I spoke this week with Wilke Wilcek of Sweden’s Communist Party about Sweden’s accession to NATO. According to Wilcek, shortly before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, only 32% of Swedes supported Swedish membership in NATO, but after the invasion began, the Swedish political elite and Sweden’s establishment media engaged in a “huge propaganda campaign” in favour of NATO membership. Now, about 58% of Swedes support NATO.
Wilcek points out that Sweden has been neutral for 200 years, and a substantial part of the population continues to support neutrality. The challenge for supporters of neutrality is that they have been ignored or stigmatized as ‘Russian agents’ by Sweden’s media.
You can watch and listen to our conversation here:
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Dimitri is so desperate to justify his right wing support of Russia’s war on Ukrainian civilians that is he interviews a member of a political party that is so weak in Sweden that it cannot afford to run in federal elections, and whose support is in freefall, the Swedish Communist Party results over the last three elections have plummeted.
Socialist Ukrainians and socialists around the globe recognize the need to defend Ukrainian sovereignty, Dimitry wants Russian domination.
So Dimitri goes to a party that barely even shows up in Swedish polls to get an opinion on why a majority of Swedes now support joining NATO.
Dear Dimitry; give up, your pro-Putin desperation is tragic, your candidacy for the leadership of the Communist Party of Canada though is perhaps inevitable so hungry are you to have some kind of title- other than tankey- beside your name.
If you look closely at the NATO symbol you can see a sprite like SWASTIKA, almost dancing.
Wilke Wilcek is right in pointing out that NATO is not a defensive organization and that the bombing of Yugoslavia, the destruction of Libya and Afghanistan were not defensive actions.
NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine, despite assurances given to Gorbachev and others of
“not one inch further” for NATO expansion has launched a crisis which is more dangerous for our planet than the Cuban Missile Crisis ever was.
Ukraine could have been a neutral prosperous country, a bridge between the EU and Eurasia.
Instead it is being destroyed with its world famous fertile chernozem soils being contaminated with NATO’s cluster bombs and irradiated with NATO’s Depleted Uranium munitions, both war crimes.
Shame on those who precipitated the Ukrainian Coup d’Etat and ensuing Civil War.
Shame on Canada and Harper and Kenney for funding and training the Neo Nazi Nationalists in 2014 to attack the DonBas Russians.
Shame on Zelensky for banning the Celebration of Ukrainian Christmas and trying to turn this NATO operation into a religious war.
Shame on David Gutnick and kudos to Dimitri Lascaris, the only Canadian political figure that is advocating peace!
No to NATO!
David, give it a rest. Your comment just proves what the interview is talking about. Anybody who does not support a negotiated peace is a supporter of mass murder. Anybody who thinks it isn’t possible to negotiate peace is a nihilist. I can only feel great compassion for you. You must be suffering tremendously in your own mind.
Great guest Dimitri! I do hope you can speak to him and other members of his party in the near future as I always find it fascinating that the “Nordic model” for social democracy or democratic socialism is often used as the model to what global leftists should strive for so would be nice to further explore that with this guest and another person who is member of the communist party of Sweden who you spoke to on the Gaza freedom flotilla in that topic and why they’re communists/more radical then their The social democrats counterparts. And would be great to explore how the Chomsky/Herman model of propaganda/corporate and state media can be applied to Sweden and similar nations.
Dear Peter Wilson;
in the 2018 Swedish general election .01 percent of the Swedish population voted for candidates running for the Communist party of Sweden. That is ten Swedes in every thousand believed the Communist party had the best idea and were worth voting for.
Now you may want to hear from then.
And Dimitri obviously agrees with them.
But the members of the Swedish working class don’t.
I think the best way forward for Dimitri would be to run for the leadership of the Communist party of Canada. It would give him the platform he is looking for. In the last federal election the Communist party of Canada got .02 percent of the vote: double that of the Swedes.
As leader of the Communist party of Canada Dimitri would be well on the way to leading workers towards the Canadian revolution, twenty Canadians in every thousand would be behind him, their fists in the air, marching towards a new day.
Why run for leadership of the Greens when their are other opportunities?
Replying to Mr Gutnick,
When Dimitri Lascaris came a close second in the Green Party leadership race, Canadians lost the opportunity to vote for a viable alternative to ANY of the other mainstream parties which all support the foreign policies of the US. The Green Party of Canada has since disintegrated much like the UK Labour Party.
I see no other political figure in Canada calling for an end to the NATO proxy war in Ukraine, or de escalating the tension against China, or denouncing the apartheid regime in the former Palestine Mandate as does Dimitri Lascaris.
