Sweden: men fight feminists outside sex club

Off Our Backs, May/Jun 2005 by Verma, Priya, Douglas, Carol Anne, Pleatman, Rachel, Chapman, Annsley, Et al

STOCKHOLM-Sex club staff and patrons beat feminists protesting lap-dancing and stripping outside the club on May 7 as the demonstrators fought back.

Thirty women blocked the entrance to the Club Prive. The women were demonstrating peacefully until two club staff members and a customer attacked them. Then the women resisted.

"When two bouncers attacked two women, the others acted to prevent their friends from being dragged into the club," said Monica Johansson, a demonstrator.

The police arrested 16 women, six of whom were age 17, and eight men. The police claimed that the women had used baseball bats, a charge that Johansson denied.

The women issued a statement saying they had demonstrated against the club because it was "a symbol of the acceptance of the oppression of women." They signed the statement "Feministas."

However, the group Feministas said it had nothing to do with the protest. Marita Ulvskog, a Feministas representative told the press that Feministas opposes porn clubs, but that violence and threats are not a good means to change society.