HARM — Successful Neighborhood Resistance

On September 24, VAM had a party in Hammarkullen's People's House in Gothenburg. The band harassed and threatened people already on the way to their gig — as usual. But this time it did not go unnoticed. The recreation center organized a kid's disco that night — terrified elementary school children saw hordes of Nazi thugs attacking peers and throwing stones at the yard while screaming their usual “out with the pack”. The nines who organized the disco closed the recreation center and called around to parents and tried to arrange for the children to be sent home safely.

What happened next is a little hard to tell from the newspaper reports. According to GP, hundreds of young people gathered and started throwing stones at the police, who suddenly arrived and were quickly reinforced by riot police and mounted police.

These empty the entire Hammarkulletorget and drive the people away from there. The police later arrange a bus so that the Nazis can leave safely.

These events have been followed by some debate in the media, and the police have been called upon to defend their actions in several articles. In two articles and a few letters to the editor, a critical voice was also heard — critical of the police and the People's House. This voice belongs to HARM — Hammarkullen Reser Motstånd. HARM organized press conferences so that people could have their say about what happened: “It wasn't the police officers Kling and Klang who were here — it was the Gestapo”. This is what Hammarkulle resident Torgny Johansson told the newspaper Arbetet.

HARM

HARM caught our interest and after some research I got hold of Torgny Johansson. Torgny lives in Hammarkullen and is active in HARM.

HARM was formed in the spring of 1993 and is an action group against cuts and for the interests of Hammarkullen. The first time HARM took action was to save the threatened leisure center.

- “We simply went there and occupied it,” says Torgny. The newspapers wrote a lot about it and Johnny Magnusson, a moderate municipal politician in Gothenburg, came to see it. Then the leisure center was allowed to remain.

The next time it was the swimming pool that was threatened. This also proved to be a successful occupation and this, together with a large number of collected signatures, meant that the bath was also allowed to remain.

- “It is possible to challenge the politicians,” says Torgny, “they will be afraid if we join forces and speak out.

HARM sees itself as a pressure organization in the first place, it has never been a question of taking over and running municipal facilities themselves.

- We believe that we have the right to a functioning school and social activities and that the district council should run this.

HARM has no membership or fee. People who are involved know each other and work with different things in the name of HARM.

- We organize the Sandeslätts festival every year, people volunteer and work voluntarily. A variety of associations of different kinds show what they are doing. There's usually food and music.

- There are a lot of social activities out here and Hammarkullen has a very active association life.

Gothenburg municipality is not quite like the rest of Sweden. The municipality of Gothenburg is divided into what are called district committees, which are very cleverly designed for politicians. The district council has a politically appointed management that employs a hierarchy of officials — who in turn run the municipal facilities in the district, preferably by outsourcing as much as possible to the much more efficient “market”. This is very favorable to hard-line politicians. They can always blame that the officials see it all strictly economically and that the cuts were necessary, not political, the officials in turn just do their job ...

Hammarkullen is part of SDN Lärjedalen, which also includes Hjällbo and Eriksbo. What all three have in common is that they are working-class neighborhoods and very immigrant-dense. This means that politicians find it easier to make savings in these areas. For example, the upper-class suburb of Örgryte did not have to save as much in percentage terms as Hammarkullen and Hjällbo. This in turn means that social standards are deteriorating and more and more people who have the opportunity are moving away. Those who move are usually Swedes and so different areas are becoming more and more segregated.

- We are afraid of a snowball effect. I see the cuts as a deliberate bourgeois attack on the working class. As “established” Swedes move out, the status of the area decreases and it becomes easier for politicians to make further cuts. At the same time, this leads to increased segregation and people who actually have common interests being set against each other.

So it is in this Hammarkullen that the Nazi play takes place.

Torgny's daughter was at the boys' disco that was attacked.

- They called from the recreation center and said that there were racists there, so I went down to see what was going on. When I get there, I see how piles of black-clad skinheads are standing and shouting “Sieg Heil” and “out with the pack, etc. I also see that several windows in the yard are smashed. To my surprise, I see how police officers in a car passively watch it all. When I ask why they are not doing anything, they reply: “Then file a report...”

The nines who organized the kid disco close and lock the recreation center and call around to parents and older siblings who help to take the children home.

