'Homo Sacer' Out of Left Field

'Homo Sacer' out of Left Field: Communist "Slime" as Bare Life in 1930s and Second World War Sweden
Author(s): Michael Landzelius Reviewed work(s): Source: Geografiska Annaler. Series B, Human Geography, Vol. 88, No. 4 (2006), pp. 453-475 Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4621540 . Accessed: 20/06/2012 04:54
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'HOMO SACER' OUT OF LEFT FIELD: COMMUNIST "SLIME" AS BARE LIFE IN 1930s AND SECOND WORLD WAR SWEDEN
by Michael Landzelius
Landzelius, 2006: 'HomoSacer'Outof LeftField:CommuM., nist "Slime" BareLife in 1930sandSecondWorldWarSweas

den. Geogr. Ann., 88 B (4): 453-475.
This articlemapsways in whichradicalleft-wing ABSTRACT. WarSwedenwereconceived politicsin 1930sandSecondWorld dein medico-biological eugenictermsthatexpressed and strong humanizingsentiments.The article engages Agamben'sand and Foucault's extensiveon thinking 'biopolitics' 'biopower',and as discourse deployed leading Sodehumanizing by ly exemplifies within cial Democratic leadingfiguresof government politicians, and thepoliceandmilitary, well asby editors bothright-wing as of Social Democraticpress. Ways in which individualslabelled in were spatially 'Communists' managed termsof extensivesurdetainment and veillance, registration, planning formsof incarcerationareaddressed. further I discussstatemeasures maybe that seen as elementsof a stateof exception,some measures impleand others against individuals mented against 'Communists', In deemed haveundesirable characteristics tobehereditary. seen to in of notionof 'inoperosity' a discussion a ror" includes "a set of new geographies of anarchy employing Agamben's state paradigm social productivity, of eugenic measuresin the and chaos (or, terror),chaos no longer confined to of building theSwedishwelfarestatearethenrelated thedehu- within specific far-off places ... but present in our In conditions for of framing 'Communists'. conclusion, manizing a a placein thebodypoliticarebrieflyaddressed. ar- own cities, withinourowncountries; 'geography The regaining ourown freedomandorder" samewas de- of evil' thatthreatens ticle's focuson ways in whichtheethnicandracial withina democracy politicalgrounds humanized on results froma (Minca, 2005, p. 410). I suggest that these very studiesof dehumanization re- same words could be used to characterizethe as consciouseffortto complement as latedto colonialism, dictatorial regimes well as identity politics. anti-comFoucault, Keywords: Agamben, biopolitics, biopower, Sweden munism, dehumanization,
also against partymembers duringthe Moscowtrials (for Swedish1930s newspapers this subject, on witha highly see Pollack,2005).Andin thepresent, developedsensitivityto identitypolitics,extensive is attention given to formsof dehumanizing raor cializing othering based on ethnic or 'racial' same grounds.Yet, waysin whichtheethnicorracial hasbeendehumanized withindemocracies polion I havebeen givenverylittleattention. tical grounds will approach dehumanization 'Communists' the of in Sweden throughan engagementwith Giorgio and on Agamben's MichelFoucault's thinking 'biopolitics'and'biopower'. In relationto the present,Claudio Minca has behindthe "waron tersuggestedthatthe rhetoric
Introduction This articlemaps ways in which radicalleft-wing politics in 1930s and SecondWorldWarSweden were conceivedin medico-biological eugenic and terms that expressedstrong dehumanizing sentiments.Thearticleaddresses waysin whichindividweremanaged terms uals labelled'Communists' in of extensivesurveillance, detainment registration, and The planning formsof incarceration. dehumanizationcomplexof the Holocaust well knownyet is (Agamben, 1999), and people incomprehensible havebeenrightlyshockedby thedehumanizing discourseof 1930sStalinism (insideas well as outside the SovietUnion)as extensively not applied only to attackpoliticaladversaries in the Soviet Union but
Swedish case here addressed. Alleged 'Communists' were framedas "vermin" "poison"in a and likewise spatializedgeographyof evil: "bubonic hotbeds"engaged in treasonous"cell-activities", in and very much"present our own cities".A key thinkerin currenttheorizingof today's 'state of emergency'was WalterBenjamin (as Agamben makesclear)who coinedtheterm'moment danof to ger'in reference thetimeperiodhereunderscrubetween tiny.Yet,memoryis short.Theconnection 'Communists'and racializedothers, particularly Jews, shouldnot be forgotten.Benjaminwas not one only Jewishbut also and importantly of those marked'Communist' his persecutors, expahis by triationfromFranceto Germany by requested the writesthat Gestapoin 1939.In ThesisV, Benjamin "everyimage of the past thatis not recognizedby the presentas one of its own concernsthreatens to disappear irretrievably" (Benjamin,1940). I sug453
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in gestthattheimageof 'Communists' theSwedish 1930s and 1940s shouldbe of concernto reflect stateof emergency. uponin the current The comprehensive measurestakenbeforeand the during SecondWorldWarto controlandin cases of perceivednecessity detainSwedishcitizens who were considered be securityrisksincluded to diverse kinds of elements: dormantemergency dehumanizing powerslegislation; medico-biological discourse;surveillance centres,militarylabor companycamps;and multiplelayers of (to most from and extracted citizens)invisiblegeographies the Swedishterritory, thebuiltenin imposedupon and vironment, upondailynewspapers, uponSwedish citizensas vigilantas well as intimidated bodies. The measurestakenalso includedcomprehensive who were alleged security registersof individuals of and risks;assessments theirpoliticalaffiliations lists lists activities; of theirresidential addresses; of as office addresses well as of allegedmeetingplacof es; mappings eventsthatwere or were believed to be the results of subversiveactivities,and so forth.Andthesemeasures werejust thebeginning; wereto be extended to they alongpathsprepared include the creationof an exceptionalgeography of withplansforthepotential sitesfor detention evacuationof, for example,schools, militarybarracks, prisons and mansions,and their conversioninto guarded campsfor politicaldissidents. The storyof thesecomprehensive measures will be relatedhere undersix headings.I will first,inthe troduce notionsof 'biopower'and 'biopolitics' in relation to the issue addressedhere; second, discourseon 'Communists' presentdehumanizing in governmental documents; third,exemplify the Social Democrats' correspondingdiscourse on of 'Communists'; fourth,discussa number Swedish statemeasuresduringthis periodthatsimultaand to neouslyframed'Communists' related a state of exception;fifth, in relationto notionsof 'biopower' and 'biopolitics'addressthe simultaneous buildingof the Swedishwelfarestateon medicobiologicalgroundsandthe dehumanizing framing and of 'Communists'; finally, engage Agamben's notionof 'inoperosity' address dehumanizato the in tionof 'Communists' relation a stateparadigm to of socialproductivity.
ticularissueaddressed - howradicalleft-wing here politics in 1930s and SecondWorldWarSweden were conceivedin medico-biological eugenic and terms that expressedstrongdehumanizing sentiments- has not been researched. This lacunamay in be understood relationto two factors.First,due on to a metaphysics presence, of research discourse has engagedin aninterpretive searchfor theessentaken.A telling tial or truemeaningof standpoints is Molin'sinformative example studyof the Social Democrats'parliamentary politics from 1939 to for 1945.In accounting thepositionof thoseSocial Democrats who in a 1940 debatewereagainstbanning the Communist Party,Molin statesthatthey believed "thatthe ongoing campaignagainstthe the communists represented best way to rectifythe Molinmentions "thecharacter problem". Although his is of this campaign", interpretation that those Social Democratsbelieved in "the road of argument,whichfroma democratic pointof view is the ideal solution"(1974, pp. 314-315). Molin refers to theparliamentary of arguments SocialDemocrat O.W.Lifgren, who was also editorof the newspaBelow, we per NorrliindskaSocialdemokraten. will see how the "campaign againstthe communists"in Lifgren's papercontained dehumanizing discoursefar from"theideal solution ... of argument".In another context,Molin statesthat"there is no corresponding in modernSwedishhistocase on ryto thepersecution all levelsthatthenbefellthe communists" (1983, p. 48). Yet thereis an immethis diatecausefor thispersecution: "That became of thecase wasbecausethepresence TheRedArmy in a neighboring country[Finland] broughta new realismto the violentplansof upheaval" (1983, p. Molin statesthattherepression of 48). In addition, even communistswas not seen as "goodin itself"' and but amongconservatives themilitary, thatboth "in correspondence public debatethe picture and was carefully of developed thethreat againstwhich one wantedto protectoneself' (1983, p. 51). From studiedin this arsuch a position,the phenomena as ticle cannotbutappear ornaments, impossibleto accountfor in otherways thanto discountas inessential or explain away throughinterpretive viois lenceby which"theroadof argument" produced as historicalfiction. Second,in a relatedandlikewiseepistemologically flawed fashion a strong tendency among Biopower/biopolitics- extending the real/ has Swedishhistorians beento assertthataccounts politics of 'realpolitik' of Sweden duringthis period belong either to a The comprehensive measuressummarized above "moraland ideological"paradigmor to one anin aredocumented previousresearch. the par- choredin notionsdesignatedby the Germanterm But
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'HOMO SACER' OUT OF LEFT FIELD
Realpolitik. The paradigm of Realpolitik starts
fromthe presupposition historyis aboutpolithat consideration optics andpoliticsaboutrational of tions availableto agents.Agentscan be individual but states,whichareaccordsubjects, arenormally reified as subjectswith interestsand inteningly tions (see Schmidt(2002, pp. 29-32), for a critical discussion).This approachhas been particularly clear in Swedish researchon the Second World War,where the focus has been on the "realistic" Swedishnegotiation foreignpolicyin a situation of of powerpolitics (Ekman,1986, 1997).The paradigm of Realpolitik being "based on apositive view
