A crowded Varberg Theatre celebrated the 2016 Lenin Award winner Mikael Nyberg on April 9th. Chairman of the Jan Myrdal Society, Cecilia Cervin, handed over the Lenin statuette, produced in collaboration with Torsten Jurell and a cheque for the prize money of 100,000 SEK.
As always, it turned out to be a merry event, also embellished by Jonsereds Proggorkester, led by Bosse Stenholm, and Amanda Werne (Slowgold) with band. Jan Myrdal spoke to Mikael Nyberg as well as to the Robespierre Prize winners Sápmi Sisters who, at the last moment, did not accept the award with the reason that Jan Myrdal would be homophobic and that they didn’t want to be associated with “Cis people like Robespierre and Lenin”. They apparently did not know that Robespierre formulated the first declaration of human rights ever and Lenin’s Soviet Union in 1922 was the first state in history to abolish legislation that made homosexuality punishable.
Malena Rydberg from the editorial office of Clarté gave a highly appreciated speech to Mikael Nyberg, who accepted the award with a speech about how today the working class is pushed back in country after country, but where he also highlighted the possibilities of the collective. The Internationale became the natural ending at the theatre. In the evening, the usual party was held at Hotell Gästis. Roy Andersson led the sing-along and Jonsereds Proggorkester reinforced with Guran from Hönö held an enthusiastic audience awake until late at night.
