By Landon
You are sitting in your apartment. Your wife and children are with you. You are watching a movie, preparing dinner, or touching base with your fellow workers in the union regarding the fight against the agency.
You never expect what comes next.
Maybe your door is thrown open, maybe there is a knock and you go to answer it. What happens next is terrifying, brutal, and orchestrated by the same bosses the SAC has been fighting for years.
Six unknown thugs are in your home. Your wife and child are locked in a room. You are repeatedly struck in the head, over and over and over again. You see the familiar logo of the Werewolf Legion (a violent street gang operating in Sweden, involved in robbery, extortion, and drug trafficking) in between blows and the blood pouring into your eyes. All of a sudden there is a knife to your throat and a phone being thrust at you. Call the boss of the company your union is demanding justice from for your workers.
Drop all demands. Be silent. Shut up. Do not fight back. Never question us.
You are told that you are now indebted to the leader of the Werewolf Legion the sum of half a million kroner to be paid within one month, or you will be killed.
Accept your lot.
Never question the decisions made by the merchants of capital that are imposed upon you. Rather, shut your mouth and get your hands back to work.
Or you know what might happen…
Accept your lot.
This attack upon our comrade is an attack on us all, an has the potential to send ripples through the trade union movement everywhere, as well as anti-capitalist movements the world over. This assault happened because the SAC has been waging a struggle against an agency in the hospital industry who is implicit in wage theft, invalid layoffs, and withholding holiday pay. The leader of the Werewolf Legion , a notorious (and notoriously violent) gang in Sweden, who committed this fascist attack, just happens to be the brother of the owners of the agency. While the agency has not claimed responsibility, evidence suggests it is linked to the assault.
We hear from comrades that the media in Sweden says that the SAC operates like a “Mafia”, “extorting” money from poor entrepreneurs, etc, etc.
The SAC, formed in 1910, is a revolutionary syndicalist union, distinct from other trade unions in the fact that it organizes not only workers, but the unemployed, students, and retired workers. Traditionally, strongholds of the union have been the forestry, mining, and construction industries. Though now, most of SAC are employed in the public sector. The SAC has come out as anti-militarist, anti- sexist, and feminist.
Regarding the media portrayal of the SAC as a “mafia,” we say that this is false, a disgusting attack upon our comrades, and all of us. It is the bosses and this rotten, despicable capitalist system that is the Mafia. They are the ones who extort, steal, beat, and rob. When they cannot do it within their own laws, they do so outside of the law. They send fascists to brutalize communities, unionists, and revolutionaries. They hire fascists to assassinate our comrades and attempt to intimidate our movements into passivity, silence. We say NO!
In the face of this attack, it is our responsibility as comrades one and all to offer our support and solidarity in any way possible. We call upon our brothers and sisters everywhere to stand with the SAC and our brutalized comrade.
May the struggle continue and the ultimate revenge upon the bosses be wrought:
Working class self-activity towards our emancipation.
In rage and solidarity.