We begin by sending our solidarity and deepest thoughts to the families, loved ones, survivors, and co-workers affected by this unimaginable tragedy. Their grief is a collective wound that concerns us all, and it is through solidarity that we can honor the victims’ memory and carry the struggle forward.
The Role of Racism in the Attack
The brutal mass murder in Örebro is a direct reflection of structural racism in Sweden, where public discourse still rests on a colonial hierarchy of power. For decades, the media landscape and political debate have been shaped by the demonization of non-white communities, creating a climate in which racist violence can take root.
This attack can be understood as the outcome of a social atmosphere in which the earlier language of racial biology has been reformulated in cultural terms, allowing continued racialization and marginalization of specific groups. The systematic demonization of migrants, racialized workers, and students has contributed to the normalization of violence and exclusion. Such conditions create the ground for racist attacks like the one we have now witnessed in Örebro.
After the massacre, media institutions, politicians, and academic experts quickly mobilized to divert attention away from structural racism as a motive. Instead, the debate has focused on individual psychology, access to weapons, and social factors—without ever recognizing racism as a driving force. This strategy of denial reflects a deeper systemic failure in which Swedish society refuses to confront its colonial and racist legacies.
Class Struggle and Resistance
At an adult education center where immigrants study Swedish, an armed man began his systematic mass killing. He triggered the fire alarm to force students and teachers out into the schoolyard before opening fire. The victims were working-class people, many employed in health care and social care sectors—areas largely sustained by racialized workers. These are the very groups who daily carry the economic and social burden of neoliberal Sweden, while simultaneously being demonized in politics and the media.
The mass murder in Örebro was not an isolated act. It was an attack directed against some of the most exploited sections of the working class, part of a long historical continuum of colonial oppression and capitalist exploitation. Throughout history, racism has been used to justify violence, exploitation, and exclusion, and this massacre must be seen as an extension of that logic. In a society where racism is used to divide and rank the working class, violence becomes part of the structural order.
This tragedy cannot be understood as the act of a lone madman. It must be analyzed as the result of a broader social process in which racist structures and neoliberal economic systems work together to maintain inequality. The poor working class is formed within this reality, and only through a solidaristic workers’ movement—uniting the struggle against capitalism and racism—can we build a future free from these violent structures.
2025-02-12
The Pedagogical Workers Association
