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Defense Staff. Individuals in highly sensitive positions are subject to periodic investigation by the Security Police, which was responsible for the detection of master spy Colonel Stig Wennerstrom in 1963.
The trade union movement, which is closely associated with the Social Democratic Party, remains a primary target of Communist penetration. As of 1964 the Swedish Communist Party had reportedly succeeded in infiltrating some 2,000 party members into the trade unions, with the objective of obtaining information on the Social Democratic Party's plans and activities. Communist penetration has been greatest in the unions representing the forest, mining, metal, construction, and transportation workers. Communist control, however, has been limited to approximately 80 of the more than 9,000 trade union locals affiliated through various federations with the LO. The party has not succeeded in capturing any of the 29 national federations affiliated with the LO, nor has it obtained representation on the general council or executive board of the LO.
In its continuing effort to attract new members, the Communist party relies heavily on front organizations for the dissemination of propaganda on behalf of its own causes and those sponsored by the Soviet Communist Party. These fronts are composed largely of Communists and fellow travelers and are designed to enlist the support of non-Communists who are sympathetic to the Communist position on certain issues. The two most important fronts are the Swedish Peace Committee and the Association for the Promotion of Cultural and Economic Relations between Sweden and the Soviet Union. The Swedish Peace Committee, founded in 1949 as a local branch of the Communist-dominated World Peace Council, was the host in Stockholm for two congresses of the council - the meeting in 1950 that launched the Stockholm Peace Appeal and a 1954 conference for the relaxation of international tensions. In 1966 it was the host for a meeting in Stockholm of Communist and pacifist groups to launch "a world campaign to stop the war in Vietnam." In recent years such activities have been overshadowed by the activities of the Swedish Vietnam Committee, which includes several extremely left-wing Social Democrats. The Association for the Promotion of Cultural and Economic Relations between Sweden and the Soviet Union is a friendship society with the avowed purpose of promoting contacts between the two countries through exchanges of artists, scientists, students, and members of labor, sport, and women's organizations. It also conducts Russian language courses and serves as the chief agency for distributing non-commercial Soviet films. The association reportedly serves as a channel for funds provided by Communist countries to the Swedish Communist party.
3. Extremist groups
Sweden's traditional tolerance of activity by individuals representing a wide range of the political spectrum has led to a proliferation of extremist groups of marginal importance on the national political scene. Most of these groups are comprised of left-wing theorists who have split off from the Communist party for reasons of ideology, or quasi-fascists bitterly opposed to Sweden's brand of social democracy.
After splitting off from the Communist party, many of the left extremists have subdivided over the Sino-Soviet split. The KFML, a recognized political party that received only 0.4% of the vote in 1970, split in 1970. The pro-Maoist element formed the KFML(r); the "r" stands for revolutionary. The same year the Clarte Federation, a Swedish branch of the French Clarte movement founded in 1919 to promote understanding between Socialist parties, subdivided and formed a more orthodox Communist faction called the Clarte M-L (for Marxist-Leninist). The United National Liberation Front Groups heads the liberation movements and is believed to have been involved in the more violent anti-American protests in Sweden over the Vietnam issue. Students for a Democratic Society, the MLK, the Trotskyite Federation of Revolutionary Marxists, and the Anarchists Federation of Sweden are all part of the extreme left. Most of these organizations try to influence students, conscripts, and trade union members, and nearly all of them publish propaganda tracts. Their membership and scope of operations are very small, and they post virtually no threat to government stability. The same is true for the various right-wing organizations which have been credited with occasional anti-Semitic acts. Three of the most prominent organizations among the Fascist groups are the Neo-Swedish Movement, the Nordic National Party, and the Liberal Union Party.
Sweden has had far more trouble from emigre groups to which it offers asylum than from its native extremists. Of particular concern are the violence-prone Yugoslav emigres, who assassinated the Yugoslav Ambassador in Stockholm in 1971 and reportedly placed a bomb on board a Yugoslav airliner before it departed Stockholm for Belgrade in 1972. Such terrorist activities are alien to the Swedes and may cause the government to reconsider its liberal policy of accepting exiles, particularly those who advocate violence as a means of redressing grievances.
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200090019-6
