festival called almedalen week. we will speak to the cofounder of the first feminist party to win a seat in the european parliament and a former u.s. whoressman dennis kucinich, is here, talking about lessons the u.s. can learn from sweden. all of that and more, coming up. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are broadcasting from sweden's largest island of gotland. the occupied west bank is seeing its worst clashes in years following the abduction and murder of a palestinian teenager. the badly burned body of 17-year-old mohamed abu khudeir was found in a forest near jerusalem on wednesday. palestinians blamed israeli settlers for carrying out a revenge attack for the murders of three teenage settlers, whose bodies were found earlier this week. mohamed abu khudeir's father said israeli police failed to adequately respond to his son's abduction. hours after his body was found, israeli forces fired rubber coated bullets as scores of palestinian youths in the streets of east jerusalem and other parts of the west bank. more than 200 palestinians were reportedly wounded, including four journalists. palestinian authority president abbas blamed israel's settlement policy in the occupied west bank for mohamed abu khudeir's debt, saying, "settlers are attacking the palestinian people every day." the killing follows calls for revenge from israeli political leaders in a march that saw demonstrators chanting "death to the arabs." in response, hundreds of israelis gathered in jerusalem wednesday to protest violent incitement. israel has also launched overnight strikes on the gaza strip, wounding around a dozen people, one seriously. palestinian militants fired rockets at southern israel hours earlier. the obama administration has urged all sides to exercise restraint. washington, white house press secretary josh earnest said the u.s. condemns the killing of the palestinian teen. the latest unrest also follows massive israeli raids on the west bank and airstrikes on gaza that have killed around 12 palestinians since mid-june. critics say the israeli government has exploited the teens abduction to punish the palestinian authority for unity deal with hamas and for recent efforts to seek international recognition i joining you in conventions. speaking today in geneva, that you and human rights commissioner said, "from a human rights point of view, i utterly condemn palestinian rocket attacks and more especially i condemn israel's excessive acts of retaliation." the obama administration has reportedly placed leaders of the sunni militant group i sis on the was kill list. according to "the washington free beacon," u.s. forces can commandersher isis are targeted strikes such as drone attacks. hdadi has been in the leader of caliphate isis recently declared a new seized areas of iraq in syria under its control. in a message to supporters, he called on muslim worldwide to join the group. immigrants rights groups have staged a rally in southern california to show support for undocumented immigrants confronted by right-wing demonstrators. the migrants were traveling in three buses after being flown in from an overcrowded detention center in texas. but they were prevented from reaching a federal immigration facility in the town of murrieta after the right-wing demonstrators blocked the road and chanted anti-immigrant slogans. the buses were carrying dozens of children, part of the waves of unaccompanied youths fleeing violence and poverty in central america. rones of the group border angels said the children were subjected to hate. theantigovernment -- anti-immigrant activists were encouraged by local officials, including the mayor of murrieta, who called the migrants of public safety threat. in response to the migrant crisis, the obama administration forasked congress fast-track authority and additional funding to speed up the deportation of children. a proposed waiver would authorize the deportation of children without the protections to thed by transfer department of health and human services, which is mandated to look out for their welfare. in a statement, the american civil liberties union criticized the proposed changes, saying -- the department of homeland security says it is increasing security measures that overseas airports with nonstop flights to the united states. anonymous u.s. officials have cited concerns about bombs being smuggled onto u.s.-bound planes. the heightened security measures will take effect at airports in europe, africa, and the middle east. jay nixon governor the missouri has vetoed a law requiring a 72 hour wait for abortion. missouri had been poised to become the third state forcing women seeking an abortion to wait three days after consulting with their doctor. periodaid the waiting was based "on a paternalistic resumption that rape and victims are somehow unable to grasp the them."that has befallen a new laws taking effect in georgia. it massively expands weapons permits in public places. owners takews gun weapons into bars, churches, and government buildings, and schools under certain conditions. nemo in new jersey, republican governor chris christie has vetoed a measure that would have reduced the legal ammunition magazine from 15 bullets to 10. chris christie said the restriction would have done nothing to prevent mass shootings, but critics accused him of catering to republican primary voters ahead of a potential run for president. in other news, the retail giant target has banned the carrying of guns in all of