THE UFF- THE TVIND EMPIRE- THE TEACHERS GROUP
The Tvind empire is one of the press stamped name of a large amount of associations, foundations, companies, schools etc who are seemed in different kind of relations. They appear to have something in common. The most common are UFF (Country aid from People to People), DRH (The Travelling Folk High school) and Tvind.
The Teachers Group
The real name is the teachers group (TG). TG is a top-down managed cult who consists of idealistic members who are ruling the whole Tvind Empire. They’ve got several collective spread out over the whole world. You can be a member on trial for a couple of years, or write a contract for lifetime. As a teacher in Denmark you get your salary from the State, but 95% of the salary are put in to an account that you haven’t to access to. But the money isn’t important, it’s that they want you to sign a contract for lifetime, both on your money and your time. You won’t have any leisure time, but the collective will decide what you should do.
When you’ve signed in to the TG they exhort you to burn pictures and address books. It’s motivated by the risk of pursuit against both the TG and the private. When you’ve chosen to sign the contract for lifetime all your assets are given to the TG, as well ass all your future incomes.
The communism
The TG gets a lot of its ideology from Mao Tsetung and the communistic North Korea. They’ve understood the meaning of money and often talk about combat the capital with capital, i.e. one needs a lot of money to spread ones ideas.
Work for Africa
When I came in connection with the movement I had never heard about it before. I sat one day and looked after job in the papers when I got to see an ad with the headline “Work for Africa”. I would not get salary, but my expenses for dwelling and food covered, it said. First I would go to a school, then go down to Angola as a solidarity worker and finally home again for a period of “after work”. It seemed great, something meanful to put some effort in and furthermore adventurous. When I after someday got in contact with the contact person of the movement in Gothenburg, it came front that the work not just was unpaid. I would also pay a fee of approx. 20 000 crowns. It came first as kind of a shock, but if you saw it as a payment for a 16 months adventure and a contribution to the Third World, it was not so expensive, I thought.
The Travelling Folk High school
The Travelling Folk High school exists on several places, all obeying under the TG. The one I would go to is in Norway on a scale. When we came there it was a big party with candles and raisins on the table. All was enthusiastic and expectant. The headmaster was speaking, it was inspiring respect but still friendly, and I thought that this seemed to be my thing. People were caring about each other. Fairly soon we got our responsibility areas. The school lies in the old part of the Hornsjö
Mountain hotel, an after Swedish conditions fairly shabby hotel. It’s owned and runs of the TG. The school’s maintenance and drifting, plus the hotels swimming pool is runned by the pupils. It also happens that a group of pupils receives in assignment to handle the entire maintenance of the hotel during some weeks. This in order to learn oneself how it’s to handle unexpected tasks.
Responsibility
This procedure is very typical for the school’s/ TGs methods. These practical lessons became sometimes fairly absurd, for example when an 18-years old without economic experience would handle and be liable for the schools reduce food budget. Myself became responsible for the school’s maintenance. It involved to organising one building weekend per month, plus an entertainment afternoon per week. Then I would have prepared so that 30 – 40 persons could occupy themselves effectively a whole weekend respective an afternoon. How would I be able to know which tools, and how many persons that were needed in order to swap a rotten window? Or fix a ragged tumbler? Or put a new clinker floor in the hall? And all should take place at the same time. It was time for it at the schedule, but it wasn’t enough. We had also to work on breaks, evenings and sometimes nights.
Failure – guiding
At first I really did my very best to make it work. But after a while I realised that it actually wasn’t the meaning to succeed. If you succeeded against all the odds, there was always something that wasn’t perfect. The “acknowledgement” that one had succeeded came with another task, just to make sure that we definitely wouldn’t make it next time.
Why weren’t we allowed to succeed? The TG use problems and reverses in order to control its members and pupils/ volunteers. If you failed, this could be brought up at a general meeting where you first were grinned down in a mill of accusations. Then they went further on with to analyse why one was as completely incompetent. Maybe it would be due to the bourgeois growth one has had? That one had never has got to take responsibility anything? That one had never has got to feel the useful and solidarity group pressure within a collective?
General meetings
It existed a rule at the school who said that all must have an opinion. All must take position. Gee what I thought that it sounded good. This was a school where one took each other each other seriously.
