Olof Palme

Olof Palme
Born	Sven Olof Joachim Palme 30 January 1927 Stockholm, Sweden
Died	28 February 1986 (Age 59) Stockholm, Sweden
Nationality	Swedish
Alma mater	Stockholm University, Kenyon College
Children	• Joakim • Mårten • Mattias
Spouse	Lisbet Palme
Victim of	assassination
Interest of	Sven Aspling
Party	Social Democratic Party
Subpage	•Olof Palme/Assassination
Leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1969, and two-term Prime Minister, until his assassination in 1986.  Prime Minister of Sweden  In office 14 October 1969 - 8 October 1976 Preceded by Tage Erlander Succeeded by Thorbjörn Fälldin  Prime Minister of Sweden  In office 8 October 1982 - 28 February 1986  Leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party In office 14 October 1969 - 28 February 1986  President of the Nordic Council In office 1979 Preceded by Olof Palme Succeeded by Olof Palme

Olof Palme led the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1969 to his assassination in 1986, and was a two-term Prime Minister of Sweden, heading a Privy Council government from 1969 to 1976 and a cabinet government from 1982 until his death. Electoral defeats in 1976 and 1979 marked the end of Social Democratic hegemony in Swedish politics, which had seen 40 years of unbroken rule by the party.

While leader of the opposition, Olof Palme divided domestic and international interests and served as special mediator of the United Nations in the Iran–Iraq War, but returned to power as Prime Minister after stunning electoral victories in 1982 and 1985.

Early life

Olof Palme was born into an upper-class, conservative family in Östermalm, Stockholm, Sweden. His father, a businessman, was of Dutch ancestry, and his mother, Freiin von Knieriem, was of Baltic German origin and had arrived in Sweden as a refugee in 1915. Great-grandfather Alexander von Knieriem (1837 - 1904) was an attorney general of the Senate of Russian Empire, senator and member of the State Council of Imperial Russia. Palme's father died when he was six years old. Despite his upper-class background, his political orientation came to be influenced by Social Democratic attitudes. His travels in the Third World, as well as the United States, where he saw deep economic inequality and racial segregation, helped to develop these views.

A sickly child, Olof Palme received his education from private tutors. Even as a child he gained knowledge of two foreign languages. He studied at the Sigtuna School of Liberal Arts, one of Sweden's few residential high schools, and passed the university entrance examination with high marks at the early age of 17. He did his military service and became a reserve officer with the rank of captain. After military service he enrolled at the University of Stockholm.

On a scholarship, he studied at Kenyon College, Ohio 1947–1948, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Inspired by radical debate in the student community, he wrote a critical essay on Friedrich Hayek's The Road to Serfdom. Palme wrote his senior honor thesis on the United Auto Workers union, led at the time by Walter Reuther. After graduation he travelled throughout the country and eventually ended up in Detroit, where his hero Reuther agreed to an interview which lasted several hours. In later years, Palme regularly remarked during his many subsequent American visits, that the United States had made him a socialist, a remark that often has caused confusion. Within the context of his American experience, it was not that Palme was repelled by what he found in America, but rather that he was inspired by it.

After hitch-hiking through the USA and Mexico, he returned to Sweden to study law at Stockholm University. In 1949 he became a member of the Swedish Social Democratic Party. During his time at university, Palme became involved in student politics, working with the Swedish National Union of Students. In 1951, he became a member of the social democratic student association in Stockholm, although it is asserted he did not attend their political meetings at the time. The following year he was elected President of the Swedish National Union of Students. As a student politician he concentrated on international affairs and traveled across Europe.

Palme attributed his becoming a socialist to three major influences:

• In 1947, he attended a debate on taxes between the Social Democrat Ernst Wigforss, the conservative Jarl Hjalmarson and the liberal Elon Andersson;
• The time he spent in the United States in the 1940s made him realise how wide the class divide was in America, and the extent of racism against black people; and,
• A trip to Asia, specifically India, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Burma, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, and Japan in 1953 had opened his eyes to the consequences of colonialism and imperialism.

Political career

In 1953, Olof Palme was recruited by the social democratic prime minister Tage Erlander to work in his secretariat. From 1955 he was a board member of the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League and lectured at the Youth League College Bommersvik. He also was a member of the Worker's Educational Association.

In 1957 he was elected as a Member of Parliament representing Jönköping County in the directly-elected First Chamber (Första kammaren) of Sweden's Riksdag. In the early 1960s Palme became a member of the Agency for International Assistance (NIB) and was in charge of inquiries into assistance to the developing countries and educational aid. In 1963, he became a member of the Cabinet - as Minister without Portfolio in the Cabinet Office, and retained his duties as a close political adviser to Prime Minister Tage Erlander. In 1965, he became Minister of Transport and Communications. One issue of special interest to him was the further development of radio and television, while ensuring their independence from commercial interests. In 1967 he became Minister of Education and, the following year, he was the target of strong criticism from left-wing students protesting against the government's plans for university reform. The protests culminated with the occupation of the Student Union Building in Stockholm; Palme came there and tried to comfort the students, urging them to use democratic methods for the pursuit of their cause. When party leader Tage Erlander stepped down in 1969, Olof Palme was elected as the new leader by the Social Democratic party congress and succeeded Erlander as Prime Minister.

