The League of Communists or Communist League (Finnish: Kommunistien Liitto) is a Finnish Marxist-Leninist political organization. The League of Communists was founded in 14.9.2002 by the Communists who were expelled from the For Peace and Socialism - Communist Workers Party (KTP). The organization was at first known as, plainly, Communists (Kommunistit) but the name was changed to its current form during the registration process.
The dispute in the KTP arose as part of its Central Committee wished the party would join a new electoral alliance party (Forces for Change in Finland [MVS]) in which right-wing organizations were also participating. The majority led by chairman Hannu Harju did not approve of this and the Central Committee voted (18-9) against the initiative. The minority, including the Helsinki district organization, the main force behind the project, chose not to respect the decision, and it was expelled. The expelled Helsinki district later participated in the founding of the MVS. Some notable persons among the expelled were Heikki Männikkö (the party secretary), Reijo Katajaranta (the editor-in-chief of the KTP organ) and Pekka Tiainen (the 1994 presidential candidate). In 2005, the (former) Turku district organization of the KTP joined the League of Communists. Both parties adhere to traditional orthodox Marxism-Leninism and support, for example, North Korea as an anti-imperialist bastion. The KTP has, however, chosen not to cooperate with their former comrades who they regard as revisionist traitors. The League of Communists has had to find their allies elsewhere. The MVS was no success and after the general elections of 2003 the league has collaborated with several organizations, like the Communist Party of Finland (SKP) on whose list the League of Communists candidates stood in the elections to European Parliament in 2004. The only elected local councillor of the league, Antti Siika-Aho, stood (in 2004) as a Left Alliance candidate.
As the new organization was set in motion, a newspaper, called Kansan Ääni, was also founded. The bimonthly paper, the editor-in-chief of which is Reijo Katajaranta, looks very similar to KTP's Työkansan Sanomat. Kansan Ääni is also published by two other organizations controlled by members of the League of Communists. These are the People's Front Against European Union (EUVKr) and Work Against War and Fascism (SFT), the latter of which was founded after World War II by former Communist resistance fighters.
Since its beginning the League of Communists has been led by Kalevi Wahrman whose board includes only men. The organization acts like a political party although it is not officially registered as one, an option which, however, has not been excluded.
The Left Alliance is a socialist political party in Finland.
The Communist Party of Finland was a communist political party in Finland. The SKP was a section of Comintern and illegal in Finland until 1944.
The Communist Party of Canada is a federal political party in Canada, founded in 1921 under conditions of illegality. Although it does not currently have any parliamentary representation, the party's candidates have previously been elected to the House of Commons, the Ontario legislature, the Manitoba legislature, and various municipal governments across the country. The party has also made significant contributions to Canada's trade union, labour, and peace movements.
The Rainbow is a political party in Greece, and a member of the European Free Alliance. It is known for its activism amongst what it regards as the ethnic Macedonian minority in Greece and their descendants abroad. The Rainbow states that it sees the acceptance of the Republic of North Macedonia in the European Union with a positive regard.
Hertta Elina Kuusinen was a Finnish Communist politician. She was a member of the central committee (1944–1971) and the political bureau of the Communist Party of Finland; member of Finland's parliament, the Eduskunta (1945–1972); general secretary (1952–1958); and leader of the parliamentary group of the Finnish People's Democratic League.
Finnish People's Democratic League was a Finnish political organisation with the aim of uniting those left of the Finnish Social Democratic Party. It was founded in 1944 as the anti-communist laws in Finland were repealed due to the demands of the Soviet Union, and lasted until 1990, when it merged into the newly formed Left Alliance. At its time, SKDL was one of the largest leftist parties in capitalist Europe, with its main member party, the Communist Party of Finland, being one of the largest communist parties west of the Iron Curtain. The SKDL enjoyed its greatest electoral success in the 1958 parliamentary election, when it gained a support of approximately 23 per cent and a representation of 50 MPs of 200 total, making it the largest party in the Eduskunta.
Communist Workers' Party – For Peace and Socialism is a communist party in Finland. It was founded in 1988 to secure the existence of an independent Marxist–Leninist party. Since it was founded, it has not gained seats in the Parliament of Finland, and as a result it has been removed from the Finnish party register and re-registered multiple times. It has been de-registered since 2019.