of the coalitiongovernment's objectiveof keeping Swedenout of the war"(Ekman,2003, p. 13, emphasis added)it is inexplicablehow Swedishhisthis torianshavebeen ableto understand paradigm as normatively this neutral.Yet hasenabledtheconstruction a dichotomythatin a naiveandflawed of fashionby defaultmakes any otherapproach appearmoralisticand ideological.In his assessment and communism of Europeananti-communism with regardto Swedishpolitics, Schmidtin reference to Gramsci's conceptof 'hegemony'arguesa differentheterogeneousapproachwhere "[s]tate policy in generaland foreignpolicy in particular an crystallizeoutof andmustbe explained through whole of internal social analysisof a multi-faceted as well as international structures" (2002, p. 32). Schmidt thus understands"the anti-communist crusade" Swedento be an elementin the quest in for politicalhegemonyin whichthe military, business interests,as well as the Social Democrats, all of them internallyfraught,struggledto influence andcontrolstatepower. in Thereis, however,a tendency Schmidtto understandanti-communism a consciously deas to ployed tool, with too little attention the way in which discoursespeaksthroughsubjects.By foregroundingactual statementsof anti-communism, the analysisbelow revealsrepetitive elementsand figuresthatmakethisdiscourse pointbeyondintenand differance enuncitionalitytowards productive ativemodalities Derrida, 1974;Foucault, (see 1972). In tracingconnections with medico-biological disI sentiments becourse, suggestthatanti-communist in came further dehumanizing a fashionthatun/intentionallyproducedother forms of conventional and politics,suchas surveillance, registration, in exnot However, onlypotension,a stateof emergency. liticaldiscourses contribute producedifferent to humans as beings of certainsorts: also spaces and alauthorize, thingsarepoliticalin thatthey"might
low, afford,encourage, permit,suggest,influence, block, renderpossible,forbid,and so on" (Latour, associated elements of 2005,p. 72), as constitutively We 'more-than-human-aggregates'. might also thinkhere of Deleuze and Guattari (1987) andthe of 'machinic concept assemblage'. Objects thus may in a certainsenseproducesubjects,andthe nationstatemaybe seen as sucha productive machinic assemblage, a more-than-human-aggregate through whichsubjects madeto appear a certain are in fashion. As is clearfromthe enumeration aboveof differentmeasures takento combatalleged 'Communist'security riskswithinthenation-state, dehumanwas izing anti-communism not a matterof simply elementin the namingreal risks,but a productive and creation transformation political of bodiesin the 2004).Sinceno systematic bodypolitic(Landzelius, researchexists on the topic at hand,the empirical material belowconsistsof fragments from presented research other on topics,as well as information gatheredduring own archival research relatedor on my othertopics. I will thus not be able to assess the disspreadand frequencyof this anti-communist the courseacross policalspectrum. the Nevertheless, findingscover more than a decadefrom the early 1930s to the SecondWorld War,andincludestatements by leading Social Democraticpoliticians, withinthepoliceand leadingfiguresof government as and of military, well as editors boththeright-wing Social Democraticpress. The findings suggest a widespreadlong-termpresence of dehumanizing of discoursein the deployment medico-biological and construction conjoinedtreatment 'Commuof nists'. While the biopoliticalformulaof sovereignty is basedon the rightto decideover the life anddeath the of subjects, positionof human in biopolitics life as biopoweris in contrast basedon the formula "to 'make'live andto 'let' die"(Foucault, 2003,p. 241; Agamben, 1999, pp. 82, 155). In Foucault,'biopower' is the modernparadigmof power understood"asa productive network whichrunsthrough the whole social body, muchmorethanas a negative instance whose function is repression" (Foucault,1980, p. 119). When sovereignrightis notreplaced, asFoucault and but, writes,penetrated permeated the new rightto makelive, governby mentalpowerpractices turned are towards formsof and normalization regularization thehumanspeof use cies; to makeefficientandcontrolled of thelivbut ing considerednot as individuals as "a multiplicity of men" (Foucault,2003, p. 242; 1997a, 1997b).Withhis notionof 'biopolitics',Agamben 455
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in a certainsense seeks to return modernparathe to of government the formulaof sovereign digm power.Modern poweris in his analysisbasedupon thenomosof thecamp,a permanent of excepstate betweensovertioncharacterized a polarization by eignpowerandnakedorbarelife. Thislife emerges in relationto a force of law thatemanatesfrom a kind of modernsovereigntywhich conparticular stitutesitself as such by holdingthe threshold between biologicallife (zoe) and political life (bios politikos) in a state of indeterminacy (Agamben, 1998, 2000, 2005; see also Derrida,1992). In the contextof this article,one shouldnote Agamben's on and comment 'race'in Nazi discourse practice. It is impossibleto graspthe specificityof the NationalSocialistconceptof race- and,with it, the peculiarvagueness and inconsistency it thatcharacterize - if one forgetsthatthebiothatconstitutesthe new fundapolitical body mentalpolitical subjectis neithera quaestio facti ... nor a quaestioiuris ... but ratherthe site of a sovereignpoliticaldecisionthatoperates in the absoluteindistinctionof fact and law. (Agamben,1998, p. 171) In a parallelfashion, I suggest, Foucaultunderstoodthe tensionbetweenbiopowerandsovereign power to be mediated through 'state racism'. Foucaultpointed out that Darwin'sevolutionary theoryin the secondhalf of the nineteenth century led to a transcription "politicaldiscourseinto of and biologicalterms" became"arealway of thinking" not only about, for example, colonization, madness and mental illness, but also about "the history of societies with their differentclasses" (2003, p. 255; see also Bevir, 2002; Kelly, 2004; and 2004). In the wordsof Spektorowski Mizrachi, a Social Democraticpaperto which I will return: "Oneshouldnot arguewith lunatics.Asylumsare theirplace".Evolutionary theoryenabledthe separationof individualswithin the state, and state racismthuscameto functionas "primarily way of a a breakinto the domainof life thatis introducing under power's control: the break between what must live and what must die" (Foucault,2003, p. 254). Stateracismis the solutionto whatAgamben findsto be a "permanent crisis"of the modernnation-state. old nomosof the nation-state a The was writes Agamben:"foundedon the triangulation, functionalnexus between a determinate localization (territory) a determinate and order(the state), 456
which was mediatedby automatic for regulations the inscription life (birthor nation)". of However, the modern nomosof thenation-state foundedon is the "permanent crisis"broughtabout when "the state decides to undertake management the the of life of thenationdirectlyas its own task" biological of automatic (2000, p.43). Without regulations this a will triangular interdependency,threshold appear as a zone of indeterminacy wherethe force of law will decideor not decideon nakedlife's continued or not continuedexistence inside or outside the zone. Thereis something no longerfunctionsin that the traditional mechanismsthatused to regulate this inscription, the camp is the new and hiddenregulatorof the inscriptionof life in the order- or, rather, is the sign of the sysit tem's inabilityto functionwithouttransforming itself into a lethalmachine. (Agamben,2000, p. 43) to this According Agamben, stateof indeterminacy is dependent the eighteenth upon centuryshift observedby Foucaultfrom 'discipline'to 'security', wantsto produce where:"discipline order,security wantsto regulate disorder" 2001). The (Agamben, cenof 'security'was in the eighteenth conception in with"'policy'[police], the turycloselyconnected sensegivento thewordthen:thatis, thesetof means necessaryto make the forces of the state increase in fromwithin" 1997a,p. 69). Important (Foucault, a discussion of relationsbetween Foucault and Agambenis thatthe conceptof 'police' as well as in thatof 'security' theeighteenth contained century elements bothproductive and of biopower sovereign WhileFoucault focusedontheincreased biopolitics. concern withdisciplining bodiesandmanaging popdiscerns development partica in ulations, Agamben ularly the twentiethcenturytowards a situation wheresecurity reconfigured "becomes bais and the sic principle stateactivity" partlyto a "proof due of tasksof the state" gressivesurrender traditional thanin termsof beingcontradictory, (2001).Rather I suggestone mightherethinkin termsof one orthe other dominant' 1984,p. (Jameson, beinga 'cultural has withregard arelated to 56),orasAgamben stated not topic:"wemustlearnto see theseoppositions as but not 'dichotomies' as 'di-polarities', substantial, buttensional" therearedif(2004).Hence,although ferences between Foucault's focuson theproductive of of employment theplenitude life, andAgamben's juridico-philosophical emphasison the sovereign
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'HOMOSACER' OUTOF LEFTFIELD
of barelife (see Dilexecution powerovera reduced lon, 2005; Genel,2004, Margaroni, 2005; Ojakangas, 2005a,b; Protevi,2006), I will seekto producin and tivelyengagebothAgamben Foucault analysing the Swedish1930s andthe SecondWorldWar of convictions emas political framing 'Communist' of bodied,andtheconjoined exposure suchbodiesto And although decisionwas no a stateof exception. transformation thisdismadethatledto theactual of of courseintoa machinic assemblage lethalpracticon mobilized es,the discourse 'Communists' against certain citizensmadethemotherthan'social',they and were de-socializedas they were dehumanized in demonized,abandoned a zone of indistinction withfurther measures prepared. "Extermination"of "simplersouls" in governmentaldocuments Duringthe time periodhere underconsideration, to the politicalleft was no doubtconsidered be the mainanti-democratic threat to ambitions vidue to olently or otherwiseillegally subvertand change stateorder. concerns related propto Governmental in resulting lackof disciplineandincreased aganda supportfor communism,as well as communists' skillsthatcouldbe deployed of acquisition military and for revolutionary treasonous purposes. consistFrom1932to 1936theSwedishCabinet ed only of members of the Social Democratic Workers Party(the Social Democrats),while between 1936and1939therewas a coalitionbetween the Social Democratsand the AgrarianParty.In connectionwith the outbeakof war,a broadcoalition was formedin December1939 andremained in effect until the end of the Second WorldWar, with cabinetmembersfromthe SocialDemocrats, the Agrarian Party,the LiberalPartyandthe ConservativeParty,with an independent diplomatas Affairs.Support the Swedfor Ministerof Foreign ish Communist Partyandthe SocialistPartyin the electionsduring periodamountthis parliamentary ed to 1932: 8.3% (207000 votes); 1936: 7.7%; movedtowards the 1940:4.2%.TheSocialistParty andbecameincreasingly during right marginalized the 1930s, while in the 1944 elections, the CommunistPartyreached10.3%,or 319000 votes.The 20 Communist Partyhadapproximately 000 membersin 1939,butthatfigurehadbeenreduced year a later to 11 200 largely due to discontentwith the 1939 non-aggression betweenthe Soviet Unpact ion and Germanyas well as the Soviet attackon Finland,also in 1939 (Hirdman, 1974).