its stores nationwide, even in states where it is legal. in a statement, target said turning weapons "is at odds with the family-friendly shopping and work experience we strive to create." the move comes after the gun control group moms the man action launched a national petition in response to gun advocates -- pro-gun advocates who openly carried their weapons at retail stores. occupy wall street activist cecily mcmillan has been released after nearly two months behind bars. mcmillan is convicted in may of assaulting a police officer at a 2012 protest. she says she struck out instinctively when her breast was grabbed from behind. afterng to reporters just walking free, mcmillan said she will work to make sure the voices of women prisoners reach outside the prison system. they set out to make an example of me to dissuade dissent? this is had the exact opposite impact. i'm absolutely and further committed to fighting for rights and freedoms that i did not even realize had been eroded to the extent they have. i will work tirelessly to make sure that these women's voices reach outside the prison system, and i feel like we have finally made a real and concrete step toward affecting a true possibility of the statement we are the 99%. >> and stephen gaskin has died at the age of 79. in the 1970's, stephen gaskin found at the farm, one of the nation's longest lasting communes in tennessee. 1980, he became the first one of the right livelihood award, known as the alternative nobel peace prize, for his work as founder of the global relief and education group plenty international. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are broadcasting from the swedish, very windy, city of visby on sweden's largest island of gotland, located about 60 miles off the southern coast of sweden in the baltic sea. we are in the middle of an event called almedalen week -- a week long political festival perhaps unlike any other in the world. over 25,000 people are gathering on the island to hear political speeches and take part in seminars. every swedish political party is represented here from the social greens to thehe new feminist initiative party. the name almedalen comes from a park here in visby, where in 1968, sweden's education minister at the time, olof palme , stood on the back of a flatbed truck and gave one of the rousing political speeches for which he was renowned. olof palme went on to become one of sweden's most transformative high ministers, up until his assassination on the streets of stockholm in 1986. he was shot dead just a week after he gave a keynote speech at the swedish people's parliament against apartheid in stockholm. years have swirled for about the south african government's involvement in his killing. while the united states considered the african national congress a terrorist organization, the swedish government openly funded the group for decades. by theough it was banned south african government. according to many accounts, sweden was the largest single source of financial aid to the anc. shortly after he was released in 1990, nelson mandela came to sweden on one of his first foreign stops after being released from prison. during an address to the swedish parliament, mandela thanked sweden for standing in the "front ranks of the international forces that have fought against the apartheid system." >> we would like to take this opportunity to salute this outstanding democratic institution, the swedish parliament, which has stood in the front ranks of the international forces that have fought against the apartheid system. from here, have issued legislation which has made an important contribution to the international isolation of apartheid south africa. for many years, you have approved budgets which have enabled this country to extend assistance to the anc. the democratic movement and saw from people in our country -- sovereign people in our country. from here, you provided moral and political leadership which has inspired many others throughout the world, and sustained us in those dark days in prison when it was impossible even to guess when the terrible night of racial tyranny would give way to a new dawn. >> that was nelson mandela, but a month after he was released from prison in 1990 after 27 years in the apartheid prisons of south africa. the swedish parliament was the first argument he came to address. last night here in visby, sweden, one of mandela's closest associates jailed with him, ahmed kathrada, spoke year. ahmed kathrada, who goes by the nickname kathy, spent 26 years in prison, including 18 on robben island. he began by talking about nelson mandela's famous statement during his trial in 1961. >> i remember his words during our trial -- sorry. "i have with the words, struggled all my life for nonracial, nonsexist south africa. it is an ideal which i hope to achieve. but if need be, it is an ideal for which i'm prepared to die." his addresspart of to the court. and throughout the trial, the expectation was a death sentence. it in the face of a death sentence, this is how the trial of -- was conducted under the leadership of mr. mandela. and ideal for which he was prepared to die. our whole struggle was for nonracial, nonsexist democratic south africa. in pursuance of all goals, people of all communities paid the supreme sacrifice. it may not be known, but just to mention a couple of names. we had a person by the name of ruth. she went into exile and assumed the position of professor at the university. thereceived a