11 September 2006
Written by Rainer
Saturday’s ASEM demonstration in Finland
The organized anarchist youth -what a contradiction- had a demonstration in Helsinki to “honor” the ASEM summit. They started the demonstration from the “Post Plaza” just in front of Kiasma, the Museum of contemporary arts, and Sanoma, the Finnish equivalent of Time-Warner, building. And there they stayed. The demonstrators and bystanders and people walking though were surrounded by police, armed with riot gear and dogs, and partially cornered by special arrest busses. The older people were let through the police blockade while the youth, criminally minded as we are by nature, were either forced to stay in with the demonstrators (increasing the numbers of demonstrators in record) or were searched and documented, ID+recorded to video. The relation of polices and military personnel compared to rioters was about 1:1 if the journalists and photographers are counter the relation goes against demonstrators or rioters as the police is referring to them.
The police based it’s action on the fact that the anarchists organizing the demonstration didn’t have any contact person or any “leader” -surprising for anarchism- and they had announced that they are going to cause trouble, which is supposed to be stopped by the police but not in pre-emptive way where a more or less legal, as the demonstration was announced few weeks earlier though the press and was reported to the police, demonstration was stopped to the starting point before anyone did anything.
Yes, there was bottles thrown towards police, but only after they had surrounded the demonstrators and made an attack to decrease the space of people. Many blockaded people weren’t actually demonstrators but people going to trains, heading to airport, coming out of clubs or just came to look something not often seen in streets of Helsinki – a demonstration. People weren’t allowed to leave the circle even though they asked of it. Not to get something to drink or to urinate. The police took over 200 people “on hold” and arrested about a tenth of ‘em.
Before the demonstration the President Tarja Halonen, an ex peace, anti-globalization, etc activist, who was “reclaiming the Old Student house in the center of Helsinki, defended the anarchists rights for demonstration. The Prime minister Vanhanen and the Interior Minister Rajamäki defended the actions of the police (both from agri”cultural” party running mostly the cause of farmers, mink farmer and forrest owners).
Later on the evening the police also included bystanders on the area between Kaivopiha, Old Student house and Stockman. To be fair this was the end point of other demonstration march so it clearly included potential threat to the public in the form of anti-globalization activists. They took about 20-30 people on hold from this group – including two members of parliament and one drunk taking a picture of arrest with a camera phone.
The police had then refused to tell the parents if their children were arrested if the “child” was over 16 thus juridically responsible.
There has been lot of debate of the “incident” during this weekend on the Finnish discussion forums and most of the people who actually were there classify the police’s measures as “overkill”. The ones defending police defend pre-emptive strikes and arrests in order to maintain the order of the society. Many demand an outsourced investigation if police’s measures were justified. If I would’ve been in Finland during this weekend, I would’ve most likely been arrested as I would’ve refused to let myself to be documented in police archive for taking part in an demonstration – if for nothing else then just for the principle. I wish not to see similar ruckus as it was in Stockholm few years ago or how it was at Vappu (May day for the rest of the world) this year, but I also wish people of having right to demonstrate against ASEM or what ever their cause is without police surrounding them in suspicion that they will not go in line of agreed rules.
See also video clip, courtesy of HS
Links:
Infoshop News
Finland for Thought
Yle
HS
Turkish Press.com