In 1933, the Swedish CommitteeConcerning ActivitiesSubversive theStatewas appointed to after a Conservative motion in Parliament received the majoritysupport(regarding activitiesof this committee;see Bring, 1985; Eliasson,2005; Flyghed, 1992;L66w, 1990;Molin, 1983).No Members of Parliament belonging to the Communist Partywere allowedon the committee.The Social Democratswereinternally divided,in generalless and to suggestmeasures, stressed measthat prone urestakenshouldapplyalso to the extremeRight. thus Thequeriesof theCommittee cameto concern Communist,SyndicalistandAnarchistas well as National Socialist organizations and individuals. RegionalCountyBoards,the militaryand the police, as well as thepublicschoolsystem,weregovernmentalbodies to which Committee queries were referred.The Committeequeried sixty-six military bodies, and while thirty-eightof those bodiesreported communist on activities,only nine In reportedaboutNazi propaganda. responsesto the Committee,some local police valuedthe National Socialistsas a positivestronglynationalsocial force, and the growingsupportfor the Nazis was seen as a reactionagainstthe 'Communists' anda lack of measures fromnationalauthorities to dealwiththe"communist threat" politicalsym(on pathiesin Swedenon the extremeright,see Berg1996).Regren,2002; Nilsson, 1996;Richardson, sponses"fromthe militaryin manycasesbearwitof a ness to a horror communists, fearof infiltrators, elements" spies and incendiarism Communist by (L66w,1990,pp. 371, 375), andwereoftenof such a general characterthat the actual existence of and behavior difficult is propaganda indisciplinary to assess(Bring,1985).Neglectingtheinstructions bodiesalsopointgivenby theCommittee, military ed to activitiesof peace organizations, since they pacifistideasto be a threatto nationalseregarded the curityby subverting will to defend the nation to one (L66w,1990).Turning actualstatements, local Head of Police disapproved both Nazi and of extremism: Communist It is clearthatthe radicalextremists present at pursue a ratherintense propaganda.... To in judge from contactsthe undersigned duty has had with those individualsthat organize meetings of the differentpolitical extremist parties,however,one daresstatethatthe leaders of the local organizations ratherintelare lectuallyinferior. (Quotedin L66w, 1990, p. 378) 457
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The responseto the Committeefrom the County Boardof Norrbotten Northern in Swedenfocused on the Left and did not find Nazism a dangerto the state. The County Board referredto the fact that the CommunistPartyreceived"everyfourth vote in the latestelection in Norrbotten", conand cluded: Among simpler souls, the Bolshevist world view has takenon an almostreligiousandfanaticalcharacter. importance themoveThe of ment must in no way be disregarded.... The CountyBoard'sgeneralposition with regard to the communist threatandits wardingoff is accordinglythat communismshould simply not be allowed in the country,it should be struckdownandexterminated. Information or softer means of power do not help: their effects would if any be so slow that incurable damagecouldoccurunderways. (Quotedin Litw, 1990, pp. 380-381,384-385) Turningto the military,the Head of the Dragoon Swedenmadethe following Regimentin Northern assessment: in The communist uniform noteasily recogis nized. He is most often an excellent soldier, trusted his commanders. propaganda The is by no doubtpracticedindividually, only afterhe has formedan opinionaboutthe character of the individual[to be approached]. (Quotedin L66w, 1990, p. 375) the extensiveactivSimilarly, hiddenandprobably ities of the 'Communists' stressedby the Head are of the StockholmNavy Base: in The cell-activitiesmentioned the reportare not only withinmilitaryorprobably pursued ganizations,but in many places, and even amongwomen andchildren,thataccordingly becomeimbuedby doctrines theyhaveno that to assess the meaningof. This is a capacity way of poisoning the whole nation, against whichthe strongest measuresmustbe taken. (Quotedin L66w, 1990, p. 376) One might finally note that in responses to the Committeesome local police authorities indicated activitiesof the Social Democrats subversive as of the existingpoliticalandstateorder(L66w, 1990), 458
despite the fact that the Social Democratsat that time held statepowerandwere supported close by to half of the electorate.Not surprisinglythen, members Committee on of disagreed theproposals the finalreport 1935, andthe Social Democrats of on the Committee with rereservations registered an gardto proposing emergency powersactdirected againstpoliticallysubversive and organizations, to banmembers subversive of to organizations have state positions (see referencesabove). The only majorproposalthatbecamelaw was a revisionof the legislationon espionage.Althoughwithoutlegal supportfor increasedsurveillanceand other to measures,the militarycontinued act, andin the mid-1930sone "activity was to remainundisthat closed for the government the attempts eswas to tablishlimitedcooperation with the anti-communist bureauof Nazi-Germany the propaganda in war againstthe Communists" (Eliasson,2005, p. 161; see also pp. 84-88). In August 1939 foreignministersMolotov and Ribbentrop signeda non-aggression pactbetween the Soviet Union andGermany, in November and the Soviet Union attackedFinland. In Sweden, non-governmental supportwas immediatelymobilized underthe slogan: "The Finnish Cause Is Ours".Representatives from the National Horse Guardin Stockholmcampaignedagainst 'Communists'andpetitionedthe Defence Ministerwith a list of 1834 people who demandeda dehumanizing "weeding out" of communists (NSD, 6 April, 1940, p. 8). And in March1940, the Social Democratic the NorrliindskaSocialdemokraten reportedon a campaignat a militaryregimentin northernSweden where editor Ove Casparsson was chairinga committeeresponsible circulatfor ing a petition also demandingcommunist conscriptsto be "weededout"(NSD, 3 March,1940, p. 8). Concernswere also raisedin dehumanizing terms by the Regional Commanderof northern Sweden,GeneralPontusReuterswird,a Swedish who in 1940 wroteto the CountyGovaristocrat, ernorof Norrbotten: In case of our countrybeing drawninto war with Russia [sic] along our northern border, there is an obvious danger in having these hotbedsoperating communist behindthe back of ourown army.To me, it is likely to believe that, in a criticalmoment,these hotbedsare the selectedplaces fromwhich the signalsinstigatingsabotageandtreasonwill be given. (Quotedin Molin, 1982, p. 50)
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when levelin 1921.Hence, Duringthe firstyearsof the warSwedishandGer- 1919,andonthenational War had manhigh-ranking officers fromtheDefence theSecondWorld began,liberal democracy military Staffof bothcountries in Swedenas well as in existedfor as littleas two decadeswhile the worldmet in had officers beenshaped an One joint military plan- viewsof mostmilitary Germany. issue concerned formsof patriarchal ning against the Soviet Union (Schmidt, 2002; earlierperiodof undemocratic were also made government, womenin generalas well as Wechselmann, 1995).Concessions excluding suchas allowing15000 fully armed men of the laboringclasses. In the Norrliindska by theCabinet, an addressed Swedenduring two Socialdemokraten, extensiveeditorial German to through troops travel summer weeks of 1941 in orderto fightthe Soviet "TheMilitaryDefense and the Citizens"(NSD, 3 Left'sconfront.The construction fear November, of Unionon a northern 1939,p. 4) andthereformist and threatfrom a right-wing disciplineandclass society.Nupositionis clear in a cernaboutmilitary from 1941 memorandum theCommander-in-Chief, merousaccountsexist aboutmilitaryofficers'harto General Olof Thmrnell, the Foreign Minister. assment of working-classconscriptsaroundthis the 1995).Ithasbeengenerally advantages time(seeWechselmann, "emphasized greatstrategic Th6rnell that: whichwouldeliminate acknowledged of a German-Finnish victory, the Russianthreatfor foreseeabletime",and also that warned a Sovietvictory"couldleadto the con[T]he system of organizedviolence andmilitaristicvaluescreatesa decision-making tinued Bolshevization Europe,includingSweof process thatis too often secretiveandbeyondpubden". He encourageda more active contribution lic review,skewedin favourof strong,sectionto fromSwedenandfoundthat"a positiveattitude theGerman-Finnish on attack theUSSRcouldhopeal, militaryinterests,and corrosiveof public accountabilityand democraticparticipation fully lead to a betterstatusfor Swedenin the Germore generally. of man-dominated (Cronenberg, Europe the future" letterof 1941,theArmy 1984,p. 176).In a circular (Held, 1995,p. 184) Staffencouraged Swedishofficersto resignin order of to enablethemto accept command German troops In early March 1940, seven people attackedthe the attheeastern of front,yet offeredguarantees reposi- woodenbuildingof the Communist newspaper in was Swedish town This undertaking stopped Norrskensflamman the northern return. tioningupon in theyusedexplosives by the coalitionCabinet August 1941 (Wechsel- of Lulea.Inthenightlyattack, mann,1995).In October1941,theKingof Sweden, in orderto destroythe printingequipment(OldGustav senta messageto AdolfHitlerthrough the berg, 1972).Inthefirethatfollowed,fivelives were V, In two German legationin Stockholm. this messagehe lost: two children, womenandone man,while to not foundBolshevism be a danger onlyto theNor- five othersmanaged escapeby climbingdownon to and dic countries alsoto all of Europe, continued sheets.The attackwas carried by fourmilitary out but in dehumanizing to statethathe "would officers,the headof police in the townof Lule6,a language and his thanks derFiihrer right-wing to journalist a storeclerk.In his comopenlyliketo express warm this for havingdecidedto exterminate pestilence" plaintafterhavingbeensentenced sevenyearsin to with hard labor, one of the perpetrators in Schmidt, 2002, p. 24). (quoted prison In the population Swedenas a whole,thepro- claimedas extenuating "the circumstances general of this portionof nobilityaround time was c. 0.2 per spirit of the day and events taking place in the in cent.In the military, thirdof all officersin 1939 whole countryand particularly NothernSweone and werenoblemen (Andolf,1984;Molin, 1982).Inad- den".He alsoquotedfrombotha Conservative dition, the seniorofficersof the Swedishmilitary a Social Democraticnewspaper publishedshortly were quiteold at the outbreak the SecondWorld beforethe arsontook place in whichtermssuch as of War. Commander-in-Chief General and The Olof Th6r- "Bolshevik weed","breeding grounds", "treanell was bornin 1877, the General PontusReuter- son"appeared Bes(RA, NedreJustitierevisionen, swird was born in 1871, and severalotherswere varsoch ans6kningsmil,1941,Vol. CLXIV). 1880andthusin theirsixties.Although bornaround lowerranking the officersweresomewhat younger, highage of theofficercorpspointsto the significant Social Democrats suggest: "exterminate" of circumstance the majority Swedishofficers "slime animals"and "lunatics" that werearound yearsof age already whenuniversal In 1938, a yearbeforethe non-aggression be40 pact on was signed, suffragewas introduced the municipallevel in tween the Soviet Union andGermany
459
MICHAEL LANDZELIUS
AllanVougt,leadingmemberof the Social Democratsas well as Memberof Parliament Chief and Editor of the newspaper Arbetet,had expressed withregard developments to in positivesentiments the Soviet Union.This was despitewhathe knew aboutforcedlabor,disappearances lack of deand (Alm,2005).Afterthepactwas signed,he mocracy in his expressed dislikeforcommunists thefollowing manner: It wouldbe strange the democracies not if did vomitandspitthemout,disgusted a human by downto thelevel of the most typeso degraded, variant slimeaniof beast,a human despicable malssuchas the worldhas neverseen beforenot even when the Germanregimeordersits as was subjectsto regard good whatyesterday evil, as right what yesterdaywas shamefully wrong.... But the labormovement, havingthe in communists theirown neighborhood, must makeuse of a particularly effectivebroomto wipe awaythisrefuse,this slag- these 'subhumans', to use an expressionemployedby the when they sudNazi prophets untilyesterday, fell denlyin theirdeepcowardice in thearmsof theirprevious enemies. 26 (Arbetet, August, 1939,p. 6) In the Stalinistpolitics of the ThirdInternational the Soviet-German pact non-aggression was ajustifiedshift froma struggleagainstfascismto what was characterizedas a revolutionarystruggle Sowar,in whichEuropean againstthe imperialist cial Democratic bepartieswereseenas implicated causeof theirnationalist unitpoliticsundermining ed class actionsof the proletariat (see statements to by Stalinand Molotovreferred in NSD 28 August, 1939,p. 1;NSD, 1 November,1939,p. 1; see also Schmidt(2002, pp.78-79), on theparticularly strongnationalisolationismof the SwedishSocial Thissuddenshiftfroma popular front Democrats). strategy which had included cooperation with democratic forcesmadethe military establishment and right-wingpoliticalpartiesas well as the national reformist Social Democrats perceive the In as threat. addition Communist to Party a security level-headedanalyses of the situation(NSD, 26 August,1939,p.4; NSD, 30 September 1939,p.4), discoursedecisively changed.In an editorial,the stated that "it is Norrlindska Socialdemokraten just as meaninglessto have a discussion with a communistas it is to give medicine to a dead" (NSD, 30 August, 1939, p. 4). A key questionfor 460
the labormovement,Social Democratsas well as was Communists, the issue of loyalty withina nation-stateacrossclass divisions,or loyalty within the class acrossborders foreignfellow laborers. to columnists O.W. L6vgren, Henry Karlsson and Sven Backlundrepeatedlyattackedcommunists, in particularly the winterof 1939 to 1940. This is the nationalistgeopolitical vision of the Social DemocratBacklund: In a momentwheneverycivilizedsocietyconsidersincarcerating those who do not wantto understand loyalty to fellow countrymen that excludes relationsof dependenceon foreign it to governments, is necessary clarifyinternational relations. ... Orders from outside, that In the Norrliindska Socialdemokraten, the editorial
could make a group of citizens turn against theirown country,cannotbe toleratedin any This is not an expression of shapewhatsoever. nationalism: the contrary, follows from on it the demand a legalization all internationof of al relations a through Leagueof Nations- and thatdemandis thehighestexpression interof nationalism. (NSD, 19 November,1939, p. 2) The Soviet-German non-aggression pact was followed by the Soviet attackon Finland,and at a meetingin the City Councilof Stockholmin December 1939, almostall representatives all the of politicalpartiesreactedto these eventsby leaving the roomwhen a memberof the Communist Party took the floor.One of the few remaining representativeswas a SocialDemocrat reada statement who from his party group, declaringthat the Social Democratsin the councilhad decided"notto give Communistspeakers and Communistcontribuat tions any attention the meetingsof the council, and furtherto reject any Communistdemandon in representation committees,boards, and other bodies of the city"(quotedin Molin, 1982, p. 34). Such spatialmeasureswere conjoinedwith dehufellow colmanizingdiscourse.While Backlund's umnist Henry Karlsson wrote that "[t]he labor movementcommitsa crimeagainstitself if it does not keep the movementcleanfromthe communist vermin,and fromtheirsimilarlynoxiousnewspapers"(NSD, 5 December,1939, p. 4), columnist arguedthat the CommunistParty O.W. Li6vgren had to be seen as a "Russian andsabotageorspy ganization"(NSD, 30 December, 1939, p. 4). The traitsof These were not isolatedstatements.
