For an Arctic of Peace

Arctic Initiative 6.6. Helsinki

Opening speech

JP (Juha-Pekka) Väisänen

Chairman of the Communist Party of Finland

Member of the European Left executive Board

For an Arctic of Peace

In Finland and maybe in all arctic region countries we children play a same crazy game. We say to each other that you don´t dare to touch the cold metal with your thong. Well then we stick our thongs to the metal and there we are ice clued in iron tubes, door handles and other metal provocations

Welcome to Helsinki and Arctic Initiative.

A Joint initiative of the Communist Party of Finland and the Environmental Working Group of the Party of the European Left.

Welcome to an open forum for environmental- peace- and human rights – indigenous rights organizations, workers and individual activists political parties and NGO´s, civil societies activists.

We meet in Helsinki because International global neoliberal plans to exploit the natural resources hit us the Arctic. We need to strengthen our collaboration because of the growing Confrontation of the NATO and Russia. We are here because Indigenous rights are oppressed by the interests of the big capital.

Dear Arctic Initiative participants. We are here because time urges us all to make a statement and participate in common discussion about environment-security and human right issues in the Arctic.

I provoke us all today in spirit of Arctic Initiative to go a step further with our arctic play. We have to stick not our thongs but our knowledge, skills, talents and politics- our “arctic thongs” like curious children we were, in to the arctic issues – in questions of security, environment and indigenous rights.

It is of high importance that we have here you great people; researchers, artists, NGO-activists, professors, workers and politicians from the North America, Russian Federation, all Scandinavian countries and from Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Spain and Greece.

Here we can now look to each other into the eyes, get excited about our talks and provocate one and the other to the next step and dear more. I hope our tree workshops will prepare concrete initiatives for political demands for changes in the Arctic region. I am sure we create here new ideas for future collaboration. I am happy to share with you the plan European Left has to take the summarizing of the Arctic Initiative to the World Social forum debates in August in Montreal, Canada.

At the moment we open Arctic Initiative the US army is practicing how to land in Finnish Hanko Bay from the Baltic Sea few kilometers from the Russian border. It is clearly a provocation directed to Russia. It is clearly a visible part of the dangerous play the imperialists play to build up every day a stronger image of Russia as an enemy.

Dear participants of the Arctiv Initiative.

I wish that the Spirit of Arctic Initiative is a call for peace and good neighboring relations. I wish Arctic Initiative says good bye to culture of war, militarization and making friends to enemies. From a Finnish point of view we need to keep Finland out of war provocations, wars and Nato.

In this challenging work we need your collaboration. We need the International, progressive Arctic.

Thank You for being here today.

Together For Peace, Environment and Indigenous Rights!

Arctic Initiative – Arktinen Aloite