The Voices That Cannot Speak: Proxy Resistance and Defending Nature

In October 2025, the Helsinki District Court made a landmark decision: activists who stopped logging in Stansvik Forest were acquitted because they acted under necessity to protect an endangered stream. This case raises a crucial question: how do we defend those who have no voice? Forest activism in Finland has a long history. In 1989, civil disobedience at Heinosenaho in Talaskangas led to the creation of a protected area and turned Talaskangas into a symbol of forest defense. Activism has been a way to make visible nature’s silent protest—signals that do not translate into political decisions without human intervention. The Hukkajoki case in August 2024 revealed the limits of resistance. Logging destroyed the river ecosystem, and Metsähallitus workers manually relocated over 5,000 freshwater pearl mussels to safety. Without this physical labor, the damage would have been even greater. The mussel, unable to flee or protest, exemplifies an actor without voice. We introduce the concept of proxy resistance—representational resistance—where humans act as intermediaries for non-human entities. Activists translate nature’s slow signals into political language. This resonates with Donna Haraway’s call to stay with the trouble: moving beyond human-centered agency toward multispecies entanglements, where resistance is a process of becoming-with other beings. Nature’s protest is slow and cumulative: earlier springs, shifting species ranges, ecosystem collapses. Political and economic decisions are fast and often irreversible. This temporal mismatch is central to more-than-human politics. Nature does not stay in mind because its signs are not loud—until it is too late. Proxy resistance is also visual. Stansvik’s stream and Hukkajoki’s mussels were invisible, making them vulnerable. Through images and documentation, activists strive to reveal what would otherwise remain unseen. This is not nature speaking for itself but a human choice—yet at best, a respectful attempt to make space for others. Our work expands resistance studies toward posthumanist theory: agency is networked, and humans are not the only actors. Activists’ role is to give voice to those who cannot speak—and our collective task is to learn how to listen. References: Haraway, D. (2016). Staying with the Trouble. Duke UP. Tsing, A. (2015). The Mushroom at the End of the World. Princeton UP. Latour, B. (2005). Reassembling the Social. Oxford UP.