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'HOMOSACER'OUTOF LEFTFIELD
to 'Communists' some seemedto justifythatcomof munistsshouldbe deprived theircitizen'srights was and the notionof weeding out 'Communists' pushedto the limit of citizenshipnot only as a politicalright,but also in termsof territorial belong'Kire' wrote: ing. The signature cowardcringingfor the The Nazi-Bolsheviks' tohas red imperialism evokedan abhorrence wardsthis stinkingscab that in many places has led to physicalconflict.... The best thing they could do would be to immediatelypack their stuff and deport themselves as fast as Thereis motherland. possibleto theirspiritual no place for themhere. (NSD, 13 December,1939, p. 6) of TheBoardof TheNationalConfederation Trade orUnionsin December1939decidedto encourage isolateandvote to workers systematically ganized frompositionson all levels.The downcommunists resolution, August signedby the SocialDemocrats of Lindbergand RagnarCasparson The National and Confederation publishedin several newspapers, explicitly referredto the attackon Finland (NSD, 21 December, 1939, p. 4). During the monthsthatfollowed, basicallyall Social Demodetailedtheirreadcraticnewspapers aggressively and ers abouthow "Nazi-communists" "Moscow out" were"thrown out","pushed and"weedagents" 1940 ed out"frompositionsin the unions.January sawtheNorrliindska Socialdemokraten publishthe followingunsignedattackon 'Communists'.
week, praise the atrocious acts of murder against the peaceful Finnish people that the bestial Russianstate engages in. Confronting even morally inferiorpeople mass-murders, usuallyshowtheirdisgust.... Thecommunists classand aretraitors andpoisontheworking of mustbe dealtwith as such. ... The communist pressmustbe completelyexterminated. 1940, p. 2) (NSD, 13 January, Yet, not all workersand local labor unions sucIn on cumbedto thepressure. G6teborg 28 January, votat 1940,the workers Sweden'smajorshipyard ed in favourof a resolution,saying: We do not have anythingin commonwith the bourgeoisiein Sweden, Finlandor any other Our country. allies in the struggleagainstcapitalismandthe empiresof rich men, andfor a changeinto socialismare the workersof Finland,the SovietUnion,andall othercountries. Ourcommonenemy is the bourgeoisieof all countries. 1940, p. 4) (Quotedin GMP,30 January,
Thusthe local unionrejectedthe requestfromthe of NationalConfederation TradeUnionsto firethe fromthe board,as well as rejectedan communists The to of appealto contribute the support Finland. in discursive placingof 'Communists' a zone of inand outsideof bothterritorial political determinacy belonging was clear in Allan Vougt'simageryof "the communist swamp" (Arbetet, 31 January, 'Com1940,p. 6). Andthe imaginary surrounding One shouldnot arguewith lunatics.Asylums munists'didleadto further when, spatialmeasures of are their place. ... 'Lunatic' is a foul expres- in January 1940,"theMinister SocialAffairs,the sion but one which must be used with regard Social Democrat Gustav M6ller, persuadedthe that to people thatare so retarded they do not chief of the securityservice Eric Hallgrento prerealize the enormoustreasonrepresented by pare for a nationwideraid with house searches the pact between the Soviet Union and Ger- againstmembersof the Communist (Eliasparty" son, 2005, p. 162;see also pp. 114-118). In Februmany. radicalleft-wing 1940, p. 4) ary 1940, memberof parliament, (NSD, 10 January, ZethH6glundof Social Democrat, editor-in-chief, wrotein termsof "cleansThreedays later,the samepaperpublishedan edi- the Social-Demokraten health": torial by columnist Henry Karlssonwhich con- ing"and"national tainedlanguageof quiteextremecharacter:
[The raids] ... are in conformity with that
in senseof the Theyarenothumans thenormal word. Among the most hardenedcriminals, one can as a rulefindsomething good.Among the genuine communists,trying to find anythinggood is in vain.... Only loathsomeasocial individuals can, day afterday, week after
strong and growing opinion which demand energeticmeasuresagainst a movementthat offers its dutiesto foreignpowunashamedly ers against its native country [literally:"fathers' country"]. ... This cleansing process
has in all campsof ourcountry beenviewedas 461
MICHAEL LANDZELIUS
a testimonyof nationalhealthanddemocratic self-assertion.One can hardlyclaim that the authorities have actedtoo early,now thatthey haveundertaken an extensiveinvestigation ... of theNazi-Communistic hotbedsfortheirunof the nation'sdefencepowers,and dermining for theirsystematicinstigation treason. of 1940, p. 4) (SD, 11 February, In one editorial, likewiseSocialDemocratic the papertheNy Tidsimilarlystressedthe needto "weed out the communists"and "exterminate commuIn an unsigned nism"(NT,3 February, 1940,p. 4), editorial,most probablywrittenby the editor-inchief and influentialright-wingSocial Democrat Rickard the Lindstr6m, paperwrote: The communists obviouslynot suchidiots are thatthey have not triedto carefullyerase the tracesof theiractivities.... Most [evidence]is probablydestroyedor hidden.One can only hopethatthe police has foundsome clues that show the way to the secretcommunist organizationthatsurelymustexist. ... The searches and raids could be of importance.But we doubtthey arethe axe cuttingoff the roots of the evil. Also experiencedpolitical police in othercountries... has been fooled by skilful andintelligentconspirators....The missionis to weed out the bubonichotbedswithoutgetting too close to legitimateinterests. 1940, p. 4) (NT, 12 February, Shortlylater, it was reportedthat in G6teborga was communist caughtin theraidswitha secretradio transmitter with which he "couldreachMoscow"(NSD,20 February, 1940,p.5), butseemingly nothingcameoutof thisimpliedevidence.Similarthe Soly blamingandthenretracting, Norrliindska cialdemokraten first ran the headline: "Russian Money to Swedenin Silk Belts. The Communists Use CipherandCoverAddressesin the Manner of in Findby Spies.Handbook Revolution Interesting Police" (NSD, 12 February, 1940, p. 1). Then a weeklaterthe samepaperreported brieflythateveryonehadbeenreleasedexceptfor two foreigncitizens (NSD, 17 February, 1940,p. 4), andtwo days laterthepaper that reported threemenwereheldassumedto havebeen spying,not for the SovietUn1940,p. ion, butfor theAllies (NSD, 19 February, with such unsubstantiated at4). Simultaneously tackson the 'Communists', someSocialDemocrats voiced favourable opinionsaboutNazi-Germany. 462
In 1940,the leadingmember AllanVougtdeclared in Parliament the "verystrongGerman that ambition ... to organize Europein a betterway thanthe democraticstates in the League of Nations have been able to do" was "praiseworthy" (quotedin Boathius,1992, p. 121). In 1941Vougtalso noted that"Germany predestined occupya leading is to that positionin a unitedEurope... a truth is notdishumanbeing in the Norputedby anyenlightened dic countries" (quotedin Boathius,1992, p. 121). WhileVougt found"slimeanimals" "thecommuin nist swamp" (see quotesabove)he founda Europe organized the Nazis a praiseworthy imperialist by ambition. was in Nazi-Germany herecharacterized oppositefashionto the dehumanizing languageof The fact that the lanVougt's anti-communism. in whichSocialDemocrats framed 'Commuguage nists', althoughobviouslycalculatedand deliberwas madeit possibleto ate,apparently a blind-spot invokethe similarlanguageof Sovietworkersas a as signof theirinferiority, in thefollowingunsigned in Socialdemokraten commentary theNorrliindska on the laborunionsof the SovietUnion. In relation to Europeanstandards,the language used by the Russian workersin their resolutionsconcerningFinlandandrespected Finnish politicians is highly provocative. "war-incen"Dirtybandits","provocateurs", diaries","criminal elements","slave-nation", and similarexpressionsappeardaily and in differentcombinations.... The language of criminals[literally: the underworld"]has "of becometheirs. 10, (NSD, January 1940, p. 8) There is here an implied divide between Europe andAsia, and in a claim on European superiority, the author thispiece setshis own standards of apart fromthe allegedcriminallanguageof Asian/Russian workers. 'Communists' thus discursively come to appearas unfitintruders below the Euro(see pean standard also Blomqvist,2003). TheSocialDemocrats werenottheonlyonesenin anti-communism, before turningto and gaged states of exceptionin Sweden duringthe investigatedtimeperiod,a few examplesof dehumanizing In in discourse thebourgeois pressarein order. distheinternational situation afterthe cussing political Soviet-German non-aggressionpact had been Dagens signed, the liberal Stockholmnewspaper Nyheter deployed medico-biological language, in writingaboutcommunism termsof "contagion"
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this (DN, 23 August,1939,p. 3). However, was not an immediate attackon Swedishcommunists. The day afterthe police raidson the Communist Party in February 1940, the conservativeStockholm
newspaper the Svenska Dagbladet wrote:
Betterlate than never,and an overwhelming Swedishopiniongreetswith greatsatisfaction the fact that the governmentfinally, after monthsof futile discussions,has movedfrom wordsto action.It is now a matterof continuing to displaypower and consistency,so that the Bolshevistweed can be pulled up by the roots. 1940, p. 4) (SvD, 11 February,
The right-wing paper Giteborgs Morgonpost,
risks.Withregardto publicaccess to information, a majority newspapers of withthe govcooperated ernmentandacceptedimposedconstraints. DeIn cember 1939, the Swedish PrimeMinisterSocial Democrat Per-Albin Hansson threatened the press: Highly valuingfree speech, the Cabinetdoes not want to make use of the possibilitiesoffered to prosecute and confiscate.Yet such measures have had to be employed. Many peoplearguethey shouldhavebeenusedmore extensively than has hithertobeen the case. And maybeit will be necessaryto act tougher if nothingelse helps. (NSD, 2 December,1939,p. 8) Early in 1940, the governmentinvited press organizationsto appointmembersto a new Press Board,an agencyto be placed withinthe simultaBoard(NSD, 2 neously createdStateInformation Board March, 1940, p. 1). The State Information was to be responsiblefor public information, yet, headed by the German-friendlyProfessor and Vice Chancellorof Stockholm University Sven auTunberg,came to functionas a pre-censoring thority that continuouslyissued directives concerningwhich topics were to be and which were not to be allowed in the press (see Andolf, 1994; Schmidt,2002; Zetterberg, 1993). Reportingon a attended a civil servantof the StateInby meeting formationBoard, a newspaperran the headline: an Issue in Times of Cri"Propaganda Important sis." The article, with approval,quoted the civil servantas saying: "Perhapsthe most important task today is the creationof a real spiritof Swedishnessin the nation"(NSD, 18 April, 1940,p. 5). In effect,bothof thesebodiesbecameinstruments of silencing.Althoughseveralof theeditorson the PressBoardwereinfluential chief editors,theyadministered an extensive self-censorship rather than protested against the restrictionsimposed, possibly in order to avoid furthergovernmental measures against newspapers. Hence, in June 1940, readersof the Swedishpresswere informed that "TheParliament Passed the Law on Censorship,"and thatthe PrimeMinisterin this context had declaredthat "the Swedish press has mostly
been loyal ... however, there are newspapers of
