Swedish police said Thursday that arsonists had set four supermarkets on fire in the city of Sodertalje in what may be an anti-American attack. Three of the stores have been destroyed and a fourth damaged.
The supermarkets targeted on Thursday were branches of Willys, Ica and Tempo. The chains are all Swedish, but sell American goods.
Flyers have been showing up in Sodertalje urging people to target stores selling American goods. The flyers are signed by a network named Global Intifada. Last year the network claimed responsibility for two fires in Sodertalje.
Global Intifada is a loosely knit network - a self-described "network of independent groups and individuals". It uses the anarchist 'direct action' methods.
The term Global Intifada is thought to be linked to union activities and to the Palestinian activist, Andreas Malm - a former chairman of the syndicalist youth.
The Syndicalist Youth League has been using the term "global intifada" since 2002. Prior to that it was used on a booklet published in 1993 by the anarchist organization Labor Front.
In 2003 and 2004 a series of incidents in Sweden were related to protests against the wars in Iraq and Chechnya. The Polish Consulate in Sundbyberg was targeted, also Bofors in Stockholm and Gothenburg, the arms company Aimpoint in Malmö and the Danish Embassy in Stockholm.
GI members are alleged to have been involved in a firebomb attack on automobiles belonging to the Danish and Russian Embassies in 2005. Denmark was targeted because of its support for the Iraq war and Russia, as a protest against the war in Chechnya.
Members of GI were also involved in a firebomb incident at the Defense Material Administration (FMV) in Stockholm, August 28 2006. The reason given for the attack was that FMV was engaged in trade with Israel.
Police say they have no suspects in the Sodertalje fires but are investigating whether an anti-American group was responsible. Swedish Security police are also involved in the investigation.
Sodertalje is an industrial town of around 60,000 people. It received worldwide attention in recent years after accepting nearly 6,000 Iraqi refugees.
