United NLF Groups
The United NLF Groups (Swedish: De förenade FNL-grupperna, abbreviated DFFG, colloquially FNL-grupperna, 'NLF Groups', or FNL-rörelsen, 'NLF movement') was a Swedish popular movement that sought to mobilize support for the struggle of the Vietnamese National Liberation Front (known by its French acronym 'FNL').
In the spring of 1965 the Swedish Vietnam Committee had been formed, with older activists from peace and anti-nuclear movements.
In 1966 the communist parliamentarian John Takman, one of few Swedes that had visited Vietnam and met several times with Ho Chi Minh, launched the publication Vietnam-Press.
The Swedish police had no previous experience of wildcat marches, and on several occasions minor violent confrontations erupted.
[3] However, relations of the DFFG with the older generation and Swedish labour movement were improved as the organization tuned down its more confrontational actions (such as banning egg throwing in their demonstrations).
A group in Göteborg had called for DFFG to become and explicitly socialist organization and support KFML in elections.
The main speaker at Norra Bantorget was Nguyen Van Thien, the head of the PRG delegation at the Paris Peace Talks.
[12] In 1972 DFFG bought itself a new office space, a 1,000 square meter basement real estate on Döbelnsgatan in central Stockholm.
Following the coup d'état in Chile, sectors of the activist milieu began reorienting themselves towards solidarity work with Latin America.
[17] Upon the declaration of the victory of FNL in 1975, DFFG activists gathered at the Östermalm representation office of the Provisional Revolutionary Government in celebrations.
[18] In 1977 DFFG was renamed the Vietnam and Laos League for Friendship and Solidarity (Vietnam- & Laosförbundet för vänskap och solidaritet).
[2] An important factor to the success of the DFFG was the strong support the movement was able to gather amongst prominent artists and intellectuals at the time, such as Jan Myrdal, Sara Lidman, Lars Forssell, Cornelis Wreesvijk and Fred Åkerström.
[13] In 1975 DFFG published FNL i Sverige: Reportage om en folkrörelse under tio år ('FNL in Sweden: Report on a people's movement during ten years') a detailed account of the history of the organization from its own perspective.
The first major academic study on the DFFG was published in 1996, Rebeller i takt med tiden: FNL-rörelsen och 60-talets politiska ritualer by Lund University historian Kim Salomon.
Salomon claims that DFFG had a "Janus' face", showing a non-communist exterior whilst internally being run by KFML for political purposes.
[19][20] Vietnam var nära : en berättelse om FNL-rörelsen och solidaritetsarbetet i Sverige 1965-1975 ('Vietnam was close: an account on the FNL-movement and the solidarity work in Sweden 1965-1975') by Åke Kilander was released in 2007.
