Raggare: the Swedish rock'n'roll cult comes of age

The biggest pop tribe in Sweden isn't indie kids or techno heads. It's made up of people who adore Chuck Berry and drive vintage cars. Meet the raggare


In high summer, deep in the Swedish countryside, you could easily believe Rebel Without a Cause or The Wild One are being remade. The quiffs, classic cars and 1950s clothes aren't for show, however. These people aren't costumed extras, they are raggare, members of the largest pop-culture tribe in Sweden, and one of the most influential in Scandinavia.

Rock'n'roll never died for the raggare: they are still devoted to the music, the fashion, the aesthetics. For 50 years they have kept its spirit alive, but where rock'n'rollers in other countries have dwindled into small groups, in Sweden they have gone from strength to strength – there are now estimated to be half a million of them.

The first raggare would travel in convoy from one hick town to the next to beat lumps out of each other and ogle the women. There are still organised raggare brawls, but the movement is part of the mainstream now, its most visible manifestation the cheap 50s and 60s US cars the raggare still drive and the vintage clothes they wear. You can have three generations of raggare within the same family, and there was no more eloquent statement of raggare respectability than the 12 kronor commemorative raggare stamp issued by the Swedish post office a few years back.

Arboga is a town of 10,000 people, 80 miles or so west of Stockholm. It's a dullish place, with late-night entertainment limited to a few service stations dishing out food. There's nothing to do here, which means it's a perfect place for raggare culture to thrive. The Burning Wheels are the smallest of three chapters of raggare from Arboga. They meet every Sunday at Georg's Garage to rev their engines, play rock'n'roll records and talk about the 1950s, while their children run around getting ice cream handprints all over the car seats.

It wasn't always like this, according to Georg. "We used to meet up on Sundays to have fights. We were honest fighters. No weapons, no martial arts, no kicking – and if you fell on the ground it was all over and you'd buy the guy a drink."

The raggare didn't confine the fighting to themselves. They singled out punks and hippies for beatings, and did it so often that the Rude Kids, a Swedish punk band, released a single called Raggare Is a Bunch of Motherfuckers. "Those were the drinking days," Georg says. "The crazy drinking days." If you drink too much nowadays, you'll be kicked out of the Burning Wheels, they say.

The raggare have always tended to be drawn from country folk: farmers, petrol station owners, low-skilled workers. The growth in their numbers is the result of the differing fortunes of the US and Swedish economies over the decades: successive oil crises and a poor exchange rate saw Americans trading in gas-guzzlers for more economical models; the Swedes, relatively rich in comparison, bought their cars for a song.

For young Swedes, these giant American cars, which contrasted with the safe, boxy Volvos their parents drove, were the ultimate symbols of rebellion. And they were dirt-cheap. "They were stupid," Georg says about the Americans. "Some of the cars were limited edition. They built maybe 70 of them and they were selling them to us for a few thousand when they were collector pieces."

Georg picked up his first US muscle car, a black 1965 Pontiac, for $2,000 in Los Angeles in 1980. He found it in a lot, rusted and part-inhabited by a eucalyptus tree. By the time he'd shipped it home, sourced original parts, resprayed and kitted out the whole body, it was worth 20 times as much, with an engine that purred and a stereo that roared. The latter is the only concession to modernity acceptable in a raggare's restored car; music is a huge part of the culture. "You don't exactly want to have hip-hop playing from your car when you're cruising," says Martin, a farmer who drives a lime green Chevy. He listens mostly to Creedence Clearwater Revival. "That music came from a period when America was really great. You can hear it in the lyrics."

Martin's top-of-the-range sound system is hidden inside the glove compartment. Every weekend, in car parks and petrol station forecourts up and down Sweden, the rest of Scandinavia, and even in some parts of western Russia, raggare gangs play out their classic rock'n'roll albums until their car batteries pack in.

When the raggare have parties, they tend to have them in their garages: comfortable enough spaces, filled with pots of grease, car jacks and stacks of fenders. The more capable raggare jitterbug and twist; others shuffle from foot to foot, stopping occasionally to pull out the kink in a poodle skirt or run a comb through a greasy quiff.

Maud is the longest-standing female member of the Burning Wheels. She's short of cash at the moment, and has to cruise around in a 20-year-old Volvo – and Volvos are to raggare what dirty overalls are to mods. "I fell in love with the scene thanks to my grandparents," she says. "The music they listened to and the cars they drove are so attractive." Maud is also involved with a girls-only raggare group who visit schools as part of a raggare awareness group, teaching pupils about the raggare lifestyle and the notion of respect.

When the first raggare appeared, they caused moral panic across Sweden, where they were seen as an oversexed bunch of hard partiers. As the original raggare have grown older, they've been trying to heal their reputation. "It's important to be a gentleman," says Georg. "If you want to join the Burning Wheels, you have a one-year probation period. It's not easy to join. You have kids driving round in their parents' Volvos calling themselves raggare when they're not."