which duringthe 1930s moved from a conservative to a pro-Naziposition, actively campaigned against alleged 'Communists', suggested they should be bannedfrom public positions, and in 1940 attacked individualcivil servantssuchas the CountyArchitectas well as the Head of the City PlanningOffice in G6teborgfor being 'Communists'. One editorialreferredto communismas a "revolution nihilism", of explainingthat"communism as a world view is the most consistent of and preaching animaluninhibitedness libertyof the instinctsthathumanityhithertohas met on its (GMP,2 Febpathtowardsabsolutematerialism" debates 1940, p. 4). In the parliamentary ruary, duringthe winter and springof 1940, conservatives as well as severalliberalsraisedan old proposal to ban the CommunistParty,and short of thatin March1940, the Social DemocratProfessorLundstedt suggesteda new law thatwouldprohibit communistsfromparliamentary representation (NSD, 30 March,1940, pp. 1, 8). The coalition Cabinet postponed any such decision, and while theParliament June1940passedanemerin act thatmadeit possible to dissolve gency powers to treasonous the state,the Swedish organizations CommunistPartywas never outlawed (Drangel, 1976; Hirdman,1974; Molin, 1974). "Intimatecooperation between the patriotic public and the police authorities" This section addresses Swedish state measures against free speech, military labor company campsfor "politicallyuntrustworthy" conscripts, surveillanceorganizationand measures,and extensive planningfor detentionof alleged security
differentpolitical orientationsthat are not sufficiently careful, or have not been fully loyal" (NSD, 13 June, 1940, pp. 1,3). The legislation on censorshipstayed dormant 463
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MICHAEL LANDZELIUS
the during war(Molin,1974)andwhilemostnewsdepapersacceptedthe pressurethe government to ployedothermeansthandirectcensorship combat the few papersthatdid not. To keep the press from 1812 concerning quiet, an old paragraph 'slander'was deliberatelymisinterpreted the by of for Department Justice(!)andreinvigorated purposes otherthanthose intended130 yearsearlier. Ratherthanbringnewspapers trial,this deliberto ate misinterpretation enabled the governmentto quietly confiscate editions in which material deemed to be offensive was publishedby having stateofficialsscrutinize newspapers alreadyat the 1993). When, for exprintingplants (Zetterberg, ample,the liberalGoteborg publisher SegTorgny erstedt questioned the appropriateness the of SwedishCommander-in-Chief's acceptanceof an medalfrom Nazi-Germany the midst in honorary of war (GHT,8 October,1940), the editionof the newspaperin which his commentappearedwas confiscated orderof the Minister JusticeKarl on of GustafWestman the Agrarian of Party.Ironically, Westmanwas also Professorof Legal Historyat Uppsala University.In this fashion, Segerstedt's as of newspaper well as a number otherpapersthat to dared utilizefreedomof speechhadeditionsregIn ularlyconfiscated the government. addition, by in February be1940,a revisionof the constitution came effective that did not actuallyprohibitthe printingof criticalmatterbut enabledthe government to issue a so-called 'Transport Prohibition' whichmeantthateditionscontaining objectionable material werenot allowedto be distributed mail by or otherwisethrough publictransportation the network (Drangel,1976; L66w, 1990; Molin, 1974, 1982). During the years 1940 to 1943, Swedish wereconfiscated 315 occasions:the on newspapers communistpress approximately140 times; the democratic press around130; and the Nazi press around the fortytimes.In morethan250 instances, reasonfor confiscation due to writingscritical was of Nazi Germany Boathius,1992). (cf. I SecondWorld War Elsewhere, haveaddressed militarylaborcompanycampsin Swedenfor two differentcategoriesof conscriptsoldiers, by the and militarylabelled "politicallyuntrustworthy" 1996, (Landzelius, "constitutionally undisciplined" 1999, 2003). Evidenceconnectedwith these labor companycamps shows thatpoliticaland disciplinary concerns were articulated throughmedicobiological discourse,which was mobilizedin the of construction the two categoriesof conscripts. condensations multitude the metaphorical Through 464
of left-wingpoliticalaffiliations considered "politwere indiscriminately laically untrustworthy" and belled 'Communist', in additionsuch alleged 'Communists'were repeatedlytreatedunderthe same sign as the "constitutionally undisciplined", The namelyas an aggregateof degenerates. labor company camps were temporaryconstructions, erectedfor the detention 'subversive' of conscripts by the Swedishmilitaryin the late 1930s anddurfrom ing thewar,andgainedafter-the-fact approval the Cabinet (Bring,1985;Molin,1982).In December 1939, afterthe SovietUnionhad attacked FinGeneralOlof land, boththe Commander-in-Chief Thornellandthe Chiefof the SecondArmyCorps in northern Sweden,GeneralNygren,approached the Cabinetrequestingtoughermeasurestowards the communists.Their requestwas actively supportedby otherofficersandlocal militaryauthorities (Molin, 1982), and the first labor company campwas in place from 19 December,1939 (Kieri andSundstrim,1985). One shouldnotethatthe campswerenotexplicitly intendedto encroachon civilian citizens'political rights,but were thoughtof as a legitimate the measureto safeguard militaryagainstdestabilizing, subversiveactivities.In responseto an infrom a Communist Parliament, in the terpellation Ministerof Defence Per Edvin Skbld, a Social statedin June1940thatonly "individuDemocrat, als thatwithreasoncouldbe suspected engaging of in propaganda intended weakenthe defensewill to of troops,or thatareguilty of spreading false and Thus worryingrumors"were to be transferred. Skold arguedthat the companyunderdiscussion was "nota concentration camp,therearemorelabor companiesthan this, if political persecution does not takeotherformsthanthis, no wronghas been done"(ST, 14 June,1940,p. 7; see also GHT, 21 October, in 1941,p. 11).However, thecaseof individuals due placedin laborcompanies to theirpoliticalsympathies, wereeitherdrafted directmany ly from civilian life to such a companycamp, or removed fromtheirmilitary unitson pre-emptively the basis of allegationsof being 'Communists'. In to 1942, responding queriesfromthe ArmyCommander about communist sympathiesand conto scriptsthatshouldpossiblybe transferred labor companycamps, a CaptainSchildtin Stockholm wrote: [N]o immediate reason for complaints [on NN], but... Althoughthere is no direct evidence, one can statethatNN pursuesharmful
within as well as outside of the propaganda unit.This is a sharedopinionamongall officfor ers. A compassinstrument, whichNN was undercircumstances responsible,disappeared difficultto explain. SektionIII, (KrA,Arm6staben, SerieE II, 510) While some were thus accused entirely without proof, severalof those accusedhad not even been able to engage in subversiveactivitieswithin the whichwas the legaljustification military, givenby In Skild fortheirincarceration. fact,thismeantthat some of those in laborcompanycampscould, albe to thoughconscripts, understood have been incarcerated civilians,andlegal practicewouldhave in that stipulated theybe prosecuted civiliancourts had theybrokenthe law. In ratherambiguousdisregard legal checks for was andbalances,Swedishdemocracy undermined underthe pretextof nationalsecurity,andin practice encroached uponyet notreplaced a stateof by to labor exception.In relation the Swedishmilitary one shouldnote Agamben'srecompanycamps, markthat "Thefirstconcentration camps in Germanywere the worknot of the Nazi regimebut of the Social-Democraticgovernments,which internedthousandsof communistmilitantsin 1923 on the basis of Schutzhaft" (1998, p. 167). The was Prussian institution Schutzhaft aninstitution of thatauthorized retention citizenswithout the forof mal charges,and was later also used againstforJews (Agameigners includingeasternEuropean ben, 1998, 2000). There are manifestsimilarities and betweenthe juridicalstatusof this institution the conditions under which the labor company camps were establishedby the Swedish military and defendedby the Cabinet.And since the creation of laborcompanycamps was politicallydefended and the spreadof information constrained the government, militarywas not really afthe by fected by the relativelyscantpublic attention that was givento thecamps.Yettheirpresentation the to generalpublicwas a matterof some discussionin A the military. Captain ErnstLeche notedthatthe labor companies were beginning to be seen as and "concentration campsfor politicaldissidents" that therefore "the activities of the companies
should - at least to the public - be given an appear-
ance of a reasonablepurpose",and suitableand for useful manualworkshouldbe arranged the incarcerated (Molin, 1982,p. 153). All documents the concerning campswereto be,
and most have been, destroyed. archival No materialthusexiststhatcan disclosetherealfigures,yet the number alleged 'Communists' wereacof who to tuallytransferred laborcompanycampsduring the Second WorldWarmay have been relatively small (approximately 700). However,therewas in effectas of May 1941anorder fromtheCommander-in-Chief with instructions plan for the detento tion (in case of Swedenentering war)of all regthe isteredconscripts,with priorityon the individuals In deemedto be mostdangerous. autumn1941this list named around 3500 'Communists'(Molin, to one1982), whichcorresponded approximately thirdof the Communist Partymembership. During 1941 andbehindthe scenes,possiblydueto public attention well as lettersof protestfromthoseinas the carcerated, Ministerof Defence requestedthe the Olof Commander-in-Chief, German-friendly to Th6rnell, explainthemilitary's policiesandprinthe ciples. The Social Democratsdistrusted milito reasonably assess political tary's capacity whichalsoprompted themto double-check threats, on somelistedindividuals transferred laborcomto thoseSocial Democrats panycampsby contacting who camefromthe sameplacesas theincarcerated to 'Communists' gain more reliablelocal knowledge of theirpolitics (Molin, 1982, pp. 153-157). In November1941, new directiveswere given to the military,and while it was stressedthat Nazis in shouldalsobe underscrutiny, politicalaffiliation itself was deemedto be an insufficient reasonfor transfer a laborcompanycamp,and"actual to reasons" such as "propaganda, spreadingof discontent, or being difficult"were statedas necessary (Molin, 1982, p. 160). Inthelate 1930s,a comprehensive fora new plan civilian Secret Service was developed by the above-mentioned CaptainLeche when as a conscriptofficerhe workedin theDefenceStaff.Newto of ly appointed the Department Justicein 1938, he was instrumental pushingthroughthis proin 1995).Thenew posal (L6iw,1990;Wechselmann, SecretServicewas organizedin cooperation with the Defence Staff andhad resourcesof its own as well as coordinating functions betweenalready existing civilian police and militarybodies. In June 1938, the Ministerof Social Affairs, the Social DemocratGustavMiller, signed a proclamation concerningextended powers of this new Secret Service organization,to be implementedin the eventof war.In September, Eric Hallgrenwas appointedhead of the organization. Hallgrenwas a Stockholm police officerwho hadworkedwithpo465
MICHAEL LANDZELIUS
litical surveillance since the 1920s andapparently had conservative sympathies (Wechselmann, 1995). In Novemberhe receivedthe new instructionsfromthegovernment (L66w,1990).Theprocthe lamationauthorized SecurityServiceto supervise mail, telephone,telegraph radiotraffic,as and well as to engage in supervisionand reconnaissancerelatedto suspectedindividuals. SecuriThe ty Service was organizedat four levels with the Head Office and centralsurveillance functionsin Stockholm.On the local operativelevel, not only citizenswereengaged:salpolicebutalso ordinary ariedor paidfor piecemealinformation, well as as reportinganonymously(L,66w,1990). Denunciation thusbecamepartof propercitizens'behavior and (on such accusatory practices,see Fitzpatrick In the war climateof suspicion, Gellately,1997). columnist Livgren of the NorrldndskaSocialdemokratenwrote in an editorial entitled 'The Spies': We believe that the most efficient struggle againstspyingin all areas[of social and economic life] must be based on an intimatecobetweenthe patriotic operation publicandthe police authorities... each and every one in a position where he has any reason to suspect the existence of spying must watchcarefully and sharpen vigilance,and if thereis reahis son of suspicionbringthatto the knowledge of the properauthority. 1940, p. 4) (NSD, 19 February, In this climateandprecededby pressurefromthe military,the legislation concerningsurveillance, searchesandseizurewas revisedin 1939 andearly 1940 in orderto authorize SecurityServiceto the extensivemeansin theircontrolof employfurther the population. suggestedmeasures The causedno debateandtheproposals theCabby parliamentary inet were adopted.The effects of the new legislationareillustrated thefactthatduring warin the by a country in 1940hada totalpopulation 6.37 that of million people, more than 11 million phone calls were tapped,6000 individual phoneswere tapped and continuously, 47 million lettersand packages were opened and searched(L66w, 1990; Molin, this 1982). In considering volumeof surveillance, one shouldnote thattelephoneswere not a widehouseholditemin the 1930sand 1940s,and spread that,as mentionedabove,the Communist Partyin 1940 had a total of 11 200 members.In 1942 and 1943, the Stockholmunit of the SecurityService 466
