I skuggan av händelserna i Norge håller den socialdemokratiska ungdomsinternationalen IUSY, i vilken norska AUF är medlem, ett stort internationellt sommarläger i Salzburg. Håkan Juholt deltar och talade under seminariet ”Brandt, Kreisky and Palme - Social Democracy in the 21st Century”.
Under seminariet deltog även bland andra Österrikes förbundskansler Werner Faymann, ledare för SPÖ i Österrike, och partiordförande Sigmar Gabriel från SPD i Tyskland.
Det talade ordet gäller.
Friends,
Thank you for the invitation.
I will use this opportunity to reflect for a moment on one of politics finest and most important characters.
It is basically the essence of why we organize summer-camps and activities like the IUSY Festival.
I will talk about something that is strongly associated with Bruno Kreisky, Willy Brandt and Olof Palme.
I will talk about active political involvement.
These words that mean so much: Power and courage.
That account for the simple and the beautiful:
That we take responsibility for each other.
That we care about how our society looks and how we want to change it.
That we believe in the future and the opportunity to make a difference – to improve.
That we react when we see injustices around us.
* * *
Dear friends,
At this very moment it is almost exactly four days since Norway was hit by the worst atrocity seen in Scandinavia since the Second World War.
The terrorist bomb outside the government offices in Oslo and the mass murder at the Utøya summer camp.
These are horrific and tragic attacks that I condemn in the strongest possible terms.
It was an attack on innocent civilians.
Directly targeted on the Norwegian Labour movement but also on social democratic movements around the world.
An attack on the democratic system and the modern EU.
The AUF-members were gathering just like here at the IUSY Festival in Austria to discuss and learn – to party and dance – to meat new friends to love.
In a sudden.
Lives of young people at the summer camp were ripped away.
Dreams, thoughts and aspiration of a better world were change into a deadly nightmare.
I heard of the shocking news during a trip to Greece.
Like everyone else, I felt an immediate grief, anger and pain over these cowardly attacks against our democracy, freedom and human dignity.
It was an assault on all of us who believe in an open society and freedom.
All my thoughts are still with the victims at Utøya and Oslo, with their loved ones, the parents, the friends.
Sweden and Norway are close neighbors.
There are few other political organizations like SSU and AUF – SAP and DNA that have such close contact and exchange.
We share history, culture, language, policy and politics.
The Swedish public service-TV immediately broadcasted Norwegian NRK after the attack as a sign of how close we are.
The Swedish people stand behind our Norwegian sisters and brothers.
* * *
I became a member of SSU 1976 – our youth organization in Sweden.
The first active Social Democrats from another country I met were from Norway.
In the years that followed, I attended many international seminars, congresses, IUSY Festivals, and camps – several camps at Utøya.
I remember the Norwegian sun that stayed for long.
The sand, the see, the wind and the heated discussions on that small beautiful island.
But hatred and violence should never be allowed to prevail.
It must not force us to change our way of life - not silence us - not make us fearful and repressed.
Instead, we must show that the tolerance, solidarity and an open society can growth stronger.
No one has said it better than the AUF-member who was interviewed by CNN:
“If one man can create that much hate, you can only imagine how much love we can create together.”
I appreciate my colleague, Jens Stoltenberg's words that Norway will not now be less tolerant – on the contrary he will work harder to develop the open and free Norway.
Party politics, a democratic civic society, NGO-activism and public democratic involvement – all beautiful words.
Active political engagement is the opposite of passivity.
It is the core of democracy.
Without people who come together to debate and decide there will not be any democracy.
It is just that simple.
Commitment is a condition for democratic changes, decided by people together.
An open democratic society must build on a policy for reducing gaps – between income groups, between religions, and not least between politicians and people.
We need more youth who want to change the world for the better – not less.
We need stronger political youth organizations – not weaker.
We need brave youth leaders who pick up the aspirations of Kreisky, Brandt and Palme and address the future challenges.
