from a new person

[candida]

Hi!
I've been reading this board for a week now and I decided to join, because this looks like a pretty intelligent place (most of the time anyway ;) ) I do read other leftist boards too, but some of them are really not always worth visiting. Yet this place seems to have fairly interesting discussions and opinions. And i'm not just sucking up  to you people, i actually mean it :D

[turnoviseous]

Welcome, candida. We are all happy that you joined these boards! If you have anything to ask, just ask. Especially if you are interested in something of marxist theory, or something connected to that of course, we will try to answer it in soonest possible way.

comradely,

Luka

[Daymare17]

Hello and welcome to the boards. Always nice to see new eager people.

Comradely,
Rune

[Frederik]

Welcome comrade Candida. It is always good to see new people on the board.

[mir]

Welcome!

[igor_r]

Welcome, comrade. It good to see someone from Finland, where directly do you live there?
Comradely, Igor (Russia)

[candida]

Thanks. I live in the south, near Helsinki (the capital).

[Volkov]

Originally posted by candida
Hi!
I've been reading this board for a week now and I decided to join, because this looks like a pretty intelligent place (most of the time anyway ;) ) I do read other leftist boards too, but some of them are really not always worth visiting. Yet this place seems to have fairly interesting discussions and opinions. And i'm not just sucking up  to you people, i actually mean it :D

Ach!  You are lying.  You see, I know of this technique to see if people are sucking up, and I can tell that you are doing it.....just kidding!:D

Welcome to the board.  It is good to see a new person around.  

On a side note, it is truly annoying to see that many of the sites that call themselves Socialists are in fact Stalinists.:mad:  This is the only consistent Marxist message board I know of.

[igor_r]

Originally posted by candida
Thanks. I live in the south, near Helsinki (the capital).

Thats good! Last time i've been to Helsinki, i didn't find any marxists. Do you participate in any organization?

[Monster]

Welcome, Nordic comrade! Always good with new people around.
Anything in particular that interests you?

[candida]

Originally posted by igor_r
Do you participate in any organization?

Well, I was a member of the youth section of the only leftist party that ever gets a decent number of votes here, called the left alliance or something in english. But they are a bit of a joke in my opinion. They are not that left really. Oh, and its leader at the moment is a member of the orthodox church... And I do think people should be able to believe in what they want at the privacy of their own homes, but as a leader of a leftist party... And she is not shy talking about it. EVERY WHERE.

[igor_r]

Was it the party affiliated to british SWP? If yes, its not strange, in Britain they are with radical muslims, in Finland m-m-m.. with orthodox :)

[Frederik]

Candida,

I can understand that the leadership of this left party (what's its name) is not vey good. But how is the situation - are there any opposition to this leadership?

And does this party attract many workers? How big base does it have in the trade union movement? How many votes do they get?

And what other workers' parties are there in Finland? I don't know very much about it, but I would very much like to know.

Comradely,
Frederik

[candida]

Originally posted by Frederik
Candida,

I can understand that the leadership of this left party (what's its name) is not vey good. But how is the situation - are there any opposition to this leadership?

And does this party attract many workers? How big base does it have in the trade union movement? How many votes do they get?

And what other workers' parties are there in Finland? I don't know very much about it, but I would very much like to know.

Comradely,
Frederik

The problem is that the current leader called Siimes, is actually quite intelligent and well read, but there is the religion thing and like many other organizations (at least in this country), its leaders seem to be almost afraid of the word communism. They don't want to scare away the voters or something... In the last election they got 9.9 % of the vote and now they have 19 members (from 200) in the Finnish parliament.
There is some opposition against her leadership (not much) mainly from the "old wing" people who have been members of different commie parties since the 70's. The opposition grew after Siimes just recently talked about the EU military plans in a positive way. And a lot of people inside the party are now scared she will start supporting plans to join the NATO next. (However, I personally think this is quite unlikely, if no other reason than the fact that the majority of the general public in Finland is very much against NATO.) Another problem with this party is that it does not seem to be very united. It was born from the remains of several other leftist parties and there seems to be some e.g. personal problems and fights going on.
The other leftist parties are more communist, but they get very very little to no votes.
The party attracts workers, but there has been some criticism that it is a bit too, how should i put it, elitist. But I don't think that is completely true. And by the way, that is their english homepage (i hope, and if i did it right     :)       )

http://www.vasemmistoliitto.fi/en.html

And here ends my very short presentation of Finnish leftist parties, hope i did not bore you to death with it :D My English friend  says she will kill herself if i talk about this Finnish party stuff with her one more time so it seems not everyone finds it as fascinating as I do (especially outside of Finland)...

[igor_r]

Sorry, i misunderstood you to be a Sosialistiliitto member. What other leftist groups are in Finland. I've heared there is CWI group in Oulu, are they strong? Do you have some kinds of big demonstrations, strikes etc?