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Kajsa Ekis Ekman

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Kajsa Ekis Ekman
Caucasian woman with shoulder-length blonde hair wearing a red shawlEkman in 2023
Born (1980-07-25) July 25, 1980 (age 44)
Stockholm, Sweden
Occupation(s)Journalist, author
Years active2010–present
Awards

Kajsa Ekis Ekman (born July 25 1980) is a Swedish feminist author, journalist, and debater. Her work has sparked debate on the subjects of prostitution, surrogacy, and capitalism. Ekman is currently the editor-in-chief of the news and opinion website Parabol Press, and writes for numerous Swedish publications. Her awards include the 2010 Robespierre Prize and the 2020 Lenin Award.

Biography

Ekman grew up in Stockholm and became involved with the punk movement in her early teens. That led to involvement with political activism for animal rights and anti-fascism.

She participated in the protests at the European Council meetings in Gothenburg 2001. During an open house at the Swedish morning newspaper Dagens Nyheter, she criticised the paper's lack of appeal to young people. Journalist Viggo Cavling, editor of the paper's supplement DN på stan encouraged her to write and submit something herself. Ekman submitted an article that was published. This led to a collaboration that sparked her interest in writing.

She has studied literature at university level, among other subjects.

Ekman has founded several networks and organizations, including the climate action group Klimax, the anti-surrogacy network Feministiskt Nej till Surrogatmödraskap and Greece support network Nätverket för Grekland. In 2010, she was a spokesperson for the civil disobedience action Shut It Down, aimed at the fossil fuelled powerplant Värtaverket.

Ekman serves as editor-in-chief of Parabol Press. She is a literary critic for Aftonbladet, and a columnist for Dala-Demokraten. She has also written for Le Monde diplomatique, Truthdig. Feminist Current and Kathimerini. She lectures internationally on prostitution, surrogacy, and crisis theory.

In 2020, Ekman was awarded the Lenin Award given that she is an "independent socialist and feminist with the whole world as her field of work." She has referred to herself as "generally left-wing."

Books

Ekman made her debut as an author in 2010 with the book Being and Being Bought, subtitled "Prostitution, Surrogacy and the Split Self". It received mixed reviews, and her stance against surrogacy sparked debate. Maria Sveland described it as "one of the year's most important books" in Dagens Nyheter. It has been translated into English, German, Spanish, and French. The ensuing debate led the Left Party and Feminist Initiative to take stances against surrogacy in Sweden.

Ekman's book Skulden: Eurokrisen sedd från Aten ("The Debt: The Eurocrisis viewed from Athens"), published in 2014, explores the economic crisis in Europe and Greek government-debt crisis from a Greek perspective. The book was published in Greek with the title κλεμμένη άνοιξη ("The Stolen Spring"). It challenges the myth of the lazy Greek often cited in Sweden and the rest of the EU. For the book and her involvement with Greece, Ekman received the 2015 "Swedish-Greek of the Year" award.

Views

Transgender issues

In 2020 Ekman published the book On the Meaning of Sex: Thoughts about the New Definition of Woman. She argues that one set of gender roles has been replaced by another. Where one was previously expected to dress in a certain way, have certain interests and exhibit certain personality traits based on one's sex, one's sex is now supposed to be determined by one's style of dress, interests and personality traits.

Högdalen swimming pool

In 2010, Ekman put the bathtub of the Municipal commissioner for Sports, Regina Kevius, up for sale on the online marketplace Blocket in protest against the commissioner's privatization of the public swimming pool in Högdalen, Stockholm. The ad was removed by Blocket because the bathtub did not belong to the advertiser. Ekman argued that by the same logic, Kevius also had no right to sell the swimming pool, as it belonged to the people. The inspiration came from activists in Gothenburg who had put local politicians' homes up for sale on online realtor site Hemnet after the city had started selling properties from the public housing stock. Ekman followed up by posting books that she guessed the chairman of the municipal board in Nacka was reading since he put the operation of libraries out for tender.

Illegal adoptions

In 2018, Ekman revealed in an article in Aftonbladet that children had been stolen from China for adoption when politician Ulf Kristersson had a tenure as chairman of the Swedish Adoption Centre. He has since become the leader of the Moderate Party and further on the Prime Minister of Sweden. Over 30 children were placed from orphanages involved in human trafficking. The article was followed up by a report in Dagens Nyheter in 2022, which showed that Kristersson had been aware of the suspicions. Ekman expressed surprise that no investigating journalists had picked up the story.

Israel

Ekman argues that Israel as a state is "built on occupation, the displacement of people, and apartheid" and that this should be criticized.In the summer of 2015, she participated as an activist aboard one of the ships in the Ship to Gaza campaign to protest against Israel's blockade of Gaza. The ship was overtaken by the Israeli military, and she was subsequently detained for a week in Giv'on Prison in Ramla.

Views on capitalism and robotization

Ekman has given a TEDx talk on capitalism. In her speech, she explains that she views the past 40 years as a right-wing offensive, where capitalists have sought to recover the lost profits of the oil crisis through three strategies. First, by privatising and infiltrating the welfare sector. Second, by engaging in banking and speculative activities to a greater extent. Third, by lowering wages and/or relocating to low-wage countries. In a 2017 episode of the Sveriges Television programme Idévärlden, she states that capitalism is anarchistic by nature.

Labour market

Ekman has written several articles about class society and growing social disparities. She has criticized, among other things, the fact that work-related accidents do not receive any attention in the media, as in this article from 2020: "There are no online threads where hobby detectives try to figure out what happened. It doesn't become a political issue where parties try to outdo each other in who does the most. And companies are almost never prosecuted for causing the deaths of workers. It's as if the whole of Sweden silently accepts that our country should be built at the expense of sacrificing workers, especially Eastern Europeans."

Arbetarbloggen

During her time at syndicalist newspaper Arbetaren (The Worker), Ekman got the idea for a workers' blog where anyone would be able to blog about their workplace. The newspaper shared stairways with the syndicalist labour union SAC, and she was inspired by stories from their visitors. However, the newspaper did not follow through with the launch, and when she had to leave, she started arbetarbloggen.se, where workers can submit stories about their everyday work experiences. She is the editor-in-chief, and anyone can contribute to the blog with the option to remain anonymous. The blog is not intended to report on misconduct or serve as another platform for political debate. One of the points is that workers spend a significant part of their lives at work, but it is rarely mentioned on social media or other interaction creating a lack of knowledge about each other's everyday experiences.

Awards

Books

  • Being and Being Bought: Prostitution, Surrogacy and the Split Self (Varat och varan : prostitution, surrogatmödraskap och den delade människan. Stockholm: Leopard. 2010)
  • Skulden: Eurokrisen sedd från Aten. Stockholm: Leopard. 2013
  • Texter 1998–2015. Perspektiv; 1. Stockholm: ETC Förlag. 2015
  • On the Meaning of Sex: Thoughts about the New Definition of Woman (Om könets existens – tankar om den nya synen på kön. Stockholm: Polaris, 2021)

