Woman strikes a Swedish neonazi with her handbag, 1985

She got honoured with a monument in Alingsås for exactly this. There is also an Wikipedia article about this incidence.

The man hit by Danielsson was identified as Seppo Seluska, a militant from the Nordic Realm Party later convicted for the torture and murder of a gay Jew.

Of course he did.

The statue is awesome, but it fails to capture the hatred and aggression in the photo.

Yeah I was going to say, the statue didn’t capture her facial expression.

The left was different there

Runesson’s photograph was published the next day on the front page of the Swedish national newspaper Dagens Nyheter, and on April 15 by two British newspapers, The Times and The Daily Express.[3] Another photograph taken by Runesson during the event shows the 10 Neo-Nazis being chased, pelted with eggs and violently confronted by a crowd made up of hundreds of attendants of the left-wing rally joined by local Växjö residents. One of the Neo-Nazis was kicked unconscious on the ground, then saved by one of the protestors who reportedly took pity on him. The far-right activists eventually managed to shelter in the toilets of the city’s train station, hiding there for a few hours until the police transported them away.[3][5]

Back then Nazis were nearly universally understood as bad. Especially since there still were many living survivors of the Nazi’s genocide.

If this happened today, the left would get endless criticism. But I fully agree we should bring this back.

I think hitting them with a purse, throwing eggs and making them hide in toilets is fine, but the unconscious thing isn’t something I would recommend. They probably already have brain damage, they’re nazis.

They understood how talking to nazis needs to be done.

B-but it’s literally Nazism to refuse to tolerate Nazis!!!1! (Never mind the fact that tolerance would be the thirst thing to go in a Nazi-dominated society.)

“The Old Woman with the Handbag”

38-year-old woman

She easily looks 5-10 years older than my wife and I. And we’re in our mid 40s. But that still wouldn’t make her an old lady at this point.

The statue is titled, “The Old Woman with the Handbag”.

The woman in the picture was 38 when it was taken. The artist made her look older for some reason.

I think it’s just time doing its thing. The artist probably saw her as old because she dressed like an old person dressed in 2015.

I don’t think she was particularly youthful-looking in 1985 either tbh.

I’m happy to hear that the statu finally was put up. There was so much debate and arguments about it, mostly about it encouraging violence especially if taken out of context and also her still living family being unhappy with the portraition of her.

I remember the debates but I never actually heard how it ended.

Violence against nazis ought to be legal. These are monsters who have committed genocide and routinely kill their target demographics. Punching a nazi is self-defence, this lady is a fucking hero.

This woman is a hero. Punching a Nazi is always right, but it’s not always legal (nor should it be). I feel comfortable holding both of those stances at once.

yeah how cool would it be to have militias fighting in the streets again. the world is so boring without political violence and car bombs blowing up little children

That’s exactly how it will be if the Nazis you’re protecting aren’t suppressed.

They aren’t protecting Nazis. It’s reactionary thinking to believe that violence on the streets is the only thing one can do against Nationalists.

hello fellow escalation spiral enjoyer, let us revel in bloodshed together!

Racist trolling is not welcome here.

When I was 15 I dated an older boy who cheated on me with his adopted sister’s sister (who was 13 to his 18 years) because I wouldn’t have sex with him. Yes - all round awful. He and his sister-child girlfriend hounded me and my immediate family for months and months for some reason. We had to go to the police in the end. Many years later my nana confessed that she bumped into him in a shopping centre around that time and he pretended he didn’t know her. She chased him down and hit him upside the head with her heavily overloaded handbag while shouting “that’s for being such a little shit to my granddaughter!” Best part - the mates who were with him nearly pissed themselves laughing at him. I’ve often tried to envision the scene and it’s not unlike this photo. Love you nana.

I read all of that and really wondered where that story was going. Well done.

I hadn’t thought about it in such a long time but it sprang to mind the second I saw that photo. And it was really late and my partner was asleep so I decided to share my weird, barely relevant, but kinda wholesome story with some strangers!