Malmö: The Grand Finale
We publish an unofficial translation of an article from Røde Fane, as well as a summarization of previous reports.
With talk about a ceasefire in the air, Israel is anyway continuing its offensive in Rafah. The ”official” number of Palestinians murdered by the IDF has now risen over 35,000. Multiple mass graves are found each and every day in Gaza. Many bodies in the graves have been examined and it has been confirmed that Israel has harvested their organs and that the IDF has buried them alive.
The Red Herald reports how Israel continues and intensifies its bombing of Rafah, murders and tortures Palestinian prisoners and carries out arbitrary massacres.
Despite these atrocities, Israel was invited to the Eurovision – the cultural project of the imperialists in the EU. This diplomatic gesture sends a clear signal to the world on which side the imperialists stand on. The reaction of the masses has been one of strong hatred, condemnation and rebellion against the including of Israel. Big protests and demonstrations have ensued leading up to and during Eurovision.
During the semifinal in which Israel performed in Malmö, a huge demonstration, which went from the main square to Mölleplatsen, was organized with thousands of participants. The same was done on the 11th of May, the finale, to which Israel also qualified.
The demonstration attracted thousands of participants and sent a powerful signal to Malmö and through the rest of the world, that the people does not stand passively by facing the brutal genocide of Israel. During the demonstration many slogans were shouted and and revolutionary songs such as “Leve Palestine och krossa sionismen!”[Long live Palestine and crush Zionism”], slogans such as “What makes Palestine free? Intifada, People’s War!” were also shouted. The demonstration ended at Mölleplatsen, where concerts were held as a response to Eurovision.
The police, consisting of both Swedish, Norwegian and Danish units, had hoped that people would keep to their own concert. But their hope was quickly crushed. Already shortly after the official demonstration ended, several spontaneous demonstrations took place at the Hyllie Station in front of Malmö Arena, where Eurovision was held. Several people were met by pepper spray from the police and were beaten during the second semi-final and especially also the final. Several people are reported detained. Many of the demonstrators that were taken away from Hyllie Station by the police gathered in a neighborhood next to the Arena. There combative slogans such as “Intifada! Intifada!”, “There is only one solution: Intifada, Revolution!”, “Escalate! Escalate!”.
The environmentalist activist Greta Thunberg was also shortly present at Hyllie Station, but was taken away by the police quite quickly. She stole much of the bourgeois media attention from the demonstration, even though she only participated shortly, after having taken some pictures with her camera crew.
Self-declared communists such as “RKP”[“Revolutionary Communist Party”], and so on, was not present at this “illegal” demonstration. They kept away, even though they a few hours later declared them selves as the greatest advocates for Palestine in a speech at the parliament. However there was a large red banner of the Anti-Imperialist Collective with a Maoist hammer and sickle and the blood red banner of the International Communist League. In this way a demarcation line was drawn between Marxism and the empty phrases of revisionism.
The police was massively present on the ground and on horses, while police drones and helicopters flew over the demonstration.
Certain capitulators wanted to stop the demonstration, but the masses rejected blankly these cowardly attempt of capitulation, which only made the work of the police easier.
The demonstration grew over several hours, as those the police had rejected at the Arena joined it. At one point the demonstration decided, after accumulating several hundred participants, to march toward Hyllie Station, despite the police order to disperse. The demonstration marched through the neighborhood behind with a flag of the International Communist League and a red banner with the slogan “Long Live the Heroic Palestinian Resistance Movement!” and “It is right to rebel!” in Danish and Arabic.
The police went into panic as they had not counted on the demonstration to move and hurry up to assemble an improvised blockade in front of the Arena. Large parts of the demonstration were at this point masked and had started running toward the Arena. Slogans were shouted through the streets, such as “Long live the resistance!” and “Eurovision smells of blood!”.
The demonstration lasted until 01:00 on Sunday, when it withdrew together with the police in its heels.
The imperialist has a ting for calling their cultural projects for “popular parties”, but there is nothing popular with their Eurovision. There is nothing else than the cultural project of imperialists and an attempt at creating a “European identity” built on the decadent bourgeois individualism.
This year’s Eurovision in now way took place as the imperialists had hoped. The Israeli delegation was booed down on live TV, which they had to censure. Several artists expressed their support to Palestine in different ways during their performance. Strikes in Belgium sabotaged the broadcast of the performance of Israel on live TV and several people were expelled from Malmö Arena for expressing support with Palestine. At the same time the masses rebelled in the streets of Malmö through countless actions, which the police in no way was equipped to handle.
A professor in European studies admitted that their event in Malmö Arena was close to collapse at the end. In this way, Malmö truly became a scene, just not the one the imperialists had hoped. The masses in Malmö have spoken: They unconditionally support the Invincible and Heroic Palestinian Armed Resistance Struggle!
Røde Fane has previously reported more in detail on the powerful demonstration during the second semi-finale.
With an estimated 40,000 participants the demonstration almost completely filled up the main square. Comparably the arena used by the Eurovision had a capacity of 15,500 people. Powerful slogans were shouted during the demonstration and revolutionary songs were sung. Also in this demonstration the banner of the Anti-Imperialist Collective was visible.
There were also at times Zionist and fascist provocateurs, which were confronted by the contingent with a red banner with the hammer and sickle in the front row.
Ahead of Eurovision it was also reported on a militarization of Malmö, with police from all over Sweden patrolling the city in the days leading to the finale. People were stopped and searched on the street and the imperialists tried to portray Palestine-demonstrators as dangerous toward the rest of the population. The Swedish government also spread fear for “potential terror” against Eurovision, or the burning of Israeli flags. In contrast, they have actively protect the fascist Rasmus Pauldan when we burns the Quran, “protecting his freedom of expression”, while actively repressing this right for the masses.
Claiming that Eurovision is a “popular celebration” which despite including the State of Israel, currently carrying out a genocide against the people of Palestine, is “non-political”, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) banned any Palestinian flags or symbols as well as “political messages” from the contest. They also tried to legitimize this with reasons such as not ruining the “good mood”. The decision further reveals the imperialist support of the State of Israel for the masses, in particular opportunist “leftist”, who ahead of the EU elections tries to take advantage of the solidarity movement with Palestine, but continues supporting the Zionists.
