Anarchism in Finland dates back to the early revolutionary movements of the 20th century, seeing organized activity begin in the 1960s.
Supporters of anarchism have been in the country since the time of theGrand Duchy of Finland. There was little support for anarchist ideas in the early 20th century Finnish labor movement, and the country was home to a large number of Russian revolutionaries, soldiers and members of theTolstoyan movement, some of whom were anarchists. In addition to Russia, anarchist influences flowed to Finland with immigrants who returned from North America. For example, the long-term chairman of theFinnish Seamen's Union,Niilo Wallari, and the musicianHiski Salomaa were both members of theIndustrial Workers of the World (IWW). In the United States, there was also a working-class college forFinnish American radicals.
TheFinnish Social Democratic Party was influenced by some anarchists in the early 20th century. WhenKaapo Murros, who had translated the works of Russian anarchistPeter Kropotkin intoFinnish, returned from North America to Finland in 1909, he presented his party colleagues at the SDP Assembly inKotka with ananarcho-syndicalist line, one skeptical about the possibilities ofclass struggle fromparliament and proposed some kind ofdecentralizedmunicipal andcooperative strategy.Yrjö Sirola, along with others, attacked such ideas at the meeting, emphasizing the importance of parliamentary work and the fundamental flaws of thegeneral strike tactic.Otto Wille Kuusinen's pamphletAnarchy and the Revolution, published inHelsinki as early as 1906, reflected the SDP's general attitude towards anarchists. In the booklet, a then-deputy member of the SDP's party committee harshly criticized those on the path to violence andindividual terrorism and condemned such practices as "anarchist". The Kotka Assembly called on party branches to be vigilant about such phenomena and to dismiss those involved.[1]
The peak period of anarchist activity in Finland is considered to be 1906–1909. After the abolition of the firstRed Guards established in connection with the1905 Revolution, several underground groups began armed action against the tsarist rule in Finland. Some of the groups were anarchist and participated in various acts of terrorism, along with other workers’ activists and thebourgeoisActive Resistance Party. By the fall of 1909, the activities of the groups had waned after several of their members had been killed, imprisoned or exiled.[2] The most significant anarchist of the 1910s wasJean Boldt, aKuopio-born lawyer who had previously been known as atheosophist. In June 1917, anarchists took overSt. Nicholas' Church in Helsinki, on the steps of which Boldt had been speaking since the spring.[3] The seizure ended with Boldt's arrest and subsequent riots in which three militants were injured. However, the anarchist meetings continued atSenate Square throughout the summer, even though the authorities had interned Boldt inNiuvanniemi Mental Hospital.[4] In the summer of 1917, the Russian soldiers who stayed in Helsinki established a so-called "Anarchist Club" in the factory located on the site of the presentPost Office. Towards the end of the year, Russian anarchists also held theKatajanokka Casino for a while, before the Red Guards took it over in January 1918. During theFinnish Civil War, in March 1918, one Russian and one Finnish anarchist died in an incident between anarchists and the Red Guard militia. According to some estimates, among the Russian military living in Finland, there were even more anarchists than Bolsheviks. Some Russian anarchists also took part in the civil war on the side of the Reds. In February 1918, 250Tsentrobalt anarchist sailors were involved in theBattle of Ruovesi.[5]
Organized anarchist activity did not arise in independent Finland until the 1960s. In the country, however, there were individual Finnish anarchists and anarchist Russian emigrants who were sailors and soldiers that took part in the anarchistKronstadt uprising.[6][7] More than 6,000 of them arrived in Finland in March 1921.Kronstadt refugees were initially locked up in concentration camps on theKarelian Isthmus, after which some returned toSoviet Russia and others remained permanently in Finland.[8]
In 1933, a poem by the anarchistKaarlo Uskela, who died eleven years earlier,Pillastunut runohepo was seized and burned by a court decision.[9] It was considered partlyatheistic andanti-clerical.[10]
In connection with the1968 student movement, materials interested in anarchism gathered around the underground movement andUltra magazine. The anarchist Winnie the Pooh Society also started its activities in Helsinki, where the fight of good against evil was discussed with examples provided by fairy tales. According to Reijo Viitanen, the anarchists even achieved a majority in theAcademic Socialist Society for a short time in 1968, but the leading members of the Winnie the Pooh Society soon afterwards turned towards theFinnish Communist Party andMarxism.[11]
