The following are three articles written by Robert Bielecki published in Offensiv, the paper of Socialist Alternative (ISA Sweden), about the growing struggle over the past month.
Racist scandals shake Racist government
On 3 September, 25,000 people took part in a massive anti-racist demonstration in Helsinki. The background to this is the racist scandals that have rocked the new Finnish government, which includes the racist True Finns party, sending the government into a political crisis.
It started with the Minister of Industry, Vilhelm Junnila of the far-right True Finns, who has made several racist and scandalous statements.
He called for a “climate abortion” of Africa as a “solution to population growth” and has participated in several Nazi events, most recently in 2019. Junnila was forced to resign after just 10 days — the shortest term in Finnish history.
He was replaced by Wille Rydman, who a year ago was involved in a sexual harassment scandal against underage girls and was also recently exposed for making horrific racist statements — one was that “Somalis are spreading ruthlessly like weeds”.
Minister of the Interior, Mari Rantanen, believes that there is a deliberate ”exchange of people”, i.e. whites are ”exchanged” for non-whites.
And Finance Minister Riikka Purra, also from the True Finns, was shortly afterwards exposed for publishing several vile and racist statements on her blog. Among other things, she said that “we should spit on beggars”, “beat black children” and called people from Turkey “Turkish monkeys”. She has also described women wearing burkas as “unrecognizable black garbage bags”. The Swedish People’s Party blocked a no-confidence vote against her in July.
Anti-racist demonstrations
Against this, the demonstration “We won’t shut up — racists and fascists out of government” was called on 3 September, attracting as many as 25,000 participants according to the organizers, who want to see a Finland free of racism.
“It’s great to see that we are young and old and all kinds of people gathering here today. I guess that’s the point, to say that it’s time to put an end to this nonsense,” demonstrator Mia Hafrén told Yle on September 3.
Now it is important that the will to fight and demonstrate is maintained and that new actions are called.
In addition to the many racist scandals, there is widespread dissatisfaction with the large cutback packages that have been announced, amounting to 6 billion euros, with healthcare in particular exposed to the “savings packages”. The wing government aims to make large cuts in order to “get to grips with the economy”.
Using the strike as a political weapon against the right-wing racist austerity government, and bringing the unions and the wider labour movement into the fight, would be the best weapon to bring down the government and stop their devastating policies.
Hopefully, the successful anti-racist mobilization can encourage more protests and a united resistance to the government’s extreme right-wing policies in a number of areas — such as limiting the right to healthcare for undocumented migrants.
Speaking to Yle on August 30, infectious disease physician Ville Holmberg said that there are no economic reasons for eliminating healthcare for undocumented migrants, but “it seems to be mainly a symbolic measure by the government”. This will hit pregnant women and children particularly hard.
The many parallels with Sweden
There are many parallels with Sweden and its political situation. As in Finland, Sweden has a “blue-brown” government; although the racist Sweden Democrats do not formally sit in the government as their Finnish counterparts the True Finns do, it is on the basis of their diktats and policies that the government governs.
And just like in Finland, big cuts, whipped up racism, a stranglehold on asylum seekers and a huge rearmament of the hard nucleus of the state — military, police and more — are on the agenda.
The question is when the large mobilizations we now see in Finland will reach Sweden? And whether some of the homophobic, racist, sexist and violence-promoting MPs and chairmen of Sweden Democrat will be forced to resign? It is the struggle from below that can create such a change.
Reducing immigration won’t solve anything
Finland has long had the lowest number of refugees and immigrants in Europe and is an example that no matter how much you tighten immigration, it does not stop cuts and worsening conditions for all workers. Worsening conditions for immigrants and refugees has never meant any improvement for the rest of the working class — quite the opposite. Instead, it paves the way for worse conditions for the entire working class.
Racism is a tool to divide the working class and pit them against each other instead of against the causes of all oppression, cuts and deteriorating conditions: capitalism and class society.
The struggle also contains the seeds of a political alternative to current developments: a new working class-based socialist party, which would quickly gain support and provide a real alternative to all the other parties that have moved further to the right in recent years.
Student Occupations — an Echo of France 1968?
Since September 20, Finnish high school students have been occupying the Kallion lukio high school in Kallio, Helsinki, in protest against the major cuts decided by the Finnish racist rightwing government.
