To Örebro University

In recent years, issues of migration, integration, racism, and ethnic discrimination have become increasingly salient and controversial in most European countries. The increased polarisation around these issues can partly be linked to a political development in which parties with an anti-immigration agenda have won public support and electoral success. Within and around these parties, intolerant sentiments flourish both in the form of negative attitudes towards people seen as “foreigners”, as well as more explicit forms of racism.

In response to these developments, anti-fascists and anti-racists are mobilizing. Among these we find a radical flank consisting mainly of anarchists, autonomists, and other radical left-libertarian activists. This chapter examines the mobilizing activities and ideational development within this movement milieu in two Scandinavian countries, Sweden and Denmark. The chapter scrutinizes how the activists’ collective action frames and their repertoires of action have been affected by recent changes in political opportunity structures, especially the electoral success and political institutionalization of far-right political parties. The analysis is based on semi-structured interviews with activists as well as an in-depth analysis of movement documents such as magazines, leaflets, web pages, and books.