References

  1. ^ "We who make Parabol". Parabol Press. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
  2. Lindh, Kristina (2 April 2021). "Kajsa Ekis Ekman: Feministerna är lurade". Svenska Dagbladet (in Swedish). ISSN 1101-2412. Retrieved 21 May 2023.
  3. ^ Färlin, Mårten (10 June 2016). "Kajsa Ekis Ekman: "Det borde finnas ett halvårs karantän mot mediedrev"". Resumé (in Swedish). Retrieved 21 May 2023.
  4. Bornlid Lesseur, Marcus (14 May 2014). "En cigg i regnet med Kajsa Ekis Ekman". Lundagård (in Swedish). Retrieved 21 May 2023.
  5. Rehnbergh, Rikard (3 June 2010). "Våldsam polisinsats vid miljöaktion". Arbetaren (in Swedish). Retrieved 21 May 2023.
  6. "Aftonbladet articles by Kajsa Ekis Ekman". Aftonbladet.se.
  7. "Kajsa Ekis Ekman".
  8. "Editorials by Kajsa Ekis Edman". monde-diplomatique.fr. May 2023.
  9. {{cite web |title=Kajsa Ekman articles on Truthdig |url=https://www.truthdig.com/author/kajsa_ekis_ekman/ |website=truthdig.com
  10. "Kajsa Ekis Ekman". Leninpriset (in Swedish). Retrieved 21 May 2023.
  11. Röstlund Jonsson, Christoffer (19 February 2016). "Kajsa Ekis Ekman: "Högdalens ägare är korkade kapitalister"". Stockholm Direkt.
  12. Lindström, Linn (2012). Exploaterad surrogatmamma eller altruistisk värdmamma? En diskursanalys av den svenska debatten om surrogatmödraskap. Malmö högskola/Hälsa och samhälle. Retrieved 21 May 2023.
  13. ""Being and Being Bought" at Spinifex Press website". Archived from the original on 26 June 2014.
  14. Larsson, Petter (27 August 2013). "Greker lata och tröga – eller?". Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Retrieved 21 May 2023.
  15. ^ Weslen, Andrea (16 December 2015). ""Sverige och Grekland har mycket gemensamt"". Dagens ETC (in Swedish). Retrieved 21 May 2023.
  16. Thomsen, Dante (18 March 2011). "Hon säljer toppmoderatens badkar". Dagens Media (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 3 September 2014. Retrieved 21 May 2023.
  17. "Kristersson svek de stulna barnen". www.aftonbladet.se (in Swedish). 20 August 2018. Retrieved 21 May 2023.
  18. Sköld Patrik, Josefin (21 November 2022). "Ulf Kristersson fick larm om kinesisk barnhandel – adoptionerna fortsatte". Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish). Retrieved 21 May 2023.
  19. "Svenskana kvar i fängelset – Kajsa Ekis Ekman isoleras från de andra svenskarna". Aktuellt Fokus (in Swedish). 1 July 2015. Retrieved 21 May 2023.
  20. Ekman, Kajsa (13 January 2015). "Everybody talks about capitalism -- but what is it?". YouTube. Retrieved 26 August 2024.
  21. Kapitalismen är ohållbar – Kajsa Ekis Ekman | Idévärlden i SVT. Tidsintervall: 4.55–4.58. Publicerades den 13 februari 2017
  22. Ekis Ekman, Kajsa (1 March 2020). "Arbetare dör på jobbet – men borgarna vill inte rädda deras liv". Dagens ETC (in Swedish). Retrieved 21 May 2023.
  23. "Chefredaktören borde ompröva sitt beslut". 28 April 2022. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  24. Persson, Sonja (6 March 2023). "Vi jobbar hela dagarna men vi pratar aldrig om det". Vi som bygger landet. Retrieved 22 May 2023.
  25. ^ Cite error: The named reference :42 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  26. Nesser, Johannes (21 November 2022). "Kajsa Ekis Ekmans nya satsning – låter arbetstagare berätta själva". Journalisten. Retrieved 22 May 2023.
  27. "Om oss". www.arbetarbloggen.se (in Swedish). Retrieved 22 May 2023.
  28. Persson, Sonja (6 March 2023). "Vi jobbar hela dagarna men vi pratar aldrig om det". Vi som bygger landet. Retrieved 22 May 2023.
  29. Hamrud, Annika (4 February 2010). "Roy Andersson får Leninpriset". Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish). Retrieved 21 May 2023.
  30. "Kajsa Ekis Ekman får Sara Lidman-priset". Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish). 26 January 2016. ISSN 1101-2447. Retrieved 21 May 2023.
  31. Erlandsson, Martin (28 January 2020). "Kajsa "Ekis" Ekman yngsta mottagaren av Leninpriset". Göteborgs-Posten (in Swedish). Retrieved 21 May 2023.

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