In Sweden the main mobilisation critizing globalisation has concerned MAI both for Friends of the Earth Sweden and other popular movements. FoE Sweden have issued a MAI-report before the decision was made in April by Dennis Pamlin. You can find it on FoE Sweden home-page www.mjv.se, but only in swedish. FoE Sweden also made an action distributing leaflets in front of the gates of Ericsson headquarters in Stockholm to confront the hypocrisy of TNCs when officially stating environmental goals while at the same time supporting the strong ICC stand in the MAI negotiations against environmental standards.
At its annual general meeting FoE Sweden joined People's Global Action against WTO, "Free" Trade and Globalisation 26.4. A statement was made at the same occasion against the support of Western European nuclear industry which European Bank of Reconstruction and Development makes to enlarge the capacity of nucelar plants in Eastern Europe especially Chernobyl. A special booklet on EBRD have been made by FoE Sweden. FoE Sweden and other popular organisations also protested jointly 29.4 against the parliamentarian decision to ratify the Amsterdam Treaty.
Most succesful in terms of public opinion has the protest an debate on the Schegen treaty been. A network of anti-racist organisations together with FoE Sweden and No to EU made a serie of seminars in September last year. In November there was demonstrations and the fairly succesful petition signed by 26 swedish organisations (and organisations in some 8 other countries but few organisations from each one of them) against the mass arrests at the EU-Summit in Amsterdam. Protests and demonstrations continued during the spring against the Schengen treaty fueled by a book made with the speaches made by professor Thomas Mathiesen, Fortress Europe? editor Nicholas Busch and researcher Jan Flyghed at the seminars in September. It finally reached its peak when the parliemant supported the Schengen treaty in mid-April. The issue maintains a topic. New EU-harmonized laws makes it easier to arrest people.
On 1st of May the police entered Kafe 44, equivalent to Vrankrijk in Amsterdam an searched 400 people claiming that they had clear indications that there was a bomb in the locality with the intention of being against a nazi-demonstration. Nothing was found but the search was made in a way with obsessive use of violence and against the decision made by the court. In Denmark Schengen and the Amsterdam arrests is still a hot issue. A week ago a book was published made by the journalists at the Danish state radio that all through last autumn made news about the mass arrests in Amsterdam and now turned their reports into a book. They also at the same time put the secret SIRENE handbook on the official Danish youth State Radio home page which is an illegal act.
In Sweden FoE Sweden also participated in the reclaiming the street parties in Stockholm and Göteborg 16.5 organised by different groups
with some hundred partcipants at both places. For the occasion we made
a special issue in 7.000 copies for free distribution of FoE Sweden paper
Miljötidningen on climate issues and reclaiming the streets including
criticism of globalisation. Plans to make something specific about WTO was unfortunatly abonded.