We hereby share a statement published by Punalippu.

Proletarians of all countries, unite!

Long live 108 years of the Workers’ Revolution of Finland!

On the 27^th of January 1918, a red lamp was lit in the tower of the house of the workers’ association in Helsinki to signal the beginning of the revolution. A hard and relentless struggle begun, a heroic battle that lasted 109 days, which again and again continues to inspire new generations of revolutionaries in our country.

Despite the military weakness of the Reds, the Finnish bourgeoisie only managed to get the initiative in its hands in the war operations after the 15^th of March with the intervention of German imperialism. It came close to a defeat, and frightened by this, it unleashed brutal terror. We will never forget that this State, which claims it is the bastion of equality and democracy, was built on a rampant massacre which intended to destroy the revolutionary elements of the working class and the peasantry. Pitch-black opportunists were left alive, such as Väinö Tanner, under whose leadership the social-democratic party started playing its counter-revolutionary role in channeling the hatred of the working class to class conciliation, at the same time as thousands still languished in the death camps.

According to modern bourgeois sources, over 27 000 Reds were killed. The true number is much higher – for example, the book “Memory of the Class War” (1947) reports over 18 000 executed people – this meaning only those who were executed, who the bourgeois sources say were around 7000. According to the bourgeoisie, only some 5000 fell in battle, with the casualties of the butchers being around the same scale. According to the aforementioned book, 15 000 people starved to death or died of diseases in the death camps, where all together around 90 000 Red prisoners were imprisoned. They were only let out when the bourgeoisie understood that it needs the workers to exploit them and that in the prison camps, it was not possible to keep them in a condition to work. Those suspected to be leaders or with Russian background were immediately executed after battles. The butchers did not limit their terror to those who were in the Red Guards, but also those who had in any way been active in the working class movement, or who tried to remain “neutral” during the war. Over 70 000 people were given a sentence in the “trials”. In total, the whole population of Finland was a little bit over 3 million at time. That terror is an example of what is the true nature of the bourgeoisie, that when it is fighting for its existence, its “right” to live as a parasite in the skin of the working masses, it is ready for anything.

Despite all this bloodshed, the reaction did not manage to destroy the revolution completely. It was as the heroic working woman Sofia Hjulgren said as her last words in the speech she held in front of her executors on 22^nd of May 1918 in Viborg, where 131 Reds were killed on that day:

“You may kill our bodies, but our spirit you will never kill. Each blade of grass which grows from the ground red with our blood screams revenge for you, murderers!”

In this fire of struggle, the teachings of Lenin became crystal clear for the Finnish workers, and in August 1918 in Moscow, the second Communist Party in the world was founded, the Communist Party of Finland, which continued the struggle even under complex conditions of fascist terror, until revisionism eventually betrayed this heroic struggle and destroyed the party.

Today we see that the revolution cannot win without its three instruments – the Communist Party, the Army, and the Front, most importantly the Communist Party, as it leads the construction of the three instruments.

In Finland, there was no Party of a new type, which would have broken with opportunism, as was the case in Russia.

The Red Guards were more like militias, which were spontaneously formed during those tumultuous years for the self-defense of the working class, not to take power, and they lacked military leadership and discipline.

Because there still was quite large peasantry with its different layers at that time in Finland, the workers should have formed the front with them. Especially the peasants with some land should have been given concessions so that the bourgeoisie could not have turned them against the revolution, but rather they had joined it to struggle for land.

Overall, the party did not handle the question of power and how to truly keep it in the hands of the workers. The party was not seriously prepared for a revolution with all of its dangers and difficulties, it did not trust the masses deeply, certain that even though the road would be long, the victory of the workers is historically inevitable.

On this occasion, we want to express our red salutes to the Communist Party of India (Maoist), its People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army and the revolutionary masses of the people who oppose the sinister operation Kagaar of the Indian reaction and mainly Yankee imperialism. As here in 1918, the Indian reaction tries to destroy the proletarian leadership of the Indian revolution, leaving the traitors who only think of their own interest and conciliate with the reaction. As here in 1918, the Indian reaction is trembling in front of the revolution, the mighty People’s War, unleashing a rampant attack against any even slightly progressive popular organizations. In 1918, the defeat of the revolution in Finland made it possible that our country became a bastion of the counter-revolution of the world against socialism and the first own State of the workers. India is the most populous country of the world, and even if we know with no doubt that the revolution cannot be crushed, that when it suffers a setback in one place, it will rise again elsewhere, the progress or the setback of the revolution in India is critical for the advance of the World Proletarian Revolution. We want to highlight that in this situation, it is crucial to defend the People’s War in India with all means and on all arenas against the attack of the reaction, as well as to support the other People’s Wars that develop in complex conditions in Peru, Turkey and the Philippines.

We want to greet the heroic struggle of the people of Brazil which at the moment is burning especially on the countryside with the Agrarian Revolution, with the poor peasants waging a struggle of life and death against the large landowners and State forces. We want to condemn the terror of the large landowners carried out with the support of the Brazilian State against the peasants and reaffirm our support for the brave and heroic masses of the people of Brazil who have taken up the struggle for the New Democratic Revolution.

We also want to greet other oppressed peoples of the world who combat and resist the increasing imperialist aggression. Especially we must name the heroic resistance struggle of the people of Palestine. The 7^th of October 2023 was a brave blow against the face of imperialism, of which the ferocity of the genocide faced by the people of Palestine since then is a testimony, which however has not managed to crush it. The resistance holds onto its weapons and is preparing for new heroic acts! The solidarity movement must not give up. Gaza is still starving, the people of Palestine are still facing genocidal aggression. Yankee imperialism is advancing its sinister goals in the region preparing attack against the forces which play a role in the anti-imperialist struggle in Palestine and the whole region, preparing destabilization and aggression against Yemen and Iran for example.

Yankee imperialism, in order to maintain its crumbling position, opens up new fronts for its aggression. With its recent attack against Venezuela it opened a road to deepen the occupation of Latin America, arrogantly declaring it applies the Monroe doctrine with the Trump corollary.

We must with all means fight for that the plans of the imperialists are made empty. Imperialism is a paper tiger, but on short term, it is also a true tiger which can devour millions and millions of people. Imperialist aggression is not a theoretical problem and it cannot be resisted only by preaching the necessity of the leadership of the Communist Party or the Socialist Revolution. Thus we must support those who fight now, those who fight that ferocious looking beast, confident, that in the world proletarian revolution, there are two currents, the national liberation struggle and the proletarian movement, and that in this fire of struggle the proletarian vanguard will be forged to lead the struggle to crush imperialism and all reaction.

Opportunism and revisionism and their destruction in the worker’s movement have allowed Finnish imperialism to develop relatively peacefully. Today we are told that the events of 1918 were only the growing pains of a young nation. National unity and “the miracle of the Winter War” are the corner stones of the bourgeois propaganda. The essence of the bourgeois State of Finland has not changed – it is still a bloody, exploiting butcher State which today maintains its stability with fattening the top layers of the working class by exploiting the oppressed nations.

After the revolution, opportunism started immediately to claim that it was wrong to fight, that it was wrong to rebel, and how it has carved this alleged truth in the minds of the Finnish working class by betraying it time after time. Today the SDP is again preparing to be in the government. Despite its talks, it maintains the course of the bourgeois economics: more cuts, more anti-worker measures, more militarization.

The instability of the imperialist system is increasing rapidly with Yankee imperialism trying to feed the bottomless hunger of its large companies and speculators, to maintain its world domination and its economy which is increasingly showing signs of decay with growth based largely on speculation and the enslavement of the majority of the world’s population. Finnish imperialism tries to desperately manage in this situation, again hanging itself to the imperialist power it deems the strongest. With its weapon monopolies, it is one of the most enthusiastic promoters of imperialist armament, even though to realize this, it must increase the exploitation of its own working class and dismantle the “welfare State” which it created as a concession to the struggle of the workers and to contain it. This government has made in increasing pace anti-worker measures, growing unemployment and thus increasing the exploitation of the employed workers, making it easier to fire people, limiting the right to strike. All this the old unions and “left-wing parties” have allowed. And when they have been in power, they have also made anti-worker policies. Nothing has changed in decades!

In this situation, with the threat of the imperialist world war looming over our heads, we revolutionaries are not afraid. From the chaos which the world war caused after 1914, the Soviet Union arose, and with the winds of the Russian revolution blowing in our country, too, the working class rose its most heroic deed so far. We are not afraid of chaos – it calls us to grasp our tasks more firmly, so that we would be as well as possible prepared when the great historic battles call.

As a revolutionary mass organization, we highlight that for this reason, we need a revolutionary movement, which raises to the struggle to take the power for the workers, today serving the reconstitution of the Communist Party of Finland. Today Finland is an imperialist country, in which we live in appalling luxury compared to the majority of the world. But also in Finland there are those among whom the misery grows heavier, those who are ready to rebel. They are unsatisfied, but they do not see any alternative. We must build a movement which can show this alternative, which in perspective will reach the broadest masses. We must support the anti-imperialist struggle everywhere, because only with imperialist plunder it is possible to maintain the illusion of the unity of the interests of the bourgeoisie and the workers in our country.

Revolution is not a simple process, and it cannot be carried out if we do not see clearly the concrete political necessities of each moment, if we do not consciously follow the correct politics. We must go forward boldly and with determination, always keeping in mind our political goals, trusting the revolution and our own forces, trusting, that we live in the period of new revolutions in which the situation can be transformed in a short time.

The founding meeting of the Communist Party of Finland wrote to Lenin, reflecting on his determination:

“A year ago, You were in exile in our country, now we are with You. You were with us because of the violence of the Russian bourgeoisie, who then through the dictatorship of the Interim Government persecuted the struggling poor masses of Russia. We have now been driven to Russia by the violence of the allied Finnish and German bourgeoisie, who currently through the most bloody military dictatorship are strangling the poor of Finland and Germany.

A year ago, we could not believe that there would be a true poor people’s revolution already during the war. We thought: first peace, then revolution. You, comrade Lenin, told us with deep conviction: first revolution, then peace.

And You acted with determination with this conviction. When the Autumn came, You hurried from Helsinki to Viborg and from Viborg to Petrograd. We sent You personal greetings: Be careful – Kerensky is threatening Your life! You did not care for our warnings, because You thought it was the time to make an audacious attack and raise the poor in revolution.

The Russian poor people rose up. In October, they struck down the rulers of the bourgeoisie and its henchmen, the socialists, and took all the power in their hands.” (Our translation)

Down with the butcher State! Forward in the construction of the revolutionary movement!

Eternal honor to the class heroes of 1918!

All except power is illusion!

Long live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism!

Red Action,

27^th of January 2026