Felipe Estrada Dörner, a professor of criminology, told Swedish Radio that there is no equivalent in history. “The worst we have seen in the last 50 years.” In total this year, 42 people have been killed in 259 shootings following the record year 2022 with 63 people killed. Since 2018 Sweden has been at the top in Europe when it comes to shootings by criminal gangs (but in the bottom when it comes to other forms of deadly violence).
When Milo, aged 13, was found dead on 11 September, a new heartbreaking record was set for the age of the target. Since then, war-like images of blown-up building facades every other day (126 explosions this year) have increased fear and anxiety across the country. Often the blasts have not resulted in fatalities, but 27 September they did.
Killing the wrong person
The 25-year-old woman who died in Fullreö in Uppsala was a neighbour of the target — the operation was directed at the wrong address. Killing the ‘wrong’ person has become more common as the perpetrators get younger and younger (an alarming number have been 15 years old and the youngest 14 years).
Last summer, the Farsta neighbourhood South of Stockholm, was shocked by the fatal shooting at the metro in the afternoon. Now it was the turn of the Mälarhöjden suburb. On Wednesday a young rapper was shot on the local football pitch — while training was in progress.
There are reports from the Jordbro district (in Haninge, Stockholm) that the criminal network has been hovering around football training sessions for people as young as seven years old and handing out gifts to the children to draw them into crime.
War over drug market
We can follow in the media how the gang war this year started with the conflict between the Dalen and Foxtrot networks over the drug market in the city of Sundsvall. It then became a war within crime boss Rawa Majid’s Foxtrot network, with several relatives killed.
The gangster leaders within the networks are in control from abroad. Among the most recent victims, very young people are said to have been killed by their own gang as revenge and as a deterrent for the failure of their killing missions.
The police say that, despite the horrific statistics, they have managed to stop several acts of violence by targeting vulnerable people.
Gang leader in Turkey
But while Sweden is extraditing political refugees to Turkey in the government’s attempt to appease Erdogan in order to gain NATO membership, Turkey is not extraditing the mass murderer Rawa Majid to Sweden.
The Moderate (Conservative) led government has completely failed to fulfil its main election promise — to stop gang crime. Just as all right-wing policies before it have failed to do so.
30 years of privatisation
How can gang crime be so large and growing? The drug trade is a part of capitalism that is possible because so many people make so much money from it. While other countries have tried to limit crime through decriminalisation of cannabis and other drugs, for 40 years Sweden has pursued an extreme drug policy that punishes addicts and feeds the gangs.
The main explanation is 30 years of constant cuts and privatisation of welfare which has created relative poverty and an extremely wealthy elite. In wealth gaps, according to Credit Suisse, Sweden ranks 12th in the world, beaten only by nations such as South Africa, Zambia, Brazil and Lesotho.
30 years of privatisation and various market reforms in all economic activities have created thousands of new spaces for corruption and criminality to flourish and grow strong enough to challenge the state.
, Fraud and other types of financial crime give the gangs twice as much income as drugs.The Ecocrime Authority warns that gangs have even opened health centers. Even the dropout business is privatized and some of it is run by criminals.
Money is being laundered on Spotify using certain gangster rappers, which at the same time often help the gangs to create a brand and recruit more children into crime.
The kind of former cohesion that the old welfare Sweden created is long gone. The dramatically increasing class inequality in the wake of neoliberalism creates both broken childhoods at one end and glorified gangster capitalism at the other. The gangs always manage to recruit new children because the resources needed to prevent recruitment are never allocated. For example right now regions and councils get 2,8 billion euros less then they need.
The party leader of Social Democracy, Magdalena Andersson, has answered that the military should be deployed. The racist Sweden Democrats say the same and support the government and the Commander-in-Chief. But the militarisation of society is one of the factors that leads to gang warfare. Weapons from previous wars end up in the networks.
Repressive measures
The new law on preventive wiretapping creates a restriction on democracy for everyone that can easily be abused.
Measures such as search zones and a new law that public sector workers must report those without papers create more racism, which in turn drives young people into gangs.
To set the stage for this, prime minister Ulf Kristersson emphasised in his speech to the nation that foreign nationals should be deported and linked measures against the wave of violence to a “responsible immigration policy”. Equating crime with refugees and immigration has become an axiom in the political debate and state media. It had already started under the previous social democratic government and the racism is now uncovered as the conservative government rules with the support of the racist party Sweden Democrats (which is around 19 percent in public opinion).
Militarisation or movement
Increased militarisation will not stop the wave of violence.
Socialistiskt Alternativ works for a mass movement of workers, young people and all employees, not primarily against crime but to demand vastly more money for welfare. Welfare must be reorganised.
Welfare should be collectively owned and democratically controlled from below and with transparency. The focus of society’s activities should be that all children should have good and equal opportunities for a fulfilling life and no child should be left out.
Socialistiskt Alternativ demands
SAFE STREETS AND SAFE CHILDHOOD
— Rallies and meetings on security measures in each neighbourhood — to discuss what physical security measures, as well as social measures, are needed
— Invest ins safe guarding hosts, field assistants and dropout programmes aimed at criminal gangs. — Rehabilitate run-down community centres and residential areas in municipalities and public utilities — upgrading for safety and social cohesion .
— Substantial increase in resources for social services, support for single parents, childcare, addiction care and women’s shelters.
— Equality in education and schools where no one is left behind — all children should be given the same conditions: more resource teachers, student care, smaller classes, NPF expertise and homework during school hours.
— Increase support for young people’s cultural,and sports activities. Reopen all closed leisure centres and youth centres — strengthen the with self confidence and against macho culture.
— Time for children: Introduce a 6-hour working day with no loss of pay and launch comprehensive public programmes for secure jobs with family-friendly schedules and paid training for all unemployed.
— Get rid of neoliberal profit targets in the public sector — replace them with targets to fight poverty, precarious jobs, unemployment, overcrowding, drug abuse, domestic violence and insecure childhood.
