Behind the Scenes at Stockholm

Abstract

The tribunal conducted hearings from May 2 to 10, 1967, in the relative backwater of Stockholm. The Swedish support committee worked feverishly to carry off the event successfully, in the hope of buttressing Sweden’s New Left by humbling the mighty United States. A carnival atmosphere prevailed in the Swedish capital. There were protribunal demonstrators, counterdemonstrators, and even the threat of a countertribunal organized by the Swedish Committee for a Free Asia. The tribunal’s impact on the host state was considerable, but this was not necessarily the case in regard to the rest of the world, despite the prominence attached to Russell’s name.