Protesting has become an arduous business. Running too long in the cold always leaves the taste of blood in my throat. I can’t think it’s healthy. After hours spent standing and walking outside with my right hand holding up the camera, the fingers don’t move on their own.

I left work at Hurjaruuth early today to be at Kansan kuokkavierasjuhlat, the Peoples’ Gatecrashing Party, on time. The gathering at Rautatientori was scheduled to start at 17.30, and I was there early. There were relatively few people there, a couple of hundred probably. Met friends and found that the camera I had was configured in a bizarre manner, courtesy of the previous user. Two policemen came walking into the crowd and chose us at random. They wanted to know which way the protest march was going to go. Nobody knew.

At something like six o’clock the samba troupe assembled, with dancers and musicians, and started to go, the rest of the people falling behind them. The procession set towards Kaisaniemenkatu, blocking the street. As always, the funniest sight at the demonstraton was the head, with the samba people dancing slowly forward, the media people and cameramen backpedalling in front of them, trying to get a good shot. I decided to keep my camera running continuously.

The procession went past Kaisa and Varsapuisto to the Liisankatu intersection, which was blocked by the police. Apparently the other procession, which had started at Hakaniementori, had already passed. After some minor skirmishing Liisankatu was abandoned, and we continued on Unioninkatu towards the shore. At the start of Pitkäsilta the police had the entry to Siltavuorenranta blocked, but we broke into a run, managing to get through the police line with most of the procession intact, altough later on it seemed that with every police line our troupe got smaller.

There were another two police lines on Siltavuorenranta, the last of them downright pathetic. The police tried to move their people on police vans into the front but didn’t get there in time. I employed the coward’s tactic with the lines, running just behind our front so that when the first protesters were intercepted by the riot shields, I got through because the cops were already engaged. The running and linebreaking came as a bit of a surprise for me, but I filmed the whole time. Now I probably have half an hour worth wobbling images of the sky, people’s faces and snow to show for it. On the first of the two, the first protester on the line tried to get through on a bicycle and was tackled, flying down to the side. Happily, he was unharmed and got through.

From Siltavuorenranta we continued to Pohjoisranta, haggardly blocking the street, moving from one side to the other, our lines completely scattered. The people tried to get closer to each other, with some success. We continued down Pohjoisranta all the way to the Rauhankatu intersection, where the sight of an imminent and strong police line prompted us to make a run for it. From Rauhankatu we turned to Meritullinkatu and from there to Kirkkokatu. On Kirkkokatu we met a part of the other procession, most of them masked anarchists. They joined us and the whole turned to Snellmanninkatu, towards Senaatintori.

The people stopped at the intersection of Snellmanninkatu and Hallituskatu, some confronting the police line blocking Hallituskatu and others assaulting taxis carrying guests to the President’s independence day reception. One of the people ramming the police line, an anarchist girl, was dragged over the line and was last seen being carried down Hallituskatu by a group of cops. At least once the police had to penetrate the crown to rescue a beleguarded taxi from the throng. Only once did I see the people actually try to jostle the taxi itself, resulting in prompt police reaction.

There were some protesters on the corner of Sederholm’s house, and I joined them to get a shot down Alexi, also blocked by the police. The police were not wearing guns, a marked improvement from last year. After a bit of milling around and inconclusive attempts to break the police line on Alexi I left with a couple of people to see Kauppatori. On Kauppatori was the large enclosure reserved by the authorities as a demonstration space, surrounded by fences. Ameriikan malliin ja niin edespäin.

It was empty. A cheerful sight. At least we have some dignity left. I took some shots of the empty enclosure, while more people started coming to Senaatintori. The police tried to get the people to go into the fenced area, but they stopped just before, on the intersection of Pohjoisesplanadi and Sofiankatu. This was the last stop.

The demonstration milled around at the intersection for a couple of hours, blocking the traffic to the President’s Palace until the police made a line on the roadside. A young heavy metal guy stole a police baton and made a victory dance in the crowd. Some people tried to burn an American flag, but they had forgotten to bring gasoline. It didn’t burn very well. The police had a group of horses ready, but didn’t use them.

After an hour, I left. My fingers were too numb to operate the zipper on my bag.