나는 왜 사회주의자인가?

1982년 스웨덴 총선: 올로프 팔메 TV토론

몇 번을 봐도 가슴 뛰는 올로프 팔메의 연설이다. 1976년 팔메가 총리로 있던 사민당은 44년 만에 우파에게 패해 정권을 내준다. 중앙당을 중심으로 한 우파가 스웨덴을 운영한 지 6년 만인 1982년 총선, 다시 한번 사민당의 대표로 선거에 나선 팔메가 중앙당 대표인 토르비요른 팰딘과 함께 TV토론을 하는 장면이다.

Olof Palme's speech: Why I am a democratic socialist
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The video is from an election debate between former Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme's and right wing party representative Fälldin. Right wing party accused him to be a socialist and this is the Palme's answer refering the history of Swedish Social Democratic Party(SAP) and how they coped with buing a foundation of a welfare state.

팔메는 총리로 재임하던 시절 빈부격차를 줄이기 위해 법인세와 금융 소득에 대한 세금을 올렸고 공공 서비스를 확대해갔다. 당시 우파에서는 그런 팔메를 두고 '사회주의자'라고 집요하게 공격했다. 여기서 사회주의자는 공산주의자와 비슷한 뉘앙스다. 때는 1982년, 영국은 대처가 미국은 레이건이 집권하며 '공산주의자'와 '사회주의자'는 자본주의의 적으로 규정되던 때다.

이 때 팔메는 TV토론에서 "나는 민주주의를 지향하는 사회주의자다"라며 정면으로 승부수를 던진다. 지난 100년 사민당이 스웨덴 사회에 일으킨 변화의 역사와 유산, 연대를 강조하는 팔메의 연설을 들으면 스웨덴 사람이 아닌 나도 심장이 뜨거워지는 느낌이다.

그리고 말미에 팰딘에게 묻는다.
"자 나는 민주적인 사회주의자다. 그럼 팰딘, 당신은 정확히 무엇인가?"

Script

But let me present a more principled argument here.
Fälldin has been nagging me to explain why I am a socialist, and I am a democratic socialist, with pride and joy. I became such when I travelled around India, and saw the terrible poverty there even though some very few where extremely rich. When I travelled and saw an even more humiliating, in its own ways, poverty in the United States. When I, as a very young man, came eye to eye with the tyranny, oppression, and persecution of people in the Communist states. When I came to the nazi concentration camps and saw the death lists over Social Democrats and labor unionists.
I became this, when I realized that it was Social Democracy that built the foundations for democracy in Sweden. When I realized that it was Social Democracy that carried our country out from poverty and unemployment with the politics of crisis in the 1930s. And when I myself got to take part and work for ATP, and met the “socialism campaigns” of the privileged when regular workers wanted to build a secure life in old age, because that's what you were doing then.
I became this under the many years I cooperated with Tage Erlander, when I learnt what democracy and humanism are. And with close friends such as Willy Brandt, Bruno Kreisky, and Tryggve Bratteli who risked his life in the struggle for human dignity.
But all the more important is, I am strengthened in my conviction, when I look to the world, when I see the wars, arms race and mass unemployment, and the great inequalities between people. I am strengthened in my conviction when I, in our own country, see injustices grow and unemployment rise, speculations and corruption grab hold on everything around them. When I see how right wing politics in country by country drives people out in unemployment. Destroys people's security yet fails to resolve economic problems.
And when I look forward in the future that the right wing apparently have to offer, where workers are to become increasingly poor and the rich, even richer. Where people's social security becomes more precocious and the luxury yachts more numerous. Where solidarity is weakened and egoism stronger. Where the strong may take what they please, and the weak must accept to be pushed down.
Indeed I am a democratic socialist. I am this with pride over what this democratic socialism has accomplished in our country. I am this with joy because I know that we have important tasks ahead of us after the years of right wing mismanagement, and with confidence, because now people know what happens with jobs, security, and stability when right wing powers are given responsibility.
And I am this, in a way, with an amused smile, because I know that the modern history of Sweden is filled with valuable reforms that you have characterized as mean socialism, but then fight to take credit for, when people have experienced them and realized what they mean.
Indeed, Fälldin, I am a democratic socialist. Like Branting when he instituted universal suffrage, like Per-Albin, when he combatted unemployment in the 1930s and spoke of the people's home. Like Erlander, when he expanded social security and ATP because it is all about solidarity and human beings caring for each other, and what exactly are you, Fälldin?