Nordic Countries:
The May Day statement of the International Communist League was translated in Norwegian, Finnish , Swedish and Danish.
Norway
The Struggle Committee carried out actions in the 4 cities of Kristiansand, Trondheim, Bergen and Oslo for May 1st.
Kristiansand: Activists of the Struggle Committee and LAG started the day with participation in anevent with lunch and music from Canto Libre.
After a march was organised where the Struggle Committee participated with red flags and the slogan ”Support the struggle of the poor peasants in Brazil!” together with LAG who had the slogan ”Land to those who work on it!”.
Slogans like ”Strengthen the international solidarity!”, ”No help for the rich - let them pay for their own crisis”, “No peace without freedom – no freedom without struggle – crush imperialism!” and “Wave after wave – blow after blow – against imperialism and patriarchy!” and “International solidarity – unity of struggle of the working class!”.
In the evening activists participated in a solidarity event at the Royal Corner with music from Masikuna, speeches and food, together with friends from multiple organisations was organised.
Trondheim: The Struggle Committee and Revolutionary Communists organised a markation before the LO-march with speeches at the top of the Nordre street. The speech of The Struggle Committee condemned the Russian war of aggression and sent its greetings to the struggling Ukrainian People. The speech also made it clear that genuine anti-imperialists cannot support Zelenskiy, the lackey of US-imperialism.
The speech also condemned the attacks and plunder of Africa, Asia and Latin America by Norwegian imperialism, with special focus on the company of ”Statkraft” in Chile and ”Norsk Hydro” in Brazil.
After the markation went to the LO’s 1st of May demonstration. The activists held a banner against the cutts i welfare and the war i Ukraine. Posters against the Interoceanic Corridor were also held.
Bergen: The Struggle Committee held a markation together with other organisations such as Revolutionary Communists, Kurdish Cultural Forum and Worker-communist Party of Iran – Hekmatist, Official line.
Speeches against the imperialist crisis, the war in Ukraine and solidarity with Kurdistan and the People’s Struggle in Iran.
An activist from Kampkomiteen said in a speech that "The Norwegian state and capital are plundering countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The blood of the masses flows in the rivers Statkraft is damming in Chile, and the blood of poor Brazilian peasants mixes with Norsk Hydro's chemicals in the Amazon. The main enemy changes with the situation, but real anti-imperialists are against all imperialism, against all imperialists, and in particular we are against Norwegian imperialism. Only this is true anti-imperialism and internationalism."
The speech was interrupted many times by cheering from the participants.
The markation ended with everyone singing The Internationale. Everyone then marched to the Griegplassen.
The march united with other anti-imperialists. Slogans for international solidarity with Kurdistan and Sudan, for anti-fascism and against Russia’s war in Ukraine were chanted.
The march continued to torgallmenningen where leaflets for an open meeting about the situation in Mexico and the imperialist mega-project of the Interoceanic Corrdidor (CIIT) were distributed.
After the march The Struggle Committee with friends went to a local nearby where food was served and good discussions were held. Workers songs were also sung.
Oslo: A porweful markation and block for international solidarity was present in the capital of Norway. A markation was first organised on Grønland torg under the slogan ”Workers and oppressed in all countries, unite!”. The markation was organised by The Struggle Committee, Worker-communist Party of Kurdistan – Abroad Organisation, Solidarity with revolutionaries in Iran and Workers Socialist Organisation of Afghanistan.
In days leading up to the event leaflets had been distributed.
Music, slogans and speeches dominated the scene at the markation. The markation then continued in a march where it met up with multiple organisations and people in a powerful internationalist block. Slogans were chanted in the March like ”Long live May 1st!”, ” No help for the rich - let them pay for their own crisis” and “Russia, NATO, USA – Hands off Ukraine!”. The Struggle Committee distributed leaflets throughout the event.
By the evening many still celebrated the day.
Read the full report by Serve the People Media and see all the pictures from the day here.
Leading up to May 1st multiple actions were also carried out in the cities of Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim and Kristiansand. The actions include flags and banners being set up, murals, posters, dazibaos and more.
Oslo:
Bergen:
Kristiansand:
Trondheim:
Read the full report here to see all the actions carried out.