package from united nations, unknown to her, through thewent south african police. in the south african police altered something in that package. and when ruth opened the package, it was a bomb. it, the bomb exploded and she died. who that was one of many pay the supreme sacrifice in the struggle for our democracy. talke of all communities of an agency representative in paris. she was assassinated in paris. there were others who were killed. strugglehistorically a for nonracial, nonsexist democratic south africa. that is what sent many people to prison. many of is for many, lost their lives and were not alive to see the birth of democracy in our country. so we are 20 years old as a nonracial, nonsexist democratic south africa, but we have made quite important strides. every university in our country is mixed now. almost every university director is black. and one can go on and on to talk of the progress that has been society,rd a nonracial but coming here tonight -- it is a great honor to be here tonight because throughout our struggle, one of our greatest friends are the people of sweden. they supported us throughout our struggle whenever other western wentries -- many of them with the apartheid government. us when ourtood by president at that time got a stroke, it was in sweden that he was hospitalized. it was in sweden, this he regained his health. and he was in a position to return to a free south africa. so i want to once again take the opportunity to thank the people of sweden for being such close friends of our struggle. we are seeing the fruits of that every day of our lives. >> that is ahmed kathrada, speaking here in visby, sweden just last night. he was one of nelson mandela's associates. she spent 26 years in prison come including 18 on robben island. when we come back, we will be speaking with the head of the left party here in sweden. we will also be speaking with the head of the feminist initiative, radical feminist group that already has a position in the european parliament. will they take a seat in the swedish parliament? and we will speak with the former congress member dennis kucinich, who is here at almedalen in gotland in sweden. stay with us. ♪ [music break] >> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are broadcasting from the swedish city of visby on sweden's largest island gotland. we are in the middle of an event called almedalen week, week long political festival are all of sweden's political parties gather. it is almost as if the democratic and republican convention in the u.s. were all held together. 25,000 people have gathered. for those are watching, you can see it is very windy. it is pouring rain. we're hoping it will be a thunderstorm. by andreasd gustavsson, the editor in chief .f a new daily newspaper easier to cover this unusual week that has been going on since olof palme, the former swedish prime minister who was assassinated in 1986, came here years before that and just started giving speeches. and so this convention, this festival continues. andreas gustavsson, welcome to democracy now! >> thanks for having me. >> talk about the significance of this event and one journalist's here. >> it is quite the super election-year. the eu parliament for the national elections as well, and local elections. all at once, all in the same year. we have eight years with the right-wing government. sweden has totally changed and those eight years. there's a lot at stake. there's a lot at stake for a lot of people. >> the name of your newspaper and what it means in english? etc.."cally, "the daily >> talk about the critical issues that people are debating now. clearly, a surge in the polls for what they're calling the red-green alliance. through these parties are. >> first, we of the biggest already, the social democrats. thee are about 30% of editorial base. then there is the left party, ofch is currently outside the future government. the social democrats, preferring the green party, having close discussions together. there will be a change of government in september. i'm fairly sure of that. >> what are the issues of the day that are most hotly debated? >> jobs. we have mass unemployment. on the swedish level, mass unemployment. >> touches about how much? >> 8%. and climate change. feminists for because of the feminist initiative. >> and it is a new political party. >> it is not new. it has been around for a couple of years, but there has been a backlash regarding feminist in sweden, but it is back with a vengeance. they have seats in the eu, european parliament, and i'm fairly sure they will have seats here in the national parliament in september. >> as i was coming to this broadcast walking to the island, there is a mass protest of what are called your anti-racist. hundreds of them protesting the the party of swedes. can you explain what the swedish party is? >> the swedish party are not in parliament, but it is a massive party. -- nazi party. no discussion about it. they want to throw immigrants from sweden. they don't even believe in the democratic system, but they are taking part in the elections. they are the swedish democrats. there are ready in parliament. they are not nazi, but they're racist. first we of the swedish democrats and now we have -- i am ashamed of them. >> the swedish party also allied with the swedish resistance movement. explain who they are. >> that is the violent part of the nazi movement here in sweden. they have attacked several people just this year. almost killed one person on march 8. now taking part in combat in ukraine with fascist groups in ukraine. >> explain. in one of the swedish cities on international women's day, one s, knifed one of the antiracists on the streets. he had just come from ukraine fighting on whose side? >> in the coup in ukraine, there was a french movement of fascists. there is one major party and even more extreme right sector fascistsedish are involved with both sectors. >> was he arrested after he knifed the swede? wereme of the nazis arrested, but one is still at large. >> and he went back to ukraine? >> we don't know. aroundhe issues here immigration that ties into these far right parties, do you see this as part of the european sort of resurgence of the right? >> yes, yes, we see it in both swedish democrats in the more extreme party of swedes. they have close connections to from france tos other nazis in greece. there closely mixed together. there are brown fascists surge in europe right now. , i want togustavsson thank you very much for being with us. editor of -- you pronounce it yourself. the new newspaper, in english it is "etc.." thank you so much for being here. as we turn right now to a very familiar face in u.s. politics. well, it looks like before we turn to that very familiar face in u.s. politics, we are going to turn now to a familiar face in swedish politics. he is head of the left party here. we are turning right now to one of the leftrs party. we are broadcasting from the swedish city of visby. we are at a political gathering unlike any other in the world. we're joined right now by jonas sjöstedt, chairperson of the left party. i'm going to start off by asking him to pronounce his own name. >> my name is jonas sjöstedt. , talk aboutstedt what the left represents here, the left party in sweden, especially given -- it looks like your party is surging in the polls in this red-green alliance may soon take power in the september election. >> we are socialist party. we have our region the labor movement, but we realized many years ago that we need to broaden our perspective so you consider ourselves a red-green party. are a modern we socialist left-wing party. >> what are the issues most important to you right now? against privatization. sweden has become kind of an experiment for privatization, especially in education, health care, and the help for elderly. we said we want to ban all profit-making companies from these welfare sectors, meaning sectord have the public working as it should be, but also allowing other nonprofit actors like churches were corporatists, etc. we can see these devastating effects in swedish societies. schools closing down the middle of education of children. we can see many of the help for elderly -- homes for elderly resources.mental they make huge profits from taxpayers money. this is our main topic and something that had great support from sweden in general. >> climate change. >> climate change is essential. if we do not solve the climate issue, other discussions become meaningless. we want sweden to the kind of a role model. we want sweden to take a big step ahead and prove we can be a modern welfare society and industrial nation and still cap ring house gas emissions substantially. -- cap greenhouse gas emission substantially. >> how to achieve that? >> first of all, we have a major program of investments. rebuild our old houses, have of heavys instead traffic on highways. investment in her noble energy, etc.. -- investment in renewable energy, etc. need to reconsider away to grow. within the classic way of measuring the success of the country by good economic growth is useless when it comes to climate. we have to take into account we use resources that has certain limits and that we are destroying the climate. for example, we also favor shorter working hours. easier tot is a lot achieve a solution of the climate issue if we have a more equal society. it is about distribution of limited assets, globally and in sweden. >> how to shortening the work to achieve that? instead of increasing productivity for higher salaries, we use it for more spare time, more time for families from a more time for culture, more time for gender equality. >> right now what is happening in the palestinian occupied territories, israel is escalating. can you talk about the left party's position on israel and palestine? >> we have a long tradition of supporting the palestinian independent an state. we think the fundamental problem is the occupation of the palestinian territories. as long as that is going on, it is very hard to find any kind of solution of the conflict. we are favoring a peaceful solution through negotiations, but this is not a conflict between two equal parties. it is one country occupying the palestinian people, so that is the whole core of the issue. so we think sweden should be an active supporter of a two-state solution and should recognize the palestinian territory as an independent state. >> and the role of the united states in dealing with israel and palestine? >> i think that is crucial -- >> what is your assessment of it today? the reasony to say, the israel can be so self-confident is because they feel they have solid support from the u.s. administration. that is also why the u.s. party has the key to the solution. they have to put pressure on the israelis. >> iraq. >> i think we now harvest the bitter fruits of the iraq war, and it is sad to see the suffering of the iraqi people and the sectarian violence. >> the u.s. first invading iraq