European Workers Party

The European Workers' Party ("Europeiska arbetarpartiet" - EAP) is a very small political party in Sweden without parliamentary representation. The party is the Swedish section of the LaRouche Movement.

History

The movement was established as the European Labour Committees (ELC) in 1974 by two American LaRouchians, William "Bill" Jones and Michael Vale. Bill Jones had lived in Sweden since 1968, appearing to be a Vietnam deserter. The movement started to build its organization around the young Swedish student Kerstin Tegin, later Tegin-Gaddy, and her American husband to-be Clifford Gaddy. However, the party never became much bigger than a handful of people. During this period, Sweden was one of the few countries that openly harboured and encouraged American GIs in Vietnam to defect, and it is often insinuated that EAP was set up in Sweden by the CIA in order to label the defectors as left-wing extremists. [Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet, August 2, 1976, on EAP and Kerstin Tegin]

The EAP launched campaigns based on what was described by the Swedish government as "extreme Palme hatred" against the Swedish Prime Minister. [ [http://www.regeringen.se/content/1/c4/04/58/cdb532ab.pdf SOU 2002:87 "Rikets säkerhet och den personliga integriteten"] , Swedish Government Official Report, p. 239] A 2002 government report stated:

It became increasingly common in the media to characterize the EAP as "fascist" or "right-wing extremist". One reason for this was the pronounced anti-sovietism [of the party] , its extreme Palme hatred, and its adherence to anti-semitic jargon and conspiracy theories. [Swedish Government Official Reports 2002:91]

After the Olof Palme assassination in 1986, the group was suspected by the police of having something to do with the murder, although this theory was soon dropped. Dean Andromidas, from the LaRouche organisation's'Executive Intelligence Review' claims there was a radio broadcast on Swedish National Radio in August of 1992 by Herbert Brehmer, former leading operative of the East German Stasi and author of "Auftrag: Irreführung. Wie die Stasi Politik im Westen machte". Andromidas claimed that Brehmer "explained how his Department 10, responsible for disinformation, put into motion a preplanned disinformation operation to pin the blame for the murder of Palme on LaRouche and his Swedish associates." [ [http://www.cesc.net/radicalweb/radicalconsultation/notices/nb173.html Lyndon La Rouche's Palme Theory ] ] According to another LaRouche associate, Jeffrey Steinberg, South African interests lie behind the murder and the EAP was to blame for the murder. [ [http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2005/site_packages/ss_privatization/3203_train.html John Train: Portrait of an 'Economic Hit Man' ] ] LaRouche issued a statement on the allegations made against his organization. [ [http://www.larouchepub.com/lar/1995/carlsson_reply.html Carlsson's Lies about Palme's Murder, by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. (Nov. 10, 1995) ] ]

However, as a result of the hard pressure put on the EAP after the Olof Palme assassination, the party was thrown into disarray, numerous members left the party, the party left its Stockholm headquarters and more or less went underground, and leaders of the party - the Gaddys - abandoned the party and left Sweden for the USA, [ [http://www.regeringen.se/sb/d/108/a/1244 Granskningskommissionens betänkande i anledning av Brottsutredningen efter mordet på statsminister Olof Palme ] ] where they eventually pursued successful academic careers. [ [http://modernlanguages.cua.edu/faculty/profiles/gaddy.cfm The Catholic University of America - Modern Languages Department ] ] [ [http://www.brookings.edu/scholars/cgaddy.htm Clifford G. Gaddy - Brookings Institution ] ]

Election history

The EAP had its best election in 1985 when they received 369 votes.

In the '90s, the party kept a relatively low profile, but it has resurfaced in the early 21st century and ran for national parliament and the local assembly of Botkyrka in the Swedish election in September 2006. [ [http://www.nysol.se/eap/ LaRoucherörelsen i Sverige ] ] The party only received 83 votes (0.0015%) in the election for the national parliament, [ [http://www.val.se/val/val2006/slutlig/R/rike/ovriga.html Allmänna val 17 september 2006 ] ] and 64 votes (0.16%) in the local election in Botkyrka. [ [http://www.val.se/val/val2006/slutlig/K/kommun/01/27/ovriga.html Allmänna val 17 september 2006 ] ]

Party leaders

*Kerstin Tegin-Gaddy, 1974/76-1986
*Michael Ericson, 1986-2003
*Ulf Sandmark, 2003-2007
*Hussein Askary, 2007-

References

*"Dagens Nyheter", November 10, 1968, on ADC and Bill Jones in Sweden
*"Dagens Nyheter", October 24, 1975, on EAP and Lyndon LaRouche
*"Aftonbladet", August 2, 1976, on EAP and Kerstin Tegin

Notes

External links

* [http://www.larouche.se Official web site]