I know that many of us who are active politicians are worried about the tougher atmosphere in society. And the risk of a growing distance between elected members and voters.
Allegations and threats are more and more common.
Humanity is being pushed back.
Hate is easy to spread on internet.
Indifference to others is expanding.
Our democracy must be defended every day.
Democracy must take responsibility for setting limits.
We shall stand together and take that battle.
There are also individuals and political groups who are willing to use force and violence to achieve their goals.
That is what we saw in Norway.
That is called terrorism.
* * *
Friends,
Our fight is global and lasting.
There are great reasons for optimism.
Democracy is more widely spread around the globe today than during the 70s when Palme, Brandt and Kreisky were in office.
But we can witness political violence every day.
Especially in regions where democracy not yet has won – Burma, Syria, Iran, China and in Afghanistan to mention a few.
Our achievements must be measured where democracy is in most danger and how we manage to deal with the most complicated conflict, and how life progress for the most disadvantaged.
That was the key message from the late SI-president Wily Brandt to the SI-congress 1992 in Berlin read by Hans-Jochen Vogel:
Quote.
“Whenever people are caused great suffering it concerns us all, don’t forget if injustices are permitted to continue for long, this opens doors to future injustice.”
End of Quote.
It is a very important message that we social democrats never – never will give up.
We will continue whenever people suffer.
Every day. Around the clock.
For democracy and respect for each other.
That is my social democratic promise for the future.
* * *
Friends,
It is important that the violence in Norway does not stop our activities or change our agenda.
We will today continue to discuss the three leaders which have been very important for our countries, Europe, our political parties and our international community.
Willy Brandt, Bruno Kreisky and Olof Palme all faced political violence on a personal level.
Brandt,
had to flee to Norway and after the Nazi invasion he went to Sweden.
He lived in Stockholm for many years. And he was honored by the city in 2006 with a Willy Brandt-park and a statue in the area where he lived.
Kreisky,
had to flee to Czechoslovakia and after the Nazi invasion to Sweden where he was a refugee. During the time in Stockholm he met Willy Brandt and a unique friendship began.
Palme,
was assassinated a cold night in February 1986 in the city center of Stockholm and left Sweden in a state of chock. A single, still unknown gunman put an end to the Brandt-Kreisky-Palme-friendship.
Generation after generation has been inspired by the treasure of speeches, writings and articles that Kreisky, Brandt and Palme left behind.
An evidence of their close cooperation is their communication and exchange of letters. The letters and ideas from their meetings were published in Sweden, Germany and Austria.
They were without doubt some of the most important politicians in post-war Europe.
And they were the leading Social Democrats in the Socialist International and spokespeople for justice in Europe and around the world.
They were all successful domestic politicians during an era when social policy, education policy and labour market policy expanded.
We must look to their brave leadership in our own situation.
They took brave steps and advanced our societies into modern welfare societies.
I believe that today we have a new chance to take new steps
* * *
Social democracy in Europe faces serious challenges.
The need for fresh thinking and exchanges like the Kreisky-Brandt-Palme is needed.
We must start a discussion on a new kind of economy and a new kind of welfare society.
The needs for social democratic solutions have not decreased - quite the contrary.
We need a new economy based on social trust.
Importance of trust is not just a fuzzy fabrication from we social democrats - it is an important prerequisite for stable economic growth.
In societies where there are high levels of trust – as in the Nordic Welfare model – the transaction costs are low.
That is a fact which is very important both for each individual but also for growth.
It will also help in crises.
The Swedish conservative government got an “air-bag” from the last social democratic governments before we hit the financial crash.
The extreme example of Greece shows the harmful effects of low trust on the economy, both in terms of investment levels and difficulty in getting tax payments.
Another lesson from Kreisky, Brand and Palme that must be learned is that inequality must be kept down.
Income inequality is increasing in most OECD countries today.
In Sweden the richest ten percent have increased their incomes substantially more than the poorest ten percent since the 1980s.