in 2003? >> that is where the problem got worse. i think the peace movement was right, that the military intervention and occupation would make things worse. and now we are in the situation, but we cannot abandon the iraqi people. we have to support the good forces that speak up in favor of living together regardless of your religion or your ethnic background. >> amnesty international and other groups have the swedish arms trade. most people might be surprised to know that though this is the ofe of offer nobel, founder the nobel peace prize, that sweden is one of the largest exporters of arms in the world. can you talk about the left party's position on this? >> we would like to ban all export of arms. we think what we can achieve in the next four years we going to government and form the progressive majority, is to have an effective ban on the export of arms to dictators, to countries that violate human rights or are involved in armed conflict. for example, one of the receiving countries of the exports to saudi arabia, which is bizarre. countrytan is another that imports a lot of arms. i think this does a lot of harm to our potential role as a peacemaker and someone who speaks up in favor of disarmament. because it shows we are hypocrites. in the people know saab u.s. as the auto company, not the major weapons manufacture of sweden. >> they certainly are, and they make a very expensive fighter jet that sweden tried to export all over the world. i would be so we're happy to export things i environmental items. >> i want to ask you about julian assange and the position the left party takes on him. i got a chance to question the foreign minister yesterday. this week there was an appeal by his swedish lawyers, and it is around the issue of this precharge detention. something that is -- i think people in other countries are not as familiar with it, but he is been dealing with for four years without charge. he is concerned if you were to come to sweden, if you're extradited to sweden he would then be sent to the united states, wanted by the u.s. for wikileaks. isi think the swedish system to be trusted. we would not send him to the united states. we look on the crime of sexual assault as a very serious crime. and if he is under investigation, he should be questioned by the swedish police. there might be an opening of doing so in london, but i think the claim you cannot trust the swedish political system is not true. >> what about the issue of the swedish police meeting him at the ecuadorian embassy in london and questioning him there? >> i think if there was such a solution, that would be very positive. a complete deadlock is good for no one. >> what would break the deadlock? >> i don't know. some sign of goodwill from assange himself, maybe. >> any words to the people in united states here in almedalen of this kind of gathering? there are more than 25,000 people here. >> there's a very open political debate. anyone can come to me as a party leader and speak to me on the streets or take a photo or just discuss their favorite topic. i lived in the u.s. myself for a couple of years -- >> where? >> in brooklyn. where else? there's a lot to learn from the u.s. and public initiatives and campaigning, but also there are many things to learn from sweden. >> thank you for joining us. we've been speaking with jonas sjöstedt, chairperson of the left party since 2012. he has been a member of the swedish parliament since 2010. and before that, he was a member of the european parliament from 1995 to 2006. when we come back, we will hear from the head of the feminist initiative and also a very familiar face in u.s. politics, dennis kucinich. stay with us. ♪ [music break] >> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are broadcasting from a very windy and rainy visby, the swedish city of visby on the island of gotland in the middle of an event called almedalen week, a political festival over 25,000 people come here. it is unlike any other political event in the world. we have come to the island to hear the speeches. people come here to take seminars. politicians from all the countries parties are here. in sweden, there are nine political parties with representatives serving the swedish parliament or the european parliament. their the swedish social democratic arctic, the moderate party, green party, liberal people's party, center party, sweden democrats, feminist initiative, christian democrats, left party. in may elections, the feminist initiative earned over 5% of the vote and won a seat in the european parliament. wednesday, i spoke to the parties cofounder gudrun schyman , who used to head the left party. i asked her about the founding of the feminist initiative. >> this question about gender inequality, high enough on the political agenda. so i started discussions with different kind of feminist from the peace movement, the environmental movement, from the antiracist movement. they were discussing how to do because women very often has the function of being a lobbyist and their own political party. they go together in special women groups and then they try to have an opinion for the political -- the real political questions and wrote political party. we thought it would be time now to go from the status of lobbyists to parliament. so we created an independent feminist group with our own independent ideologic platform. >> now, your party has made it into the european parliament? may.s, we just did in we had elections in the european parliament and we ran for office. 