May Day Report from Denmark
Røde Fane of Denmark has published a report from May Day in Copenhagen, where they inform that the yearly anti-fascist march started this year from the “Red Square”, continuing down Nørrebrogade, displaying a spirit of struggle, with speeches, banners, flags and flares filling the street. A banner of the newly founded International Anti-Imperialist League (AIL) was also observed in the demonstration.
The police were present during the demonstration, with a riot van staying in front of the march while filming the demonstrators. At one point paint was thrown, obscuring the camera of the riot van. The police attacked the demonstration at one point, detaining five demonstrators, and breaking the arm of one of them. Røde Fane writes: “The police’s use of force was completely disproportionate and therefore illegal, even by their own rules. This shows once again how it is often the police who unnecessarily escalate violence in order to crack down on demonstrations or to train their officers in riot control.”
Demonstrators tried to recover the detained demonstrators from the police, who responded by attacking blindly with batons. Demonstrators also threw fireworks and various other things at the police.
After a while the police let the demonstration pass, and the demonstration continued to Fælledparken, where a lower ranking Party representative of the Social democrats was supposed to hold a speech. Røde Fane reports that there have been many years since the Party leader has held a speech in Fælledparken, saying that “The Social Democrats have been completely exposed to the masses, and their party leader always provokes great outrage among the country’s workers. They have therefore been forced to have lower-ranking politicians like Peter Hummelgaard give speeches. […]”.
Røde Fane writes that this year, an even lower ranking Party official held the speech, which was met by angry booing from the crowd, especially from the Palestinian solidarity movement. Røde Fane writes that “Even the mainstream media commented on the event, noting that this suggests people are not only dissatisfied with certain Social Democratic politicians, but also believe that the Social Democrats as a party do not belong in the May Day demonstration.”
During the intervention of the Social Democrat speech, flares, air horns and whistles were used by demonstrators to drown out the speech.
Later in the day, Anti-imperialist Action had a stand, where stickers, magazines and various political materials in support of the AIL and the People’s War in India was distributed. At the “Red Square” event, organized by APK [Workers’ Communist Party] and other organizations, an activist from AiA and Aktiv for Palæstina gave a speech about the struggle against Danish imperialism. Røde Fane concludes the report: “This year’s May Day was marked by greater politicization and sharper class contradictions than last year’s. This shows that both the objective and subjective conditions are on the rise.”
Read the full report here:
