Nordic countries should form a union by 2030

"We will be one of the strongest economies in the world" - Swedish historian proposes full federal union of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland by 2030. Such a union would number 25 million and have a GDP similar to that of Spain and India.

All representatives from the Nordic countries were invited to Trondheim to mark the day. The Swedish historian Gunnar Wetterberg held a lecture where he presented an exciting proposal: to merge the five Nordic countries into a single federal state. "When these countries are so near to each other in language and culture, it is no wonder that we were together not so long ago...We will have a very strong base for economic growth in the area, much stronger than we have when our countries are working separately."

There have been many Nordic unions over the centuries, but they have never quite worked. Wetterberg believes there are other causes behind that: "Perhaps there were others outside the region that didn't want it to go so well. For example the Dutch and English would not want both sides of Øresund (the strait between Denmark and Sweden) to belong to the same country...

Just to provide some economic background, the "core" Scandinavian countries of Sweden, Norway and Denmark together would have a GDP in between Australia and Mexico - right now the highest, Sweden, is 21th in terms of GDP but together they would be in 14th place. With Finland and Iceland added it would be around $1.4 trillion, in between Spain and India. Population of the core three together would be around 20 million, then add another 5 million to that with Finland and Iceland.

More at PageF30 and NRK (in norwegian)

Denmark is just a spittle on this map.

Quickies

1. Tuberculous meningitis in Denmark (link)

2. Report highlights common problems in Nordic mental health care reforms (link)

Quick

Here is an interesting blog about danish culture: Speakdanish

For those interested some topics are:

• A brief history of Denmark
• Danish attitudes to sex and nudity
• Hygge
• Independence and individualism
• Culture shock
• Danish democracy
• Dining in Denmark
• Meeting Danes

Communism in Denmark

[...] the Danish group, the Communist Task Force (KAK) engaged in a series of robberies in the 1970′s and 80′s to raise funds for the armed movement in Palestine, ostensibly for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine [...]. Like many other groups that were similarly engaged in revolutionary appropriations it was called a ‘Gang’ by the media and thus are commonly known as the Blekinge Street Gang in Denmark [...]. What is interesting about the KAK besides its more commonplace Third Worldism was its adherence to a nascent form of Maoism-Third Worldism.

The Communist Party of Denmark, like many other Scandinavian parties, sided with Moscow during the Sino-Soviet split in June 1963. Gotfred Appel, a member of the DKP, informally formed the KAK to influence the line of the DKP and was expelled from the DKP in September 1963 for having taken the trouble to do so. In December of the same year the KAK was declared a formal separate party. The same month as he was expelled from the DKP, Appel formed a publishing company, “Futura”, which would translate and publish the Danish-language publications for the Chinese embassy in Denmark including the immensely popular Quotations from Mao Zedong. In 1965 the KAK organized the first pro-Vietnam rally and in 1966 formed the first Vietnam Committee. None of this is particularly interesting. Indeed, it follows the usual course of events that one can see around the world. Thus, we must ask what is distinctive about them?

What is distinctive about the KAK is Appel’s theoretical developments from 1966-1967. In “Communist Briefing”, a KAK publication, Appel penned a series of theoretical articles in which he elaborated a ‘leech state theory’. The ‘leech state theory’ argued: that the rich countries make so much money by exploiting 3rd world countries that even their “poorest” citizens are so rich they are effectively “bribed” into being part of the Capitalist bourgeoisie and unlikely to participate in any Communist revolution until this source of wealth dries out due to liberation of the 3rd world. Accordingly, western communists who really want a communist ideal state must first help liberate the 3rd world countries from western exploitation.

Read more at The Workers Dreadnought