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Radical Left Activism in Scandinavia
Örebro University.
Malmö University, Faculty of Culture and Society (KS), Department of Global Political Studies (GPS).ORCID iD: 0000-0001-7537-6422
Södertörn University.
2023 (English)In: The Palgrave handbook of left-wing extremism: Volume 1 / [ed] Zúquete, Jose Pedro, Palgrave Macmillan, 2023, p. 281-304Chapter in book (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

This chapter describes the development of radical left activism in Scandinavia in the post-war period, with a particular focus on the last four decades. During this period, the main tendency in radical left activism shifted from party-based Marxism-Leninism to network-based, direct-action activism based on libertarian socialist ideals. Combining secondary literature with original quantitative and qualitative data on the radical left-libertarian movements (RLLM) in Sweden and Denmark, this chapter shows how RLLM activism emerged, expanded, and ultimately declined between the early 1980s and late 2010s. While there are key differences between the countries in terms of timing and issue foci, the chapter emphasizes the similarities between the countries. Tracing the movements’ development through sequential phases, the chapter shows them shifting from direct-action networks that engaged in a variety of political issue—anti-fascism, anti-imperialism, feminism, animal rights, etc.—to more “conventional” networks of organizations and initiatives through which activists intervened in local politics and neighborhood and workplace conflicts. The same period also saw the RLLM become less disruptive and violent, in favor of tactical pragmatism and conventional forms of protest. The chapter explains these changes as a combination of four main processes: (1) movement-internal developments, (2) changes in the countercultural milieus surrounding the movement, (3) the political institutionalization of the movement’s main counterpart, the far right, and (4) new patterns of protest policing and state repression. 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Palgrave Macmillan, 2023. p. 281-304
Keywords [en]
Sweden, Denmark, Radical Left-Libertarian Movement, Protest, Direct action
National Category
Sociology (excluding Social Work, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology)
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-63008DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-30897-0_16ISBN: 978-3-031-30896-3 (print)ISBN: 978-3-031-30897-0 (electronic)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mau-63008DiVA, id: diva2:1803340
Available from: 2023-10-09 Created: 2023-10-09 Last updated: 2024-06-11Bibliographically approved

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Lundstedt, Måns

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Citation style
  • apa
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