of spy he actually was

This chapter focuses on the ideological dimensions of the rough-mannered fascist network in Sweden during the 1930’s and 1940’s lead by the artillery officer Sven Olov Lindholm. An important but not that noticed part of their activities, were setting up and control a community-based fascist trade union – a “third way” labour movement and a “New Labour Party” – aiming to attract and excite radical manual workers who were disappointed at the established democratic left-wing labour unions. On this point, the chapter argues, Lindholm was strongly inspired by the German national-radical Ernst Jünger and his ideas from 1932 about a completely new social order in terms of the “World of Work”. However, this pseudo-revolutionary worldview corresponded poorly with the mild war-experiences of the Swedish working class. 

En idé större än döden handlar om hur den nazistiska Lindholmsrörelsen försökte bygga upp en revolutionär fascistisk arbetarrörelse i Sverige under 1930- och 1940-talen. Nationalsocialistiska Arbetarpartiet och dess efterträdare Svensk Socialistisk Samling presenterades då som ”det nya arbetarpartiet” med en egen facklig verksamhet i form av bland annat Nationalsocialistiska Industriarbetarförbundet. Med ideologisk inspiration från nazismen i Tyskland, men även från andra fascistiska rörelser och regimer i Europa, utmanade Lindholmarna den unga parlamentariska demokratin och tog upp kampen med de etablerade arbetarrörelserna om arbetarklassens politiska stöd. I boken analyseras den fascistiska arbetarrörelsens organisation, drivkrafter, propaganda och ideologi. Den bygger till stora delar på tidigare sekretessbelagt källmaterial ur säkerhetspolisens arkiv och visar bland annat hur fascismen i Sverige under 1930- och 1940-talen i en tidigare outforskad utsträckning försökte vinna stöd hos ”vanligt folk” och arbetare. I Lindholmarnas idévärld samspelade revolutionens apokalyptiska attraktionskraft och nationens överordnade gemenskap med populismens antielitism och visionen om den nya, fria och starka moderna människan som går framtiden till mötes med en manlig och dödsföraktande styrka. En idé större än döden är en historievetenskaplig studie i den svenska fascismens mörka förflutna men väcker även samtidsaktuella frågor om arbetets mening, om arbetarklassens politiska potential och om neo-fascismens olika skepnader.