The International Workers’ Day, widely known as May Day and locally called Vappu Day was observed in Finland on Friday peacefully excepting few sporadic incidents of protest, police said.
Two rival groups the ‘Tampere without Nazis’ and the Blue-and-Black Movement brought out procession and counter procession and took to the streets in Tampere City centre.
The demonstrators chanted slogans against each other and locked into scuffles when police arrested seven people to bring the situation under control.
The Blue-and-Black Movement called its procession ‘White May Day.’
About 200 demonstrators of each group took part in the rally, police estimated.
The celebrations, however, observed peacefully in other parts of the country.
The celebrations of May Day began on Thursday evening through washing and crowning of the Havis Amanda statue in the capital, with thousands of people witnessing the ceremony.
The main celebration and May Day rallies were held on Friday all over the country.
Police said that the celebrations were almost peaceful across the country excepting few incidents of drunk driving and unruliness late Thursday night and early Friday.
Several processions and rallies were held in the capital and other big cities.
The traditional parade of May Day organized by the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK), started at 10:00 am from Hakaniemi Square and move around the city centre and the senate Square.
President Alexander Stubb and First Lady Suzanne Innes-Stubb received May Day greetings at the Presidential Palace on Friday morning.
The presidential couple was greeted by the Finnish Workers’ Music Federation.
This year, the musical greeting was performed by the wind band Hyvinkäänkylän Puhallinorkesteri.
The event in the front of the Presidential Palace concluded with greetings from the Student Union of the University of Helsinki, the choir Akademiska Sångföreningen and the YL Male Voice Choir starting.
International Workers’ Day marks the 1886 Haymarket Massacre in Chicago, when Chicago police fired on workers during a general strike for their legitimate rights, including an eight-hour working day. The firing resulted in the deaths of several demonstrators and police officers.
May 1 was adopted as International Workers’ Day by socialist delegates in Paris in 1889. More than 400 delegates met in Paris on the centenary of the French revolution at the Marxist International Socialist Congress, the founding meeting of the Second International.
The 1889 resolution called for a one-time demonstration but it became an annual event in the course of time. May Day was celebrated in Russia, Brazil and Ireland first in 1891.
