The Swedish Minister of Defense, Pål Jonson, signed a Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA) with the United States Secretary of Defense, Lloyd J. Austin III, on December 6, 2023. The agreement enables US forces to operate in Sweden and outlines the conditions for such operations, another step away from decades of alleged Swedish neutrality.
The Communist Party of Sweden (SKP) has denounced the move and demanded that there be "Not a single American soldier on Swedish soil!".
They released the following statement December 8:
Recently the Swedish Minister of Defense signed an agreement on expanded military cooperation between Sweden and the USA. The agreement represents yet another step towards officially incorporating Sweden into the cooperation of Euro-Atlantic imperialism, with the aim to most effectively safeguard the interests of the capitalists of the region against their competitors.
We view the agreement as logical from the perspective of Swedish capital, as in times of heightened imperialist contradictions, and the clearer crystallization of several imperialist blocs, it becomes necessary for Swedish capital to pick a side and protect its investments. We reject any ideas of Sweden’s submission to American dominance and emphasize that the decision to deepen military cooperation is a self-determined act, based on an increasingly urgent need for Swedish capital to safeguard its own interests and defend them against, among others, Russia.
All the while as this is true, the capitalist world is characterized by a clear hierarchy, with all capitalist countries placed within it - the strongest at the top and the weakest at the bottom, where the stronger ones have more influence while the weaker ones must adapt to a higher extent; the central point, however, is that everyone acts to strengthen their own position and, therefore, the opportunity of their capital for growth. This, and no other, is the context in which the Swedish government chooses to sign this agreement.
The agreement regulates the presence of American military forces in Sweden and the extensive freedoms they will enjoy while placed there.
The American forces will have unimpeded access to seventeen Swedish military bases throughout the country, where they can station troops and stockpile materiel, along with everything else associated with military deployment. The US soldiers will be subject to United States laws, and they will control access to the exclusively US parts of the bases themselves. The US military will be able to freely store weapons on Swedish soil, which they themselves control and can do with as they please.
This step constitutes a Swedish contribution to the escalation of contradictions within the capitalist system, and we oppose this agreement absolutely. Not only does it make Sweden a bigger target in the imperialist competition, but it also makes Sweden an even more potent springboard for imperialist intervention in the region.
Since this development is also forced by the entire evolution of the capitalist system, all resistance must be connected to a struggle against capitalism, and we therefore reject an illusory struggle for neutrality, knowing that the capitalist system does not allow capitalists to be neutral.
Therefore, the communists call for turning the struggle against closer cooperation with the USA into a struggle for power and for the future. We refuse to accept Swedish soldiers participating in imperialist wars and that the land we live on is used for attacking others.
Before the American murderers even arrive in Sweden, we tell them to go home - to imperialism's slaughter, we give neither soil nor water!
Communist Party of Sweden
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