In Simrishamn the budget process for 2014 is going on and there is an imminent risk that big reduction is made in the budget for culture, a field that the municipality already takes too little responsibility for. This would be a disaster! Culture is an invaluable part of the society’s heart and deals with what we people have in common. We therefore have to take a communal and long-term responsibility for culture!
In Skåne, every fifth man would vote for the Swedish Democrats if there were general election today. Some of these votes we can find here in Simrishamn. In Sjöbo we find The Swedes’ party, the continuation of National Socialist Front, who aims for Sweden to be ethnic homogenous. Their party manifesto say’s that ”The democratic system is one of the main reasons for the chaotic situation that is more and more spread.” Dreams about pure ”Swedishness” and closed borders, is an impossible wish to systematise away the complexity of life and it goes hand in hand with a retrospective and conservative view on culture. The neo-nationalistic and xenophobic movements have always seen culture as a central issue. As a counter power, we want to insist on cultivating our empathy and fantasy and to never stop thinking autonomously – that means not letting us be driven by preconceptions and stereotypes.
For everybody that wants an equal and democratic society, free from discrimination, violence and exploitation of humans and nature, a new comprehensive view on politics is needed and that we put collaboration before concurrence.
The idea of welfare has to be filled with new values built upon diversity and the wish for it to be possible for people with different basic values and lifestyles to live side by side. The human being is in first hand a cultural, not an economical, being. Therefore, culture is an important political issue and a power that has to be included in all political areas.
Cultural values – complexity, empathy and relations, feelings and the sensuous, are female values according to western traditions. Moreover, they are put in contradiction to de male systematic logic rationality. This is a reason why you always find culture in the bottom of the political agenda. That makes culture a feministic affair!
Charlotte Elm Ravn (Feministic Initiativ), member of the board of culture and leisure, Simrishamn
Camilla Backman (Feministic Initiativ), member of the board of culture and leisure and in the city council, Simrishamn
Gudrun Schyman Feministic Initiativ), member of the city council and the municipality, Simrishamn
Debate article published in the local newspaper Ystads Allehanda, 2013-05-04
charlotte elm ravn 