Finland: Nordic Resistance Movement Marches, Challenges Ban

THE CONTROLLED media in Finland are crowing about the System’s ban of the Nordic Resistance Movement there — but the National Socialist group is appealing the ban, and holding public events despite it. Here’s the controlled media piece (from YLE):

As thousands of Finnish residents flocked to the capital city on Saturday for a demonstration demanding a strong government response to climate change, dozens of members of the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement, known as the PVL in Finnish, were also assembling in the Helsinki city centre. Police estimate that about 100 people joined in the afternoon demonstration.

Already in the morning, before the assembly took place, Helsinki Police detained nine individuals who were planning to join the march. Law enforcement officials tweeted that the individuals were taken into custody at a Helsinki port to safeguard against any crimes or disturbances that may occur.

“According to our data, the individuals were planning to participate in a PVL demonstration. They were in possession of equipment — martial arts gloves, among other things — that gave us grounds to believe that they were prepared for violence,” said Helsinki deputy police chief Heikki Kopperoinen.

Police report that the persons detained have now been released and have left the country. One of the individuals was given a fine.

Kopperoinen says the assembly marched to the front of Finland’s Ministry of Interior, where several speeches were made. The deputy police chief said the group had received permission to congregate, and the event transpired without incident.

Ban has not come into force

The Turku Appeals Court ruled in late September that the PVL should be banned, as it ran counter to existing law and good practice. In November 2017, the Pirkanmaa District Court had also banned the organisation for the same reasons, but the neo-Nazi group appealed the decision to the appellate court, which overruled the appeal.

The appeal court decision effectively makes it illegal for the Nordic Resistance Movement to mobilise, demonstrate and distribute propaganda. The PVL will have to cease operations once the court’s decision becomes enforceable, after all avenues of appeal have been exhausted.

“The appellate court decision has not yet come into force, as the time period for an appeal to a higher court has not yet expired. As long as the situation stays like this, the organization will do what it does,” Kopperoinen said.

News of the PVL march was first reported by the daily Helsingin Sanomat.

The Nordic Resistance movement stated on its Web site that “On the other side of the Baltic Sea the traitorous System has managed to get a ban on us. We are appealing the decision in the Turku court of appeal.”

A statement from the Nordic Resistance Movement in Finland makes clear, however, that the prohibition does not gain legal force until the end of November — unless the Supreme court chooses to hear the case, then it will take even longer before the decision becomes final, if it ever does. The NRM will not be silenced, no matter what, the group states.

On 20 October, therefore, a “lightning demonstration” was held in Helsinki. Despite the fact that some Swedish comrades were not allowed to land, the number of participants was still well over a hundred. After carrying our banners and our message through the centre of Helsinki, Antti Niemi delivered a speech outside the Ministry of the Interior where it was made clear that a ban is no more than empty words and that the resistance against tyranny truly lives — and grows daily. The assembly then moved to the esplanade park and rounded off the day by a mass distribution of fliers.

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Source: Nordic Resistance Movement