Copenhagen, Denmark: Revolutionaries Demand Freedom for Greenland!

We hereby share an unofficial translation of an article published by Roede Fane.

On January 26, a demonstration was held in front of the US Embassy. The demonstration demanded, among other things, “No Yankee troops in Denmark”, the recognition of Palestine and that the Danish State should withdraw its support and instead sanction Israel.

Some parties and organizations raised the slogan “Denmark should not be a vassal State of the United States”, a revisionist parole that assumes that the bourgeois Danish State is subject to the United States. Danish imperialism has its own agenda, which is important for all consistent anti-imperialists in the country to understand. In light of the escalation of Danish imperialism’s leading and controversy with US imperialism about control and exploitation of Greenland, this understanding is utmost important because the revisionist understanding of an “independent Denmark” leads into the social chauvinist idea that Danish imperialism may be a milder imperialist or a better colonial power than the United States regarding Greenland.

Although it is good in itself to be against the US stationing troops in Danish military bases, it is important to have the understanding that Danish imperialism voluntarily lets the United States do so. Danish imperialism has interests in Yankee troops on its territory because, firstly, it gives Danish imperialism ‘good will’ to the US and benefits within NATO. Secondly, because it allows Danish imperialism to immerse its exploitation of Eastern Europe, especially in the Baltic nations.

To those who talked about “Danish independence”, revolutionaries raised a large red banner: “Crush Danish imperialism!” and “Freedom for Greenland! Nunarput”. Nunarput is Inuktitut – the language of the original Inuit people – for ‘our country’. Nunarput is what many Inuits consider the true name of the nation in formation that the Danish colonial authority calls “Greenland”.

During the demonstration, several Inuit activists held speeches in both Danish and Inuktitut, cultural presentations were also performed in form of songs from the Inuit culture.

A particularly strong speech highlighted how Danish imperialism is trying to assimilate Inuit and make them “Greenlanders”, which was what Erik the Red called the Europeans who settled in Nunarput. Inuits are called Greenlanders or Kalaallite in the distorted version of Inuktun, which means peels, which in modern Danish means weakening or sub-humans .

The speech mentioned several of the Danish colonization crimes against the Inuit people. It was mentioned how Danish imperialism forced hundreds of Inuits north to make room for Yankee imperialism’s air base, which today is called Pituffik Space Base (previously it bore the name Thule base). Many died during this forced relocation because they had to spend the night in summer tents all year round, while waiting for new houses to be built, which turned out to be nothing less than a few modest shed houses.

The Inuits and the Revolutionaries made it clear that there is no good imperialist and that Nunarput’s independence can only be Inuit’s own work, a necessary democratic task that cannot be solved by the big bourgeoisie in Nunarput, Danish imperialism, Yankee imperialism or any other imperialist power, but only by the working class in Nunarput.

Previous post NOTES AND MATERIALS ON CONTEMPORARY PERU (III, continuation d., Annexes I, 2)
Next post Agitations against the censorship of AND in several parts of Brazil