Welcome! Newsletter number 42.
Struggling to get this out in time (has to be posted on the evening of the first of the month, CET, at the very latest), as I’ve been camping at the Formula 1 race in Spielberg, Austria, helping a friend and colleague to record a radio documentary. I know nothing about radio documentaries, so I was happy to be invited to tag along. The days were enlightening in many ways but also exhausting. As I understand it, nothing will be aired before 2025, so patience is required (on all ends). You’ll be updated.
Before I left for Austria, things were busy in Sweden, as the country shuts down during the summer, so everyone’s rushing to get their errands done before that. In addition, a workplace section of our union (SAC) went on strike. I wrote a little something about this for Arbetaren. After one of my visits at the picket line, I also had a meeting with the great folks from Husby Arbetarcentrum – always a pleasure. To round out the general secretary tasks, I wrote an opinion piece for Accent, the journal of Sweden’s sobriety organization, IOGT-NTO. Always nice to tie different interests (in this case union organizing and sobriety) together.
Sobriety was the topic of one of my podcast appearances in June as well. I chatted with Stephen Kimball from Sober Dad Crew. I also talked about union organizing and philosophy on Denmark’s Utopisk Front, and about Austromarxism and Red Vienna on Cosmonaut.
For the German monthly ak, I commented on the surprising success of the Nordic countries’ left-wing parties in the elections for the EU parliament – sadly, it didn’t reflect the elections’ overall trend.
Members of our Polish sister organization IP are also on strike. As the union’s resources are limited, they’re doing a fundraiser. There are worse places to channel money to.
More next month, perhaps even a new review. Stay safe!