Unicorn
10th April 2008, 23:17
After the end of the Continuation war communist organizations were legalized in Finland in accordance with the armistice terms with the Soviet Union. The Finnish Communist Party (SKP) was active in politics through SKDL which had left-wing social democrat members in the beginning but was practically dominated by communists.
Electoral success was comparably good (18-25% of the vote). See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish...ocratic_League
SKP split to two factions in 1969: the majority faction (Eurocommunists critical of CPUSA) and the minority faction (="Taistoists") which was Marxist-Leninist and upheld Brezhnev. Student politics in Finland were controlled for a short time by this anti-revisionist minority faction of SKP. Maoists/Trotskyists were not welcomed in the party. The Marxist-Leninist opposition was expelled 1985-1986. SKP and SKDL went defunct in 1990. Both the Eurocommunists and the opposition founded a new party, Vasemmistoliitto then. Ironically, the majority of Finnish MPs representing Vasemmistoliitto are former anti-revisionists though the party is basically Social Democrat today. Former Eurocommunists and former Taistoists still hate each other although they both support capitalism today.
Today there are two registered communist parties: SKP (different from the old SKP) and KTP. SKP was founded by Gorbachev supporters and it is highly revisionist. KTP is the party of traditional Marxist-Leninists and upholds Stalin and Brezhnev though it is critical of the 1970s and 1980s period in the USSR.
KomNL (Communist Youth League) is an independent organization founded in 2000. The background was that the youth organization of SKDL joined Vasemmistoliitto and the successor "Communist Youth" founded in 1995 went Trotskyist. It is Marxist-Leninist (the party program mentions scientific socialism as defined by Marx, Engels and Lenin as the basis). It opposes Trotskyism, Khruschevism and Eurocommunism.
Electoral success was comparably good (18-25% of the vote). See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish...ocratic_League
SKP split to two factions in 1969: the majority faction (Eurocommunists critical of CPUSA) and the minority faction (="Taistoists") which was Marxist-Leninist and upheld Brezhnev. Student politics in Finland were controlled for a short time by this anti-revisionist minority faction of SKP. Maoists/Trotskyists were not welcomed in the party. The Marxist-Leninist opposition was expelled 1985-1986. SKP and SKDL went defunct in 1990. Both the Eurocommunists and the opposition founded a new party, Vasemmistoliitto then. Ironically, the majority of Finnish MPs representing Vasemmistoliitto are former anti-revisionists though the party is basically Social Democrat today. Former Eurocommunists and former Taistoists still hate each other although they both support capitalism today.
Today there are two registered communist parties: SKP (different from the old SKP) and KTP. SKP was founded by Gorbachev supporters and it is highly revisionist. KTP is the party of traditional Marxist-Leninists and upholds Stalin and Brezhnev though it is critical of the 1970s and 1980s period in the USSR.
KomNL (Communist Youth League) is an independent organization founded in 2000. The background was that the youth organization of SKDL joined Vasemmistoliitto and the successor "Communist Youth" founded in 1995 went Trotskyist. It is Marxist-Leninist (the party program mentions scientific socialism as defined by Marx, Engels and Lenin as the basis). It opposes Trotskyism, Khruschevism and Eurocommunism.