IOGT-NTO Sweden: New Project To Counter Racism
IOGT-NTO in Sweden launches a collaboration with EXPO foundation and also is set to launch anti-racist work internally in the organization.
One of the four priority objectives in the overarching strategy of IOGT-NTO in Sweden is to work against racism and for a democratic society. For example, in the last year, IOGT-NTO has had 38 projects engaging more than 600 members in the reception of refugees arriving to Sweden. With this work, IOGT-NTO was able to help 4,500 people in 32 places around Sweden.
IOGT-NTO is founded on the values of democracy and solidarity and we have always worked with type of issues,” says Erik Winnfors Wannberg, member of the national board of IOGT-NTO.
Throughout history, our work with democracy and education has been among our biggest contributions to societal development in Sweden.”
EXPO is a magazine from the beginning with a mission to work against racist ideas and organizations. Today, EXPO runs a website in addition to the magazine and works to spread information and raises awareness in many ways about issues of democracy and racism. IOGT-NTO has decided to become a so-called “gold friend” with EXPO.
Besides IOGT-NTO, EXPO has only three more gold friends: trade union LO, publishing house “Natur & Kultur” as well as the campaign “Not Racist, But…”. Gold Friends are donating 100,000 Swedish crowns per year to support EXPO’s work.
Erik Winnfors Wannberg is hopeful that the collaboration will go deeper than the annual donation. But it is not yet defined in detail.
One thing we will do parallel to the work with EXPO is to launch an internal network within IOGT-NTO for members who want to start working against racism,” explains Erik.
This work will be open to all interested members, no matter where in Sweden they live and how their engagement looks like today.”