5.7.d we have one member. sweden has 20 members. it was a big success, absolutely. now we're going further when it comes to the national and regional and local election, which we all have on the same day in september. >> talk about the different platforms, the different positions you have on everything from military spending to climate change. >> i mean, this is questions that the other political parties deal with. security policy, environment all questions, defense policy. a pattern of power in society that makes women as a worse,o be seen as less which means salary caps, which means men's violence against women. you have it all over. it is a global structure. it shows in all fields of society. in your intimate relations, and the labor market. we connect this idea of violence that is in our relations with the idea of violence in the international relations. a serious step forward and ban violence as a tool for solving conflict is not gettingld more secure when he have more weapons. and this comes to sweden and this comes to our civil society. and this comes to our intimate relations. we had to ban violence. we had to see the role of violence is always control, always power. >> so you proposed a cap on military spending? >> yes, we want to see militarism out from our society. that is the vision. that is the long run. and we think sweden should start with cut downs on military and change the idea of security policy and to security policy not for territories, not for countries, not for nations, but for people. which means we want sweden to do what the united nations organization about preventing violence against women told her countries to do -- told her countries to do, cut spending on military and build a security policy for people. >> for people listening or watching outside of sweden, they might say, a campy to hard for sweden, home of the founder of the nobel peace prize, but it might surprise people to know sweden is one of the largest military exporters in the world. >> absolutely. and we are criticizing this heavily because this way of behaving is also or has also the result that poor people don't get their needs and the countries where we sell weapons to. .e sell, for example, airplanes it was sold to south africa when south africa needed the money for educating and health care for the children. now it is brazil. brazil has a lot of problems with a lot of poor people. they don't need airplanes, they need social welfare. this is very embarrassing, we think. it is a contradiction to the idea of cutting military expenses. >> the issue of global warming. how do you propose to do with it? >> we have to make sustainable environment way of behaving in every level of society, and we have to work with the tools that we have, which means taxes, which means changing energy systems. we have to go to sun and wind and water. we have very good possibilities as we do do that, but there are different opinions. we don't -- among the political parties. we don't want nuclear power, for example. some political parties want. but we are quite in the same view upon the question as the green party, which is now ending the scene back here. it is their day today. what makes us different from other political parties is that we put in a lot of knowledge about discrimination, how it works in society. that we have structures in our society that turns people into different positions because of ethnicity,ause of sexuality, and things like that. and all those kinds of discriminations are working together at the same time. and we have had very clear, in the last years, that it is not an equal country, sweden, and has also been very clear that we have structure racism and a lot of problems with men's violence against women and things like that. >> you were speaking out here at almedalen around the issue of anti-immigrant fervor and some parties. there was a very small protest surrounded by hundreds of those whos, but of are fiercely opposed to immigration. >> yes. >> can you talk about how to deal with that in society? -- wethink we should have should be a country, sweden, that is open to people that comes from other parts of the to fleeeople that has from their own situation because of war or other things. and in the long run, it should be possible for people to go free and to come free. we mean that we are a country, sweden, that are a rich country. we have a good welfare. we haven't had war in our territory in the last 200 years. we have the possibility to be generous, it should make it easy for people that want to come. recently became the first feminist party to win a seat and european parliament and could well take a seat in the swedish parliament come september, gudrun schyman. we end with a very familiar voice in u.s. politics. here at the university of in visby, sweden. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are broadcasting from visby, sweden, from the largest swedish island of gotland where almedalen is taking place, this mass gathering of tens of thousands of people of every party debating the issues of the day. sort of like a political convention in the united states, except all of them together and more. we're joined by dennis kucinich. that might surprise some of the people who are listening and watching right now, the former congress member who lives in washington right now. what are you doing in almedalen? about thisfound out amazing event here and had to see it for myself. can you imagine where people of every political persuasion come together in an open space from a freely discussing and debating in a sense of joy, i a festival? i believe what is happening here has the potential to catch on all around the world in terms of improving political dialogue and improve -- enabling people to try to find a way to reach common ground. >> joy and politics you say? >> absolutely. there should be. the fact that we don't have that is a testimony to our disconnecting from our own hearts, whatever it is we desire. life should not be a funeral march to the grave. we should have the capacity for being up to lift up not just a dialogue, but each other in a greater cause of nationhood. when you see the kind of conflict that happens in the united states, the partisan divide, the separation from each other -- there is a different thing happening here in sweden at almedalen, which is a sense of a common bond as citizens purpose for theperson nation. it impresses me how on the street you can get in the deepest discussions that have consequence. having only been here for two days, i've had a chance to meet people from every level of society -- decision makers as well as citizens -- and there's a sense that things matter in these kind of discussions which are direct, relatively low-key, nonconfrontational, matter-of-fact, and behind it is -- what animates it is a sense of commitment to each other and the nation. >> proportional representation is really the name of the game in sweden. i think anyone who gets 4% of the vote can be represented in parliament. can you comment on this? it is a growing movement in the united states. >> it is a step toward democratization, so points of view that are held in the general populace are not squelched because they don't reach for some numerical significance we call the majority. majority politics are very interesting, but what is happening in the united states with an increasingly blurring of differences between the two parties, there is a hunger for alternatives for those alternatives to find means of inclusion into the process. certainly, that is one way to do it. broaden our discussion in america. when you come here and see so many different political persuasions represented, and our politics back home are monochromatic -- it is great and you really can't tell the difference. here, you can. but at the same time, there's a common commitment to the nation. sentiment awaken the in america. one way to do it is proportional representation. >> the issue of iraq? for many of the years you were in congress, this was a battle, not only all over iraq, but a battle in congress. what do you feel needs to be done right now? >> first of all, we have to recognize that the american people were lied to. our country was taken into war against innocent people, and the consequences have been disastrous for the people of iraq, who perhaps had one million extra deaths, the destruction of their country, for the people of the united states that solomon and women led to their deaths asked that solomon and women led to their deaths at a cost of maybe $3 billion to $16 long term. if we have learned anything from our expense in iraq, should be that interventionism is not the wave of the future. this wholereassess idea that somehow we have the right to intervene in the affairs of patients and that we did under the pretext. -- our. has degraded role as a great nation has degraded our role that had no intention of attacking that did not have anything to do with weapons of mass destruction. it was not a mistake, it was a lie. we have to stop the games that our government is playing of subterfuge, of duplicity. the double game being played in iraq is a violation of what america should be about. we should be honest with people. we should be straightforward and our international policy. we seem to be constitutionally incapable of doing that. that is a problem that involves are broad, national discussion with people at every level. the consequences of our continued interference in the internal affairs of nations is createte blowback and to conditions where america will always be at risk in the future of a loss of our ability to meet the needs of her own people and of leading the planet toward destruction. this planet that we have, war is a form of eco-cide. this planet we have is not guaranteed to us. we have to be mindful of our capacity to create peace, that we cannot imagine that he's will be created of itself. we have to be architects of peace. we have to change our relationship with nation so america is no longer a nation of of nations, but a nation among nations. i think if we take that approach, we won't find ourselves trapped in situations where we really violate the basic wisdom that our founders gave us in saying, [indiscernible] ourselves andled america's better than that. >> former u.s. congress member and former presidential candidate dennis kucinich speaking with me here at almedalen week on the island of whered in visby, sweden, over 25,000 people have come to attend this unique political open-air festival. that does it for democracy now! democracy now! has two job openings. for information, go to democracynow.org/jobs. a special thank you to our crew here in sweden. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to [email protected] or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!] ♪ [orchestra tuning] ♪ opera's pleasure is derived from its challenge to the way the ec and the way that you hear in the way that you feel and the way that you think.