“When I was 19 years old I experienced my first labor battle in north Sweden, a gigantic strike by mine workers,” said Östling, a leader of the Communist League in Sweden who chaired the meeting. “It was a reaction by the miners against being treated like robots. It shocked Sweden, and the ruling social democracy, because it exposed the conditions the workers were living under. Later I became part of the process of building the proletarian party that The Changing Face of U.S. Politics describes.”

Catharina Tirsén, editor of the Swedish translation of the book, described some of the challenges in coming up with accurate translations.

Mike Ellis, a member of the Young Socialists in the United States, also spoke. He described how YSers are throwing themselves into supporting working-class struggles like the Teamsters drive to organize independent truckers in the U.S. South and selling subscriptions to the Militant at plant gates, picket lines, and other labor actions. “YS members in Detroit have started a campus group that supports the Northwest Airlines strike,” he said.

Other speakers included Tony Hunt, a leader of the Communist League in the United Kingdom, and Dag Tirsén, who led the campaign to raise funds to build the new hall here.

Joel Britton, a leader of the Socialist Workers Party in the United States, said there was “more oxygen in the air,” in describing the political hunger among workers in battle for the Militant, hundreds of whom have been subscribing to the paper every week.

Östling said there is a growing interest in the Militant among working people in Sweden too. “We sell more papers outside factories than from street book tables now,” she stated, pointing to experiences with workers at Arlanda airport and bus drivers outside their garage.  
 
 
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