Fotball fans vs International capital

This is one of the best news I have heard in a very long while. Read the whole article if you have any interest in football and the global economy.

In short: Football fans, Liverpool fans!!!, are planning to take a fight with the two US businessmen/tycoons (Gillette and Hicks) who recently bought our fine club. I have been disturb by quite a few things that the US tycoons have done.

Examples: When we didn’t play well, they held secret talks with another manager. And in the US, they have said that they would save the profit made on Liverpool FC (and their fans), and spend it on the US sports teams they own as well. And one of them (Hicks) is a good friend of George W. Bush. That totally messed up my view of the world: My favorite football club bought by a friend of W...

But now we are fighting back and I will follow this initiative closely. And I am totally fine if you think I am insane admiring an English football club so much. But I have to inform you that I am willing to buy my small share of Liverpool FC.

I fell in love with football…

If y’all wonder, it feels totally shit to lose a final in the Champions League to a team run by a man who has shown some worrying semi-fascist tendencies (yes, I am totally willing to describe Silvio Berlusconi that way, and I don’t use the F-word since I know George Orwell told us to use that word with caution). Needless to say, I think we were the better team tonight, AC Milan was lucky, and it is incredible how much Italian teams can fall to the ground and whine. But we lost since they scored two goals and we one, and overall AC Milan played well and we lost to a very good team. Congrats, AC Milan (a club I also respect in many ways, if you take Berlusconi out). All you can do is to cling on to the legendary quote by Nick Hornby:

“I fell in love with football as I was later to fall in love with women: suddenly, inexplicably, uncritically, giving no thought to the pain or disruption it would bring with it.”

Anyway, in a somewhat pathetic way I share this pain with a lot of other Liverpool-fans and tonight we all think of the same song. And in the middle of this misery, it is good to laugh. Apparently the image below was briefly shown on the official Liverpool FC-website during the game [thanks Pasquale]. Oh, well, there is always a next season.

Första maj 2007 i Hudiksvall!

My First of May celebration in Hudiksvall was one of my best ever. We were around 200 happy social democrats in the demonstration and according to the local paper almost 500 people listened to my speech. Before I started, Sara from the local SSU-club delivered a very good speech on climate change.

I started my speech as I always do on the First of May; by quoting a sentence from Olof Palme’s First of May speech in Kramfors in 1964. That quote is about global injustices, which I exemplified with some sad numbers and images (one billion people will go to bed hungry tonight, for example).

I then spoke about how globalization, after all, is improving the lives of many and giving us new possibilities. Then I argued that the Swedish model is one of the best ways I know of in terms of handling globalization and turning it into jobs and greater equality. After that I discussed how the pillars of the Swedish model (an open economy, strong trade unions and generous welfare) is threatened by the Swedish right-wing government. [I always make I point of mentioning our opponents late in the speech; this is our day and I prefer to talk about global injustices and how we want to make the world a better place]. I then concluded with a five point agenda for renewal of our own policies.

I had great fun when delivering the speech, and from what I could tell it was well appreciated. Thanks, all you nice social democrats in Hudiksvall. Days like this make me realize why I love our movement so much.

After the speech, my friends Torbjörn and Henrik (photo below) drove me home in the car we rented. We had a great time in Hudiksvall (and when discussing life and debating politics in the car). I am very happy to have friends like this.

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And when I got home that night, Liverpool beat Chelsea and went to the final of the Champions League. Where we will meet Milan again…

Back at work

After a few wonderful days in Paris everything went back to normal; loads of work to do and things to write – and Liverpool cannot score away against Chelski. Anaway, a few shorties:

If you read Swedish; don’t miss all the good stuff in AiP this week (editorial, interview with Mona Sahlin, my article about France, Arvid's article about France).

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ECOSY – Young European Socialist – has started a campaign for freedom in Burma (more info). The European Union has to take a stronger stand towards the regime in Burma that continuous to violate basic human rights, and the European Parliament is about to discuss this issue. Read and sign the petition here.

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Rudy Guiliani, the former New York City Mayor, is accused by Democrats for politicizing September 11th in his 2008 presidential bid. Here’s what he said at a recent campaign stop in New Hampshire:

”If a Democrat is elected president in 2008, America will be at risk for another terrorist attack on the scale of Sept. 11, 2001... Never ever again will this country ever be on defense waiting for (terrorists) to attack us if I have anything to say about it. And make no mistake, the Democrats want to put us back on defense!”

That was not nice, smart or true.

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At least the present Mayor of the world’s coolest city – Michael Bloomberg – keeps his mind straight; time for congestion charges in NYC!?

Greens into Finnish government

The new Finnish government (“Vanhanen II”) has just been presented; the Center party will govern with the Conservatives, the Swedish Peoples’ Party AND the Greens. It seems like a pretty smart move by Vanhanen (!?); in this way he moves the Green party into his own block (away from the leading opposition party, the Social Democrats). So, we are officially in opposition in Finland as well. Hope they will start regrouping soon.
[Photo of the Finnish Parliament taken by your blogger. Thanks for quick information, Dan].

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Articles like this makes me want to go to the movies.

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Eldkvarn plays at the Södra Teatern on the 27th of April. Guess who has four tickets in the middle of the front row? Review of the new album here.

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Aktuellt i Politiken this week: Editorial, article about Royal’s campaign in France, and the social democratic election analysis.

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And: The team that is my favorite pastime – Liverpool FC – made me very happy as I had a few pints last night. How far can we go this year? Can we beat Chelski? Articles in The Guardian and Liverpool Echo.

...and elections as well...

At a congress you always have rather sensitive elections when you elect the leadership who will represent and govern ECOSY until the next congress. As a veteran I am not involved in this at all, which is a great relief. My only advice would have been: Try to compromise and focus on the political work. Anyway, I want to congratulate everyone who was elected a few minutes ago, for example my old friend Brian, who I sometimes disagree with both when it comes to policy and football (he supports Everton…), but who I know and respect as a great comrade. Good luck everyone, take care of ECOSY!

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Things like this makes me sooooo happy. Well done, Liverpool.

”White people love to believe they’re fair”

Can Barack Obama become president in 2008, although he is black? It is possible, writes Peter Beinart in The New Republic, because ”white people love to believe they’re fair”. An interesting article well worth reading.

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My review of the film ”Days of glory” (Indigènes) can now be read online. And here is my editorial this week.

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Lucinda William’s new album ”West” gets great reviews; you can hear some tracks online.

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For Liverpool-fans: Paddy is back, and he is now a Swede… [Thanks, Örn]