Communist Party of Finland (Unity)
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| Communist Party of Finland | |
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| Name in Finnish | Suomen kommunistinen puolue (yhtenäisyys) |
| Name in Swedish | Finlands kommunistiska parti |
| Leader | Yrjö Hakanen |
| Founded | 1918, 1997 |
| Headquarters | Haapaniemenkatu 7 - 9 B FIN-00530 HELSINKI |
| Political Ideology | Communism |
| Political Position | Far left |
| European Affiliation | European Left (observer) |
| International Affiliation | World Communist Movement |
| Colours | Red |
| Website | www.skp.fi |
| See also | Finnish Politics Finnish Parliament |
Communist Party of Finland (Unity) (Suomen kommunistinen puolue (yhtenäisyys), SKPy) is a Finnish political party. It was founded in August 1986 by former opposition of Communist Party of Finland (Suomen kommunistinen puolue, SKP). The opposition and the organizations it had under its control were expelled from SKP led by Arvo Aalto in 1985–1986. The opposition, however, didn't accept those expulsions and it continued to function and consider itself as the real SKP. Before SKPy was formed they were known as Central Committee of SKP Organizations.
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[edit] History
[edit] The opposition of SKP
The internal conflict of SKP began in mid-1960's, when the party, with its new chairman Aarne Saarinen began to modernize the party line. One part of party supporters didn't accept this and accused SKP leadership of being revisionist. SKP didn't break up in the 1960's and it was formally united until mid-1980's. After SKP's 20th party congress in 1984 things changed as Arvo Aalto was elected chairman, after which the opposition didn't participate in (or was left out of) the central committee. The opposition, which was also known as “taistoists”, had already called supporters of Aalto “axe liners” for years.
[edit] The founding of SKPy
The central committee of SKP expelled eight opposition district organizations from the party October 13, 1985. 494 other party departments and 17 city or regional organizations were expelled June 13, 1986, which the expelled then dubbed “Black Friday”. The opposition didn't accept these moves and considered them against the law. They took the conflict to courts and because of minor technicalities Helsingin Hovioikeus court overruled SKP's decision June 11, 1987. SKP then re-expelled these same organizations in its 21st party congress (June 12–14, 1987). However, a week before this happened, the newly founded SKPy held its own “21th” party congress. The ambiguities of expelling process and opposition's firm belief in its own cause gave it the justification it needed and they considered SKPy to be the real SKP. They claimed Aalto had illegally seized the party with “paper members”. SKPy was never taken to the official party register of Finland as the party considered that to have been voluntary resignation and admission of SKPy not being the real SKP.
April 26, 1986 meeting of representatives of SKP organizations was held in Tampere and those present chose a central committee. Leader of the new central committee was Taisto Sinisalo, former vice chairman of SKP and the most well known figure of the opposition, who already had lead Committee of SKP Organizations found in November 1985. In SKPy's 21th party congress Sinisalo was re-elected. Yrjö Hakanen and Marja-Liisa Löyttyjärvi became vice chairmen while former SKP chairman Jouko Kajanoja was elected party secretary. In his congress speech, Sinisalo told the suffix “unity” meant “strong intention to gather all forces of SKP”. The congress, however, also was heading to future and building of a new party, or “rebuilding” as they thought it. Before the name SKPy was adopted the party was known in media as the unity or Tiedonantaja group.
[edit] KTP withdraws from SKPy
In the late 1970's the opposition of SKP began to split as those supporting more traditional version of Marxism-Leninism began to criticize opposition leaders. When it was decided that SKPy would not be registered as an official party, some communists protested and demanded a new registered communist party. They thought SKPy was clinging to unity slogan in a situation where it no longer seemed realistic. In the 1987 party congress, these people were warned by the SKPy leadership but they chose to ignore those warnings and oriented themselves toward founding a new party. For Peace and Socialism - Communist Workers Party (Rauhan ja sosialismin puolesta – Kommunistinen työväenpuolue, KTP) was founded early in the year 1988. Founders of KTP felt to be securing the existence of a Marxist-Leninist party in Finland while criticizing SKPy for being revisionist and supporting Mikhail Gorbachev. The most famous figure in the new party was probably Markus Kainulainen, a longtime SKP district secretary of Uusimaa.
[edit] The founding of Left Alliance
Esko-Juhani Tennilä, a member of the Parliament of Finland, was elected new chairman of SKPy October 22, 1989 when Kajanoja decided to resign while strongly criticizing his comrades. Tennilä has later told he took the job to secure that the founding of a new united left party would not be sabotaged by his own party comrades many of which were quite critical of it. The Left Alliance (Vasemmistoliitto) was founded in spring 1990 and members of SKPy and its electoral front Deva also joined even though prejudices were very high on both sides at this point.
