Olof Palme

Sven Olof Joachim Palme was a far-left communist authoritarian socialist who ruined the swedish economyEarly Life öl

Born into an upper class, conservative Lutheran family of Dutch, Russian, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish ancestry. He received education from private tutors and learned German and English, entering university at age 17 and serving in the Swedish army from 1945 to 1947. He studied at Kenyon College, Ohio, USA on a scholarship, writing an essay on Hayek's The Road to Serfdom and a senior honour thesis on the United Auto Workers Union, led at the time by Walter Reuther.

After graduation he traveled throughout the world, he attributes his left-wing beliefs to three experiences:

• 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
• A trip to Asia, specifically India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and Japan in 1953 had opened his eyes to the consequences of colonialism and imperialism

He began to work in student unions, for the government and the workers educational assocaition. He was elected to represented Jönköping County in Swedish parliament in 1957 and he became Minister of Transport and Communications in 1965 and aimed to promote radio and television and protect them from privatisation. In 1967 he became Minister of Education and visited the occupation of the Student Union Building in Stockholm to speak to protesting students. In 1969, he was elected to be the new prime minister.

Politics

Good Things he did

• Change the constitution to give parliament greater power than Sweden's monarchy, turning the monarchy into a purely ceremonial institution
• Increased job security for Swedish workers
• Creation of a large welfare state to help the disabled, immigrants, the poor, single-parents and the elderly.
• Expansion of healthcare to include dental care
• Expansion of education at all levels, introduction of free university
• Introduction of co-determination and profit-sharing laws in industry
• Introducing nuclear power to Sweden
• Introduction of union-approved workplace safety laws
• Increased funding for childcare
• He was an outspoken feminist
• He condemned both the US (for the Vietnam War) and the USSR (for the crushing of the Prague Spring)
• Criticising authoritarian governments such as Franco's Spain, Pinochet's Chile, Czechoslovakia and Apartheid
• Supporting left-wing groups like the African National Congress, Palestine Liberation Organisation, Sandinistas, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front and Fidel Castro's revolutionaries in Cuba.
• Trying to end the Iran–Iraq War by acting as a mediator.
• Before Christmas of 1972, he spoke 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, Lidice and Sharpeville, and the extermination of Jews and other groups at Treblinka. The US government called the comparison a "gross insult" and decided to freeze its diplomatic relations with Sweden (this time the freeze lasted for over a year).

Bad Things he did

• Raise taxes from being fairly low even by European standards to the highest levels in the Western world.
• Eliminating taxes on capital gains
• Occasional welfare cuts
• Secretly allying with NATO and depending on US support

Death

Palme was shot while walking home from a cinema with his wife in Stockholm in 1986. His killed has never been identified leading to numerous theories about the assassination have spawned in the years following. Although it is entirely possible that one, multiple or none of these theories are true, it is a conclusion you will have to reach yourself.

Theory #1: Arms Trafficking

It's been argued that his assassination may have been connected to the Bofors scandal, given Palme's secret efforts to secure armanents production contracts to sell to the Indian military. The theory suggests he was assassinated in order to stop him learning about several corrupt elements of the deal and Swedish police hid evidence from MI6.

Theory #2: CIA Involvement

According to Richard Brenneke, a man who claims to be a former CIA agent, the CIA was behind the assassination. This theory supports the South African Police theory, given the close co-operation between the US and South African government in interfering in the affairs of other states throughout the late 20th century. CIA-connected fascists in Italy wrote telegrams saying "the Swedish tree will be felled" before his assassination.

Theory #5: KGB Involvement

It has been suspected that the KGB (the intelligence arm of the USSR) were behind the assassination, although they possessed a motive (Palme apparently did not follow orders from the USSR) no people associated with the KGB have ever been connected with the case.

Theory #6: LaRouche Movement

At the time, Victor Gunnarsson, a member of the European Workers Party, the Swedish branch of the LaRouche Movement, was arrested after he matched the description and had pamphlets hostile to Palme in his home. However, he was acquitted and eventually murdered in the USA as part of a love triangle.

Theory #7: Mistaken for a Drug Dealer

Christer Pettersson, a local thief, drug addict and alcoholic was strongly suspected in the case (originally arrested) he allegedly shot him because he mistook Palme for a drug dealer.

Theory #9: PKK Involvement

Both the Swedish police and Turkish governments have alleged the assassination to be a product of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), although evidence for this is lacking.

Theory #11: South African Police

Some have suspected that the South African Police were behind the assassination, owing to Palme's outspoken criticism of Apartheid and public support (both diplomatic and financial) for the ANC during his government. Supporters of this theory include several former South African police, mercenaries and documentary makers.

Theory #13: Yugoslavia

In January 2011 the German magazine Focus cited official German interrogation records in connection with another investigation from 2008 as showing that the assassination had been carried out by an operative of the Yugoslavian security service. The assassin is allegedly a 65 year old Croatian man in Zagreb who works for private security.

Sadly, his protégé and political ally, Bernt Carlsson, who was appointed UN Commissioner for Namibia in July 1987, was killed in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland on 21 December 1988 en route to the UN signing ceremony of the New York Accords the following day.