Translated by contributor to Tjen Folket Media.
We publish here a report from one of many demonstrations this summer. We will in the coming weeks post translations of reports written this summer. Originally published by Kampkomiteen July 5, 2020.
Saturday, July 4, SIAN gathered yet again in Oslo. This time it was right in front of Parliament, at Eidsvoll plass. It was clear that the police feared noise, and they did everything they could to ensure that the fascists could speak freely.
They announced beforehand that those who had been charged with throwing eggs during the demonstration at Mortensrud would need to pay 12 thousand kroner each in fines. They had blocked the entire square with double crowd control barriers so that there was nearly 50 meters between SIAN and the closest of the counter-demonstrators. And they showed up with several dozens of fully equipped forces, as well as equipped horses and dogs.
The police stood at the entrances of the area, stopped people, and ordered them to turn around. This caused several people to leave the area, and the police succeeded in reducing the total number of counter-demonstrators. Those who nonetheless wanted to counter-demonstrate had their bags and pockets searched, and people who brought eggs and similar items were expelled. They also asked questions about what organization people came with, and generally did all that they could to make it uncomfortable to participate.
Despite this, at the start of the demonstration around 1PM, there were upwards of 50 counter-demonstrators present. This was more than enough to drown out the racist message being broadcast on the other side of the lawn. Eventually, the crowd swelled to several hundreds of counter-demonstrators who shouted “All of Oslo hates racists”, “We are all antifascists”, and “No racists in our streets”. Accompanied by large sound systems and other noise implements, they drowned out the shouting speaker from SIAN. Oslo Against Racism made the playlist Føkk SIAN – Festivalsommer 2020 prior to the event and it was played on several loudspeakers and megaphones among the public.
In the end one of the speakers pulled out something that looked like a Quran and ripped out pages from the books and threw them in the wind. This provoked a counter-demonstrator to jump over the fences and run towards the speakers, with clapping and applause from the rest of the counter-demonstration. The person was stormed by several police officers, around them it looked like, and placed him in the ground. The counter-demonstrators came with several calls to the police saying “Don’t hurt him” and “Nazi lackeys”. There were also thrown eggs from the counter-demonstrators that stood outside of the area secured by the police. After this SIAN packed their bags quickly, almost an hour before they were supposed to quit.
Several counter-demonstrators gathered close to where SIAN entered a minibus. Here there were shouted insults directed towards SIAn, but also against the police who was not the only thing between the two groups. This continued until after SIAN was escorted away. People stood right infront of the police and shouted curse words and flipped the bird, and some played the song Fuck the Police.
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