that was responsible for surveillingmail, telephone, telegraphand radio traffichad more than 800 employees. Among the cases thatwerehandledby the local security fromthepurelypolitpolice,apart ical ones, were also black-market transactions, smugglingof refugees,corpseswashed ashore, spies, sabotage, downed airplanes, generalimmorality, illegal abortions, mysterious strangers, smugglingof goods,informing, etc. ... Reportswere regularlycompiled on subjects as, among others, the situationfor in draftees,sexualmorality thenation,alcohol abuse, and the relationshipbetween officers andprivates. (Ld6w,1990,pp. 401-402) Withregard thematter how thisinvisiblegeoto of was into assemblage graphy to be turned a machinic of detentionand incarceration, much researchremainsto be done. Withoutfurther of presentation thisparticular L66w has statedthatbased material, on experiencesfromthe raidsand searchesof the CommunistParty and alleged 'Communists'in weremadeandin 1942 'Tempo1940,refinements raryCustodyRegisters'were createdin every police district.In this process, "verydetailedplans and weremadefortheseizureof people", "military andpolicepersonnel wereassigneddetainment and duties"(Li6w, 1990, p. 430). Placesfor transport the incarceration detained of peoplewerealso identified, and "in each securityregion, a surveywas madeof the [countryside] palacesand largerfarm barracks could that mansions,prisonsandmilitary be Withregard prisons, to potentially utilized. planconning was madefor the releaseof short-term to victs, in order makeplaceforpoliticallyuntrustworthy" (L66w, 1990, p. 430). Criminalconvicts were to be replacedby politicalsuspects,andthus a systemof justicewith a stateof exception.With and regardto the extentof measures preparations, one shouldnotethatin themid-1930s,theso-called Unit withinthe Defence Staffappears Intelligence to havehada register morethan100000 individof ualsallegedlyknownto be orsuspected be 'Comto munists'(Molin, 1982). The civilian secretpolice had, accordingto Schmidt,a registerin 1936 of elements"(2002, p. 73). And 120000 "subversive in 1941, the Intelligence Unit of the Defence Staff had listedas commuapparently 36 000 conscripts in withthe Secret nists,a list prepared cooperation Service(Molin, 1982).In termsof the strugglefor
@The author2006 @ Journal and compilation 2006 SwedishSocietyforAnthropology Geography
statepoweraddressed Schmidtandthe possible by of regfar-reaching consequences the surveillance, istration detainment and planningcarriedout, one betweenSwedishseshouldnote thatcooperation cret service bodies and the Gestapo during the 1930s andintothe warhas been disclosedwith reof suchas exchangeof ingardto a number matters, on fromthecivil war formation Swedishvolunteers anti-Nazi in Spain,on German refugeesin Sweden, and so on (Flyghed,1992; Schmidt,2002; Wechselmann,1995). "A healthier species is the goal - let us all become A-humans!" The above account shows that real or imagined werethemainfocusbutnottheonly 'Communists' Yet ones targeted. there are connectionsbetween and this 'Communists' thosewho during timewere as seen as 'asocial'or 'feebleminded', well as with those surveilled the SecretServicedue to "genby The eral immorality". abovediscloseshow 'Comas munists'againandagainwerecharacterized "reand souls"of "animal tarded" "lunatics" "simpler uninhibitedness" in other terms referredto as or In thanthe 'normal' less mentallycapable majority. November1941, a Company Commander, Ingiald to Elg, responding queriesaboutpossible transfer of soldiers to labor companies,describeda conposition"as "unscriptwith a "clearlycommunist reliable"and"unwilling". continued: He At local caf6sWolfhas in addition been guilty suchas not payingfor meals of transgressions (later settled by me) and behaving impertithe His nentlytowards waitresses. olderbrothcommunistaccordingto sive propagandistic NN, who is from Orsa.I also know the older as and indibrother an unreliable disagreeable the wherefrom invidual,hence I understand fluenceon the youngerWolf comes.WithreverenceI requestthathe with urgencymay be dismissedfrom the companyas well as from this location, since also civilians here have severaltimesbeenirritated Wolf's arrogant by behavior. SektionIII, (KrA,Arm6staben, SerieE II, 190) It hasbeenstatedthatleft-wingpropaganda against the militaryencouraged conscriptsto show "indoin lence, idleness,andunwillingness duty"(Bring,
er ... is in Orsa known as an extremely aggres-
1985,p. 42).Yet the abovequotedwells on theperof seen as sonalitytraitsandbehavior an individual in general,and thereis not muchon transgressive his 'Communist' Such politicswithinthe military. and "unwilling"'Communists'ap"unreliable" to pearin sharpcontrast the male figureof a 1937 by campaign organized the SwedishDairyAssocia ation. In full-pageadvertisements, man was dea pictedcarrying pickacrosshis shoulder withextra appealby lookingboth like a ruralfarmerand an urbanconstruction worker- invitingthe reader to become partof the buildingof a healthy state through the consumption of milk, butter and cheese. The saturation this campaignwith orgof racialovertonesandnotions anicism,nationalism, is of social purification clear fromthe heading"A Is TheGoal- LetUs All Become Healthier Species and A-humans!" the use of suchphrasesas "sound A-humans,fit-for-life" (GHT,1 November,1937, p. 9). WhatI wantto explorehereis thequestionof and how "A-humans" the ones thus impliedto be 'Z-humans' 'Non-A-humans' the otherend of at or were distinguished fromone another the spectrum when medico-biologicalassumptionsframedthe In of understanding politicaldifference. extension, the of or atthecore,this concerns question whowas to be includedin thenation-state within'theso(or cial'; see Latour, 2005) andwho was to be placed underthe conditionsof a camp,in "a spacefor naked life as such"(Agamben,2000, p. 40). To proI ceed withthisargument, will needto outlinesome elements of the Swedish contextof eugenics and sterilization. worldduring periodhere the AcrosstheWestern discussedpolitical discourseregularlyconceived in and of the nation-state termsof organicism, scientificdiscourse sterilization eugenicsidenon and of of from tifieda vastnumber symptoms deviation the 'normal'as reasonsfor medicalinterventions. Inpromoting Swedishresearch racializing thought, andmedicalpracticein the firsthalf of the twentieth centurylaid claimto the scientificfrontline. In in 1921,a broad politicalmajority the SwedishParliamentvoted in favourof a motion to createthe StateInstitute RaceBiology.Openedin 1922,it for of was the firststateinstitute thiskindin the world. Racial thinkinginfluencedalso the Social Demoand crats,and in 1925, Allan Vougtauthored had issue a the Social Democrats'youth organization on propaganda publication racebiologyandsocialism in which he attackedboth conservativesdeagainstsocial reforms, ployingeugenicarguments While he was in favourof race and communism. 467
MICHAEL LANDZELIUS
he to improvement, foundcommunism seek"nivellization",andthis was one reasonwhy "socialism could not acceptBolshevism,which undoubtedly can lead to degeneration" (Blomqvist,2006, pp. 328-329). As quoted above, Vougt later found In 'Communists' be "slimeanimals". a major to exhibitionspaceof theStockholm Exhibition 1930 of further connectionswere made betweeneugenics andsocial position.The spacewas calledthe Svea of Rike,or "therealm-kingdom-queendomMother Svea"(Pred,1995,p. 133;see alsoPred,1992),and sporteddisplaysprepared the headof the State by Institutefor Race Biology, the pro-German antiSemite Professor Herman Lundborg (Broberg, and 1995;Broberg Tyd6n,1996).Panelsof alleged 'racialtypes', photoportraits arranged occupaby madeup "[a]genealogyof tion,andso on, together and powerwhichequated accomplishment societal contribution with heredity" (Pred,1995, p. 138). WhatI want to stresshere is thata connection was madebetweenoccupation 'racialtype'. In and teasing out how 'Communists'could be framed andtreated dehumanized as others,one has to note the "clearbias toward lowerclasses"in eugenthe to soics, as well as "awidespread tendency regard cial misbehavior a questionof geneticinferiorias and ty" (Broberg Tyd6n,1996, pp. 120, 124-125). ThezoologistandgeneticistNils vonHofsten,Proof fessor,andfrom1943alsoViceChancellor Uppsala University, fromits creationa memberof was the Boardof the StateInstitutefor Race Biology (whichfrom1936was headedby the SocialDemocrat ProfessorGunnarDahlberg).Hofsten was a core figurein the Social Democrats eugenicsproof gramandwas also a member theNationalBoard of Health,which was the state authority that approved sterilizationapplications.With regardto whatwas referred as "thelowest stratum soto of von that ciety",in 1933nobleman Hofstenassumed this grouppartlyconsistedof "genetically inferior individuals[who sank]into it due to theirinferior qualities"(quotedin BrobergandTyd6n,1996, p. 125). Such a generalizedmedico-biologicalturn towards variousformsof socialdeviance targeting is also illustrated the fact that,in 1931, one in by every twentypeople facing criminalchargeswas ordered takea mentalhealthexamination, to while in 1940,thisfigurehadincreased one in five (Arto betet,9 September, 1941,p. 5). In theirdiscussionaboutSwedisheugenics,social marginsand notions of a productivesociety, and Spektorowski Mizrachinote that"eugenicsis usually linked with conservative ideologies"and 468
that "[flew have stressedthe associationbetween eugenics and socialism, especially reformistsocialism"(2004, pp. 333-334; see also Blomqvist, did this 2006). Foucault address topicin his discussion abouthow notionsof bothbiopowerandclass strugglearefusedwithracismin socialistthought, that yet he contended social democracy liquidated suchracism"bythe reformism was boundup that with it". In thushavingno intentionto kill, social did the democracy not need to "rationalize murder of its enemies"(Foucault, 2003, p. 262). However, to notion,underthe bannerof contrary Foucault's (the People'sHome), in the buildingthe Folkhem words of the party leader Per Albin Hansson in were decisivein turn1928, the Social Democrats ing social hygienisminto governmental practices as partof the welfarestateproject. This hygienism in was double-sidedin a way that corresponds a certainsense to the differentfoci of Foucaultand Agamben.On the one side productive'positive' biopolitics biopower,andon the othera 'negative' in of thanato-power institutionalized an extensive basedon legiseugenicsandsterilization program lationenactedin 1934andrevisedin 1941,on both occasions with broad parliamentary support(on this program, Broberg,1995;BrobergandTysee 1981, 1994;Hirdman, d6n, 1991, 1996;Frykman, 1997;J6nsson,1998;Lindholm, 1989;Johannison, 1995;Runcis,1998;Tyd6n,2002, 2006; Zaremba, 1999).Duringtheperiodhereunderconsideration, in fromtheprogram's initiation 1935upuntil1945, 9 approximately 200 Swedishcitizens,of which74 percent were women,becamevictimsof sterilization (Broberg Tyd6n,1996). and of Someproponents eugenicspushedsuchideas to include 'Communists'. In 1918, Wilhelm Krauss,a Jewish refugee from Vienna who had in arrived Uppsala.He soon studiedanthropology, made HermanLundborg's and acquaintance was recruited the StateInstitute Race Biology as to for assistant,where he encountered anthropological Nazi race ideologist"Dr Phil the German"future and HansF. Giinther (Broberg Tyd6n,1996,p. 90). for livedin Stockholm severalyearsin the Giinther 1920s,andin 1924 gave a seriesof lecturesfor the In Institute's personnelat UppsalaUniversity. the a late 1920s,KrausssentGtinther lettercontaining photographsof "'rassischen Kommunistenftihrern' - since such were hardto obtain"(Broberg, himselfa Jew,thusfoundthat 1995,p. 56). Krauss, couldbe identified basedon leadersof communism Withregard thisparticular euracialappearance. to of as genic understanding communism identifiable