Then people go down to the center to see what's really going on. The small square in front of People's House is quickly filled with people.

Several police officers are standing in front of the entrance and more, equipped with riot gear, are streaming in.

When the freeloaders look out and demand to be escorted to the kiosk to buy cigarettes, and the police do this, the atmosphere becomes tense to say the least. The police later said they ordered people to leave after people started throwing bottles.

- “I didn't hear any of this,” says Torgny. I was talking to a neighbor and suddenly a dog has bitten into my side.

The police let go of the dogs and started hitting people with batons. Those in the square have no way of escaping the police attack. They are driven back and the police empty a circle around the People's House.

Bright Light

We are walking around the center of Hammarkullen when Torgny tells us this. It's Monday night and relatively quiet, just a few people passing by. Hammarkullen center by night consists of hanging out at the pizzeria or outside. A police car drives around and occasionally turns on the high beams of passers-by.

- That's what you see of the police out here, if you see them at all. They drive around in their car for a while and never get out. There's supposed to be some kind of neighborhood police too, but you don't see much of them.

But on September 24, that wasn't the case. After the police had formed a ring around the People's House, they decided to make another attack. They empty the whole center of people. Those who have the misfortune to get out of the tramway are chased back. So now the police hold the whole center. Behind their backs, the freaks chant: “Our police, our police” interspersed with “out with the pack”.

- It felt unreal. The police are protecting Nazis who attack and provoke our neighborhood.

But apparently it was not enough for the police to hold the center. They're making another push:

- People were standing over here. Torgny points to a wall at the first courtyard a good distance from People's House. — I don't understand why they would make another attack.

The police, who now have horses there too, attack once more. This time they chase people right up the stairs. Indiscriminately, young, old and families with children are chased far into the courtyards by riot-clad police and horses.

These attacks go on for hours and the poor people who dare to leave are chased into the nearest doorway or even into the apartment. The police officers consistently call everyone “fucking blackguard” or “nigger” etc.

When the Nazis have finished partying, the police hire buses to safely transport them away.

After these events, HARM has organized several press conferences and meetings where people have had their say. People are critical of the police actions, to say the least, and have expressed that criticism clearly. Several politicians and police representatives have been on site and tried to defend the police. When Vivianne Nilsson, a municipal councilor, asked to speak at a town square meeting, she was met by scattered boos and found it difficult to get her point across — she walked off the stage and called the meeting a mob... not a unique attitude among politicians.

Booed Police Officers

The police have also tried to defend themselves by holding meetings in People's House and going out to the school in Hammarkullen. They were more or less booed in both places. At school, the police were greeted with “Sieg Heil” and called “pigs” by the students. Whole classes left the room when the two policemen entered. One of the police officers asks, according to GP, why they were called pigs:

- Do you think we behave like them?

- Yes, you go against us, and how could you hit children?” asks a student.

- Can children throw firebombs? (!), the police counters and continues:

- You have to trust us and that the police know best. We told you to go home but you did not obey. So we had to use dogs and horses...

Then the police make an absolutely incredible comment, even for a police officer:

- But surely a dog bite is better than a stab in the stomach.

The children in Hammarkullen were in any case wiser than that and the police officers had to walk away with their tails between their legs.

So this is the same Gbg police who without thinking twice closes a rave with 800-1000 participants just on the suspicion of drugs. And think that this is perfectly okay even when they do not find more than what is available on a regular Friday at Valand and Palace or other “finer” places in the city.

Finally, Torgny says that HARM has tackled racism before.

- There were some of these skinheads who moved out here, (a Nazi collective of about five people or more, from what we've heard). They started harassing people in the center and on the tram. So we called a meeting,” he continues, ”and gathered outside their gate a few times and started following them through the neighborhood...then they moved. Apparently, there were some windows that broke, too.

A month later, on 17 December, HARM organized a public event against racism and fascism.

Those of us who were there got to see various associations give speeches and introduce themselves. In addition, some unforgettable local punk bands performed, such as Arsenik, with songs like “concrete child” and “oppressed”. There was food, beer and samba dancing. All in all, a block party at its best.

We are confident that HARM will continue to prove that it is possible to resist and organize locally at the grassroots level. We wish HARM good luck for the future and the continued fight for Hammarkullen.

‎
Daniel Å.