Some of the pupils could sit quiet too long on a general meeting, maybe just because he hadn’t really made up his mind, or maybe he not didn’t even get what the general meeting was all about. Then the headmaster began to question him out. If he then came with the “wrong” answer i.e. had another opinion than what TG had, began an overwhelming arguing. When I before spoke about being grinned down in a mill, this arguing can be compared with pulverisation.
The attack from TG is always well planned and synchronised. Above all the headmaster was a very doughty agitator. We had often-general meetings. They could be about everything, but often about more or less constructed problems. I have always have had difficult in order to hold quiet which did that I ended up in the loophole.
A general meeting could go on very long. Afterwards one was entirely exhausted and it twisted in the head of all the words and arguments. On some way, despite the enormous group pressure, I knew I what I thought, but I couldn’t argue for it. The TG had crumbled my arguments so that the words no longer were something worth. This happened at almost all the general meetings.
At first I really thought that I was wrong. If I couldn’t argue so that people understood, something had to be wrong with my opinions. But on the evenings when I lay down and would fall asleep after a general meeting, I went through the entire meeting again, and I realised that it wasn’t so. I began slowly but certainly see that there wasn’t possible to win against the TG.
The general meetings were not a part of a democratic process. It didn’t matter if I was good or
bad of arguing. The exit was determined on advance of the TG, and they kept on until they had come where they wanted. This meant that sometimes one could go on for days. During my time it was never necessary, people were subdued in max 6 hours. But I know that in Tvind in Denmark and on the Red House schools in England, meetings has been going on for up to 2 days without sleep.
Manipulation
I remember especially one general meeting in the end of my time at the school, when it took long time for me to understand what it was the headmaster really meant. I sat hyper concentrated and first after half an hour I realised his opinion in the question. Then something strange happened.
When I at last grasped what he meant, I took it to me like a truth. His opinion passed by my critical “opinion filter” and took place like as the truth in my head.
It was first in the evening, when I thought it all through, that I realised: “stop and proof”, I don’t think like that. Then when I also then thought about the fear many of the other felt in order not to have the correct answer when the headmaster asked them out, the thing was clear. This was as clear as noonday a case of brainwashing. You could see pupils that were as white as a sheet of fear to end up in the loophole of the headmaster and the TG. They were happy if they had got the TGs opinion at all when they got the question. The neither had the time nor dared to critical judge if the TGs opinion was agreed with theirs. They were just happy if they didn’t have to be stoned.
Then I didn’t really know anything about brainwashing, mind control or “thought reform”, as it’s called in Swedish. I could just establish that this was a simple, but alas as effective technique in order to get people to absorb a certain opinion. I remember that I was ever so impressed of that the teachers were such good judges of characters. In some way they always knew what was going on at the school.
Espionage
One evening we were a gang pupils, both new and old, who were sitting down talking. The funny thing was that almost the same topic was brought up at the morning assembly the day after. Not exactly, but it led front to the same thing, to the same problems. I didn’t reflect so much over it just then.
But it became current again one evening when someone knocked on my door. It was one of the girls in a group who had been at the school a lot longer than I. She was wanted to talk about a thing that had happened during the day. She was afraid that I had misunderstood her and wanted for safety’s sake explains some things.
She began with to make sure, very seriously, that the headmaster didn’t send her. I laughed and said that I didn’t think so either. We talked and had a nice time for awhile. But when she would
go, she became serious again and protested to, once again, that she wasn’t sent by the headmaster.
That had me to very laboriously begin to open my eyes and see how things really were going on at the school. The headmaster had after all a lot of spies among the faithful students, whom he sent out to get to know what was happening. The headmaster and the TG knew all the time what the pupils discussed and which opinions they had.
Collect money
Besides our responsibility areas and the studies, we were also supposed to sell postcards for average 8 200 crowns per month and person.
When we were in Oslo for the first time, we had to fundraise in total 66 000 crowns in five days.
It was completely impossible. We were out in the streets from 09.00 o’clock in the morning until 21.00 o’clock in the evening. After that we ate in some restaurant where we had begged for food. At 19.00 o’clock we had to be out again to sell in our predestined areas. At 21.00 o’clock we went to a gym where we lived. We finished the day by study for some hours.
