Denmark
On the 9th of January protests against the restrictions of democratic rights was held in Copenhagen with between 200 and 250 protesters. The protesters denounced the de facto annulment of the freedom of assembly, that the state is enforcing and questioning why the all the measures against corona put all the burden on the people. There was in several speeches mentioned that there is no democracy in Denmark, and that all members of parliament do not serve the interests of the people and that it would be necessary to “wreck the system”. The demonstrators blasted a song called “Mette Ciao”, which is a remix of the Italian partisan song Bella Ciao, with the name referring to social-democratic Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.
The demonstration was registered with the police and the police was not directly attacked, but as the protesters wanted to continue the march down the pedestrian street from the City Hall Square, the police blocked and attacked the demonstration, with the purpose of containing them.
The Lord Mayor of Copenhagen Lars Weiss stated: “Everyone has the right to demonstrate, it is a constitutional right. But what we saw yesterday, was not a demonstration, it was thug riots and it is unacceptable. (…) I am happy that the police seemed to be well prepared, otherwise I would fear that, it could have gone much worse.” This simply contradicts reality, calling several hundreds of protesters “thugs” and denying the fact that it was the police that were the ones who stopped the demonstration from marching.
18 protesters were arrested and charged with a crime, of which 8 were charged with the felony of violence against state official.
In Ålborg a demonstration was also held, with about 60 people, the police also attacked the demonstration and tried to stop it from continuing. Here 5 people were charged with illegal use of fireworks.
So the assurance from the Prime Minister, that political demonstrations would not be banned as part of the corona restrictions, has in praxis been shown to not apply when the police does not want to. So they declare that it is a riot and blast from their speakers “In the name of the queen and the law, disperse” which is the magic chant the bourgeoisie has to say three times, in order for the freedom of assembly to not apply anymore. So it is clear that the bourgeois principles only apply as long as it serves the interests of the bourgeoisie.
Norway
In Norway the government are using the excuse of combating spread of corona-virus, to intensify the state repression. Now there is the attempt to introduce laws that allow for curfews, which limit the freedom of movement. Tjen Folket Media writes: “When Justice and Emergency Management Minister Monica Mæland reports on the new law proposal (On introduction of curfew, Ed.), it is apparent why she tries to underplay it. Because the introduction of this law is a big leap in the reactionary state’s erasure of democratic rights, as part in the process of the militarization of the bourgeois states, which is happening all over the world.
This is also an expression of a comprehensive strategy the Norwegian state has used throughout the years, that it consequently tries to sneak in new reactionary law proposals with caution, in fear of waking the masses. It did this with the arming of the police “temporarily”, and they do again now by claiming that they would prefer never to use a measure such as curfew.”
Sweden
In Sweden there are new developments in the workers struggles. For a long time the British train company Arriva, who operates the Pågatåget regional trains in Skåne, has been in constant conflict with the train workers. In September Arriva announced that they would require train workers to go to 80% of their normal hours (and wages) due to corona and that they would have to fire workers, if they did not accept this “voluntary” offer. Here it is important to consider the fact that Arriva offered changed conditions, which means that they can fire without following the usual LAS rules (that the senior employees can only be fired last). Even after months of making these threats, only one accepted this offer. So they now warn that thirteen will be fired.
Also Arriva stood ground on basic demands, such as insisting on not lowering the limit of 3,5 hours between bathroom breaks and trying to introduce longer night shifts, where it refused to negotiate with the union and so the workers themselves organise to combat these issues.
Arriva tries to use sneaky methods of bribing the class-conscious workers who are organisers of the movement, in order to stop the workers from organising. Such as the case with Ola Brunnström, who helped to make the fight against the reduction of hours a success. On December 11 he was called to a meeting with the management, because they had seen that Ola had written to his colleagues prior to contract negotiations: “Do not be afraid of the bosses, they should be afraid of us”, on this meeting and on several other occasions he was offered 2 years of wages if he quit his job, but he refused it every time. So Arriva calls Ola to yet another meeting on the forth of January, in order to fire him, but the other workers threatened with a wildcat strike (strike not sanctioned by state or union bureaucrats) if he was to be fired and hundreds of supporters demonstrated outside the office of Arriva in Malmö.
This shows how eager the capitalists are to get rid of class-conscious workers, and how by standing together and fighting against the capitalists, that the power is with those who work, not with those who depend on exploitation of others.
Demonstration outside Arriva’s office in Malmö:
