612 march

The 612 march was initiated by the Finnish Resistance Movement (FRM) in 2014^[8] and organized under the guise of the association 612.fi.^[9] According to Esa Henrik Holappa [fi], first leader of the FRM, the FRM created and maintains the event's website, and its activists serve as guards during the processions.^[8] Timo Hännikäinen [fi], editor-in-chief of the online newspaper Sarastus and member of the far-right organization Suomen Sisu, is also one of the initiators of this torchlight procession.^[9]

The march has been criticized in foreign media as a neo-Nazi "SS march" because the event ends at the Hietaniemi cemetery where participants visit the monument to the Finnish SS Battalion and tomb of Marshal Mannerheim.^[10][11] The demonstration is also opposed by the yearly antifascist "Helsinki Without Nazis" event.^[12] SUPO has characterized the march as "far-right" and "anti-immigrant".^[13] The participants have allegedly given nazi salutes and attacked the counterdemonstrators.^[1][14] According to literature professor Kuisma Korhonen of University of Jyväskylä, the torches symbolize "eternal Finnishness" and compared the event to a Ku Klux Klan rally.^[9] The march is attended and promoted by the Finns Party while it is condemned by left-wing parties. Iiris Suomela of the Green League characterized it as "obviously neo-Nazi" and expressed her disappointment in it being attended by such a large number of people.^[15]

Speakers of the event have included members of Suomen Sisu, leader of the neo-fascist Blue-and-Black Movement Tuukka Kuru, Finns Party MP Teemu Keskisarja and Tapio Linna, who promoted Siege on his website.^[16][17]

• Nordic Resistance Movement^[18][19]
• Soldiers of Odin^[19]
• Finns Party^[11]
• Active Club Network^[14]
• Blue-and-Black Movement^[20]

• Left Youth^[23]
• Green Youth^[23]
• Friends of the Earth^[23]