File spoon-archives/marxism-news.archive/marxism-news_1997/marxism-news.9710, message 38


From: komnuor-AT-dlc.fi
Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1997 16:59:01 +0200
Subject: M-NEWS: news from cy of finland





Communist Youth Infobulletin 3/97

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THIS IS *NOT* AN ISSUE OF MURROS. Murros is a revolutionary magazine published by the Communist Youth of Finland at least five times annually. It s in Finnish, but each issue has an english summary of the articles (either in the magazine itself or as a supplement). This year, Murros has 5 issues plus a special 14th World Festival supplement.

HOW TO SUBSCRIBE TO MURROS:

Five issues of Murros can be subscribed by sending any widely-used currency worth 60 Finnish marks (about $12 or  8) to our address. For foreign subscribers this will also include this bulletin and examples of our printed material (posters flyers etc.) with each issue. Old issues can be ordered for $3 each, and the 14th Festival Special Supplement for free.

Organisations and other publishers can subscribe to Murros by exchange. Send us the latest issue of your magazine/paper (preferably with any other material you care to send) and tell us that you want to start exchanging, and we ll start sending you Murros in exchange of your magazine/paper.
Also, please tell us if your material can not be used in future issues of Murros or in the printed material of the Communist Youth of Finland. Any magazines/papers we receive will be circulated amongst our membership in the meetings of RCC and other nationwide events.
EXCHANGES ARE VERY WELCOME!

Murros is an internationally-minded, theoretical and current affairs, proletarian youth magazine. We are always on the look out for foreign contributions, so if you have something you would like the Finnish youth to read about don t hesitate to send it to us. Contributions should be in english or swedish. You can also ask us about article exchanges or specific articles of Murros in english.  
If you want to use the material published in Murros, please send us a request of what you would use (article, drawing, photo) and where.

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INFOBULLETIN 3/97
News from Finland

Since the last bulletin was published, several major events have happened (or have started). The summer festival season was as good as ever for publicity and agitation, and this year, as in 1995, it started with a multicultural festivity in Helsinki. The major international event for progressive, revolutionary youth, the 14th World Festival, was held in July-August, and a new nationwide campaign was started in the autumn. The Fall Meeting was held, where organizational  technicalities were sorted out and new officials elected.

On 24.-25. May the multicultural festival World Village, held last time in 1995, took place in Helsinki. Numerous booths selling ethnic food, fair trade shops, handicraft stalls, friendship  associations and civil organizations campaigning for multiculturality were present, along with  full and colourful program - dancing, theatre, concerts etc. etc. The Communist Youth of Finland were of course here with their own table, side by side with the NPC Finland (of the 14th World Festival) stall, from where the Festival-promoting newspaper Uudisraivaajat was handed out. With over 50,000 visitors, the
festival was a success for us both economically and in public terms, as several Helsinki (and other culture-!) youth buzzed around the tent, showing great interest. (As that one shy-at-first comrade,
who was pacing uneasily before our stall with a crumpled 50 mark note in his hand, then shouted "Oh, to hell with all", slammed the money in the table and walked away with a black fist on red background covering his chest.) Noteworthy is also that the organiser of this event would not at first allow us there, as we are "political", but heck, what isn t?

On 15. June was held the Provinssirock, traditional starter of the rock festival season, which continues until august. Including this at least 5 different festivals and concerts had an agitation group of the Communist Youth - no stalls as the organisers "don t want anything political"  although where they draw the line varies greatly.

On 28. July - 5. August was held the 14th World Festival of Youth and Students in Havana, Cuba, after an 8 year break in the Festival movement. This was the first Festival where the Communist Youth of Finland took part, and with its 42 (seven comrades) Finnish delegates was among the smallest ever Finnish delegations, and as a Festival as well, although over 12,000 youth from more  than 130 countries gathered together despite patchy and rushed preparations. Times have changed greatly since the old days of the Festival (the 11th was also held in Havana, Cuba, in 1978), and  since the last 13th Festival in Pyongyang, North Korea in 1989. An example is the fact that the SDNL (Democratic Youth League of Finland), which mainly hosted the 1962 WFYS in Helsinki, boycotted this because of "the human rights situation in Cuba". We don t uncritically approve of Cuba either but see the Festival more as an international event and not tied to the host country.
During the Festival a meeting was held between revolutionary youth organisations from the Nordic countries, with representatives from Sweden, Norway and Finland, and private discussions were conducted with Danish delegates. The Communist Youth of Finland made contacts with over 40 organisations from different countries, distributed a few hundred Special Supplements of Murros in english, collected material from dozens of other organizations, let alone hours of bilateral discussions and personal contacts with comrades from around the world.
The enthusiasm and definite need of the young people of the world to have their own time and place clearly points out the importance of the Festival movement, and we eagerly wait for the 15th Festival to be realised.

