The first NATO meeting in Sweden has just finished. For two days, the so-called leaders of the military alliance have met in Helsingborg. During these two days, the city has been the center of a historic police mobilisation, pulling in police from all over and even outside of Sweden. Even before any demonstration had begun, the streets of Helsingborg were marked by extremely high presence of police, idenitification checks and surveillance. This demonstrates the desire of the Swedish state to signal competence and compliance to their fellow imperal governments and the consent of the Swedish people.
To counter this wish, protesters gathered in Helsingborg this morning to demonstrate against the NATO meeting and the imperial war machine. They wanted a peaceful conference but we gave them trouble: Despite the massive police presence, around 150 people marched from Gustav Adolf Torg aiming to get to the conference venue and stop the meeting. In contrast to their claims to uphold the “right” to assembly, police harrassed people on the way to the demonstration, immediately surrounded the demonstration and blocked off the route to its destination. When protestors insisted on not giving up the goal of reaching the conference, the police conducted a mass arrest, forced people into busses and drove the protestors out of the city. As always, the liberal right to protest stops when it becomes inconvienient to the state.
Sweden joined NATO without the consent of its people. NATO represents the worst of US and Western imperialism. These processes should not be allowed to continue undisturbed and unresisted, even though they have the arsenal of state power to protect them. The NATO meeting finished today as intended. As expected, this meeting tightened further the knots between Sweden and the Imperial rotten core: today Sweden signed a technology agreement with the US, promising collaboration on among other things war technology and ai. Today’s demonstration marks an absolutely essential act of resistance and solidarity with those affected by military operations.
NATO will never be welcome in Helsingborg or any other city. There will be no safe place for the warmongeres and their collaboraters.