Researcher Tobias Hübinette: “They want to make my life as difficult as possible”
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INTERVJUSERIE The social debate has intensified in recent years. At the same time as the number of alternative right-wing media has increased, many left-wing voices have withdrawn or become silent. Heavy reasons are hatred, threats and harassment from the far right.
In a series of interviews, Aftonbladet Leader Jonna Sima will meet opinion leaders, journalists and university employees who have been affected in different ways – but with the common denominator that they refuse to give up the fight for a more equal and fairer Sweden.
It is also possible to listen to the interviews in their entirety as a podcast version.
Tobias Hübinette is a teacher and researcher at Karlstad University. For more than three decades, he has also been an activist and debater within the left and the anti-racist movement. Among other things, he co-founded the magazine Expo together with the late Millennium author Stieg Larsson.
In the middle of the fall semester last year, he was suddenly forced to take sick leave from his position at Karlstad University. The radical right activist Christian Peterson – with a background in Nazi NMR – had enrolled as a student on the course in “Race and Whiteness in Sweden” which Tobias Hübinette holds.
– It was very clear that he would do it to destroy the course, says Tobias Hübinette.
The course “Race and whiteness in Sweden” has existed for two years at Karlstad University. It is a social science course about how our identities are formed based on how we look, where we are and where we come from. The questions have angered people within the radical right in Sweden.
– This is a field of research that comes from the English-speaking world. For the Swedish part, it has taken quite a long time before these questions have come on the research agenda in Sweden, says Tobias Hübinette.
Before the start of the course in August last year, Christian Peterson announced on his channels and on social media that he had signed up for Tobias Hübinette’s course.
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full screen Researcher Tobias Hübinettes was forced to take sick leave last fall after harassment from a far-right student at Karlstad University. Photo: Fanny Jönsson
– Already at the first lesson, he recorded everything that was said. Then he posted it and a lot of information about classmates, who they were and what their background was, on his channels. But all the time there was a lot of focus on me as a teacher.
Tobias Hübinette says that Peterson’s strategy of attacking the “woke left”, as feminism, gender studies and anti-racism are condescendingly called in the extreme right, is directly taken from the American culture war.
In the end, the situation at Karlstad University last autumn became unsustainable. Half of the students dropped out of the course and Tobias Hübienette was forced to take sick leave. But Christian Peterson had to stay.
– This can be seen as a kind of pilot attempt to do what similar movements have done in other countries. You can say that he succeeded quite well, the course was sabotaged.
The university’s disciplinary committee heard the case, but concluded that there was no legal basis to suspend Peterson. But they found that he had subjected both teachers and other students to harassment.
Were you surprised by the disciplinary board’s decision?
– Yes, I was and of course also disappointed. At the same time, I have to respect that it was the legal assessment. However, it must be said that there were people then sitting on the disciplinary committee who did not agree with this decision. One of them is Karlstad University’s chancellor.
Monday was the start of a new course for “Race and whiteness in Sweden” at Karlstad University. A record number of students are enrolled and Tobias Hübinette is once again the course leader.
Hübinette says he is more prepared for the fact that there may be students who want to sabotage the teaching. This is something that could affect teachers and researchers at other universities around the country, he believes.
– The extreme right and SD have recently more or less declared war on certain societal values that they perceive as dominated by the left. It has been about public service, the museum world, the cultural heritage sector. Now it is quite obvious that the turn has come to the academy, that is, the higher education and research world.
Tobias Hübinette believes that there is great concern and stress within the academic world about what is happening.
– There is a risk that people will start self-censoring themselves. This type of course may not be given to the same extent in the future.
He expresses disappointment with the political right and in particular the Liberals, who previously had education as their “parade branch”, as Tobias Hübinette puts it. Now, Minister of Education Mats Persson (L) has been the one in the government who has gone the hardest against what he has also called the “woke-left”.
– The most worrying thing was that when the Minister of Education received questions about what happened at Karlstad University and on my course, he repeatedly said that it was the “woke-left” that was the big problem.
The attacks against Tobias Hübinette have continued. In the intervening days, his neighbors received a letter in their mailboxes describing him as a dangerous and extreme person. The sender was anonymous, but Hübinette believes it is yet another part of a far-right orchestrated campaign against him.
– It’s simply about harassing and terrorizing me and making my life as difficult as possible. Both my professional life when I am a teacher and researcher, and my private life.
Why do you think the conflicts around you have increased in the last year?
– It has to do with the government we got after the 2022 election and the Sweden Democrats’ new position. They have gained a completely different confidence. It is clear that they are selecting people and organizations to put there now, and I am one of them.
Many voices within the left and the anti-racist movement have fallen silent and left the scene. What keeps you going?
– I have decided that what I do and the knowledge I have had since the 1990s is important. The swing to the right has become so extreme in Sweden and there are few left-wing media left. An entire ecology is about to disappear. At worst, for good.
– We can only hope that a new generation will emerge that communicates and conducts the debate in a different way.
Finally, what do you want most of all right now?
– Yes, in the world of politics, I wish it wouldn’t look like it does today, of course. On a personal note, I would like to have some peace of mind before the start of the course (which was yesterday, editor’s note).
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