For a fuller report, please visit our home page where you will find the Festival article of Murros in english. The NPC Finland in its last meeting decided to continue its work with a view of future Festivals, and it can be contacted through us as its member organisation.


On 9. August a street was held up in Tampere as a counterattack against the rule of the car. This event lasted for the whole day, with over 1,000 participants dancing, skateboarding, etc. Comrades from around the country participated.

On 16.-17. August the nationwide Summer Days of the Communist Youth were held in Meriharju, Helsinki. In the meeting the autumn s campaign Rights To The Youth and the 14th Festival were discussed. The Committee of the Communist Youth also met on this occasion, deciding among  other things the schedule of the Fall Meeting.

On 17. August was held the Elmu (Association of Live Music) People s Party in Kaivopuisto, Helsinki. The Communist Youth campaigned with their own tent in this event that gathered tens of thousands of people.

In the old style, On 30. August at Pavi, Helsinki, was held the August meeting of communists. In the seventies these gatherings drew thousands of people and the tradition is being revived. The "Rule of the people" orchestra of the CY Helsinki Branch performed along with the legendary Agit Prop, which hasn t mellowed down a bit since the Festivals of Berlin and Havana. There was a reasonable audience here and especially delightingly many young people.
On the occasion of the august meeting, a radio interview and a newspaper article about the Communist Youth were made.

On 19. September the Murros 4/97 was published. Included are for example the popularity of rightist populism in Norway, Co-operatives, 14th World Festival of Youth and Students, Nordic meeting of Communist Youth, future activities of the Communist Youth...
Next issue will be published in mid-November.

On 24. September a demonstration in favor of shortening working hours was held outside the Helsinki City Hall. The City of Helsinki has millions of marks in savings and the demonstrators demanded that at least part of it be used for employment. The Communist Youth participated with their own "Decapitate capital" banderol.

On 4. October the 2nd Fall Meeting of the Communist Youth was held in Jyv=84skyl=84, Finland. The meeting handled mostly organizational technicalities. Pia Kovin and Juhani Lohikoski, both of Helsinki, were re-elected as the Chairperson and Treasurer respectively, while Anna Niemel=84 of Vantaa replaced Katri Selin as the Secretary and Ville Vuorjoki of Rovaniemi replaced Pekka  Huttunen as the Vice-Chairperson. Election of the International Affairs Responsible was shifted from the Committee to the Fall Meeting, and Teppo Saarinen continues in this duty. The  Committee itself was renamed, with a close vote, to be the Revolutionary Central Council.
After a hot debate of the ideological and economical basis of the membership fee, it was after several detailed votes decided to be 40 marks (about $8) from the beginning of 1998, to include the members  paper Luokkasota and vote right.

It was founded needful to define rules considering the repulsion of members and replacement of personnel in the middle of a Fall Meeting term. The RCC was given the task to prepare these rules and bring them to the Spring Meeting.

It was decided to found a contact person network on those locals where there is no Communist Youth Branch yet. A list will be published with names of towns/villages/areas with a contact person, who can then be contacted through the RCC and will serve as a branch-founding cadre.
A Comrade Society was also founded, where members e.g. travelling around the country and in  need of a place to stay, showing around, or any other help will get in contact with a local  comrade through the RCC.

The Rights To The Youth campaign and its continuation and the Plan Of Action from the Spring Meeting, and how it s goals were met, were also discussed. These goals were met more or less successfully, depending on the matter, but the goal of raising the total number of branches=20to ten did not realise, although some new branches were founded and membership rate is still on the increase.

International affairs were presented to the meeting, including participation in the 14th World Festival, the planned Nordic meeting of revolutionary youth organisations next spring, a possible summer camp with the Karelian Komsomol (a new co-operation partner) next summer, and  continental division of international contacts. Asia and Africa are still "white spots" in our work, but we hope to find contacts in them as well, or them to contact us. It was decided that  communist parties and other organisations are viable partners in case of a matching partner  (youth organisation) missing, and that before starting concrete co-operation, the other side sideological thesis and principles should be carefully considered and in case of severe controversies, be retained in the discussion/information level.

Other, minor matters, relating to the Principles and This Is What We Think platforms were also brough forward but as these had not been presented in time they were moved on to the Spring Meeting.

On 9. October the Communist Youth Helsinki Branch organised a Che Guevara Commemorial Party in Rauhanasema, Pasila, Helsinki. The program included a Che Guevara dance performance and a Latin American set of the "Rule of the people". The party was further reinforced by a Nigerian civil rights defender, who told about his home country s present situation. The event was quite a success with more than 80 guests, some of them from abroad.



