The Nazi organization Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM) which was in the March of 2019 temporarily banned by the Finnish Supreme Court has said on their website that they will be organizing a national socialist demonstration on the Finnish Independence Day on the 6th of December as they have now done for three years in a row. NRM writes on their website “Towards Freedom” that “the national socialist demonstration which has become an Independence Day tradition is coming again.”
In 2018 the NRM demonstration was stopped in its very beginning by the police and four nazis including the NRM leader Antti Niemi and one Swedish neo-Nazi were arrested for carrying swastika flags. Nazis have every year continued from the NRM demonstration to the joint demonstration by the entire Finnish far-right, the “612 torch parade” which NRM was part of founding together with members of the The Finns Party active in the fascist organization Suomen Sisu.
The banning process of NRM which started in 2017 is still ongoing, but the organization was temporarily banned from any operation in the March of 2019. After this NRM has started to use public names Kohti Vapautta (“Towards Freedom”) and Suomalaisapu (“Finn Aid”). They quietly gave up their political party project Kansan yhtenäisyys (“People’s Unity) after its failure.
Police has however seemingly started an investigation in May 2019 on whether NRM is continuing their activities regardless of the ban on operation. Even a quick glance at the sites of Towards Freedom and Finn Aid clarifies that it is the exact same nazis doing the same thing under a different name.
It’s been clear for those who are keeping an eye on the far-right that the 612 demonstration on the Independence Day is gathering together all of the Finnish far-right from the nazis of the NRM to the Finns Party. This co-operation between different far-right groups has continued in several other events outside the Independence Day, such as joint summer camps and the 188 demonstrations in Turku.
Based on last year it can be expected that the police is going to let the nazis march again despite any bans. It’s also just as clear that the NRM nazis will keep participating in the 612 demonstration together with the Finns Party if more pressure is not put to the far right.
We are encouraging every enemy of racism and nazism to mark down the 6th of December in their calendars and get ready to stand against nazism. Let’s show in Helsinki, on 6th of December 2019 much like last year, that we are more!
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