Anton Nilson (11 November 1887 – 16 August 1989) was a Swedish terrorist and militant socialist who was convicted of murder for a fatal bombing in 1908. Nilson was born and grew up in a peasant region in Skåne, the southernmost province of Sweden. He became a construction worker in 1906, by which time he had already become a socialist. Amalthea bombing In the summer of 1908 the workers in the docks of Malmö went on strike for better conditions. The police and military were called in to keep order, and the employers took in British workers to do the job. This was considered highly provocative by the striking Swedish workers. The British workers were temporarily living on a ship called Amalthea. On the night between 11 and 12 July, three young unemployed workers, including Anton Nilson, put a bomb outside Amalthea, without considering the danger to the workers sleeping aboard. The bomb exploded, killing one and wounding 23 of the British workers, who were sleeping on the deck rather than in their cabins. The name of the Englishman killed by the explosion was Walter Close. Neither Close's family nor the injured British workers received a penny in compensation nor an apology. Anton Nilson was sentenced to death. His two accomplices Algot Rosberg and Alfred Stern were sentenced to penal labour for life. Before his execution, Anton Nilson was pardoned and, like the others, given forced labour for life. His execution would have been the first since 1900 and, apart from that of Alfred Ander, no more capital sentences were executed until abolition in 1921. The first reactions in Sweden to the bomb attack on the Amalthea were those of horror and disgust followed by condemnation, including from the wider workers' movement. However, after a while public opinion sided with Anton Nilson, Algot Rosberg and Alfred Stern, and a massive campaign was launched to have them freed. Thousands of international meetings were held in their support, including some 600 meetings amongst workers in the United States, organised by the Industrial Workers of the World and with Joe Hill as a leading participant. A petition containing some 130,000 names was handed to the government and Supreme Court of Sweden, asking for the release of the three young men. An attempt to free Anton Nilson by force from the prison in Härnösand took place on May Day 1917, when 10,000 workers marched