Niilo Wälläri, Eino Pekkala, Erkki Härmä and Kusti Kulo were some of the well-known leaders of the group.
[2] The communists – who followed Comintern's Third Period policy – had a very negative attitude to the Left Group, whose members were branded "vacillators" (Finnish: Hoipertelijat).
It was tactically important for the SDP to maintain an image that considered their left-wing opponents as a single Moscow-led entity.
The communists tried to gather support for the so-called Copenhagen treaty according to which the cooperation between Finnish, Norwegian and Soviet trade unions was to be increased.
In addition, they wanted to end cooperation with the International Labour Organization and to intensify fight against social fascism.
The policy was strongly objected by the socialist trade union leaders including Matti Väisänen and Erkki Härmä.
In its first issue the paper emphasized independence of the Finnish workers' movement and demanded that the union statutes should be respected.
It was suggested that the left, including social democrats, should unite against the far-right Lapua Movement which was terrorizing the organized workers.
The socialist left, however, participated in the formation of a new SDP-controlled trade union SAK,[10] which, in its early years, was boycotted by the SKP.