Sentinel
7th December 2015, 14:23
Yesterday, December 6th, assorted far right groups gathered in Helsinki, Finland for an Independence day march called '612'. A counter-event entitled Vapaus Pelissä (freedom at stake) was organised to gather anti-fascists of different stripes, with the goal of preventing the ongoing rapid normalisation of fascist manifestations on the streets.
The police had prepared a huge force with reinforcements from the provinces, equipped with APCs, horses and dogs, and armed with 'less-lethal' FN 303 (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FN_303) semi-automatic riot guns to keep the fascist march safe. They initially managed to corner the counterdemo into a park, but later antifascists broke out or escaped the trap, and got closer to the fascists.
The police responded with arresting 130 people (according to Vapaus Pelissä, they had mobilised around 300 counterdemonstrators in total), all described as organised anarchist demonstrators in the media (the fash march on the other hand has been extremely neutrally described as just an 'the 612 independence day torch manifestation'). In addition to this mass arrest and crackdown, police also fired their riot guns into the counterdemo, seriously injuring at least one person who was shot in the eye.
If we have some finnish users that happen to know more about yesterdays events, or have seen (or written) a good article, please post here. I would like to hear as many different radical perspectives as possible, especially from users familiar with the current finnish situation, since I haven't taken part in political activities in that country over the last year and thus am a bit out of the loop when it comes to the details, myself.
The police had prepared a huge force with reinforcements from the provinces, equipped with APCs, horses and dogs, and armed with 'less-lethal' FN 303 (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FN_303) semi-automatic riot guns to keep the fascist march safe. They initially managed to corner the counterdemo into a park, but later antifascists broke out or escaped the trap, and got closer to the fascists.
The police responded with arresting 130 people (according to Vapaus Pelissä, they had mobilised around 300 counterdemonstrators in total), all described as organised anarchist demonstrators in the media (the fash march on the other hand has been extremely neutrally described as just an 'the 612 independence day torch manifestation'). In addition to this mass arrest and crackdown, police also fired their riot guns into the counterdemo, seriously injuring at least one person who was shot in the eye.
If we have some finnish users that happen to know more about yesterdays events, or have seen (or written) a good article, please post here. I would like to hear as many different radical perspectives as possible, especially from users familiar with the current finnish situation, since I haven't taken part in political activities in that country over the last year and thus am a bit out of the loop when it comes to the details, myself.