EuroMayDay Parade was a success - it was the biggest radical Mayday Parade seen in Helsinki in years.
More than 1000 people gathered in Helsinki to participate in EuroMayDay on the MayDay Eve. The EuroMayday Parade provided an open space for the demands and struggles of precarious and flexible workforce whose voice has been so far marginalized in the political sphere and in the labor movement.
The parade started in the front of Kiasma museum in the center of Helsinki, then crossed through the city center and finally ended in the Railway square. The main banner demanded more flexibility from the capitalists - flexworkers have been stretched enough!
Reappropriation of income and rights was one of the main themes on the parade. It was also concretized with two actions of Yomango-style "autoreduction". One happened in a youth fashion store One Way and one in a liquor chainstore Alko. Sambaband played and danced while some others grabbed free clothes and bottles.
These actions were one example of new forms of strike. Precarious and flexible work relations are undermining temp and flex workers’possibility to strike for better wages. Right to strike is a fundamental right and therefore people must have the right to forms of strike which are analogous to their social status. Reappropriation of income in the form of autoreduction in chainstores or freeriding in the subway are examples of a "payment strike" which is practised by precarious people daily.
helsinki.euromayday.org
