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  • From Radical Counterculture to Pragmatic Radicalism?The Collective Identity of Contemporary Radical Left-libertarian Activism in Sweden
  • Jan Jämte, Måns Lundstedt, and Magnus Wennerhag

In the mass media, radical left-libertarian movement (RLLM) actors—such as anarchists and autonomists—are often portrayed as subcultural deviants and violent troublemakers who primarily engage in disruptive forms of protests.1 Some of these themes can also be found in academic research, when scholars aim to pinpoint the distinctiveness of RLLM actors vis-à-vis other types of social movements. For instance, some studies tend to describe anarchists, autonomists, and similar movement actors as being more defined by their actions, ways of organizing, or by fluid identities, rather than distinct and stable collective identities.2 In contrast, other studies have tended to portray RLLM actors as mainly subcultural or sectarian, having in-group oriented, homogenous, and static collective identities.3

This article takes as its starting point that a collective identity is central for all types of social movements—providing them with a common conception of the past, the present, and the future, as well as a sense of "we-ness"—while simultaneously acknowledging that a movement's identity is constantly renegotiated and thus evolves over time. By analyzing the RLLM in Sweden and the development of its collective identity between the mid-1990s and [End Page 1] the mid-2010s, we critically engage with common conceptions of radical left-libertarian actors as either having fluid or static collective identities, with the aim of showing a more complex picture of the dynamics of identity construction and transformation within radical movement groups.

By using the analytical term RLLM, we focus on organizations, informal groups, and activist networks that (in Sweden and in other countries) make up a relatively coherent movement milieu.4 In this milieu, one finds anarchists and anarcho-syndicalists as well as libertarian Marxists such as autonomists and council communists. In terms of ideology, these groups have their roots in libertarian socialist thought and thus hold anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist, and anti-statist views, but also criticize power relations not necessarily connected to capitalism or the state—for instance, racism, sexism, homophobia, and speciesism—which makes them potential allies to a wide range of other movements focusing on such issues. Moreover, RLLM actors envision a society based on direct or participatory democratic ideals and seek social change through the decentralization of power.5 Apart from ideological affinities, RLLM groups are also linked through joint mobilizations, solidarity campaigns, and movement infrastructures (such as social centers and online networks), and—this article's theme—they share a common collective identity that is constantly renegotiated in both consensual and conflictual forms.

Existing research on contemporary RLLM actors in liberal democracies has primarily focused on southern Europe, Germany, and the United States.6 Little has been written about similar movement actors in Sweden and the other Scandinavian countries.7 The existing literature therefore does not address how radical and contentious left-wing movements develop in societies marked by consensus-oriented and corporatist state–civil society relations, a persistent dominance of social democracy in political institutions and in the labor movement, and an active but seldom contentious protest culture.8 Regarding RLLM actors as such, international research has demonstrated how protests against austerity in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis caused ideational changes in radical left-wing activism across Europe and beyond.9 Such protests were, however, largely absent in the Swedish setting. A study of the RLLM in Sweden therefore shows how radical left-wing activism has developed in a context mainly unaffected by the recent transnational wave of anti-austerity protests.

By analyzing interviews with activists and intramovement discussions published in magazines and on the web, we investigate how the Swedish [End Page 2] RLLM's collective identity has developed over time, paying attention to both continuity and change. In the analysis, we deploy a framing perspective that focuses on how activists identify problems and propose strategies for action, and how the resulting collective action frame reflects and transforms the movement's collective identity. We seek to answer three main questions:

  1. 1. How has the collective identity of the RLLM in Sweden developed during...

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