In the 1970s and 1980s, there were anarchist discussion circles and some anarchist small magazines appeared. The first national Finnish anarchist organization can be considered theFinnish Anarcho-Syndicalist Association (Finnish:Suomen Anarkosyndikalistinen Liitto, SAL), which started operating in 1986–1988 and changed its name to theFinnish Anarchist Association (Finnish:Suomen Anarkisti Liitto, SAL) in 1992 after the generalization ofanarcho-individualism. In 1989,Kapinatyöläinen magazine, which was now published by a Helsinki-based collective, began to appear. The number of members of the SAL rose to two and a half hundred in 1993 at its best. However, the size of the Finnish anarchist movement could not be measured by its membership, due to the structure of the SAL and the fact that anarchists often worked in many other organizations and groups, such as theanti-fascist and theanimal rights movement. The SAL's operations waned at the end of the decade. The Finnish Anarchist Association was abolished in 1999. In the autumn of 1996, the anarcho-syndicalist Solidarity Trade Union was established, partly as a competitor to the SAL, but it also ceased to exist in the early 2000s. Theeco-anarchist Black Green Days in Tampere gathered hundreds of participants each year at the turn of the millennium.Justice for Animals andFood Not Bombs have also been largely run by anarchists.[12]
In December 1981, member of the French anarchist terrorist groupAction Directe Lahouari Benchellal, was arrested for forgingtraveler's cheques inHelsinki, Finland. He hung himself while in the custody of theFinnish Security Intelligence Service in January 1982. AD did not believe Benchellal killed himself, and they named a direct action group after him.[13]
Today,anti-capitalist anarchists operate largely in various civic movements, but also in local anarchist groups around the country. In Helsinki, for example, the Anarchist Action Group started in 2003. Newer anarchist projects include, for example, theVäärinajattelija magazine,Takku.net and other various Internet sites. In the autumn of 2006, students at theUniversity of Helsinki founded an anarchist group called Group A. National anarchist meetings have been held in different parts of Finland. The anarchist festival Musta Pispala has been held in Tampere since autumn 2005.[14]
At the turn of the millennium, theIndependence Festival in Helsinki, which took place in 1996–2003 and 2006, received attention onIndependence Day. In September 2006, aSmash ASEM demonstration against theAsia–Europe Meeting and an international anarchist meeting were also held in Helsinki. An event in the style of the Independence Festival was revived in 2013 under the nameKiakkovierasjuhlat, when the reception of the President's Independence Day was exceptionally in Tampere. In thepunk subculture, the anarchist spirit is doing well in Finland. Even theplatinum-class artists likeApulanta use thecircle-A in their symbols, but theanarcho,hardcore andcrust punk scenes, which took a stronger stand, also have their own loyal supporters. The most well-known anarchists in Finland in the 1990s and 2000s wereAri Vakkilainen andAntti Rautiainen, among others. In 2007, theAnarchist Marthas, a registeredMartha organisation, was founded in Finland.[15]
On June 6, 2015, the anarchist allianceAlusta was founded in Helsinki, which included both anarchist individuals and groups. At the time of its establishment, the groups wereGroup A from Helsinki, Aura fromTurku and the Anarchist Karelia Society operating in theNorth Karelia region. Groups were also established in Tampere,Jyväskylä andLohja. In addition to this, private individuals joined the association.[16]
According to the police,left-wing anarchists andneo-Nazis in Finland also organized mutual fights, even by prior arrangement. Left-wing anarchists have also infiltrated theHJK's fan base and staged fights around it.[17]
According to theMinistry of the Interior's report on the situation of violentextremism in 2016, the anarchist movement is not very organized, but rather a loose network that communicates via the internet and only gathers from time to time. The most important communication channel is theTakku.net website.[18]
Today, militant antifascists are organized under the nameCrow Network and have fought with theFinnish Resistance Movement (SVL). Both parties seek clashes but present their defense. The anti-fascists broke the windows of SVL activists and painted "This is where the Nazi lives" on their walls. Authorities believe the organizations are gradually radicalizing each other.[19]
On October 18, 2014, as the police protected a pre-planned SVL street patrol, another group attacked the patrol. This led to a mass battle of dozens of people.[20] According to a message posted on the Takku site, the opponents were antifascists. The antifascists escaped the police, dropping their iron pipes when the police stopped the fight withpepper spray.[21]
At the end of 2016, thePolice of Finland listed Antifa as one of the groups threatening Finland's security.[22] Police estimate that Finnish Antifa's primary targets are theNordic Resistance Movement and theSoldiers of Odin.[22] In addition, the Police suggested that otheranti-immigration or right-wing groups may also be targeted by Antifa.[22]
On October 22, 2017, anti-fascists staged a counter-demonstration in Tampere against a demonstration by the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement. According to police, among the protesters, torches were thrown at the police and attempts were made to catch the neo-Nazis, who were protected by the police. Police are investigating the actions of protesters in a suspected violent riot.[23]
In 2019, according to the Ministry of the Interior, there were violent far-left groups in some areas in Finland, mostly anarchists and antifascists. The radical movement has been limited and has mainly manifested itself in demonstrations.[24]
