In the autumn of 1974, a national umbrella organization, Popular Association For Independence, was established and journalist Heikki S. Eskelinen [fi] was elected chairman.
[1] During Eskelinen's leadership, contacts were also established with the anti-communist Finnish Society Support (SYT) and the Business Commission (EVA).
[3] The organisation's chairman, Heikki Eskelinen, and its secretary, First Lieutenant Pertti Olavi Riutta, became embroiled in a conspiracy involving espionage in the early 1980s.
In 1978, Riutta founded a secret military organization called the North Star, which was intended to be a resistance movement should the Soviet Union occupy Finland.
Riutta stole firearms, hand grenades and explosives from the Finnish Defense Forces for the use of the North Star.
In March 1984, the Supreme Court sentenced Riutta and Eskelinen to imprisonment for espionage in favor of France, as well as for firearm and explosive offences.