Canada is in a real mess, look at our cities,look at the hopelessness of many Canadians who have no time for politics.
If ever Canada needed a principled, courageous, informed political figure, that time is now and Dimitri Lascaris checks all the boxes.
If you don’t think Canada is in a mess well perhaps you should check out this YouTube video that outlines the problem that pre occupies most Canadians and that the mainstream political parties choose to ignore while beating their warmongering chests, fomenting and financing unwinnable foreign conflicts. Have a nice Day.
https://youtu.be/XomvuLPiTWM?si=Qog3-7DZYoKpeyC3
David Gutnick, thanks for the compliment.
I WOULD like to see a revolution in Canada.
I’m tired of corporations running the various levels of government, setting policy and writing laws, beneficial to themselves, to be rubber stamped by compliant, docile politicians, who go on to work for those very corporations after their tenure is up.
I’d like to see people put before profit, especially in Canada’s largest industry, Real Estate and Housing.
I’d like to see a Canada free of foreign interference which in my view is mainly from the US and NATO.
I’d like to see a Canada Strong and Free,with a Defence Force that is not embedded with the US and NATO,fomenting coups and mayhem in far off lands, a Canada that is not an eager pathetic satrap to a hegemon that is on the verge of self destructive civil war.
I’d like to see a Canada with better infrastructure, intercontinental passenger trains,cross Canada Motor Coach Service,things that Canada used to have.
I’d like to see cheap internet connectivity for all Canadians, Canadawide.
I’d like to see affordable cars designed and made here in Canada for the Canadian Climate which could be the Genesis or rebirth of Canadian manufacturing,now a shadow of its former self.
I’d like clean drinking water for everyone, especially for those Indigenous Reserves that have been under a boil water ban for years.
I’d like to see the $200billion liability “legacy” of Alberta’s abandoned orphan oil and gas wells cleaned up and the CEO’s of polluting companies jailed instead of hiding behind the “corporate veil” of limited liability.
I’d like to see a fairer tax code with higher corporate tax rates, no loopholes and no exemptions for religious institutions or overseas charities.
If you, David Gutnick,are happy with the Canada we share now, go ahead and vote for any one of the lacklustre, moribund, status quo parties led by Trudeau, Poilievre and Singh, that mediocre triumvirate,directed by corporate interests and US foreign policy,which has brought us the Canada we have today….with crumbling infrastructure, the majority hugely indebted citizens, homelessness, an opioid epidemic, unhealthy citizens in mind and body.
bamboozled by corporate propaganda.
I prefer to seek out a better calibre of political figure, someone with potential, anti war and with a social conscience, someone like Dimitri Lascaris.
Good luck to you, David Gutnick.
Over and out.
Thanks Peter. I couldn’t agree more. Please reference my comments to David Gutnick’s absurd sarcasm. Dimitris discussion with the Swedish communist party obviously has nothing to do with communism and everything to do with propaganda to silence the efforts of those of us who favor peace over war. BTW, you may find Chris Hedges new book “The Greatest Evil is War” a useful read even though it would likely be preaching to the choir, so to speak. Keep up the peaceful fight. With thanks, Eric
Mr Wilson, comrade -if I can be so bold- you certainly are not lacking in ideas for making Canada a worker’s paradise.
Everything your propose is brilliant.*
I suggest that you plead with Mr Lascaris to lead the Communist Party of Canada.
Certainly he would find ways of convincing more than 2 in every 1000 Canadians to follow, Canadians who according to you, are hungry for leaders like Tim Buck, William Kashtan, Miguel Figueroa and now the extremely impressive Liz Rowley. Adding Mr Lascaris to the list seems like a no- brainer. Truly a no brainer.
Over and out as you say.
Best wishes.
*just wondering about the details here…given .02 percent of the population wants the Communist Party to lead your revolution of brilliant solutions, how exactly are you going to democratically bring this revolution about?
Ahhh those damn details eh, always getting in the way.
Gutnick is a great example of how far the CBC has drifted to becoming a corporate sponsored right-wing main stream media stooge of our two right-wing corporate sponsored political parties within our undemocratic electoral system. The pathetic name-calling is more than a little childish. Dimitri a communist? I mean really? Is that the best you can do? A fifth grader could probably do better. Perhaps you should become the founder of The McCarthy Party of Canada.
Gutnick is a great example of how far the CBC has drifted to becoming a corporate sponsored right-wing main stream media stooge of our two right-wing corporate sponsored political parties within our undemocratic electoral system. The pathetic name-calling is more than a little childish. Dimitri a communist? I mean really? Is that the best you can do? A fifth grader could probably do better. Perhaps you should become the founder of The McCarthy Party of Canada.