That free use of the word has caused problems. Raggare get blamed when far-right gangs attack Gypsy camps and smuggle drugs. To outsiders, gangs in cars out drinking are all raggare. Not to the Burning Wheels. "We're like craftsmen. The lifestyle is an art," says Martin. "It's not just drinking and driving fast. There's responsibility with what we do."

It's funny how often the words respect and responsibility are used by a group who take their cues from music and films whose very purpose was to express rebellion. That's partly the result of the Swedish government realising there was more to be gained from embracing the raggare than alienating them. In the 60s, the government made the decision to consult the raggare about decisions that might affect them – so now they pay no car or import tax on their vehicles, and Sweden has the largest collection of classic cars outside the US. Another 6,000 were imported last year alone. continues here

Is rape rampant in gender-equal Sweden?

A recent European Commission report identifying Sweden as the rape capital of Europe should be treated with a healthy dose of scepticism, argues sociologist Laura Agustín.

Rape is a complicated crime. A research project funded by the European Commission’s Daphne programme reveals that Sweden leads Europe in reports of rape.

At 46.5 per 100,000 members of the population, Sweden far surpasses Iceland, which comes next with 36, and England and Wales after that with 26. At the same time, Sweden’s 10 percent conviction rate of rape suspects is one of Europe’s lowest.

The report’s comparative dimension should probably be ignored. Instead of assuming that there are four times as many rapes in Sweden as in neighbouring Denmark or Finland, as the figures suggest, to understand we would have to compare all the definitional and procedural differences between their legal systems. It is significant that Sweden counts every event between the same two people separately where other countries count them as one. Most of Sweden’s rapes involve people who know each other, in domestic settings.

The countries reporting highest rates of rape are northern European with histories of social programming to end violence against women. In Sweden, Gender Equality is taught in schools and reinforced in public-service announcements. Should we believe that such education has no effect, or, much worse, an opposite effect? Raging anti-feminist men think so, and raging anti-immigrant Swedes blame foreigners. Amnesty International says patriarchal norms are intransigent in Swedish family life. Everyone faults the criminal justice system.

In contemporary Sweden, women and girls are encouraged to speak up assertively about gender bias and demand their rights. Public discussions have revolved around how to achieve equal sex: Gender Equality in the bedroom. We can consult okejsex.nu, an official campaign whose homepage shows pedestrians obliviously passing buildings full of scenes of violence, suggesting it is ubiquitous behind closed doors. Okejsex defines rape as any situation where sex occurs after someone has said no.

In many countries, and in many people’s minds, rape means penetration, usually by a penis, into a mouth, vagina or anus. In Swedish rape law, the word can be used for acts called assault or bodily harm in other countries.

That may be progressive, but it’s also confusing. You don’t have to be sexist or racist to imagine the misunderstandings that may arise. If younger people (or older, for that matter) have been out drinking and dancing and end up in a flat relaxing late at night, we are not surprised that the possibility of sex is raised. The process of getting turned on – and being seduced – is often vague and strange, involving looks and feelings rather than clear intentions. It is easy to go along and actively enjoy this process until some point when it becomes unenjoyable. We resist, but feebly. Sometimes we give in against our true wishes.

Sweden is also proud of its generous policy towards asylum-seekers and other migrants who may not instantly comprehend what Gender Equality means here, or that not explicitly violent or penetrative sex acts are understood as rape. That doesn’t mean that non-Swedes are rapists but that a large area exists where crossed signals are likely, for instance, amongst people out on the town drinking.

Discussions of rape nowadays use examples of women who are asleep, or have taken drugs or drunk too much alcohol, in order to argue that they cannot properly consent to sex. If they feel taken advantage of the next day, they may call what happened rape. The Daphne project’s Sweden researchers propose that those accused of rape ought to have to ‘prove consent’, but attempts to legislate and document seduction and desire are unlikely to succeed.

What isn’t questioned, in most public discussions, is the idea that the problem must be addressed by more laws, ever more explicit and strict. Contemporary society insists that punishment is the way to stop sexual violence, despite evidence suggesting that criminal law has little impact on sexual behaviour.

We want to think that if laws were perfectly written and police, prosecutors and judges were perfectly fair, then rapes would decrease because a) all rapists would go to jail and b) all potential rapists would be deterred from committing crime. Unfortunately, little evidence corroborates this idea. Debates crystallise in black-and-white simplifications that supposedly pit politically correct arguments against the common sense of regular folk. Subtleties and complications are buried under masses of rhetoric, and commentaries turn cynical: ‘Nothing will change’, ‘the police are pigs’, immigrants are terrorists, girls are liars. continues here

Swedes outraged over law allowing officials to snoop on all emails leaving the country

STOCKHOLM, Sweden: More than two million Swedes are saying "No" to a new law that gives the government the right to snoop on all emails and phone calls crossing the country's borders.

