Mikael nyberg klöverträsk

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Home page of Mikael Nyberg, a Swedish free-lance journalist and one of the editors of the independent socialist magazine Clarté.

The title of my latest book is Det stora tågrånet (The Great Train Robbery), published in It is not a detective story, but it deals with a crime &#; the rollback of more than a century of social progress in the advanced capitalist countries. After the Second World War Sweden was famous for its social engineering and its welfare state. The new Swedish model is demolishing welfare capitalism and social planning as fast as possible. The European Union has dictated reforms of the railways. These reforms are following the tracks of Swedish governments, going back from public ownership and national co-ordination to the 19th century chaos of the market. EU-leaders are enthusiastic about the Swedish reforms, but the whole experiment has been a major failure. The de-regulated railway system can hardly handle snowfall anymore, trains are late, passengers have to wait for hours on wrecked trains, toilets are filthy or out of order, and working conditions have worsened significantly. That is the theme of this book. I also analyze the connection between the

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Some decades ago a constant pilgrimage to Sweden could be observed. Scholars and politicians visited our country in order to study our social system. They admired the public welfare institutions, the peaceful co-operation between workers and employers and the rational economic planning. Still voices may be heard from various parts of the world speaking highly of &#;the Swedish Model&#; as of a capitalism &#; or even a socialism -with a human face.

At home, however, the Swedish Model has run into a severe snag. In the then Volvo executive, Pehr. G. Gyllenhammar, even referred to it as a &#;national myth&#;:

&#;We need to liberate ourselves from our national myth&#; The only way of saving our jobs and our standard of living is for us, Swedish citizens, to become real Europeans, exposing ourselves to real competition.&#;

Two years later Sweden entered into its most severe economic slump since the ies. The Swedish krona (SEK) was dumped on the international currency markets by our big enterprise and by our banks. The bourgeois government coalition at the time was supported by the social democrat opposition party in its policy of severe cut-downs in welfare spenditure. One of our

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Mikael Nyberg

Mikael Nyberg was awarded the Lenin Award with the following justification:

&#;Mikael Nyberg is one of our country&#;s sharpest critics of the capitalist system and of how people are sacrificed in the continually intensified hunt for profit. Mikael has, as an author and as editor of the journal Clarté, with unusual clarity and insight depicted an increasingly tough working life and ruthless exploitation of human beings. He has documented how one of the Swedish people&#;s most important common assets, the railroad, has been embezzled and sold off to venture capitalists and multinational companies. He has perseveringly and persistently in Lenin&#;s spirit with &#;concrete analysis of concrete conditions&#; given us unique new knowledge and inspiration in the necessary struggle for a new and better world.&#;

The award ceremony