Finland
Comrades from Punalippu reports on actions that took place in both Helsinki [https://punalippu.noblogs.org/post/2023/05/02/helsinki-may-day-2023/] and Tampere [https://punalippu.noblogs.org/post/2023/05/02/international-day-of-the-proletariat-in-tampere-2023/] for May 1st – International Worker’s Day.
Helsinki: Thousands participated to traditional trade-union march on 1st of May in Helsinki. Broadly speaking, the slogans commented on international issues as well as the on-going negotiations to form a new government, including slogans against NATO, climate change, the far-right and cuts.
Also, a small Maoist contingent participated with main slogan “Everything without power is illusion!” and holding high the red flag with hammer and sickle as well as the flag of the International Communist League (ICL).
The contingent also distributed the May Day statement of the ICL. The contingent drew a lot of positive attention, including enthusiastic comments for the use of the hammer and sickle (the Maoists were, yet again, the only ones, who proudly carried the hammer and sickle).
Combative shouts – such as “Long live International Communist League!”, “Viva Marx! Viva Lenin! Viva Mao Tse-tung!”, “International solidarity! Proletarian revolution!” and “No to Marin, no to Orpo, no to Purra and others! Only revolution leads to freedom!” (Marin, Orpo and Purra are leaders of different reactionary parties: Social-Democrats, National Coalition Party and the Finns Party, respectively) – was to some extent echoed by the masses, and the desperate opportunists tried to cover them with their pacifist shouts.
Posters and leaflets were also distributed for May 1st:
Tampere: Once again the 1st of May was full of events and revolutionary spirit in Tampere.
Early in the morning, revolutionaries had organised 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 emphasised the necessity 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 revolutionaries sang The Internationale and the event concluded with shouted slogans: “Long live proletarian internationalism!”and “Death to revisionism!”
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. 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 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.
Sweden
Communist Association to mark the strugglefor unity under Maoism and for the reconstitution of the Communist Party of Sweden. An event was held to honor comrade Set Persson and the heroes of the Communist Party of Sweden, who struggled against revisionism in the Party.
After this a demonstration followed in proletarian neighborhoods of Stockholm. Slogans like ”Unite under Maoism!” and ”Forwards in reconstituting the Communist Party of Sweden!”. The speeches talked about the crisis of imperialism and denounced that the crisis is put on the backs of the proletariat while the bourgeoisie is making record high profits. It was highlighted that the only way out is socialist revolution. The speakers also sent their greetings to the fellow parties and organizations of the ICL and to the ongoing People’s Wars.
For the full report and all the picures read the report of KF here.
Denmark
In Aalborg, Denmark, revolutionaries marched in the union demonstration with a large banner with the slogan ”Down with imperialist war! Long live the Proletarian World Revolution!”. The Internationale and other proletarian songs were sung and slogans like ”Strenghten the international solidarity!”, ”Wave by wave, blow by blow! Against imperialism and patriarchy!”, ”No fascists on our streets!” and ”Combat, resist! Hoist the red flag!”.
In the ending point of the demonstration at Kildeparken activists distributed flyers against imperialist war, in support of the people’s wars in the world and for the ICL.
Leading up to May 1st flags of the ICL had been put up in Copenhagen, Aalborg and Aarhus.
See the full report of all the Maoist actions and pictures for May 1st in Denmark on Socialist Revolution.
Socialist Revolution reports that this year marked the last time the ”Great prayer day” was spent as a holiday. Danish imperialism decided to remove a holidary in order to pay for the militarisation of the country. Activists from Anti-Imperialist Collective marked the day by going to the streets to distribute leaflets against the removal of the holiday and against the militarisation of the country.
A manifestation against the so-called ”ghetto-law” was organised by various organisations in Copenhagen. Many participated. Speeches were held, songs were sung and food was organised. Activists from Anti-Imperialist Collective also participated, distributing leaflets against the ghetto-law. The leaflets put emphasis on that the ghetto-low highlights the question on who has state power in the country and that the Danish state is only for the rich and people should therefore not count on the ready-made state mechanisms to get rid of the ghetto-law.
