Anders MacGregor-Thunell

Syndicalist I was brought up in a home where my foster father was an intellectual conservative, but (as I have found out through the years) not strictly for the political beliefs but more for the preservation of an accustomed lifestyle. Even though he came from a line of stonecutters from the western part of Sweden his father had "made it" as a butcher - he did the "classtravel" within one generation. My grandfather was then able to give his children an education. My father became a Medical Doctor so the home I grew up in was a typical upper middle-class home. I have a four year older sister that showed great political interest early (she's born 1951). Through discussions with her and her friends I came to some early political conclusions - all inspired from the radical left. In the end of the 1960's (as a young teenager) I participated in my earlist political debates as a representative of the Communist Party Youth of Sweden (too young to join the party though which was quite good). I wasn't very comfortable with this affiliation (with a party who supported a totilatarian system) and therefore I started to look towards the organized "free left" - SAC (the Syndicalists). It was in this environment I came to continue my active poltical "carrier". I'm still counting myself as a syndicalist - not as active as I once was but definitely not desillusioned. Over the years I have been involved in many smaller political projects - from early activities which included demonstrations, house occupations, etc... to the formal burning of my pension papers, debates against the "establishment" and still demonstrations as a not so young person anymore. My early inspirations came from the courses I took in the interpretation of different ideologies, especially Marxism. I read works by Marx, Lenin, Bernstein, Mao as well as Bakhunin, Kropotkin, Goldman, Berkman, Oppenheimer, etc... Since this is a post of political ideology I thought I would mention some of the main ideas behind my interpretation of syndicalism. Main aim – to take over the means of production: Since capitalism uses all means necessary to increase productivity and profits we see a ruthless exploitation of both people and the environment. Therefore it’s necessary to make the means of production a property of all. Federations instead of parliaments based on political parties: For me the bourgeois concept of a parliamentary system built on political parties is very limited and unfair. It should be replaced by the principles of federalism. This means that all those who are affected by a decision have the right to participate in the decision-making process. True representation instead of political elite: Larger groups of people must reach decisions via representatives. The representation should rotate within the entire group structure. Representatives should be given limited authority and their powers should be revoked, thus ensuring that no elite arises and promotes its own interests. Internationalism: Syndicalism is international by nature and strives for solidarity and co-operation among wage earners the world over – not only inside “fortress Europe”. That’s why I was against Sweden joining the European Union! Organizing and educating all wage-earners: It’s very important to make all wage-earners aware of the principles of exploitation and oppression from a power elite. Workers of all kind must therefore be brought up with a union of solidarity, awareness and good organization. Direct action: Direct action is one of the great means for changing society and living conditions. I believe that this is the basis for creating political literacy. My political beliefs has had an impact on my personal lifestyle. I became a vegetarian over 30 years ago (my wife is also a vegetarian and our 5 children has been raised vegetarian), we try to avoid using a car (as much as possible we use public transportation and we don't own a car), we try to support local ecological farmers and smaller "solidarity stores" and if possible avoid anything produced by multi-national companies. I'm also a strong believer in gender equality but I realize that we still have a long way to go. I'm now 50+ and several of my friends over the years are still waiting for me to grow up...

One of the things that seems important for students are tutorials. When we visit the archives we spend quite some time going through basic archive information that could be done on the web. Therefore I intend to build up a digital photo and videobased tutorial which gives my students the basic knowledge so that they can prepare their visit in the archive. This also gives you an idea on the use of ICT... (the tutorial could be downloaded on their laptops so that they could follow a step-by-step lesson on the spot...). One step further would of course be to add "Q & A" - in digital photo and videoformat. This would get more people into the archives - and more people would become "archive literate"... Is this something that can be done when you send your students to the local archives in your country?

OK - We will not do it during this weekend then. I will not have any problems finding other things to do - right now I'm covered with essays, tests, etc... Next week might be little bit tricky fort me though. I'm leaving Sweden for a week in Rome on Wednesday but I will try to participate the day before and I hope that other members will as well. Thank you once again David for giving us this opportunity.

I think this would be a great idea. To be able to get everybody ready I would suggest a trial next weekend - one time at Saturday (1/10) and one time at Sunday (2/10). We could start with a discussion about the trial period of the MSN system which ended the day before (Friday 30/9). My suggestion would be to do this in the late afternoon. What about 17.00 UK time (18.00 in Sweden...) both days?

A very rewarding seminar. This was a very structured presentation where we got to learn about the background of "digital storytelling" and later got to see some fascinating samples of this practice. What I especially enjoy with "digital storytelling" is the possibilities to let our students conduct them. It also gives them a good introduction to various practice of ICT. Very good! I will definitely try this out with my students and report back about the results. John - It's funny you mentioned Studs Terkel. To prepare for the interviews I conducted in Texas 1989-1990 (working on my PhD) I studied many different approaches towards Oral History from "The Voice of the Past" by Paul Thompson to the works of Tamara Hareven and Studs Terkel. Tamara Harevens book "Amoskeag: Life and Work in an American Factory City" and Studs Terkels book "Division Street: America" became two of my absolute favorite books. Ever since then I have had a special heart for "Oral History"...

Your presentation of the use of ICT in your preparations for a multi sense approach with lots of good practice was very rewarding. It gave me flashbacks as well as new ideas. It's important to be reminded what teaching is all about sometimes - and you did remind us of that in a very pedagogical and interesting way. I'm looking forward to read your summary as well as maybe see a little video clip when you practice some of these skills with your students in the near future.

Den 8:e september 2005 så stod Hvitfeldtska Gymnasiet som värd för det tredje E-HELP mötet. Vi hade 4 stycken mycket högklassiga föreläsare som visade oss olika multisensoriska idéer för klassrummet (som har utarbatats med hjälp av ICT), en metod att göra mer personliga videodokumentärer "digital storytelling" och slutligen en mängd idéer om distanskurser utifrån David Richardsons erfarenheter som lärare vid Kalmar högskola. Mötet hade också två stycken workshops. Den ena ägnades åt den hemsida vi håller på att bygga upp med hjälp av "Uniservitys" CMS system och den andra var en kort introduktion i videoredigering för publicering på nätet. Även om dessa workshops var relativt korta så gav det medlemmarna en mängd idéer och nya infallsvinklar i deras arbete med ICT. På denna länk (Göteborgsmöte E-HELP) kan du finna den dagordning vi hade vid mötet, mötesprotokollet som talar om vad som hände samt några fotografier som också visar en annan viktid sida av ett ftf möte - den sociala sidan. Om någon har frågor om det pågående arbetet så står jag gärna till tjänst och svarar i möjligaste mån.

I like this idea. At the next meeting in Heerlen I think we should put some time and start the planning of two "distance meetings". The first one would be in line with the idea of The next one should then be the follow-up you suggested The last "Lancaster method" sounds like a great one for a continuation of E-HELP... I realize that distance learning takes a lot of planning time and I'm sure glad that we invited you at this early stage in our project. Now we have the time to learn more about distance learning, try the system out and plan our part well. Thank you very much for both your input at the meeting in Gothenburg and your lesson here.

The formal closing of Virtual School was an interesting experience. Personally I think it's good to have a formal closing - it sure is better than not giving any clear messages at all which makes the departments inactive and forgotten while they wait for some information about the future... During this final meeting several departments showed what they had acomplished over the seven years of VS. We got to experience many PP presentations. When Dalibor presented the History Department he did this without PowerPoint. Instead he shortly told the audience about a few personal reflections of the years and then showed one result of the VS - a teacher who never did anything with the help of ICT (a true ICT illiterate) with other words "moi". I talked very briefly about my personal experience of VS - from the meeting in Holland 2001 up till today. At the end of this presentation I showed the picture from our last History Department meeting in Gothenburg - the American Civil War photo. After that I showed a second photo - from Marstrand last Saturday (10/9 2005). Dalibor then shortly presented the E-HELP project (dissemination). At Saturday (yesterday) we got to hear about some of the new EUN run projects. Several national boards especially mentioned eTwinning. Xplora and Calibrate were also mentioned. It was quite obvious that less money was given to the continuation of different parts of the European School Network. We therefore asked if we couldn't have 5 minutes for a very brief presentation of E-HELP so we could show other ways to go if you couldn't be inrolled in these big sponsored projects. Angela Andersson approved our very late request and we then once more got to inform a little bit about E-HELP (more dissemination). This information included a short story about the meeting in Brussels (2003) where we got to participate in a Comenius session, to the Madrid meeting and our actual application up till today with just a glimse on what we are doing. This was also a little reminder on what actually was made possible by the existence of Virtual School. So without the History Department at Virtual School there would not have been any E-HELP project. That's why I would like to especially thank Dalibor for the opportunity to participate in Virtual School, the fact that he managed to get together such a healthy and passionate group of people who together actually got something accomplished. During this last meeting we were once again reminded that Virtual School was the most viewed school on the net and we already know from previous meetings that the History Department was one of the leading departments within the VS. So once again - Thank you Dalibor for the work you did put into this - and thank you all members for adopting a big hairy Swede. It's great to have a continuation in E-HELP!

