Minority nationalism and visions of socialist unity in the post-war Finnish labour movement, 1944–1949

ABSTRACT

The interpenetration of nationalism and socialism is a seminal problem for understanding 20th century labour movement history. This article approaches the issue of ideological interpenetration by way of a close examination of the relationship between minority nationalism and socialist unity during a formative phase for the Finnish labour movement in the post-war period. More precisely, the article investigates the Swedish-speaking minority within the Finnish labour movement and its attempt to unify different ideological factions in the labour movement through minority nationalism. The article contributes to the study of the relation between socialism and nationalism by extending the discussion to include national minorities and their relation to the socialist labour movement. The main theoretical innovation of the article is the concept of socialist minority nationalism. This concept will function as a heuristic tool for analysing the intersection of nationalism and socialist class-consciousness within the Finnish labour movement. The Swedish-speaking agents of the Finnish labour movement, and their socialist Finland-Swedish identity-project, has hitherto been neglected in Finnish labour history. Through historical investigations of national or ethnic minorities, or other past and present marginalized groups and individuals in labour history, it is possible to problematize the hegemonic historical narratives of the majority.

KEYWORDS:

• Socialist minority nationalism
• historiography
• minorities
• post-war labour movement
• Finland-Swedish

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The traditional (bourgeois and social democratic) label for the period from the end of 1944 until the summer of 1948, when the SKP/SKDL suffered a heavy loss in the parliamentary elections and was forced out of government, in Finnish historiography (Holmila & Mikkonen, 2015, pp. 14–9).

2. TYARK, Finland-Swedish social democrats archive, Fb:16 Incoming letters 1945–48, Letter from Dalsbruk sv. worker’s association undated 1945; Letter from Hangö 19 February 1946, Letter from Oravais 8 April 1946, Letter from the Swedish cooperation committee in Northern Ostrobotnia 10 September 1946, Letter from Pernå 1 November 1946.; Arbetarbladet, 16 January 2023 January 1946.

3. KA, SKDL’s Swedish Section Archives, Annual Reports, Annual Report 1946.

4. TYARK, Finland-Swedish social democrats archive, CC:CC2 Confederations Board’s Protocols 30 June 1945.

5. TYARK, Finland-Swedish social democrats archive, CC:CC2 Confederations Board’s Protocols 27 August 1945.

6. KA, SKDL’s Swedish Section Archives, Protocols, minutes of meeting 2 April 1945.

7. KA, FBF Archives, Protocols, minutes of meeting 27 September 1945.

8. Folktidningen, 20 December 1944.

9. KA, FBF Archives, Protocols, minutes of meeting 27 September 1945.

10. KA, FBF Archives, Protocols, minutes of meeting 27 September 1945.

11. TYARK, Finland-Swedish social democrats archive, CC:CC2 Confederations Board’s Protocols 12 July 1946.

12. TYARK, Finland-Swedish social democrats archive, CC:CC2 Confederations Board’s Protocols 12 July 1946.

13. Arbetarbladet, 2 September 1946.

14. TYARK, Finland-Swedish social democrats archive, CC:CC2 Confederations Board’s Protocols 13 September 1946.

15. KA, SKDL’s Swedish Section Archives, Protocols, minutes of meeting 5 September 1946.

16. Folktidningen, 19 October 1946.

17. KA, SKDL’s Swedish Section Archives, Protocols, minutes of meeting 4 October 1946.

18. Folktidningen, 29 October 1946.

19. TYARK, Finland-Swedish social democrats archive, CA:CA1 Confederations Congress protocols (printed), ”FSA:s extraordinarie kongress 26–27 oktober 1946”, pp. 7–10, 13–15.

20. TYARK, Finland-Swedish social democrats archive, CA:CA1 Confederations Congress protocols (printed), ”FSA:s extraordinarie kongress 26–27 oktober 1946”, pp. 10–11.

21. KA, SKP Archives, Protocols of SKP’s Party Directorate, minutes of meeting 28 October 1946.

22. KA, SKDL’s Swedish Section Archives, Protocols, minutes of meeting 30 October 1946.

23. KA, SKDL’s Swedish Section Archives, Protocols, minutes of meeting 29 November 1946.

24. Ibid.

25. Arbetarbladet, 17 December 1946.

26. KA, SKDL’s Swedish Section Archives, Protocols, minutes of meeting 20.12.1946.

27. Folktidningen, 28 December 1946.

28. Arbetarbladet, 30 December 1946.

29. Ibid.

30. Ibid.

31. Ibid.

32. Ibid.

33. Ibid.

34. TYARK, Finland-Swedish social democrats archive, CC:CC2 Confederations Board’s Protocols 21 November 1946.

35. ARAB, Tage Erlander Archives, Correspondence, letters from Väinö Leskinen to Tage Erlander 2 January and 7 January 1946.

36. TYARK, Finland-Swedish social democrats archive, CA:CA1 Confederations Congress protocols (printed), ”FSA:s trettionde ordinarie kongress hållen i Helsingfors den 24–25 mars 1947”, p. 17.

37. Ibid.

38. Ibid.

39. Ibid.

40. Ibid, p. 27.

41. Ibid, p. 28–30.

42. Ibid, p. 36–38.

43. Se for example Ny Tid 29 April 1947; 12 May 1947 and Arbetarbladet 28 April 1947; 14 May 1947.

44. Arbetarbladet, 25 August 1947.

45. Ny Tid, 27 August 1947.

46. TYARK, Finland-Swedish social democrats archive, CA:CA1 Confederations Congress protocols (printed), ”FSA:s trettioförsta ordinarie kongress hållen i Helsingfors den 26–27 mars 1948”, p. 42.

47. Hufvudstadsbladet, 20 November 1976.

48. Svenska Demokraten, 26 April 1949.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Kone Foundation and the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland. Koneen Säätiö; Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland.

Notes on contributors

Matias Kaihovirta

Matias Kaihovirta earned his PhD in Nordic history from Åbo Akademi University in 2015 and he is currently (8/2019) appointed as a postdoctoral researcher in political history at University of Helsinki. His research interests deals with the history of the Swedish-speaking working class and labour movement in Finland.

Jonas Ahlskog

Jonas Ahlskog earned his PhD in philosophy from Åbo Akademi University in 2017. He is currently a postdoctoral grant researcher within a Kone Foundationen funded interdisciplinary research project on concepts of class and nation in the Finnish labour movement during the 20^th century.

Mats Wickström

Mats Wickström earned his PhD in General history from Åbo Akademi University in 2015. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher in minority studies at Åbo Akademi University.