Finland: more than 10.000 people protest against racism in Helsinki
Featured image: big Maoist contingent in the anti-racist demonstration in Helsinki. Source: Punalippu.
On Sunday 3rd of September, a massive demonstration took place in the center of Helsinki, which according to the police gathered between 10,000 and 11,000 people. Already in July there was protest, when around 5,000 people marched to the Parliament of Finland protesting against the racist comments by a minister of the Finnish government.
Mass protests erupted in Finland due to the racist scandal that starred a reactionary leader of the country, currently Minister of Economy of the new government, Riikka Purra. She was making Nazi comments of all kinds. Riikka Purra is the leader of the reactionary party Perussuomalaiset (Party of the Finns). Following this scandal, the government of Finland hypocritically enacted a series of laws to “reject” racism in the country.
This party entered in the new government formed in Finland after this year’s parliamentary elections. We wrote about it before.
In this demonstration there was a Maoist contingent. Punalippu explains how this group developed its actions: ”A small Maoist contingent also participated in the demonstration, with the slogan “Dare to struggle, dare to win!” The contingent drew with it a large number of troops willing to struggle, and all the red forces on the ground rallied behind it. To the slogans shoutedat the contingent like “It’s right to rebel!” and “International solidarity, proletarian revolution!” was widely agreed upon.” [Translator’s note: our translation]
This contingent was quickly detected by the police and by the organizers, who wanted to isolate them from the demonstration, trying to relegate them to the end. But these attempts were in vain. Punalippu explains these events: ”Some of the organizers of the demonstration wanted to remove the red flags decorated with hammers and sickles (…). However, according to the information obtained by Punalipu, the organizers were not unanimously against communist symbols.” [Translator’s note: our translation]. Despite this, the communist flags waved in the sky without problem, and the Maoist contingent was reinforced with numerous people who followed their slogans. The Maoist forces ended up leading the red forces attending to the call.
For this weekend of 9th and 10th of September, there are calls on more demonstrations for the same reason in Tampere, Lappeenranta, Kotka and Kouvola. The Finnish people will continue to protest and show their refusal to the reactionary government of their country.