First of all - thank you very much for an inspiring presentation. I personally feel that we were so lucky at the Gothenburg meeting because we found such interesting and gifted educators! I have now had the pleasure of viewing the videoversion on the parts of your presentation that I missed. What I especially like with your presentation is the focus on the Communication process. It's a well known truth among the more experienced teachers that the pedagogical approach doesn't have to be the one that is in fashion - it's the communication between the teacher and the student(s) that makes the difference. Here ICT could have been a problem. It's interesting to follow how you have overcome eventual problems that could occure when you try to keep a teacher-student (or student-student) relation over distance. Distance education with the help of ICT has truly become a powerful instrument. I think this offer sounds very interesting and I would be glad to try it out with other members. Maybe we should plan a shorter Marratech meeting before the Heerlen meeting?

Jag kommer nu utveckla fler sidor om E-HELP från min egen hemsida. Här är en länk till den svenska delen av E-HELP (dock är de flesta texter på engelska): E-HELP

As a "teaser" I sometimes use both Swedish and Danish textbooks (several textbooks from each country) to explain the numerous conflicts which has existed between these countries from the 1200's up to modern times. It’s interesting to often see the differences in their approach to the origin as well as the outcome of some of these conflicts. You can clearly see a nationalistic undertone in the way of writing history. A few years ago a student of mine investigated Swedish history textbooks during the 1900’s. She saw a very interesting development of the way they described certain older events but the biggest differences were in the way they described “current events”. This is of course only natural since it takes a while until we have enough books written about the specific time period and event, but for me it was valuable to see the changes of the interpretation of older Swedish history. One example was the more "German friendly" approach before WWII which came to quite an abrupt end after the war... The relation to current events affected the interpretation of the past. I hope that you realize the problems of "objectivity"... So my message is that it's not possible to write a historical account of an event without making judgements or having any interpretations but you can identify the general opinions about a certain event and give an account what most likely happened according to the interpretations of the historians available. Indoctrination is not possible to avoid but you need to be able to identify what it is that you are exposed to. One of the greatest tasks for a history teacher is to make you aware of this and foster a critical mind that's able to see what is behind the written account. It is this political and historical awareness that's desirable.