[edit] Dispute over double membership
Many people in the Left Alliance didn't like SKPy members coming to the party. It was thus decided that SKPy members couldn't participate in the LA's electoral lists, even though they could be members. Because of this, Tennilä also had to quit his job as party chairman when joining LA group in parliament. Yrjö Hakanen was chosen Tennilä's successor. The dispute over double membership, as it was called, led to many SKPy members leaving LA and relations between the two parties got even colder. On the other hand, many (if not most?) former SKPy members were actively participating in LA.
[edit] The “new” SKP
In its 1993 party congress (August 28–29) SKPy clearly oriented towards founding a new officially registered communist party and drafting of a new party program. New party logo was also introduced to mark renewal. It was suggested that a congress to continue SKP's work should be held and that happened next year (November 26–27). In that congress the suffix “unity” was dropped from the name as SKPy now considered to consist of all those comrades who wanted to have an independent communist party. An athletic club was made the basis of new organization and renamed SKP. The decision split the party as some supporters would have preferred SKP to have a lesser role as “Marxist forum” of some kind. Leadership of Left Alliance was also not pleased with those plans. SKP would have wanted to stay inside LA but that wasn't possible and the parties split already in spring 1994. SKP wasn't however “re-registered” until 1997. There was some confusion, as the new SKP didn't accept responsibility for debts of the old one, which had went bankrupt in the late 1980's.
[edit] SKPy and Soviet Union
SKPy was very committed to Soviet Union and the political line of its communist party (CPSU), which was going through great changes during Gorbachev's time. SKPy supported perestroika but criticized those who claimed to have been gorbachevist even before Gorbachev's time. SKPy claimed SKP to be anti-SU and tried to give Finnish people as positive a picture as possible of that country. When SKP split the monetary support from Soviet Union was halted and, for example, the very profitable publishing deals SKP had went to SKPy. Gorbachev's CPSU however had relations with both parties.
[edit] Publicity
The main organ of SKPy was Tiedonantaja, which had already served as opposition's main paper from the 1960's. Tiedonantaja was also an organ of Deva when it existed (1986-1990). The editor-in-chief was Erkki Susi, who still runs the paper. SKPy and Deva also had some local papers.
[edit] Organization
As SKPy considered itself to be the real SKP it also had the same organizational structure. It was based on Leninist principle of democratic centralism.
[edit] Deva – SKPy's electoral front
While SKPy was never officially registered, its supporters founded Democratic Alternative (Demokraattinen vaihtoehto, Deva), which participated in elections. Those MP's of Finnish People's Democratic League (Suomen kansan demokraattinen liitto, SKDL, a front organization dominated by SKP) who were against expulsions were expelled from SKDL and they found parliamentary group of Deva. Deva was SKPy's SKDL and it was supposed to attract some democratic allies. The very small Socialist Workers Party (Sosialistinen työväenpuolue, STP) did join Deva but it was closed down soon after that. Young supporters of SKPy founded Revolutionary Youth League (Vallankumouksellinen nuorisoliitto, VKN) which was Deva's youth organization. SKDL's Socialist Student League (Sosialistinen opiskelijaliitto, SOL) also joined. Deva was led by famous actress Kristiina Halkola.
In 1987 parliamentary elections Deva got 4.3% of votes and four MP's. In 1988 presidential elections Deva candidate Jouko Kajanoja got 1.6%. Not even all members of SKPy supported Kajanoja who was the party chairman then. Deva was closed down in 1990 when Left Alliance was founded and its members joined the new party.
[edit] Elections results
[edit] Parliament elections
| Year | MPs | Votes | Share of votes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 0 | 20 442 | 0,75% |
| 2003 | 0 | 21 079 | 0,75% |
[edit] Local council elections
| Year | Councillors | Votes | Share of votes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 14 | 10 460 | 0,47% |
| 2004 | 16 | 12 844 | 0,53% |
[edit] European Parliament elections
| Year | MEPs | Votes | Share of votes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 0 | 7 556 | 0,61% |
| 2004 | 0 | 10 134 | 0,61% |
[edit] Chairmen
- Taisto Sinisalo (1986–1988)
- Jouko Kajanoja (1988–1989)
- Esko-Juhani Tennilä (1989–1990)
- Yrjö Hakanen (1990–1994...)
[edit] External links
- Suomen kommunistinen puolue — The official site of "new" SKP.
- Tiedonantaja
