SUMMARY IN ENGLISH
CONTRA # 4 1998
No workers in background of leftists/communist
Karl-Göran Bottwyk has studied the social background of the leading
candidates of the Swedish "Leftist Party" (formerly Communist
Party). No workers are to be seen. The only exception being the sheet metal
worker Hans Andersson, who, however, used to be an assistant professor in
philosophy before starting as a worker at the ABB plant in Ludvika. Other
leading communists have a genuine upper-class background. The father of
the Party Chairman Gudrun Schyman used to be a businessman and her brother
is also a businessman, running the company Schyman Invest form one of the
plushest suburbs of Stockholm. The arch communist, party general secretary
Lars Ohly's father and grandfather were vicars and his great grandfather
was a bishop. Party economic policy spokesman Johan Lönnroth's ancestors
were scholars (or noblemen). His father was Professor in history at the
University of Göteborg (Gothenburg) and he is still one of the eighteen
members of the prestigious Swedish Academy (the body electing the winner
of the Nobel Prize in literature every year). Many citizens would envy the
social background of the leading members of the "worker's" party.
Multiculturalism and the American nation
One of the most beneficial aspects of the American society is its assimilation
of men and women of all racial, ethnical and religious backgrounds. Americans
do have a very mixed background in these respects, but they share a common
view on freedom for the individual.
The Swedish National Pension System at the crossroads
Fewer people working are to support a larger number of retireds. The
present Swedish National Pension Scheme has no possibility of matching this
structural change. Thus, the Swedish parliament, this past spring, approved
a new national scheme. Contra studies the hidden aspects of the scheme.
Standard retirement age is in practice increased from 65 to 67 (but the
government claims that the standard age is abolished). The national pension
will be only 40-50 per cent of the actual wage or salary earned, although
the government claims a 55-60 per cent average. And the basis of the system
is an average 1.6 per cent increase in the economy, in spite of the fact
that the average of the past 20 years have been lower than 1 per cent.
The destructiveness of modern feminism
Viveka Freeland discusses the weakend family when feminists try to liberate
the woman from motherhood throug abortion, sterilization and birth control.
Feminism today also has turned into a negative view on men in general, further
weakening the family as an important foundation of society.
Barry Goldwater
died in late May. He lost the presidential election of 1964 but was
the man paving the way for the victory of Ronald Reagan, conservatism and
a new view on society. The obituary of Barry Goldwater is written by the
Swedish translator and publisher of his most important book: "The Conscience
of a Conservative", Mr Bertil Häggman.
Eighty Years since the Russian Civil War
One of the worst tragedies of this century was the loss of the White
Generals in the Russian Civil War, eighty years ago. This articvle, by Contra
publisher Tommy Hansson, discusses why generals Kornilov, Denikin, Alexejev,
Koltjak och Wrangel lost. And why the exception, Carl Gustaf Mannerheim
(a tsarist general, born in Finland and with Swedish as his mother tongue)
was the one who succedded and saved Finland (at the time a Russian Grand
Duchy) from Communism.
