Report from the Stop Fennovoima (Defend Hanhikivi) Action Week, Finland. April 2016
By Dagmar Schwitzgebel who travelled to Finland to join the protest against Fennovoima’s proposed 1,200-megawatt nuclear reactor which would be Finland’s sixth nuclear plant and is due to start operation in 2024
23rd: Arrival at Oulu. Tim, a friend from Plymouth meets me at the airport, we hitch South to the camp. We arrive at the base camp, the winter camp, which is not very active, but held as a base. From there we are driven to the actual camp. We have to walk through some forest, swamps, birch trees, fir trees and a great variety of moss and lichen. At the camp there is a Belgian kitchen crew who set up for the week of action. We sleep in an army yurt, which is very very cold, because we haven’t sussed out the wood stove yet.
24th: The frost has covered everything. Puddles are frozen. Breakfast of dumpster-dived goods, coffee and tea. We hear that someone’s mother had been pepper-
sprayed. Another protester, who had his head locked-on in a D-lock had been tasered 3 times because he kept holding on to the lock. We have a go-around of names and preferred pronouns (there is no he or she in the Finnish language). There are over 50 protesters, from Finland, Sweden, Belgium, Holland, France, Germany, Russia, Britain, USA, Australia and Albania. There is a discussion about what happened and what is planned, and an overview of the location, so that we don’t get lost.
Throughout the day there are workshops on “medics at a protest site” (how to deal with pepper spray attacks and broken bones) and also one-on-one combat techniques of de-arresting from the riot police. People build barricades on the road, which is closest to the
site. In turns, we are watching the barricades day and night.
In our tent, we have a fire-the-stove rota, so that someone makes sure that it keeps burning, and wakes up the person next to them to take over, when they feel sleepy.
25th: A few lectures are given on the history of the Fennovoima project. It becomes clear that this is not solely an ecological struggle of building a nuclear power plant, with all the risks (predecessors of Fennovoima built Chernobyl), clearing and grubbing, and the world’s largest birds reserve being destroyed. It is much more an issue of political power, Putin etc. having big interests and shares of the project going ahead, after a German company, the biggest shareholder in the project, withdrew their involvement last year. A Russian nuclear engineer and scientist tells us about the failures of nuclear power pants that have been built in Russia, and the effects it has on people and the environment. Again, the political underpinnings are talked about.
Monique and I do a clown army workshop, which seems to be a reasonable performative stunt to practice with people, as we prepare for the action. The action is going to focus on the police, and not immediately at media or local people. Playing clown games keeps us warm and laughing.
More action games are played on the barricades, one is called “police against hippies” where one group is the police and the others are hippies. The goal of the “hippies” is to get past the police line, and the “police” has to try and stop them.
26th: Despite the lack of costumes and make-up, the clowns all turn up in wonderful attire, made of bark and twigs, and whatever they could find at the camp. I managed to get some watercolours and glitter pens and we paint our faces. Covers over the mouth and eyes are still used, not so much as a disguise, but to prevent full exposure to pepper-spray.
With drums, press people, big banners, and clowns we hike through the forest swamp to the road that leads to the Fennovoima site. Within minutes of us entering the road, riot police are present, pushing shields in our faces, trying to drag us away from the street. Several police vans are trying to get through the carnivalesque protest, but we jump/dance in front, as best we can. People are being pepper-sprayed and singled out. One of the people who are pepper-sprayed was a journalist of a popular Finnish newspaper. The cops finally stop us at a bridge. Rhythms, clowns-pranks and chants are directed at the police. The clowns have a good effect of calming and slowing the situation down, as it is hard to be violent to a clown. Behind a buffer-line of clowns, protesters sit down and link arms.
Hours later, with an extended police force from the surrounding cities, and dogs, they arrest us one by one. We are driven to the jail in Raahe. We get searched and put into cells, without knowing the reason for arrest. There are 3-4 protesters in a cell, because there is not enough room (and also not enough blankets or food). Around 37 people are detained for about 24 hours.