Above all, the protest is about the reductions in housing allowances announced by the Orpo government; the general housing allowance will be reduced by 100 euros a month and only cover 70% of the rent compared to 80% today, which will hit students hard. There are also protests against the introduction of tuition fees for foreign students.
“As the government reduces taxes for the richest and takes from students and other low-income people, it is inevitable for us to resist,” the occupiers wrote on Instagram on September 20.
Since then, more schools have joined in. The University of Helsinki’s main building was also occupied, and on 21 September, students from Aalto University in Helsinki took over the University’s main building, Väre, in Otaniemi:
”The government’s measures hit students particularly hard. They involve reductions in social security, housing allowance and student financial aid. In addition, the index increases for study grants will be frozen. Foreign students and teachers will also suffer," Sini Hintsala, an architecture student who is protesting against the government’s cuts, told Swedish Yle on September 21.
The Theater Academy’s building in Sörnäinen has also been occupied, and demonstrations have taken place at Aurum in Turku.
An emerging student movement against the government attacks, and a strong reaction against the brutal worsening workers and social conditions proposed, is exactly what is needed to start a united fightback.
In France in 1968, it was the student protests that brought the working class into the arena of a struggle which eventually became a serious challenge for power. Can Finland’s students inspire similar actions and support from the working class? And will we see similar movements in Sweden against the many cuts that are happening here?
Trade Union Protests Against the Cuts
A storm of protest is brewing against the Finnish racist government. School occupations and student protests against the cuts have been going on for weeks, and now trade unions have also mobilized to protest. If the movements broaden, escalate and are coordinated, the government could be brought down.
Last Wednesday, 27 September, several “political strikes and marches” took place in Finland, reports Swedish Yle. In Turku, the service union PAM, the trade union JHL and the construction union had mobilized for a protest.
For one hour, all work stopped at several workplaces, including Meyer’s shipyard in Turku, at Orion, Sandvik Mining and Construction, Turku Energy, Olkiluoto and Valmets Automotive.
“We are here because of the government’s plans to reduce support for the less well-off in an attempt to ‘save’ the Finnish economy. This is simply wrong,” PAM’s executive director Heidi Lehikoinen told Swedish Yle on September 27.
Resistance to right-wing politics
One of the reasons for the union protests is that the government is planning a “reform”, i.e a deterioration, of the unemployment benefit, which includes the abolition of the child increase (this is a special supplement to the deficit allowance, which in turn “is a deduction that the Tax Administration automatically makes from the tax on earned income if you are entitled to the deduction”, according to the Finnish Tax Administration’s website).
“This reform means that people who are already struggling financially will lose hundreds of euros a month,” says Lehikoinen.
Tiina Nurmi-Kokko, head of the Construction Union, is also concerned about the changes and tells Swedish Yle that:
"We are very worried about young families and students who have it the worst, we want to urge everyone to tell the government that this is not possible and that we must find another solution.”
Tax cuts for the rich
Food aid volunteers also criticize the government for taking from the poor and giving to the rich. The queues for food are already long, and with the government’s plans to severely cut housing, student and unemployment benefits, volunteers fear that the queues will only get longer.
“The government’s measures will hit those who are already struggling. They will be even worse off, which will lead to a significant increase in the queues for food aid across the country. I don’t know exactly what Robin Hood did, but I do know that Orpo [the Finnish Prime Minister] is taking from the poor and giving to the rich”, John Åsvik, chairman of Food Aid Vaasa, told Swedish Yle on 2 October.
The tax cuts that have been announced mainly benefit the already wealthy. With a monthly salary of a staggering 15,000 euros, you earn 2,000 euros in a year, while if you have a monthly salary of 3,000 euros, you only pay 300 euros less in taxes per year.
The proposed cuts come at a time when, as in Sweden and the rest of the world, there is a cost-of-living crisis that has left many people unable to afford basic needs like rent, food, electricity, etc.
The struggle can achieve results
Workers and young people are on the move in Finland, protesting and resisting a racist austerity government that could bring them down — if the struggle is stepped up and broadened. But even the so-called “opposition” has pursued policies that do not benefit the working class — quite the opposite.
A struggle is needed to build a new socialist workers’ party that gathers the bubbling resistance into a movement against the capitalist system that will only mean further deterioration and attacks on workers, young people, climate, democratic rights and more.
