
Finland: BUILD THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST FRONT FOR THE REVOLUTION!
Proletarians of all countries, unite!
BUILD THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST FRONT FOR THE REVOLUTION!
107 years of the 1918 Proletarian Revolution of Finland
In the beginning of the 20th century capitalism had developed to its highest phase, imperialism, which is defined by three fundamental characteristics: it is 1) monopolistic capitalism, 2) decaying or parasitical capitalism and 3) dying capitalism on the eve of the proletarian revolution. The first imperialist world war broke out in 1914 and the left in the international workers’ movement struggled in order to oppose the reactionary war with revolutionary civil war. On the front lines stood the Bolshevik Party of Lenin and Stalin in Russia, which formed the Great Socialist October Revolution in 1917. The wave of revolution swept over Finland, too, arousing among others the November strike, in which the masses loudly demanded the power to the working class, as well as guerrilla war, in which the proletariat took over police stations and other local institutions of power and confiscated food and weapons. The reaction in Finland panicked. The October Revolution granted freedom to all nations oppressed by Russian imperialism, including Finland, whose butchers (the whites, reaction) applied for independence from socialist Russia to maintain the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie in Finland, to which the Bolsheviks, who consequently supported the right of nations to self-determination, agreed to without any illusion, and at the same time the Finnish butchers made a deal with German imperialism to crush the workers’ movement in Finland, selling the young independence to the German great thief. The Party of the proletariat hesitated, because it was not lead by a revolutionary line but a line of consolidation with the right, and thus it lost the initiative which the butchers took, declaring “firm order of law” in the country on the 12th of January 1918, which they started to create with the weapons of the butcher guards. The working class answered this on the 27th of January by initiating revolutionary war. The Proletarian Revolution lasted for 108 days of honor until the 15th of May. The revolutionary people paid with pride and without hesitating a precious blood offer: 6,000 fell in battle, 9,000 were executed and 12,000 died in the concentration camps. Without a shadow of defeatism the proletariat founded the Communist Party of Finland already on the 29th of August, declaring: “The force of the working people is under a horrible class oppression, but it is not defeated, it is not broken. It is to rise again.”
On the 107th anniversary of the proletarian revolution of Finland we reaffirm our subjection to our ideology, Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, mainly Maoism, with the universally valid contributions of Chairman Gonzalo; our full loyalty to the class heroes of the proletarian revolution; and our unwavering commitment to our task to reconstitute the Communist Party of Finland for People’s War in order to carry out a socialist revolution in Finland as part and in service of the World Revolution.
We greet the international proletariat and the peoples of the world, the International Communist League and the Communist Parties, especially the Communist Party of Peru, The Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist, the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and the Communist Party of the Philippines, who are leading People’s Wars in their respective countries, and we greet the international Anti-imperialist League and the anti-imperialist struggles all over the world, especially the intensifying peasant struggle in Brazil and the armed struggle of the national resistance of the people of Palestine, which forced the Zionist lackeys of Yankee imperialism to retreat and make a ceasefire agreement – resistance, which still continues against the increasing Zionist offensive in the West Bank.
Today, 107 years after the proletarian revolution, we who want to remain loyal to the Proletarian Revolution, must be clear on the reality we live in. We do not only live in the age of imperialism and proletarian revolution but within this we are in the strategic offensive of the Proletarian World Revolution, in which we face the general counter-revolutionary offensive by imperialism, revisionism and world reaction lead by Yankee imperialism, which will be defeated by the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, Gonzalo Thought counteroffensive, which arises from the process of reunification of the communists of the world in struggle against dispersion caused by revisionism, embodied today in the International Communist League as an important victory against dispersion, and advances with the People’s Wars of the world as its strategic axis in the ongoing and upcoming People’s Wars and in processes to (re)constitute Communist Parties for People’s Wars. This strategic vision is crucial for the right basis for understanding communist construction in Finland.
Corresponding to this, developing anti-imperialist struggle is an important task for the revolution. Here we must firstly depart from a firm understanding that imperialism is nothing else but the highest phase of capitalism, of which results that anti-imperialist struggle is nothing else but struggle against capitalism in its highest phase. This allows the correct handling of anti-imperialist struggle in Finland as struggle against imperialist world order in general, which equals struggle for the socialist revolution in Finland. Second, we must understand well that struggle against imperialism without relentless and inseparable struggle against opportunism is hollow and false lip service, which demands that we go to the deepest and broadest masses applying this on an international level (the role of the oppressed nations) in Finland, too.