The online petition drive comes as other EU countries consider granting authorities unprecedented spying powers over their own citizens amid fears of a mounting terror threat.

"This would have been totally unthinkable before Sept. 11," said Anne Ramberg, Secretary General of the Swedish Bar Association, calling for challenges to the law in Swedish and European courts.

While supporters say the legislation will help avert terrorist attacks by keeping tabs on suspect communications and planned financial transfers, opponents says the measures are just too intrusive.

Swedish telecommunications group TeliaSonera AB and U.S.-based Google Inc. have called the law passed June 18 the most far-reaching eavesdropping plan in Europe, comparable to snooping powers authorized in the United States.

Andreas Hellsten, a 37-year-old engineer, said it reminded him of something the dreaded East German police would have dreamed up had e-mail been around during the Cold War.

"It looks too much like the Stasi," he said. "It is surprising when Sweden passes a law like this."

The law narrowly passed Parliament in a 142-138 vote two weeks ago, despite protests that included demonstrators handing out copies of George Orwell's novel "1984" about a fictional futuristic police state.

It gives Sweden's National Defense Radio Establishment, or FRA, the right to scan all international phone calls, e-mails and faxes without a court order as of January.

"Since 1766, we have had freedom of expression ... Can that be guaranteed if the FRA has to right to monitor, for example, all e-mails from abroad?" Thomas Mattsson, digital editor of the major Swedish newspaper Expressen, wrote in his blog.

The newspaper provides a link that allows readers of its Internet edition to file a protest to lawmakers — and so far more than 2 million Swedes have taken part in the campaign.

Under current law, e-mail and phone surveillance in Sweden require a court order in a suspected criminal case. Critics say the new law will encroach on privacy, jeopardize civil liberties and violate the European Convention on Human Rights.

Sweden's Defense Minister Sten Tolgfors defended the law in an online forum on the Expressen Web site Tuesday, saying data regarding individuals will be destroyed unless it is directly relevant to intelligence activities.

He also stressed the need to defend Sweden from terror attacks like those in New York, Madrid and London.

"The information is needed to evaluate, and meet, outside threats against Sweden," he said.

Even before the law was passed, TeliaSonera in April moved its e-mail servers to Finland because of the expected passage of the legislation.

Timo Lehtinen, of the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority, said he expected other telecommunications groups to rethink how they handle cross-border traffic, and expressed doubts about the effectiveness of the Swedish measures.

"The amount of traffic is so vast that it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack," he said. "If someone was planning some kind of terrorist activity they could make it extremely hard, or even impossible, to trace."

Other EU countries have enacted or are mulling stronger government snooping rules.

Britain has some of the most extensive surveillance powers in the world, allowing law enforcement, intelligence agencies and others to monitor telephone calls, e-mails or mail, with special permission from the Home Secretary.

The evidence in not admissible in court; Prime Minister Gordon Brown wants to change that with new laws allowing use of some wiretap evidence.

In Germany, Parliament is expected to pass a new bill later this year giving officials the right to monitor some criminal suspects' e-mails, but only with a court order, as is the case now for telephone wiretaps in serious crimes.

In Italy, which experts call one of the world's most wiretapped democracies, the debate is going the other way — now focusing on how to do more to protect privacy.

A Swedish opinion poll published last week indicated that 47 percent of Swedes opposed the new law, while 36 percent are for it; the rest were undecided. The margin of error was not available. continues here

As you go about your daily life unconcerned, tyranny’s grip tightens, readying itself to take control of your children and grandchildren, yet you continue to care for self, not for those to come, it is too difficult, requires too much effort. So despotism grows, as is the way with the left, see their policies are so utterly unnatural that, they can only ever be enforced, only ever imposed, the west will awaken one day to a nightmare, trapped totally within an Orwellian dystopia. Do you not see it, do you not sense the impending new order, is not a prison filled with toys still a prison, your too scared, too concerned for self, you will not stand, you will capitulate for bread on the table and no knock upon your door. No prison for you, not for you gaol, denial of freedom, no, you would rather us all become imprisoned, within this growing malevolence, than you alone, for to stand when all around make merry whilst sitting, takes courage many do not possess, to speak truth whilst tyranny rages, takes altruism now forgotten by our race. Instead you are herded by an evil shepherd, contend for bread and water, happy to be inside the fence, lest the wolves begin their hunt and so the benevolent shepherd protects you from the beast, by penning you in, you exchange freedom for safety and all is well in your world. The fact that the wolf is merely fable, a tale told to help contain the sheep, the wolf no risk, no threat, no danger, still the sheep must see, must witness and so the shepherd antagonises the pack and the lone wolf, the solitary predator shows his teeth. It is enough, the sheep bleat in terror, huddle further into the arms of the benevolent shepherd, the shepherd smiles and builds the pen ever higher and the sheep look on gratefully. 14