In Sweden, the trend has been accelerated by the fact that the ten percent poorest got sharply reduced incomeduring the last conservative government.
Policies that increase inequalities will reduce confidence and trust in the community.
My simple answer is that we must not implement tax or social benefit systems that increase the income gap.
A growing inequality affects everyone.
In the future access to skilled labor will be even more important.
Therefore, our focus must be on the knowledge-based economy.
That emphasizes the importance of education.
If people are long-term unemployed with little or no hope of new and better jobs,
intolerance, protectionism and poverty will grow.
If we don’t combat unemployment and especially the youth unemployment we will put the EU-project at risk.
A closer collaboration between academia, industry, government and trade unions is needed.
Education, a quality child care, the opportunity to find housing where the jobs are, roads and punctual public transport.
When people know they will get a second chance if they fail, they will dare to try new things. This is what we mean by social trust.
We Social Democrats have a particular responsibility to lead the process of
improving quality of education, healthcare and efficiency in the public sector.
It is our passion, our history and our ideology.
Our political opponents are driven by the desire to sell off and reduce these sectors.
Brandy, Kreisky and Palme showed that all this is possible.
* * *
Friends,
We speak about three true internationalists.
It is obvious that the leaders inspired each other on the international arena.
They all left progressive foot-prints in our history books.
We would have had a quite different EU without Willy Brandt’s brave “Ostpolitik” – which gave him the Nobel Peace Price.
A common engagement which kept them busy together was the Middle East conflict.
It is still one of our main international issues.
Between 1982 and 1985, Bruno Kreisky was the first European statesman to develop and pursue a comprehensive Middle East peace policy. It was aimed at initiating direct peace negotiations between Israel and the PLO. This was by way of a humanitarian exchange of prisoners as a prelude to a two-state solution.
The former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has described this Middle East peace policy as visionary but “ahead of his time”. An expression also commonly used about Brandt’s policies in Germany and Palme’s policies in Sweden.
In Sweden Palme was inspired and realized that a peace accord in the Middle East needed a democratic Palestinian party to pave the way for a two-state solution.
The goal was a Palestinian state and an Israeli, side by side within recognized and safe borders. Palme saw the PLO and Fatah's importance for a settlement and brought in Arafat in the international community's cooperation and invited him to a meeting in Stockholm 1983.
The invitation was not unconditional.
Palme demanded that Arafat would recognize the state of Israel's right to exist, accept the two-state solution and stop using violence as a political tool.
He also put pressure on Israel. The Israelis would recognize the PLO and a Palestinian state, leave the occupied territories and start negotiating.
This laid the foundation for the subsequent peace agreement, with the historic agreement in Oslo.
A dialogue started, the conversation was going on in the Socialist International.
There sat Olof Palme, along with Bruno Kreisky and Willy Brandt tireless leaders of the political dialogue.
They wanted to get away from polarization and hatred.
They wanted dialogue and respect.
The common security policy was the only feasible and correct option.
Olof Palme formulated it this way:
“International security must be based on cooperation for joint survival rather than on the threat of mutual annihilation.”
(Svenska original: Den internationella säkerheten måste vila på samarbete för gemensam överlevnad i stället för på hot om ömsesidig förintelse)
It is a political shame that we haven’t seen more progress in the Middle East peace process.
Today,
we need to gather political support for the recognition of a Palestinian state.
I have urged the Swedish government to support our proposal of recognition.
President Abbas is ready to negotiate about a two-state-solution based upon the 1967 borders. He got strong support in UN-resolutions, in the EU and from president Obama.
It is time to achieve the mission which Willy Brandt, Bruno Kreisky and Olof Palme outlined more than twenty years ago for a lasting peace in the Middle East.
To accomplish change we need international solidarity – that requires political commitment and not least youth involvement and activity.
Peace and liberty must be defended by generation after generation.
Young people like you must take a position.
IUSY and all its member organizations have a historic mission and can count on my and our support.
Thank you.