In Sweden the government socialized medicin many years ago. This system is still the most common one, but today we have private medical care as well. The government spends less money on the medical sector today but in general the system still works. Most people get good or adequate care, but in some cities the timelines for different surgeries can be long... You also hear of a few cases where people have "died in line" and a few cases where an individual has not got the proper care - most of the time due to lack of human resources (cut down of the numbers of doctors, nurses and other personal within the medical sector). Since I have quite a large family we have used the Swedish health care system fairly often and so far it has worked very well so my personal experience is good. What worries me now is the fact that the government spends more money on the Common Market membership as well as cutting the taxes for the bigger enterprises and less money on hospitals, schools and the retirement funds. This is a trend that started in the 1980's and it seems to escalate. The result is as I described above - less resources in the medical sector. Another result is less and less resources to schools. Most of the Swedish schools have been on a tight budget the last 15 years. Classes are bigger today, schools are forced to close down even though the numbers of students are going up, less teachers are employed and more administrative duties burdens the teachers within the system + the investments in the individual schools are kept on a minimum. Another sign of this problem is the growing number of private schools - a development that I recent very much! Education should be paid for and everybody should have the same opportunities!!! We use to have one of the best educations in Europe within grade and Upper Secondary School but Sweden often finds itself somewhere in the middle of the "rankings" today. Our neighbour Finland (my native country) has an Upper Secondary School systems that's top ranked in Europe today. They spend quite a bit more money on their education system. The same goes for our neighbour in the south - Denmark. The problem within the Swedish school system is not only the lack of resources but that is another story... The crime rate compared with the rest of Europe is still very low and I think personally that the quality of life is good. My family and I enjoy living here. My oldest son has moved to Helsinki in Finland and he thinks it is as good as here. The Nordic countries in general seems to still be a quite little safe corner of the world... I lived several years in the US, actually one year as a visiting scholar at UT in Austin (we then lived in Round Rock...). When I compare with the life in Sweden I always think about the generousity of the people we met in the US, the intellectual stimulans I got from so many collegues within the educational system at the universities and colleges I worked at and the many good times we had. Therefore I don't understand how you can end up with the kind of political system you have - you deserve much better!

Being brought up in a society that use to base their politics on progressive taxation I don't agree with Mark when he says that this form is as wrong as the right. The idea of sharing the wealth with the less fortunate through the governments initiative fosters an idea of solidarity. Many times people feel helpless as an individual but they do get impressed with what a collective can do. That's the strength of this action. Sweden use to be a poor country not to long ago. In the latter half of the 19th century over 1/4 of the population emigrated to the US trying to find a way out of poverty. At that time the relief of the poor was based on the good of a few individual initiatives. The government did not interfer and the gap between the rich and poor was enormous. This is exactly what happens when you let the wealthy run the business without any constraint. Today we see that we are on the way back to this kind of society in a global neoliberal economy. The bigger enterprises are making more profit than ever, they more and more uses the resources of the poor countries (as well as ruining the environment) and the gap between rich and poor is getting wider. Many of these wealthy ruthless people are "mock-religous" - they claim that they are good Christians and they try to portray their life and success as a God given order...

I'm already included in some of the panels but I will also let some of my classes participate.

Yes I would like to know - Who gave this ultra-rightist group their name? Is it possible to see when they got their name? and finally why did they pick this specific name (or more what did they understand with the name that they picked for the group)? I don't mind waiting at all. It have asked this question to many of my collegues both in the US and here in Sweden and no one has so far given me an answer to this question. I really appreciate your effort and I'm looking forward to hear from your friend.

An interesting answer. Thank you Zhenia. Now I have the possibility to see where the name might have originated from. What I still wonder is - when did the "black hundred" get their name? By whom? and if possible what was the meaning of the name in this political context for these people?

No John! Unfortunately I didn't. I had my hopes up when I got a hold of this book some years ago but I was dissapointed. No explanation to where the name came from.

I have taught history since the late 1970's and often focused on modern Russian History. During the turbulent years in the beginning of the 20th century I go through the political situation on the left as well as on the right. One of the rightist organizations was the "Black Hundred" (Чёрная сотня, черносотенцы in Russian, or Chernaya sotnya, chernosotentsy). I know about the organization in general, I know about their politics, some of the members as well as several of thier publications but I have never got a good explanation on the origin of the name. So I would very much like to find out where this name originated from.