2006 ? The author @ and Journal compilation 2006 SwedishSocietyforAnthropology Geography
in marksappearing uponthe body,the Nazi-German unfit 'Communists' relationto a healthybody a A-Humans" case is similarlyinformative. through consistentAlreadyin 1933, im- politicof "sound discoursewas an integralmomediately upon the National Socialists seizing ly de-humanizing in de- ment in the executionof power as fear and abanpower,the SA stormtroopers Oranienburg "an men- donment through exercisein ontologicaltransployed the PrussianSchutzhaft-institution, an into tionedabove,andturned old brewery a con- formations" (Olsson, 1991, p. 119). The brutalviand centration campfor Communists othersof the olence of de-humanizingdiscourse concerned politicalopposition(cf. www.gedenkstaette-sach- waysin whichto includeyetexclude(seeAgamben in Not senhausen.de/gums/en/). only were political 1998,p. 28) theseallegedlyless-than-humans an efwere ontologythatwas characterized continuous dissidentsthe first to be incarcerated, by they to forts to delimitandimpose the bordersof the 'soothers.Referring also seen as medico-biological from 1934 written the cial', the 'normal'and the 'people', in order to a propaganda by publication to Werner Oranienburg CampCommandant Schafer, makethe suspensionof the normappear be reathreat appear be real. to that:"The sonableandtheimagined to andStoltzfushavecommented Gellately
Nazis ... came to view political convictions, espe-
ones,in socialandevenin semiciallydeeplyrooted terms.Accordingto Nazi propaganda, biological the die-hard Communistsin the concentration head by campscouldbe recognized theirdeformed shapes and the twisted features of their faces"
[I]f exceptionalmeasuresarethe resultof periods of politicalcrisis and, as such, must be understood political and not juridico-conon selves in the paradoxical positionof beingjuin ridicalmeasuresthatcannotbe understood legal terms,andthe stateof exceptionappears as the legal form of what cannot have legal form. 2005, p. 1) (Agamben, This absenceof legal form immediately concerns the tensionobservedby Agambenbetween"governance law manthrough through andgovernance "confusion be(2004) andthe connected agement" tweenthe actsby an executivepowerandthoseby a legislativepower"(2002). In Agamben'sargument,governance management through represents anextensionof sovereignty, thusof unaccountand able power.Takingthe police as an example,Agambennoteshow they alwaysoperatein a stateof exceptionwherethey"haveto decideon a case-bycase basis"in a fashion"symmetrical thatof soto (2000, p. 104). Althoughtheorizeddifvereignty" ferently,one shouldin this contextnote thatFlycrisis thatin ghed (1992) detailsthe constitutional effectresulted takenin Swedendurfrommeasures within ing the SecondWorldWar.As an authority the statesimultaneously authorized thestate,the by the police incarnate tensionbetweenlegislationand execution.Yet,numerous otherstateauthorities are surroundalso engagedin the zone of indistinction ing sovereigndecisionsover the line betweenlife anddeath,a line "inmotionandgradually moving into areasotherthanthatof politicallife, areasin which the sovereignis enteringinto an ever more intimatesymbiosisnot only withthejuristbut also with the doctor,the scientist,the expert, and the 469
stitutional grounds ..., then they find them-
(2001, 5). p.
In the Swedish context,therewere in addition links establishedbetween gender, eugenics and communistpolitics. This was made clear by the come imbuedby doctrines theyhaveno capacityto were assess the meaningof"'.Femalecommunists and in sucha logic by definition feebleminded, vice versa,to the extentthattheyexpressedcommunist this sympathies wouldbe a proofof theirfeeblemWhatthe application medico-biologof indedness. ical discoursein a dehumanizing fashioneffected, acrossthe border, then,was to push 'Communists' over the edge, fromthe 'social' sphereof political life (biospolitikos)withinthe boundary the naof into tion-state, thezoneof biologicallife (zoe)to be to of To treated according protocols indeterminacy. was be a 'Communist' to be at"thelevel of themost of beast,a humanvariant slime animals despicable such as the worldhas neverseen before".In combination with a kind of spatial mobilizationof medico-biologicaldiscourse with terms such as hotbeds", "cell-activities", "poison"and"bubonic turnedinto the perceivedthreatof 'Communists' whereno proofbecameproofof that imaginations in whichwas to be proved(on scapegoating general, see Douglas, 1995). While this imagineered 'Communist' treasonproducednumeroussortsof bodily-spatialinvasivemeasures,one might note thatthe passingon of information Nazi-Germato ny by rightwing Swedish officers probablydid amount to treason (Wechselmann,1995). The as of individuals medico-biological framing certain
military officer who claimed that "women ... be-
MICHAEL LANDZELIUS
and priest"(Agamben,1998, p. 122). Authorities in of expertswill thuscometo operate a territory inin determinacy relationto legislativepower. The line betweenlife anddeathis thezonewithinwhich Foucault'snotionof stateracismoperates,and as discussedabovethisline affectedbothformsof life politics:biopowerandbiopolitics.The dehumanization of "Communists" concerned exactly the question of where and how this line was to be drawn.By definition,sovereignpower cannotbe held to account.Whenacts of state agentsarenot to on cironly understood be dependent situational cumstances individual of cases,butalsojudgedacto criteria non-legal of character escording internal tablished the very sameagents,andfurthermore by definedas legally validbecausedelegated(also in the sense of Latour), then accountability becomes anillusionandthesovereign execution powerbeof comes a dispersedbureaucratic formality.For example,laws may includecategoriessuchas "feebleminded" "Communists", can neveridenand but to are tify theindividuals whichthosecategories by the legislatorintended refer. to What we have witnessedwith our own eyes fromthe end of World WarI onward instead is a processby whichthe enemyis firstof all excludedfrom civil humanityand branded a as criminal; only in a secondmomentdoes it become possibleandlicit to eliminatethe enemy Such an operationis by a "policeoperation". not obligedto respectanyjuridicalrule... (Agamben,2000, pp. 106-107) The reignof the law thusrisksturning the free into reign of uncontrolled delegatedpower. Yet this and analysismaybe pushedfurther beyondbureaucratic power and the police. In commentingon feastsandcarnivals thepastandpresent "charof as acterized unbridled licenseandthesuspension of by normallegal and social hierarchies" (2005, p. 71), Agamben,followingnotionsof the Swiss philologist and folkloristKarlMeuli, suggeststhat such feasts "pointtowardthe real stateof exceptionas the threshold indifference of betweenanomieand the law"(2005, pp. 72-73). "Witha brilliant intuition",writesAgamben,Meuli relatedanomicmedievalfeastswithpopular justiceanda stateof suslaw that"replicate differentphasesof the pended the cruelritualin whichtheFriedlosandthebandit were expelled from the community,their houses unroofed destroyed, theirwellspoisonedor and and made brackish" (2005, pp. 71-72). I suggest that 470
sucha threshold indifference indeedambigof was uouslyincarnated those police andmilitaryofby ficerswho murdered innocent five peoplewhenthe buildingof the Communist newspaperthe Norrskensflammanwas "unroofed and destroyed" arson.The dehumanizing abandonment of through 'Communists' anadditional has dimension political in termsof beinga momentin theproduction heof congemonyas well as a community-empowering sentthrough which sovereignpowersweredistributed not only beyond legislative to executive branches government, also to variouskinds of but of NGOsthatmobilizedordinary members citand towards this stinking izens, whose "abhorrence
scab ... in many places has led to physical conflict".
Social productivityand dehumanized inoperosity In contrast the functionof biopower, to whichis to makeoperative, makeproductive, function to the of to sovereign biopoliticsis to makeinoperative, kill, to sterilize,to placein camps.In thebuildingof the Swedish welfare state as a pure and productive fit A-humans for life" there bodypolitic of "sound was an elementthat directlyinvolvedthis operadistinctionin the spacing of altive/inoperative 'Communists'. the SocialDemocrats, To the leged nation-state to be a Folkhem the welfareof was for the Swedishpeople.The crucialbiopoliticalquestion 'Who belongs to the Swedish people?' was thusunavoidable, thisboundary and of problem the people corresponded directlyto the divisionof the enactedand mediatedby stateracism, population as discussedabove.Althoughthe Swedish sterilizationprogram not targetindividuals did basedon the politicalaffiliation, factthateugenicsdiscourse includedwidespread notionsof socialmisbehavior as hereditary combiopenedup for dehumanizing nations with prejudicedpositions on the lower classes in generalas well as on 'Communists' in (on particular theoriesof deviance in relationto and class, see Traub Little(1999);on notionsof devianceduringthe periodhereaddressed, Sumsee ner (1994)). Whenproponents medico-biologiof cal discoursefoundcertainbehaviorto be for exin ample, 'asocial'or 'feebleminded' conjunction with class, racialandethnicprejudices, could this not butincludea fuzzy distinction betweencapacities and expressions/behavior. the extent that To the valuationof mentalcapacitieswere made dependent upon the expressions/behavior through which capacitieswere revealedto the personde-
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'HOMOSACER' OUTOF LEFTFIELD
ploying medico-biologicaldiscourse,the charac- more-than-human-aggregates languageskills, (e.g. terization suchtermsof an individual's in capacity caf6s, bars, shipyards,ports, merchantships) in the normative ways that were out of control of establishment simply riskedmirroring examiner's to formsof expression/ meansof power.Yetthis assumedinternational inpositionwithregard certain behavior. Sucha movemadeanextended on repertoire fluenceof communism Swedish 'Communists' of behavior waysof thinking and in possibleto under- was also understood termsof non-Swedesbeing standas geneticallyembodied. Andwhensuchdis- less capable: partof SwedishSocialDemocrats' as cursivefiguresweremadeoperative withregard to anti-communism, Soviet workerswere denigrated thinkof andunderstood be less articulate andintruded to whencompared uponwhatwe conventionally as a separate fieldof discourse, to "European standards". politico-ideological anti-rationaland medico-biologicalunderstandIn additionto possibilities opened up by the link establishedabove between de-humanization were manifested. ings of politicaldifferences In contrast to the nationalist vision of the of 'Communists'and the thanato-power steriof Folkhem a purebodypoliticmadeeven moreso lization,"theproductivist as reasoningof eugenics" 'Communist' inter- (Spektorowskiand Mizrachi, 2004, p. 334) exthrougheugenic purification, a nationalism to to appeared represent dangerof pol- pandedthe symptomsaccording whichindividlution. "This stereotype anticommunism/antide- ualsandgroupscouldbe targeted medicothrough oftenhad yet another anti- biologicaldiscourse.In the parliamentary mocratism debates component: Semitism.And anti-Semitism in turnassociat- before the revised sterilization legislation was was ed with cosmopolitanism which similarlyto com- passedin 1941,the Social Democrat OscarOlsson as munismwas interpreted anti-national, poten- "playeddown the idea of biological inheritance as 2002, p. 25). Thecon- and talked only of 'social inheritance"'.Olsson (Schmidt, tiallytreasonous" nection 'JewishBolshevism'was well established claimedthat"onemust as far as possible, prevent in the 1930s,butthe fearof 