Date: Fri, 24 Nov 1995 22:41:23 -0500 (EST)
From: Jim Jaszewski <jjazz-AT-freenet.hamilton.on.ca>
Subject: Re: 100 Years of (Mis)Understanding



On Thu, 23 Nov 1995 ROSSERJB-AT-vax1.acs.jmu.edu wrote:

> I note the example of Finland.  Finland was a part of Tsarist Russia
> and not especially better off.  It got out and was never a part of
> the Soviet system.  I would contend that today, Finland, a functioning
> social democracy with a high proportion of state ownership of the
> means of production, is economically, socially, and politically better
> off than any state that was under Soviet rule at any point.  It has
> also never been criticized by Amnesty International.
>      So, get real out there.  Socialists who push "Leninist" ideas
> of democracy will remain as marginalized as they deserve to be.

	I'll leave your anti-Lenin-ism to someone more knowledgable, and I
don't know enough about the situation in Suomi, though I _do_ come from
that outpost on Lake Superior: Thunder Bay, Ontario -- home to more Finns
than any place outside of Helsinki, and the sauna capital of Canada -- but
I _do_ recognize an exceedingly superifical and downright WRONG
interpretation when I see one... 

	For one thing, you must be TOTALLY oblivious to the failed Finnish
Revolution...  Many of the survivors of the social democrat sell-out came
to Canada (and Thunder Bay) _expressly_ to avoid being murdered by the
white guards.  Lenin sent them GUNS at least (did they ever get there?)..!

	You also miss Suomi's `special' relationship with the USSR which 
played a DECISIVE part in the building of its `social democracy'.

	There are at least _two_ Finns here on the List;  perhaps they can
fill us in on some details... 



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