From the point of view of the World Revolution, which is the primary point of view, we must understand that the oppressed nations are the storm centers of the World Revolution, compared to which imperialist Finland is periphery. The advancing of the World Revolution is an important condition for the greater sharpening of the situation in Finland, which does not negate the role of the subjective forces or that in the strategic offensive of the World Revolution the revolutionary situation is in uneven development in the world. The People’s Wars are the strategic axis of the World Revolution and the World Revolution develops and the general crisis of imperialism deepens by waging more People’s War, which also is reflected in Finland. In addition, it is important to understand the role of different anti-imperialist armed struggles in the world in their relation to the People’s War, because firstly they weaken imperialism and develop the people’s struggle, secondly their limitations prove the necessity for developing People’s War led by Communist Parties in order to develop the armed struggle until victory.
Thus only by following tight the strategic vision we present here it is possible to understand the World Revolution as a condition for the Finnish revolution, which is a precondition for active grasping and clear and consequent understanding of the basic tasks of international solidarity. The question of supporting the World Revolution and the People’s Wars is not an abstract moral question but a question of concretely advancing the revolution in Finland also.
Furthermore, a fundamental characteristic of imperialism is the division to oppressing and oppressed nations, and imperialist superpowers and powers struggle for the re-division of the world with the oppressed nations as the booty. Finnish imperialism handles this question very consciously. Its long-time line is positioning itself “between the East and the West”, meaning today mainly collusion with the sole hegemonic superpower Yankee imperialism against Russian imperialism. Under “value-based realism”, in collusion with Yankee imperialism, it aims for greater penetration in the oppressed nations of the “global south” all over the world, within the struggle of the “global west” preaching its “democracy” against the “global east” which is labeled “authoritarian”. Like every crusader, Finnish imperialism tries to mask its international plunder as a moral mission.
Finnish imperialism plunders natural resources, displaces peasants from their land and develops bureaucratic capitalism on all continents. By interfering in conflicts, destroying environment, in general worsening the living conditions and with direct campaigning Finnish imperialism plays a part in causing global migration movements, which the imperialists use consciously. Finnish imperialism supports reactionary and genocidal regimes everywhere where it benefits from them and opposes them when it does not. But imperialism is not a question of distant lands only. In the north, Finland is part of the colonization of the Sámi nation. On the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland, Estonia is an oppressed nation, where a lot of Finnish capital has been exported to and on the other hand Estonian migrant workers are a significant part of the working class in Finland. Finnish imperialism strives to increase its regional power by intense militarization, which in part aims to vouch for popularity among Yankee imperialism. Today the reaction says clearly that we do not live in times of peace and for this reason it militarizes, transforms the whole society to go to war. The prevailing thinking is characterized by that “national security” is a magic word with which all bank doors open and all legal and other obstacles are cleared. The rampant militarization of Finnish imperialism manifests as large-scale war equipment purchases, militaristic law initiatives and on the ideological level as chauvinistic agitation to uphold the false “national unity” dreamed of by the bourgeoisie. It is manifested as harsh policies on the eastern border and on the Gulf of Finland.
It is an anti-imperialist task to oppose imperialist national oppression and the division of the world by the imperialists. This struggle serves uniting with the oppressed nations and the revolutionary peoples of the world. This is the basics of the strategies of the World Revolution, which is even more emphasized by the fact that the majority of human kind lives in the oppressed nations. Without this the proletarian revolution is weak, because it is without its most important ally: the national liberation movements. This further emphasizes that the first condition of revolutionary struggle in Finland is setting internationalism first. International solidarity and the exploitation of Finnish monopolies around the world are not a question of abstract international solidarity but a basic need of the proletarian revolution.
Furthermore, when it comes to imperialist war and war preparations, which are a part of the struggle of the imperialists for the re-division of the world, Marxism teaches us that we oppose the outbreak of such a war but we are not afraid of it but focus on the People’s War, because only from it the power of the proletariat can arise. Centering on the peace movement instead of the People’s War means capitulation from revolution. In the worst case it means placing hope on a competing imperialist, like Russia, which should ”liberate” Finland from the militarist rule. This is an old tale, which the Soviet revisionists used to preach, touting the ”three peacefuls” for the International Communist Movement in order to hegemonize the world with their ”peace tanks”. Today we live in war times, and thus it is especially necessary to emphasize preparation for war, which means preparation to wage People’s War. In a time like this preparation for war should be understood as an urgent task which demands studying well the thesis of militarization of the Communist Parties by Chairman Gonzalo. Without such a line it is not possible to serve uniting firmly with the oppressed nations and the peoples of the world, not to mention preparing revolution in Finland.
The warmongering or the oppression of nations by Finnish imperialism is not because it is particularly evil, but because of the economic basis of imperialism. As capitalism develops to imperialism, finance capital, which is monopolistic industrial capital merged with bank capital, becomes the main form of capital. Struggle against the exploitation of finance capital is in the heart of anti-imperialist struggle, not in its margin. Departing from relentless and inseparable struggle against imperialism and opportunism, we must once again underline going to the deepest and broadest masses, past the labor aristocracy which is the most important social (not military) support for the power of the bourgeoisie, the corner stone of the false “national unity” dreamed of by imperialism.
