Finland

Pinja Vuorinen — After only two weeks in power, Finland’s new right-wing coalition faces neo-Nazi scandals and a mounting opposition to its austerian agenda that make it seem increasingly unlikely to last the full four-year election cycle.
Robert Stark — The parliamentary elections in Finland were expected to be decided by a razor thin margin, and the results did not disappoint.
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Pinja Vuorinen interviewed by Duroyan Fertl

April 20, 2022 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung — Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine grossly violates international law and thus leads to new discussions on how to deal with Russia. As a result, Finland and Sweden are closer than ever to join NATO. If Finland were to join NATO, the Western military alliance's land border with Russia would double. The most significant consequence in Finland regarding the Russia-Ukraine war has been the question of NATO membership, says Pinja Vuorinen, Chair of the Left Youth of Finland. Duroyan Fertl interviewed her about Finland’s position on the war and the expected consequences for Finland.

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Crowds during the general strike in Helsinki, Finland, 1905. By Eric Blanc June 4, 2017 
— Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from Jacobin with the author's permission — In the past century, histories of the 1917 revolution have usually focused on Petrograd and Russian socialists. But the Russian empire was predominantly made up of non-Russians — and the upheavals in the imperial periphery were often just as explosive as in the center. Tsarism’s overthrow in February 1917 unleashed a revolutionary wave that immediately engulfed all of Russia. Perhaps the most exceptional of these insurgencies was the Finnish Revolution, which one scholar has called “Europe’s most clear-cut class war in the twentieth century.”
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By Florian Wilde May 6, 2017
 Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from Jacobin with the author's permission Is it a shortcut, if it’s seemingly the only path on offer? Many left parties in Europe today see participating in a center-left coalition government as the only realistic way to win reforms. They often justify joining these administrations by reasoning that having a left party in government will at least block the most regressive policies and keep a more reactionary formation from taking power. These parties also believe government participation will increase their credibility in the eyes of voters and members, ultimately strengthening their prospects to govern on their own. Twenty-five years of history, however, suggest that these expectations are rarely met.