27th: Protesters are released at different times (with a fine for “civil disorder” of at least 60 Euro) and are picked up by supporters, who drive them back to camp. At the camp there is a meeting of what has happened, and how the media reacted to it. After that a Clown Army debrief. We hear that one American is going to be deported, because he is a “threat to society”. He is released, but has to report back to Raahe police station in the morning. In our tent we joke about arranging a quick official marriage to make him stay in the country; Or to join him and the other “aliens at the police station, to show solidarity.
28th: I clean up the camp a bit, at least the info point where flyers and maps and clothes have gotten a bit messy. Then there is a chance of a lift to town to get a shower at the local gym and go to the library for Internet access. 4 people come with me. When approaching the road on the way back through the forest, panic brakes out and people run back into the forest. I run too and hide. A police dog finds me and the two cops attached to it point their guns (those vicious plastic bullet guns) at me and drag me onto the street. They handcuff some of us. The camp is raided, although the land is owned by someone who likes us, and has not given permission for the police to enter. Before we can work out what is happening, we were all back in jail again. Apparently a police car has been set on fire at some other place, but we don’t know if this is true (we had a lot of time to think about this, and it doesn’t make sense). I suspect that they set the police car on fire themselves to have a reason to “attack the camp” (quote by cop). More than 35 others are in jail with us.
Another 24 hour in jail. We get a few slices of bread. Whenever we hear someone outside our cell we shout “Food! Blankets! Ambassador!”. Late at night I am allowed to speak to my ambassador. After telling him what happened, he suggests calling the police. I tell him that I am surrounded by police, and held against my will and without any reason. He says that the people present are just guards of a security company, hence nobody is able to tell me why I am in jail. Back in the cell, I can’t sleep because of the lack of a blanket, so I spend all night doing a huge graffiti of toilet paper on the wall, saying “No Justice – No Peace”.
29th: My cell-pal, the girl from the kitchen tent is being interrogated. She is now under official arrest and can be held for 3 days. All she did was cooking lovely food for us. On my release I demand a reason for why I’ve been detained, and they say that I was at the wrong place at the wrong time. I point out the possibility that within 5 minutes of me leaving this building, they will detain me again for the same arbitrary reason. They want me to go. Sitting on the floor, refusing to leave, I demand answers. Monique is released with me. The police have damaged her hand when trying to remove her from a lock-on. Her hand is black and swollen and I help her to put on her shoes.
At the supermarket across from the police station I meet Tim, and we decide that we have enough from being arrested and that it’s time to leave. We drive back to the camp, where we find policemen evicting the camp. In a short space of time we have to work out logistics. There are only ten of us on site, the others are still in jail, or unaware of the eviction. We dismantle the camp, and gather all personal belongings. Police are watching over us. At some point they inform us that we only have 10 minutes left to leave the site, otherwise we will be arrested again. We have no chance to clear up all the things. A girl from Lapland, who has a car, rescues Tim and me. That night we stay in a cabin a few miles away. With Sauna!
30th: Slowly easing back into civilization, and digesting the past events.
1st: Mayday. I urge the other two to show an appearance in the city of Oulu, since the camp was strangely, and mostly negatively, portrayed by the media. We turn up with a
banner, and receive positive response and support from passers-by. We also receive a lot of sunshine, more than on any other Mayday in Oulu. We join in the Internationale – Song. Some strangers offer Tim and me a place to stay for the night. We accept, but remain a little skeptical. It turns out that that couple was neither secret police nor from some sect. They are wonderful and even escort us to the airport in the morning.
Back home today, I received a report about what went on after we left. Some landowners had offered the protesters a new place to stay. It turned out that they were rednecks that as soon as people settled down, had gangs with axes and chainsaws intimidating people.
The activists over there really need support, in any way possible. There are still people in jail, some of them hospitalized, one dislocated shoulder, one or two broken arms, and a few broken noses. Some of them are emotionally destroyed.
This is their blog: https://fennovoima.no.com/en/
My opinion is that the Finish police are not normally that brutal, but that the issue is too pressing to act according to any democratic or humane law. All they are defending is a few acres of cleared woodland and a few rocks. There are no building or constructions there yet, because Fennovoima has not been given the official go-ahead.
When police can make up the law as they please (I addressed one cop, who said exactly that) it is very scary, because they have guns, pepper-spray and dogs. I hope this is not the future, but if so, I will try everything to be prepared to resist that power.