Policies

As leader of a new generation of Swedish Social Democrats, Olof Palme was often described as a "revolutionary reformist". Domestically, his socialist views — especially the Social Democrat drive to expand Labour Union influence over business — engendered a great deal of hostility from more conservatively inclined Swedes.

Olof Palme carried out major reforms in the Swedish constitution such as orchestrating a switch from bicameralism to unicameralism in 1969 and in 1975 replacing the 166-year-old Instrument of Government (at the time the oldest political constitution in the world after that of the United States) with a new one officially establishing parliamentary democracy rather than de jure monarchic autocracy, abolishing the Privy Council of Sweden and stripping King Carl XVI Gustav of most powers held even by ceremonial monarchs in Denmark, Norway and the United Kingdom.

His reforms on labour market included establishing a law which increased job security. In the Swedish 1973 general election the Socialist-Communist and the Liberal-Conservative blocs got 175 places each in the parliament. The Palme administration continued to govern the country but several times they had to draw lots to decide on some issues, although most important issues were decided through concessional agreement.

Under Olof Palme's government matters concerned with child care centres, social security, protection of the elderly, accident safety, and housing problems received special attention. Under Palme the public health system in Sweden became efficient, with the infant mortality rate standing at 12 per 1,000 live births. An ambitious redistributive programme was carried out, with special help provided to the disabled, immigrants, the low paid, single-parent families, and the old. The Swedish welfare state was significantly expanded from a position already one of the most far-reaching in the world during his time in office, while tax rates rose from being fairly low even by European standards to one of the highest levels in the Western world. Olof Palme's last government, elected during a time when Sweden's economy was in difficult shape, sought to pursue a "third way," designed to stimulate investment, production, and employment, having ruled out classical Keynesian policies as a result of the growing burden of foreign debt, together with the big balance of payments and budget deficits. This involved "equality of sacrifice," whereby wage restraint would be accompanied by increases in welfare provision and more progressive taxation. For instance, taxes on wealth, gifts, and inheritance were increased, while tax benefits to shareholders were either reduced or eliminated. In addition, various welfare cuts carried out before Olof's return to office were rescinded. The previous system of indexing pensions and other benefits was restored, the grant-in-aid scheme for municipal child care facilities was re-established, unemployment insurance was restored in full, and the so-called "no benefit days" for those drawing sickness benefits were cancelled. Increases were also made to both food subsidies and child allowances, while the employee investment funds (which represented a radical form of profit-sharing) were introduced.

As a forerunner in green politics Olof Palme was a firm believer in nuclear power as a necessary form of energy, at least for a transitional period to curb the use of fossil fuel. His intervention in Sweden's 1980 referendum on the future of nuclear power is often pinpointed by opponents of nuclear power as saving it. Nuclear power remains one of the most important sources of energy in Sweden, much attributed to Palme's actions.

On 21 February 1968, Palme (then Minister of Education) participated in a protest in Stockholm against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War together with the North Vietnamese Ambassador to the Soviet Union Nguyen Tho Chan. The protest was organised by the Swedish Committee for Vietnam and Palme and Nguyen were both invited as speakers. As a result of this, the U.S. recalled its Ambassador from Sweden and Palme was fiercely criticised by the opposition for his participation in the protest.

On 23 December 1972, Palme (then Prime Minister) made a speech on Swedish national radio where he compared the ongoing US bombings of Hanoi to historical atrocities, namely the bombing of Guernica, the massacres of Oradour-sur-Glane, Babi Yar, Katyn massacre, Lidice, the Sharpeville massacre and the Treblinka extermination camp. The US government called the comparison a "gross insult" and once again decided to freeze its diplomatic relations with Sweden (this time the freeze lasted for over a year).

Despite such associations and contrary to stated Social Democratic Party policy, Sweden had in fact secretly maintained extensive military co-operation with NATO over a long period, and was even under the protection of a US military security guarantee.

In response to Palme's remarks in a meeting with the US ambassador to Sweden ahead of the Socialist International Meeting in Helsingør in January 1976, Kissinger asked the US ambassador to "(...) convey my personal appreciation to Palme for his frank presentation (...).

Shortly before his assassination, Palme had been accused of being pro-Soviet and not sufficiently safeguarding Sweden's national interest. Arrangements had therefore been made for him to go to Moscow to discuss a number of contentious bilateral issues, including alleged Soviet submarine incursions into Swedish waters.

Assassination

Full article: Olof Palme/Assassination

Upon his release from prison in 1990, Nelson Mandela meets Mrs Palme in Stockholm

Olof Palme was assassinated in Sweden on 28 February 1986 by a lone gunman whilst walking home from a cinema with his wife. A rather problematic Official Narrative of the assassination suggests that it was the work of a 'lone nut'. Evidence is gradually emerging that his assassination was a deep event. Deputy Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson immediately assumed the duties of Prime Minister, a post he retained until 1991 (and then again in 1994-1996). He also took over the leadership of the Social Democratic Party, which he held until 1996.

 

A Olof Palme victim on Wikispooks

Title	Description
Olof Palme	Leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1969, and two-term Prime Minister, until his assassination in 1986.

 

Appointments by Olof Palme

Appointee	Job	Appointed	End
Bernt Carlsson	Special Emissary to the Middle East and Africa	1983	1985
Kjell-Olof Feldt	Sweden/Minister/Finance	1 January 1983	16 February 1990

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/1965	2 April 1965	4 April 1965	Italy Villa d'Este	The 14th Bilderberg meeting, held in Italy
Bilderberg/1973	11 May 1973	13 May 1973	Sweden Saltsjöbaden	The meeting at which the 1973 oil crisis appears to have been planned.
Bilderberg/1984	11 May 1984	13 May 1984	Sweden Saltsjöbaden	The 32nd Bilderberg, held in Sweden

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Afterword to "Who Really Killed Chris Hani?"	Book	29 February 2024	Christopher Nicholson	Courts have decided that freedom of expression trumps all other rights as without it nobody, including the courts, would ever hear of breaches of other rights. So those who have attempted to suppress this book have prevented the world from discovering and prosecuting the criminals, who perpetrated the foul murders. In law we would describe them as accessories after the fact of these killings.
Document:Olof Palme - The Man Who Played With Fire	book review	2020	Simon Matthews	Bernt Carlsson, a colleague of Olof Palme’s and UN Commissioner for Namibia 1987-1988, died in the Lockerbie bombing on 21 December 1988. Carlsson's presence on Pan Am Flight 103 has been cited as the reason it was bombed.
Document:PanAm-Rätsel LOCKERBIE: Es war Südafrika!…so wie bei Olof Palme	Article	6 October 1996	Kurt Seinitz	"It would have been easy for South African secret service agents, who had infiltrated Sweden's anti-apartheid movement, to exchange Carlsson's tape recorder in a hotel room against one containing the bomb. And then placing it inside one of those 'ubiquitous' Samsonite suitcases, so beloved by the peripatetic Bernt Carlsson."
Document:Reinstatement in HM Diplomatic Service	Letter	6 January 1997	Patrick Haseldine	A plea for reinstatement in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office by "Thatcher's Whitehall Critic"
Document:Who Really Killed Chris Hani?	Book	29 February 2024	Christopher Nicholson	"Apart from Chris Hani’s murder, we deal with five others, spread over three decades: Patrice Lumumba in September 1961; Dag Hammarskjöld on 18 September 1961; Olof Palme on 28 February 1986; Bernt Carlsson on 21 December 1988; and Anton Lubowski on 12 September 1989."

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Bibliography

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• Hermansson, Håkan; Wenander, Lars (1987), Uppdrag: Olof Palme : hatet, jakten, kampanjerna, Stockholm: Tiden, ISBN 91-550-3340-7
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• Palme, Claës (1986), Olof Palme, Helsinki: Kirjayhtymä, ISBN 951-26-2963-1
• Palme, Olof (1984), Sveriges utrikespolitik : anföranden, Stockholm: Tiden, ISBN 91-550-2948-5
• Palme, Olof (1986), Politik är att vilja (3rd ed.), Stockholm: Prisma, ISBN 91-518-2045-5
• Palme, Olof (1986), Att vilja gå vidare (2nd ed.), Stockholm: Tiden, ISBN 91-550-3224-9
• Palme, Olof; Richard, Serge; Åkerman, Nordal (1977), Med egna ord : samtal med Serge Richard och Nordal Åkerman, Uppsala: Bromberg, ISBN 91-85342-32-7
• Palme, Olof; Dahlgren, Hans (1987), En levande vilja, Stockholm: Tiden, ISBN 91-550-3225-7
• Palme, Olof; Hansson, Sven Ove; Dahlgren, Hans (1996), Palme själv : texter i urval, Stockholm: Tiden, ISBN 91-518-2947-9
• Palme, Olof (2006), Solidaritet utan gränser : tal och texter i urval, Stockholm: Atlas, ISBN 91-7389-219-X
• Peterson, Thage G. (2002), Olof Palme som jag minns honom, Stockholm: Bonnier, ISBN 91-0-058042-2
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• Strand, Dieter (1986), Med Palme : scener ur en partiledares och statsministers liv, Stockholm: Norstedt, ISBN 91-1-861431-0
• Svedgård, Lars B. (1970), Palme : en presentation, Stockholm: Rabén & Sjögren, ISBN 9901109116
• Zachrisson, Birgitta; Alandh, Tom; Henriksson, Björn (1996), Berättelser om Palme, Stockholm: Norstedt, ISBN 91-1-960002-X

External links

• Olof Palme Archives
• Olof Palme Memorial Fund
• Olof Palme International Center

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