The Communist Party of Finland (Finnish: Suomen Kommunistinen Puolue, SKP Swedish: Finlands kommunistiska parti, FKP) or New Communist Party of Finland (Finnish: Uusi Suomen Kommunistinen Puolue, USKP Swedish: Finlands nya kommunistiska parti, FNKP) is a political party in Finland. It was founded in the mid-1980s as Communist Party of Finland (Unity) (Finnish: Suomen Kommunistinen Puolue (yhtenäisyys), SKPy, Swedish: Finlands kommunistiska parti (enhet) FKP(e)) by the former opposition of the old Communist Party of Finland (1918–1992). SKP has never been represented in the Finnish parliament, but the party has had local councillors in some municipalities, including the city councils of major cities such as Helsinki and Tampere. SKP claims 2,500 members.
Karl Harald Wiik was a Swedish-speaking Finnish Social Democratic (SDP) leader. Elected to parliament numerous times between 1911 and the time of his death and Secretary of the SDP for more than a decade, Wiik is remembered as one of six radical SDP members of parliament expelled from the SDP in the aftermath of the Winter War with the Soviet Union.
Workers' Party of Finland is a left-wing political party in Finland. The STP was founded in 2006 as a successor to the Alternative League (1999–2006).
Kansan Uutiset is a Finnish language weekly newspaper published in Helsinki, Finland. It is the party organ of the Left Alliance.
Radical People's Party was a Finnish radical populist socialist political party led by Ernesti Hentunen. The party was active in the 1940s and 1950s. The Radicals participated three times in the parliamentary elections and once in the municipal elections. They were left without MPs, but Hentunen served in the Helsinki City Council in 1948–1950. The party paper was Totuuden Torvi.
Socialist Workers' Party of Finland was a Finnish political party in the early 1920s. The SSTP consisted of radical leftists who split from the Social Democratic Party of Finland after the Finnish Civil War of 1918. The banned Communist Party of Finland (SKP) was the main force behind the party but other socialists were also involved. The SSTP was banned in 1923 and its leading members, including 27 members of parliament, were jailed. The party was succeeded by the Socialist Electoral Organisation of Workers and Smallholders (1924–1930).
For the Poor is a Finnish political party, not situated anywhere on the traditional political map. It was founded in November 2002. The party is one of the smallest in Finland, as it has no seats in either the Parliament of Finland or the European Parliament, and has only ever held one municipal council seat in the city council of Espoo (2008–2012).
The Communist Party of Britain (CPB) is a communist party in Great Britain which emerged from a dispute between Eurocommunists and Marxist-Leninists in the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1988. It follows Marxist-Leninist theory and supports what it regards as existing socialist states, and has fraternal relationships with the ruling parties in Cuba, China, Laos, and Vietnam. It is affiliated nationally to the Cuba Solidarity Campaign and the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign. It is a member of the International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties, together with 117 other political parties. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the party was one of two original British signatories to the Pyongyang Declaration.
The Left Opposition was a faction within the Russian Communist Party (b) from 1923 to 1927 headed de facto by Leon Trotsky. The Left Opposition formed as part of the power struggle within the party leadership that began with the Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin's illness and intensified with his death in January 1924. Originally, the battle lines were drawn between Trotsky and his supporters who signed The Declaration of 46 in October 1923 on the one hand and a triumvirate of Comintern chairman Grigory Zinoviev, Communist Party General Secretary Joseph Stalin and Politburo chairman Lev Kamenev on the other hand.
James Patrick Cannon was an American Trotskyist and a leader of the Socialist Workers Party.
Markus Kainulainen was a Finnish communist politician. He was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Finland (SKP) and served as a Member of the Parliament of Finland from 1975 to 1979 and again from 1982 to 1983, representing the Finnish People's Democratic League (SKDL). After the SKP split in the 1980s, Kainulainen at first joined the Communist Party of Finland (Unity) (SKPy). The SKPy split in 1988 as well and Kainulainen was one of the leading organisers of a new party, Communist Workers' Party – For Peace and Socialism (KTP).
In Finland, the far right was strongest in 1920–1940 when the Academic Karelia Society, Lapua Movement, Patriotic People's Movement (IKL) and Export Peace operated in the country and had hundreds of thousands of members. In addition to these dominant far-right and fascist organizations, smaller Nazi parties operated as well.
Niilo Vilho Rauvala was a Finnish engineer and the chairman of the far-right Lalli Alliance of Finland and the Nazi Party of Finnish Labor in the 1930s and 1940s.
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