In 1996 the Austrian journalist Hans-Peter Martin and the German journalist Harald Schumann published a book called Die Globalisierungsfalle - Der Angriff auf Demokratie und Wohlstand (The Global Trap - The Assault on Democracy and Prosperity). This book describes some of the affects of the globalization of the economy. In an interview with the Australian "Foreign Correspondent" 1997 Hans-Peter Martin was asked the following question: Hans-Peter Martin, why the title "The Global Trap", and why the very dramatic sub-title "Globalization and the Assault on Democracy and Prosperity"? That's a very dramatic title, to say the least. Well, because you see exactly this happening in the world. Globalization by itself is not a trap, but there are lots of traps involved - and the biggest problem is that up until recently we were told there is only one way of globalization... globalization was portrayed to us like a law of nature - and this is simply not true. And the assault on democracy and prosperity we happening, especially in the up until now well-off nations - among them Australia and my home country Austria, where the rich are really taking off. The ones that are strong.. the ones that can hook up to each other on the internet, and are young and mobile.. they are profiting from the new globalized world, whereas more than two-thirds of the population are just staying behind. And the consequences of this growing income gap, and this growing gap of opportunities is that we see the radical seducers on the rise - be it Pauline Hanson in Australia, be it ( ? ? ) in my country, be it Le Pen in France. This is obviously not a recent development but we now see much more the results of this economic policy. So we have three different countries; UK, Australia and Sweden, all of them with strong Labor Parties and all three have chosen the same path. They have gone away from progressive taxation, they are dominated by media that's controlled by "certain" interests and they try to give global capitalism a friendly face. That's more than just a coincidence. It would be very interesting to hear if we have more countries that has experienced the same development.

It's very interesting to see so many parallels between Britain and Sweden. In Sweden we have the same problem - the fact that we are going away from the progressive taxation and make it possible for people with higher incomes to get away from their social responsibilities is hardly ever an issue in the media (which happens to be owned to nearly 100% by the established parties that support this development (conservative, liberals and the Social Democrats)). The result of this change is less money for hospitals, schools, old care, pensions, etc... The few times this issue is brought up in media (which as I said is very rare) it's described as a healthy economical development! What was behind this development? Several of the bigger executives in the private sector had for years threaten to withdraw their companies from Sweden if the taxation rules did not change. This threat was repeated when we voted for the membership of the European union. Sweden changed their tax policies and joined the union. What happened then - Several of the companies still moved their business abroad... which once again shows how naive it is to see big private buinesses take any social responsibilities. I very much recent this development. It's an unfortunate thing that our ex. socialist party (Social Democrats) has so completely changed character and now works as a supporting party for the rich establishment. Our ancestors who build up the Swedish welfare state must rotate (or more propeller) in their graves. This is not only serious - it's a betrayal!!!

I think this is a very good idea. I agree that it would be interesting to see if other countries went through the same development. It would also be good to see what exactly was it that happened in these countries, to more in detail describe the change. Maybe it could be called "the end of the welfare state" or...

...and we know the results of this. This mirror very well what happened in Sweden. As a cornerstone of the Swedish welfare politics was progressive taxation. To reverse this system was the target of the conservative over the years. Still the country and most of the population experienced a period (from the 1940's into the 1970's) of continous progress. The result of progressive taxation was well distributed and the differences between rich and poor became much less. Sweden went from being a poor agricultural country in the beginning of the 20th century to a well respected modern industrial country, a role model. In the late 70's and early 1980's we start to see a change. Under the pressure from the capital (wealthy conservative and dominant private enterprises), who had been able to build up their strength within this system(!), the economic politic started to change. The deconstruction of the welfare state had started. Today we don't recognize the "old" Social democratic economic politics. It's economical policy is more conservative than the ideas the conservative party presented in the 50's-70's. The rift between rich and poor has become much wider, the general difference between rich and poor is much bigger, the executives gets these fantasy wages and benefits, the well established companies move their business abroad and the left-over of the old welfare state gets weaker and weaker. This is a most disturbing development... - I know, but when John showed this development in Britain I had to show that this was a development that took place in other countries as well...

I have had the opportunity to live and work in the US several years and I'm often quite amazed about the fairly common view that "the US saved Europe and the world in WWII". Tim is not the only individual that I met with this view of the US role during WWII. To be able to evaluate the US war effort it's important to first establish what the US did during the war. This will involve the "Cash and Carry" agreements as well as the "Lend and Lease" together with the actual physical participation in the war. Other questions involve the isolation policy, the US diplomatic relations, when US actually decided to get involved in the war and whith what purpose. This should then be compared with the war effort of the rest of the world... - did the US save the world? or to put it from the other extreme point of view - did the US war effort make any difference what so ever?

That would be the day. It would be very hard for the US capitalistic enterprises to get what they want in this region without a close US monitored Iraq government. You know that, but I do agree with you in your last comment - this is the way it should be done.