Finnish Socialist Federation

Immigrant recruiters were dispatched to Europe to entice people to come to America, where available land was comparatively bountiful and the promises for employment rose.

[1] A primary reason for this immigration spike was the Russian Conscription Law of 1901, which provided for the drafting of Finns into the Tsarist army, to which there was massive popular resistance.

[3] Explicitly socialist propaganda among the Finns dates back to 1899, when a number of independent local organizations emerged, primarily in the Eastern and Midwestern states.

[4] Early 1900, an expelled socialist student from Helsinki, Antero F. Tanner, who was a founding member of the Rockford branch began to issue a Finnish-language newspaper which declared its intention to speak for the poor and exploited.

One of the places that Hendrickson pioneered was in the Finnish communities of Minnesota, where the first socialist club, "Jousi" ("Crossbow"), was established in Hancock, Michigan.

[5] In 1903, a satirical, pro-socialist journal called Uusi Meikäläinen ("New Fellow-Countryman") was published in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, by a recent arrival, Urho A. Makinen.

[6] Työmies' first Michigan-produced issue appeared on August 16, 1904, and included the election platform of Socialist Party Presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs.

States allowing rebates in 1908 included Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

The constructive socialist Eastern District, centered around the newspaper Raivaaja, named a slate of candidates for the Executive Committee of the Federation in the 1914 referendum election.

The newly elected Executive Committee attempted to exert control of the organization, publication, and assets of the predominantly revolutionary socialist Central District.

Leaders of the revolutionary socialist (Left) faction included Workers' College instructors Leo Laukki, A. Rissanen, and Yrjö Sirola — the last of whom went on to play an influential role in the Finnish Revolution of 1918.

An action was taken by the new Executive Committee on June 17, 1914, calling for sanctions against any local or individual supporting the new left-wing Finnish-language newspaper, Sosialisti, published in Duluth.

A special subcommittee of the Socialist Party's NEC consisting of Executive Secretary Walter Lanfersiek, Oscar Ameringer, and James Maurer attended the November convention of the Finnish Federation and held another session at which seven representatives of each faction made their case verbally and with documents.

The subcommittee reported to the December 12–13, 1914 session of the NEC and recommended that the constructive socialist leadership of the Finnish Federation be backed unconditionally.

Historian Jay Smith noted in a 1958 monograph that of 73,915 prisoners in the hands of the White Finnish Government on July 5, 1918, "no less than 11,783 were dead by the beginning of November."

Executions made up a tiny fraction of this total, according to Smith, with the deaths of the great mass "the result of malnutrition, aggravated by the filthy conditions of the prison camps."

In July 1919, the Finnish Socialist Federation, headed by Translator-Secretary Henry Askeli, issued a proclamation calling for affiliation of the SPA to the Communist International and demanding "the renewal of the program of the American Socialist Party," calling on it to "reject the viewpoint of petty bourgeois socialism" and demanding that it adopt "Marxian revolutionary socialism.

There were no members of the Finnish Federation elected to the National Executive Committee of the SPA; Matti Tenhunen of Superior, WI was nominated, but did not receive sufficient votes.

Writing in Työmies in September 1919, Finnish Socialist Federation Translator-Secretary Henry Askeli characterized the CPA as composed mostly of foreigners who were opponents of political action and who favored a program impossible to carry out in the United States.

The Communist Labor Party was no better, according to Askeli — an amalgam of adventurers, writers, soap box orators, and embittered Socialist regulars out only for revenge.

"[25] On October 25, 1919, some 42 delegates of the Finnish Socialist Federation to the group's 5th Convention gathered at Imperial Hall, located on North Halsted Street in Chicago.

As a news account in the New York Call put matters: It is certain that the convention will see a breach in the ranks, as several Finnish Socialist locals have already decided to demand that the party affiliate with the so-called Third International.

After several days of heated debate, a resolution on Raivaaja was passed which criticized that paper for not altering its position to the left after the Aug. 1919 removal of Editor-in-Chief Frans Josef Syrjälä by referendum vote of the Federation.

[27] The Federation was divided between two main positions: staying within the Socialist Party of America or severing ties and existing as an independent organization.

"[30] The 21 delegates to the 6th Convention voted by a tally of 16-5 to withdraw the Finnish Federation from membership in the Socialist Party, due in large measure to the failure of that organization to affiliate with the Third International.

Even the representative of the Massachusetts paper Raivaaja voted for the independent organization, as did the delegates from New York state, contrary to the pre-convention instructions from their constituents.

The Secretary of the Finish Federation during this interval remained Henry Askeli, who maintained the organization's central office at 3323 N Clark Street, Chicago.

As a result, a new Left Wing Finnish language newspaper was established to take the place of the lost publication — Eteenpäin, the first issue of which appeared on May 25, 1921 in New York City.

In addition to the daily Raivaaja, the reorganized Finnish Socialist Federation published a semi-monthly scientific and literary journal called Nykyaika.

The reorganized Finnish Federation was headed by a National Executive Committee elected from the various locals in the Chicago area up to the August Fitchburg Convention.