Once again the 1st of May was full of events and revolutionary spirit in Tampere. Punalippu publishes a report from the May Day in Tampere based on the reports and pictures it has received.
Early in the morning, revolutionaries had organized a visit of honor to the Red Memorial in Kalevankangas cemetery. During the events, the revolutionary guard of honor held high the flags of the International Communist League. A speech was delivered which emphasized the necessiyt of armed revolution. The speech explicated how in China the people took power by arms under the leadership of Chairman Mao, and how only the armed masses led by the Communist Parties were able to conquer power for the proletariat in numerous countries of Central and Eastern Europe after the Second World War. The speech also mentions particularly the necessity for the reconstitution of the Communist Party of Finland (SKP) and the role of Chairman Gonzalo in the World Revolution. The speech concluded by calling the masses to take to the streets with combative minds. After the speech concluded, the revolutionaries sang The Internationale and the event concluded with shouted slogans: “Long live proletarian internationalism!” and “Death to revisionism!”
THE MAY DAY MARCH 2023
Trade-union activists. Photo: the Local Organization of Tampere of the Central Organization of Finnish Trade Unions
After the visit of honor, was the traditional 1st of May march, which was organized by the local trade-union central, and this year the march was biggest in many years. There were hundreds of participants, coming mainly from the trade unions and parliamentary left parties. Also an Anti-imperialist bloc participated, proudly holding high the red flags of the ICL and several other organizations. Throughout the whole march, the Anti-imperialist bloc shouted loud and clear combative slogans such as: “Viva Marx! Viva Lenin! Viva Mao Tse-tung!”, “Down with oppression and imperialism! People’s War until Communism!”, “International solidarity, continuos struggle, revolution!”, “Down with Yankee-NATO!” and “Long live the International Communist League!”. The anti-imperialists got several applauds from the by-passers. According to reports, the anti-imperialists were handing out two different leaflets to the masses: the May Day statement of the ICL, and an anti-imperialist leaflet written by the activists.
RED ANTIFASCISM
The Blue-and-Black Movement, which maintains the tradition of the fascist Lapua Movement of the interwar era, had also organized its own event in the 1st of May. The event was named “White May Day”, and its numbers of participants faced an extreme decline. Last year it had, according to different estimates, couple of hundred participants and sympathizers, but this year the same event gathered barely 30 fascists.
Once again it was witnessed that the Reds are the most combative antifascists, as a small but combative group of red antifascists, holding high the flags of the ICL, managed to get to the very proximity of the fascist horde shouting uninterruptedly their antifascist slogans. The reactionary police forces of the Republic of Finland did everything they could to secure the continuation of the fascist event and started to harass the action of the red antifascists. The red antifascists told the police that they have the right to oppose fascism, but as usual the police were deafmute to the democratic rights of the people. After this, the police first pointed out a place for the antifascists, where they could continue their demonstration, but when the antifascists started to slowly back away, the police suddenly kidnapped two antifascists, taking them briefly to the police station. This caused astonishment in the masses who were having May Day picnics with their families. The citizens were asking that what were the reasons for arrest, as there was no violent clash whatsoever and the antifascists were moving back away.
The police again displayed very clearly its reactionary class character and more broadly the attitude of the state machine. Dictatorship of the bourgeoisie has welcomed the continuators of the interwar-era fascists, who were disbanded in 1944 after the Moscow provisional peace treaty, which was reaffirmed in the Paris treaty, which the Republic of Finland has never officially revoked for this part, that is, it is still officially part of Finnish legislation. The antifascists have the law, morality and general sympathy on their side. Still the police uses violent repression against a handful of non-violent antifascists. The dictatorship of the bourgeoisie in Finland and its police is not fascist today, but it needs to maintain a fascist tendency to have it ready in case it needs it against revolution. That is why it is ready to break its own laws and the general sense of justice, exposing more its true face. Thus there is less room for constitutional illusions, and the masses’ hatred against it will keep growing even more.
Antifascist demonstration mobilized by anarchists
An antifascist demonstration with mainly black flags led by the anarchists gathered couple of hundred people, but it started to move way too late and the police stopped this march about 300 meters before the place, where the fascists were already concluding their event.