Coming actions:

On 21. October, there will be a demonstration at the House of Parliament in favor of employment and against the cuts in basic social security.

On 24. October the UN day will be celebrated. In Helsinki a roundtable discussion between a Lieutenant Colonel from the General Headquarters, a voluntary conscript woman, a total objector and a disarmament activist will take place at the New University Hall, after which there will be a Carnival-style Peace Procession, during which an address against land mines will be handed to the President of the Republic. In Tampere, there will be a Peace Tent of several civil organisations and a torch procession  in the evening.  

On 25.-26. October will be organised the Murros Readers  Trip to Tallinn, Estonia. Besides  partying and socializing, the future and contributions in Murros will be discussed in a  mini-seminar.

On 7.-8. November a Nuorten Stadi (Youngster s Helsinki) event will take place in Kaapelitehdas,  Helsinki, where various youth groups and organisations from Helsinki will be performing and
presenting themselves. The CY Helsinki Branch will be there, in cooperation with the Red Youth
District of Helsinki.   

On 8. November there will be a Che-seminar, with a Che-party in the evening, organised by the
Finland-Cuba-Association.

On 29. November there will be the Rights To The Youth seminar in Helsinki, organised by the
RCC and the Rights To The Youth Working Group. This will include presentation and live
examples of the position of the youth in today s Finland, and governmental and municipal
representatives to tell us what they re going to do about it.

On 6. December, the Independence Day of Finland. A substitute Party of the People will take place outside the Presidential Palace. Jobs! Welfare! 6 hour working day! Food and  opposition included.

15.-17. December the Next Step fair will take place in the Pasila Fair Centre, Helsinki. This is a yearly education and employment fair for the youth (mainly those finishing elementary school) and for the first time the CY will also present their alternative here - not to sell your work (if you can find any) to a capitalist but to seize the power to the hands of your own class, the working class, and start building a just society together with your fellow man rather than against him.

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Murros 4/97 (8) English summary


THE EDITORIAL, page 2.  LAW IS THE SAME, BUT VERDICTS VARY.

A comment by the Supreme Court judge Eeva Vuori, which stated that a crime   committed by a poor person is more felonious than the same crime committed by a rich person, has stirred up Finland. Everyone, starting from the President, rushed up to shut the judge's mouth. Not because she had made any
mistake, but because it is not appropriate to say this sort of thing in  public. Murros thinks that the matter is not solved by replacing Vuori. 
More appropriate would be to find out if citizens are equal before the law. It would be then found that the law of the ruling class works only for the  ruling class, and one tool of oppression are courts. The only way to have a  change in this is to crush the capitalist society.


RIGHTIST POPULISM POPULAR IN NORWAY, page 3.

The Norwegian Fremskrittsparti (Progressive Party) is on the top of its popularity. The party is
riding on rightist populism, the policy of which is quite controversial. At the same time as one representative of the party says in a May Day rally that the party is defending workers, another one elsewhere says that "I don't like  billboards, they remind me of demonstrations which I also don't like."
The Fremskrittsparti can speak for the workers as passive individuals, but in  demonstrations, as a collective class, it hates them and the trade unions.


ANGRY DANES KICKED THE NAZIS OUT, page 4.

August this year neo-nazis were marching again in Denmark. Because of fierce  opposition they had shifted their march from Roskilde to Koge, thinking that  there they could march in peace. During the march angry townsfolk started to  follow them, shouting and throwing bricks and bottles. Only because of a
strong police escort did the nazis make it to a train and cleared out.



NEWS FROM ABROAD, page 5.

In the small news we tell that Erbakan, leader of the Turkish islamist  Welfare party, and Le Pen, leader of the French far-right National Front met in Turkey to discuss cooperation.
The Turkish government on its own part forestalled the "Peace Train"-project. The message of this project was to stop the conflict in southeast Turkey. The Turkish government continued on its scitzophrenic line, stating that behind the project was PKK, The Workers' Party of Kurdistan.


CO-OPERATIVES - POWER IN UNITING, page 6.

In her article Katja Tuominen outlines the starting points, principles and general goals of the co-operative. She is of the opinion that the  facelessness of capitalism is shown concretely in the fact that it is full of
enterpreneurs only responsible for themselves. The environment is not cared about; neither are much the consumers; they have to pay the expensive marketing and suffer the bad quality of products and raw materials. At least in this stage the purposefulness and humaneness of the co-operative should be
taken into consideration.


REPORT OF THE 14th WORLD FESTIVAL OF YOUTH AND STUDENTS, page 8.

The 14th Festival was held in Cuba in late July - early August. Various conversation groups were part of the program, but these were usually so big that no actual conversation took place especially as no commentary floors were allowed. Thus the level of conversation was quite low and some people
even slept in them. The editorial of Murros was also amazed by the presence of so called hard-liner "communist" organizations. Among other things, these declared that Stalin was an O.K. guy and that his atrocities are only western propaganda. The Red Youth of London stated in their flyer that Trotsky was
an FBI agent and Orwell an imperialist pig. Yeah, and Lenin was probably Santa Claus.
Over 12000 youth participated in the Festival and Lohikoski thinks that this shows that it is worthwhile to organize them in the future as well. However, they could concentrate on solving the world's problems instead of present uncritical admiring of the host country and eg. North Korea.



MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNIST YOUTH ON THE FESTIVAL AND CUBA, page 11.

Seven members of the Communist Youth of Finland participated in the 14th Festival. According to them, best in the Festival was meeting people and organizations from other countries and the spontaneous activities of the participants. Also the positive Cuban attitude on life was praised. Tight schedule and limitations on moving around were seen negative. Excess  bureaucracy and old practices of conduct that sprung up eg. in the conversations were also told to have flattened atmosphere. Class distinctions
in Cuba are greater than I thought, commented one delegate. Another suspected the Cuban revolution of having decayed and corrupted in the USSR model right from the start. A big problem was seen in the Yankee dollars mounting the stage dislocating the country's own currency, peso.
The Communist Youth created international relations with over 40  organisations and the Special Issues we did in English were literally ripped from our hands.


NORDIC MEETING OF COMMUNIST YOUTH, page 13.

A Nordic meeting of Communist Youth, initiated by the Communist Youth of Finland, was held during the Festival. Besides us the RKU (Revolutionary Communist Youth) from Sweden and R=94d Ungdom (Red Youth) of Norway  participated and the Danish R=94d Ungdom was supposed to, but failed to found
the location. Other organizations were invited but didn't respond to the call.
For a start, the organizations told about their history, conducts of action and political ideology. In the meeting we found out that we have the same problems in the Nordic countries, eg. racism and unemployment, that could be fought internationally as well. But big differences arose in the organizations' ideologies. In a question as basical as the analysis on Soviet Union the views between us and the RKU crossed totally. They think that the shit hit the fan only in the sixties, and that the Stalin line was O.K.
For the Communist Youth of Finland, this meeting was a disappointment, but in the future we will still be looking for allies in different countries to fight capitalism in Nordic as well as broader levels.


...FOR THE LIBERATION OF THEIR CLASS?, page 14.

Neiti Torpedo (Ms. Torpedo), a new columnist of Murros, writes about the attitudes of the youth. She thinks that the claim that the youth are passive  and don't bother to think anymore is a lie.

RACISTIC HISTORY  OF THE FREMSKRITTSPARTI, page 15.

In the article we tell about the racistic history of the Fremskrittsparti. We also wonder why the chairman of the Perussuomalaisten Puolue (a Finnish Party -tn) openly declared that he supports the Fremskrittsparti. Is Soini aware of the racistic history of the Fremskrittsparti, or is he consciously supporting this line. Election lists of the Perussuomalaiset included far-righters in the early nineties. At that time the party office denied that they knew of their farrightness.

RIGHTS TO THE YOUTH, page 19.

During the summer the Communist Youth were present in various festivals and in the autumn the Rights To The Youth campaign was started, the purpose of which is to bring matters oppressive to the youth into discussion - by flyers, demonstrations, stickers, addresses as well as seminars.


INSIDE THE SYSTEM, page 20

...is a media-critical column of Murros. This time we write about, among  other things, the building of that Che-mausoleum. Murros thinks that guerrilla's bones  belong to the jungle, not on a pedestal.


  
Next Murros will be out in the middle of November. Until then, Hasta La
Victoria Siempre!

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NEXT INFOBULLETIN WILL BE PUBLISHED IN JANUARY, UNTIL THEN - READ MURROS, VISIT OUR HOME PAGE, E-MAIL US, WRITE US, VISIT US...
FIGHT CAPITALISM, FIGHT RACISM, FIGHT IMPERIALISM!
ORGANIZE YOURSELF AND YOUR COMRADES!


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              *  Kommunistinuoret - Communist Youth of Finland *
              NUORTEN OIKEUKSIEN PUOLESTA - KAPITALISMIA VASTAAN
                       PL 288, 00171 Helsinki, Finland
                  Puh: 358-9-278 2244, Fax: 358-9-278 2244.
                        Sähköposti: komnuor-AT-dlc.fi
                   Internet: http://www.dlc.fi/~komnuor/ 
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