When I for the first time went to Oslo to sell postcards I had never heard anything negative about the movement. I had of course seen some things that where weird, but when I asked they had answers for everything.
Bad reputation
After a day out on the streets of Oslo I was totally exhausted. People almost spitted at us, and told us one bad story after another about the school and the movement. After three days I pulled the handbrake and demanded the headmaster and the teachers of an explanation. When we started at the school, we had had to answer if we were doing drugs or not. Now it was time for them to tell about their sins.
I was furious and asked why we had been thrown out in the streets, without the knowledge about the truth about the reputation of the movement. The headmaster was very upset and said that I didn’t have the right to accuse them.
It took from 9.00 o’clock in the morning until 21.00 in the evening to outline for the bad reputation. Partly on direct questions from us about things we had heard in the town, and partly as an answer to my request that they would put all the cards on the table. We would overhear anyway sooner or later. On the evening everybody was satisfied. I was enough pleased in order to once again feel convinced.
The time went and many strange things happened. I was still strong and it could go very hot on the general meetings. I was, despite all, still devoted – but also critical. It came often-front pupils that wanted talk. I knew that they were sent by the headmaster and played along in this absurd game.
Doubts
After a while I observed that I was left more in peace, if I was walking around and looked as excessively happy as everybody else. When I would go home for Christmas, I remember that I had hard to manage the TGs mocking grin when the saw our joy over to go home to our families for celebrating Christmas. The TG would to be sure not go home on some ridiculously middle-class keeping of Christmas. They would have general meeting in Tvind and put up the strategy for the coming year. During the Christmas days I had got the time to think. When I came back after the holiday a lot of new strange things happened, but then there was no longer time to think.
One day I demanded “time out” and said that I didn’t want to take part of any lessons. I wanted to get the time to think through what this school/ movement stood for and what I wanted and could stand for myself.
It wasn’t easy to think in peace, because the headmaster sent pupils who where suppose to talk me into being sensible every second minute. I hid in the attic and got enough of calm in order to part everything up, and to in writing formulate constructive criticism against the school and the TG.
I tried to convince myself that I wasn’t insane. I rang up a former pupil at the school, who I knew was very critical. With her support I could establish that it wasn’t me, but the school it was something wrong with. I decided quit.
Separation anguish
After have talked to the others I began laboriously to pack. In the head all the memories passed by, and the painful was, that now it wasn’t all the boring and heart- rending I thought of, but just the nice and fun memories.
I had become very attached to the other pupils and didn’t want to leave them. It began to go around in my head, and I thought that there was a shame if the TG would actuate me to leave all these wonderful people. If I stay, I do violence on myself. But if I leave them, I do as much violence on my feelings.
Then I can equally be left together with my friends. I had anyway found a lot of nice things here at the school. If I just could ignore the headmaster and the TG, pretend that they don’t exist, then it would be all right. The other pupils were happy that I would try to stay.
But the TG wasn’t happy and called to a general meeting the same evening. Now would all the doubts come up on the table, not just mine, but everybody’s doubts. I was now on the limit to a breakdown. I had neither eaten nor slept properly the last days. The psychical pressure was on the limit of what I could manage. Sometimes everything became black around me and I just heard
the voices. The smallest emotional dissipation would be able to make me collapse, so I decided not to say a word. Despite that the TG provoked it didn’t appear any criticism. The pupils knew what would happen if they opened their mouths.
I mumbled something about that just now I didn’t care about which methods and which philosophy the TG had. I just wanted to try to stay tuned along with the nice people that I had met at the school. It went a swish of recognition among the pupils, because it was exactly the way most of them reasoned.
The defection
That night I didn’t get a wink of sleep. The following day I didn’t hear a word of what was said at the lessons. In the evening I talked with the others, and said that now it’s enough. No more life under the TGs wings for me. I was by the way not the smallest interested of going to Africa in their management any longer.
I slept at the station and in the morning I took the train to Oslo. There I had made an appointment with some friends in the evening. I would stay with them for a couple of days.
I felt all other than good when I came to Oslo. I stumbled around during the day, afraid of myself and with a persecution complex that almost got me to hit a guy who was just asking for light. Thoughts about suicide twisted around in my head.
Dan Lindbergh