'Communists' extend- the reproduction coming generations asocial in of ed beyond anti-Semitismand regularlytook the individualswho lead a socially destructivelife" formof a generalfearof invasionfromoutsideby (quotedin Spektorowskiand Mizrachi,2004, p. less worthyandless capablepeopleof 'Non-A-hu- 349). Spektorowskiand Mizrachimake sense of mans' (althoughnot focused upon anti-commu- the Swedish Social Democrats'position on eunism; see Blomqvist(2006) for an extensivedis- genics throughan analysisof the "strongtendencussion of a racializednotion of 'socialist white- cies towardsa Fabian concept of industrialdeness' in the Swedishlabormovementup until the mocracy and an exclusionist concept of social is 1920s).Theimpactof thiskindof thinking "most welfare, serving as a basis for social eugenics" in Swedish (2004, p. 334). The question,"why and how did clearlymanifested thehighlyrestrictive untilwell Swedish social democratic leadersandintellectulaws, whichwere practised immigration of aftertheoutbreak warin 1939"(Berggren, 2002, als think and addresssimilarissues with criteria p. 413). This idea of a pureSwedishspacethreat- akin to those of the Fabians?",should, argue in enedfromoutsidecameto expression an assess- Spektorowski and Mizrachi, be understood in mentby theAdmiral of Commander theNavyBase light of the focus in the vision of the Folkhem "on in Karlskrona, the BalticSea, who believedthat issues suchas the qualityof thepopulation the on and Communistpropaganda was widespreadamong centralfunctionof social engineering" (2004, pp. because they were sailors, "among 338, 339). The revised Swedish sterilizationlegconscripts whom communismis quite common, while the islationof 1941 gave expandedroomto social inconscriptsof other units mostly consist of farm- dicatorsthatparticularly targeteditinerant groups workersandsimilarlaborers who arenormally not and 'antisocial'behaviordefinedin termsof vaginfluenced by communism"(quoted in L66w, abondry,immoralityand idleness (Brobergand in over Tyd6n, 1996; Spektorowskiand Mizrachi,2004; 1990,pp.373-374). Similarly, "speculating the uneven geographicalspreadof communism" Zaremba,1999; see also Cresswell, 2001). One andaskingwhycommunism so strongin GbSte- shouldnoteherethatvagabondry deployedas was was and borg,the majorSwedishporton theAtlanticcoast, anessentiallyspatialcategoryof misbehavior, a conservativeG6teborgnewspaperimplied the the figureof the vagabondthus unavoidablyimof con- plied a lack of (productive)"loyalty to fellow importance a laborforcewith international nections(GMP,30 January, 1940, p. 4). Such sen- countrymen", althoughnot necessarilycosmopoltiments implied that 'Communists' mobilized itanism.Thereis also a religiousChristian dimen@The author 2006 @ Journal and compilation 2006 SwedishSocietyforAnthropology Geography
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MICHAEL LANDZELIUS
sion relatedto immorality, collectiveactionunderstood the sum of inas namely the 'Communist' as an atheistor as otherwisereligiously dedividual action) in a transitus de potentia ad viantandtherefore actum. morallyinferior,whichin turn can be relatedto the notionof the Lutheran work (Agamben,1998,pp. 61-62) ethic (Thing,2003) andthusto theparadigm soof cial productivity. with the case Bringingthis thoughtinto resonance I wish to connectthisreasoningwiththe impor- at hand,to retainone's laborpower, to refuse to tantidea of 'inoperosity'.While Agamben'sItal- haveit exhausted thebiopower in of practices tranian term inoperositct is variouslytranslatedinto situs de potentia ad actum characterizing the effiunderthe SocialDemoEnglish as 'inoperativeness' (Agamben,1998, p. cient Swedishnation-state 61), 'inoperability' (Agamben,2000, p. 140), 'in- crats, could be understoodas an 'antisocial'ofoperativity'(De Boever, 2006, p. 154), and 'in- fence. The notionof inoperosity maythusin an inbe of operosity' (Franchi, 2004, p. 33), the original versemanner linkedto thebiopower paradigm Frenchterm is desoeuvrement. term may be productivity social eugenics.In thatsense the The and traced to the figure of the voyou desoeuvr"(in lazyrascalemerged a mirror as imageof the"sound as fit in Englishcolloquiallyrendered "lazyrascal")of A-humans forlife",hencepossibleto diagnose novels as discussed by the medico-biological terms.In Agamben, RaymondQueneau's inoperosity FrenchphilosopherKojive, andlaterby Bataille, is understood a positive elementof a "passive as Blanchot,andNancy.In his bookLa communaute" politics" which turns against the core notion of desoeuvrde (The Inoperative Community), Jean- homo economicus in Western thinking (see Luc Nancy imagined"a communitywithoutsub- Franchi, finds "thematic affinities" 2004). Franchi notionof 'inoperosity' the and stance, withoutcommunionor communism,and betweenAgamben's in this sense an unmanageable,'unworking'or Italian 'workerist' interpretationof Marxism, 'inoperative' community beyond instrumental which in termsof suggestedpoliticalpracticeincontrol"(Dallmayr,1997, p. 176). In Agamben's cluded"awithdrawal labor,or moregenerally, of a with capitalin the organizausage, the concepthas doublereferences,both to refusalto collaborate the inoperosityof the sovereign (who thus per- tion of laborby presenting, instancedemands for forms sovereigntyparticularly not deploying thatcannot satisfied" be (2004,p. 38). I suggestthat by the lethalforcewhichdefinestheposition)andthe this connectswiththe ways in which'Communist' was fromthepointof view of inoperosityof the lazy rascal,which in Agamben behavior experienced is linkedto an idea of a humanexistence beyond those engagedin the Folkhem projectof extensive I current socialforms.Although shareNancy'sun- class cooperation betweenlaborandcapital.Hence of as to behavior took shapein theborderzone derstanding communism "wedded thegoal 'antisocial' of a totalizingandmanageable to and (Dall- betweenwhatappeared be immoral illegalin community" "animal uninhibitedness" or mayr, 1997, p. 178), I none the less contendthat termsof the "insane" the threatof 'Communists' the Swedish 1930s "intellectually in inferior" refusalof 'Communists' to andduringthe SecondWorldWarwas configured acceptthe productivist of paradigm class cooperaas an unmanageable'antisocial' threat to the tion, thusdisplaying targetsymptomsof socialeuSwedish version of such a goal in terms of the genics: lazy and improductive, refusingto work, In Folkhem. my use of the notionof 'inoperosity' disorderly,sabotagingproduction, so on. Inand discourseon 'Communists' influnced the critiqueagainst deed, dehumanizing here,I amfurther by with Agambendeliveredby Antonio Negri and Paolo did deploytermsandphrasesthatoverlapped Virnoconcerning importance the the definitions 'antisocial' of suchas: "unrebehavior, of"returning inferior", questionof bio-politics to the potentialityof la- liable","unwilling", "morally "behaving to (Neilson, 2004, p. 76). bour-power" impertinently", "trying find anything good is in vain". Everything dependson what is meantby 'inIt the operativeness'. canbe neither simpleabsence of worknor (as in Bataille)a sovereign To become social/to regain a place and useless form of negativity.The only co- The systematic exclusion of CommunistParty is frompoliticalbodiesandlaborunionpoherentway to understand inoperativeness to members think of it as a generic mode of potentiality sitions as well as Parliamentary proposalsto ban thatis not exhausted actionor the Partyand to ban and oust them from Parlia(like individual 472
@Theauthor 2006 @ and Journal compilation 2006 SwedishSocietyforAnthropology Geography
ment, police raidsand searches,and so on, show how fighting 'Communists'was carried out in terms of spacing into zones of indeterminacy throughformsof literallyundressingand making naked,formsof takingawayrightsthathadpreviously belonged to them. The managementof 'Communists'was undertaken measuresamby biguouslyrelatedto legislation,extensivesurveillance decideduponby the police andmilitary;legally dubiousandinitiallypoliticallyunauthorized draftingof civilian conscriptsdirectlyto military labor companycamps;police raids and searches neitherbasedon norproducing evidence;the creation of TemporaryCustody Registers and detailedplansfor the seizureof people;extensivedeploymentof dehumanizing terminologyand thus abusiveuse of the freedomof speech withoutinwhile simultaneousterference fromgovernment, ly the stateenacteddormant censorship legislation andengagedin deliberate of misinterpretation outdated existing laws in combinationwith the socalled Transport in Prohibition orderto curbfree speech. The spacingof 'Communists'into zones of indeterminacy also explicitly proposedin was terms of no longer belonging to the territoryin whichthey wereborn,andhencedirectlyin terms of citizenship.'Communists' were recommended to "packtheirstuff and deportthemselvesas fast as possible to their spiritualmotherland". Dehumanization was directlylinkedto a suggesteddewhichif noteffectedimpliedother nationalization, measuresof zoning such as internment detenand tion: "Thereis no place for themhere".This was not only a more-than-human-aggregate antiof but is communism, whatwe encounter a machinic assemblagewith lines of abandonment defining andproducing spacesof bios andzoe. the In orderto possibly regaina place in the body in stateof indetermipolitic,although a permanent rules of ritual nacy in Agamben'sunderstanding, and cleansing had to be followed. The Social demokratenwillingly published statementsthat werepartof suchritesof passagefrom 'antisocial' to 'social'. Apologetic statementsfrom previous communists alleged'Communists' or reappeared peatedlyin the paper'scolumns.The vehementattacksaround whichthisarticlehascircledwerenot ad hoc labels pasted on to situationsthat would have been the same withoutthose epithetshaving been invoked. againbecome 'normal' to inTo had cludetakingon the other'shatred self-hatred, as as an inversion one's ethos,pathosandlogos, to do of
Democratic newspaper the Norrliindska Social-
ska Socialdemokraten published more than thirty
what Benjaminencouragesus not to do, to make Between one's own past disappearirretrievably. late December1939 andMay 1940, theNorrlindstatements the followingkind: of The dreamland thoughtwe saw in the East we has been coveredin the blood of women and innocentchildren.That humanbeing who is not indignant the depthof his/hersoul must in be a devil in humanclothes,worthyof nothing else butall honesthumans' and deepcontempt holy abhorrence. (NSD, 7 December,1939,p. 3) Owing to present circumstances,I would herebylike to make public that I for the last seven years have not been a memberof the CommunistParty, and that I have nothing whatsoever do with this partyor its activito ties. Indeed, as a righteousworkerit is unthinkable in anyway sympathize to with communism. 1940, p. 4) (NSD, 31 January, [I], who have never been a member of the Communist with Partynorsympathized its activities,wouldin this way like to publiclyannounce these facts and simultaneouslystate thatI regretthatI havebeenexposedto such a It misunderstanding. appearsthat some malevolent personhas wantedto harmme personally,harassme in the eyes of my employer, butthis will proveunsuccessful, hope. I 1940,p. 3) (NSD, 1 February,
Michael Landzelius Gateborg University Department of Conservation Sweden
E-mail:landzelius @icug.gu.se Sources Documentsin Riksarkivet (RA, The SwedishNational Archive);Krigsarkivet (KrA,The Swedish and Archive); thefollowingdailynewspaMilitary
pers: Arbetet, Dagens Nyheter (DN), Gdteborgs Handels- och Sj6fartstidning (GHT), Giteborgs (GMP), Norrliindska SocialMorgonpost demokraten (NSD), Ny Tid (NT), SocialDemokraten (SD), Stockholms-Tidningen (ST), Svenska Dagbladet (SvD).
@The author2006 Journal @ and compilation 2006 SwedishSocietyforAnthropology Geography
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'Homo Sacer' out of Left Field: Communist "Slime" as Bare Life in 1930s and Second World War Sweden

Landzelius, 2006: 'HomoSacer'Outof LeftField:CommuM., nist "Slime" BareLife in 1930sandSecondWorldWarSweas

@The author2006 @ Journal and compilation 2006 SwedishSocietyforAnthropology Geography