In its desperate struggle against revolution imperialism has the necessity to increase the splitting of the class into two, into the labor aristocracy and the true masses, and finance capital intertwines the labor aristocracy tightly into its own system. The power of finance capital is stretched out to its maximum through the stock system, in which small investments, the so-called “people’s capitalism”, play a considerable role, which does not only increase the amount of capital controlled by finance capital but also ties the labor aristocracy and other middle layers of the people directly to finance capital. The labor aristocracy is also tied to finance capital in the corporatively controlled pension insurance companies which are some of the biggest owners of finance capital in Finland. The increase in the accumulation of capital of those companies is directly tied to questions of the population structure, because the so-called worsening of the old-age dependency ratio means more those who receive pension and less those who pay pension insurance. One solution to this is to raise the pension age, which means increasing exploitation, because pensions are postponed wages. Other solution is to support population growth, which means not only struggle against low fertility but also for increasing immigration.
At the same time with the growth of finance capital and labor aristocracy happens the growth of misery in the opposite pole, in the deepest and broadest masses. Exploitation increases and the amount of masses living in misery grows. Rationalizing work with new technology, raising the pension age and using immigration to lower the value of labor power are some of the means to increase exploitation. The masses who have not “integrated” to the imperialist society in Finland, who do not identify with this society, who have nothing to lose with it, grow. They face racism, contempt and disdain, their demands are not heard in the public discussion. The economic, political and educational rights officially promised by society are not for them but against them. Some of them labor in so-called “unusual” employment relations without any language skills, some face human trafficking and slavery. Side by side to the growth of all this misery the ways become more brutal: drugs, violence, criminality, which are concentrated to a small part but have a broad influence.
Struggle against the exploitation carried out by finance capital is a most essential part of anti-imperialist struggle and it points towards a whole program of a variety of social questions. The corner stone of this question is to go to the deepest and broadest masses, which is also the key in such current matters as the struggle for wages, in which anti-imperialist line opposes the tactics aiming to pacify the masses of the union leaders who base themselves on the labor aristocracy and act as the henchmen of capital.
Democratic questions are also an essential part of anti-imperialist struggle. Among the deepest and the broadest masses, especially among the immigrant masses, there are considerable democratic demands: equal economic, political, educational and other rights. The difference in rights fragments the class, weakens its readiness to fight. Struggle for these demands is a part of the revolutionary struggle. Some of the demands are within bourgeois-democratic framework, but in the end bourgeois democracy itself causes the difference in rights. Bourgeois democracy means formally equal rights but class differences cause the difference in how they are realized, so that in the end there is democracy only for the bourgeoisie. Wealth or position affect the possibilities to use for example the freedom of speech, which for example weak skills in Finnish language further amplify. Thus the struggle for democracy in Finland cannot be struggle for bourgeois democracy like the revisionists and opportunists propose, but struggle for proletarian democracy, which is the starting point for setting the course in for example antifascist struggle.
This is of growing importance as democratic rights are under increasing attack. Imperialist war preparations mean the worsening of the crisis of bourgeois democracy, increasingly harsh attacks against democratic rights, increasingly harsh persecution of revolutionaries. Relentless struggle for legal rights of course necessary and serves developing the struggle against the prevailing order. As a part of this the rights in the Finnish constitution and international agreements, such as the freedom of opinion, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, the right to fair trial and the rights of political prisoners and prisoners of war must be emphasized in particular. But in the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie the bourgeoisie has the decision-making power, not the people, and thus it would be unacceptable not to prepare for the usurpation of the right to act publicly. Besides, the facts already show that even the most rudimentary democratic demands – such as opposing the freedom of the fascists to act – demand the violent opposing of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, which accelerates the persecution of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.
These are some of the fundamental questions to the revolution in Finland as part of the World Revolution and on this occasion we want to particularly reaffirm the crystallization made by Chairman Mao: “Proletarian internationalism is the spirit of communism.” The revolutionary front in Finland cannot be developed otherwise than as an anti-imperialist front and determinedly maintaining the anti-imperialist view and developing anti-imperialist struggle in its variety and as a whole and not as separate pieces serves building it. This is the lesson we want to highlight today, on the 107th anniversary of the Proletarian Revolution of Finland, which we celebrate as part of the struggle to reconstitute Communist Party of Finland.
The 1918 Proletarian Revolution of Finland lives in us!
Reconstitute the Communist Party of Finland!
Forward in building the anti-imperialist front!
Eternal glory to Chairman Gonzalo!
The editorial board of Punalippu
January 2025