In April campaigners in Falun, Sweden erected a giant washing line with campaign messages and collected 521 campaign signatures. The biggest launch action was held in Malmö. There also a "washing line" exposed the dirty clothes of the sportswear industry, on the main shopping street in Malmö.

In Stockholm and in Uppsala there was a smaller petition action outside the big sportswear stores. All together 700 signatures were collected with the off line petition, targeting Puma and the IOC.

From June 17-19 "Play Fair" tents arrised at a rock festival in Hultsfred. Red Cross Youth Wing members and famous hip-hop artist Promoe lead music-goers in playing games and signing action cards accompanied by an alternative fashion-show.

Furthermore, on the first of July 1 in Stockholm loud "Play Fair" rally races and cheerleading dances took place outside the Olympic Stadium prior to the presentation of Swedish Olympic team uniform and official Swedish Olympic song inside the stadium.

Torch rally in Stockholm, a personal account

As the Swedish Clean Clothes Campaign we formed a group of 15 activists. We had written a song, made our own black sportswear outfit and had rehearsed for hours. We were going to welcome the Olympic torch to Stockholm, July 1, 2004. We planned to run in different formations and scream out our song very close to the torch.

From the papers we knew where and when the torch was going to pass certain places in Stockholm. A lot of celebrities were involved in the official torch rally. We imagined that the streets of Stockholm would be crowded with people, all waiting to get a glimpse of the torch and maybe a fancy celebrity, such as the Swedish prince, carrying the torch. We all went to the Stadion, the arena where the Olympic Games took place in 1912. At midday we arrived. This was the place, in half an hour the torch was supposed to show up. But there was no crowd, only some people working with the official torch rally. And they looked like they didn't appreciate our presence. In fact they looked like they were going to call the police. There was no media, except two journalists from two different left wing papers.

We decided to change the venue for the action to a park, Kungsträdgården, in the centre of Stockholm. In Kungsträdgården different activities took place the entire day, and it was here that the torch was going to end up later the same afternoon. Some of the activists passed that park earlier and said that there already were a lot of people there. Five minutes after we left the Stadion the police arrived. So the torch people had indeed called the police. But we were already long gone.

We performed the running action on the main shopping street in Stockholm and ended up in Kungsträdgården, and we disturbed the official the-olympic-torch-in-Stockholm-programme, which was carried out from a big stage in the park.

Our action resulted in two articles in two left wing papers, an upset host on the stage in Kungsträdgården and a lot of fun. But we never saw the torch.

Joel Lindefors
CCC Sweden