Tiina Sandberg Took floor on social movements and peace

During the last years the voice of the left has got more power and it has been delightful to hear more comments about class and even Marxism. New young people are looking for an option for There Is No Alternative – arguments of right wing parties. Obviously, these people think that they could find something from left. But do they?

For example. In Finland we were able to create some big demonstrations against austerity but were not able to confront our government and make them resign or retreat from their plans. In my opinion this was due of lack of co-operation between citizens protest movements and parliamentary power. In order be able to avoid this problem in future we need to combine leftist parties and activists to common campaigns.

I see this a as a common problem in Europe. And it is a great challenge for European left. We must be able overcome parliamentarism and listen carefully those movements and take their ideas to political discussions and be their way to power. We must put their targets before our parliamentary goals or at least on the same level. This could create new trust and a vision of left being a part of the solution.

For example, now most of the Finns are in favour of Nordic social security model we have, and they are sick and tired to ongoing proses of remodelling our healthcare system, which seems to be just a project for privatization of healthcare system. At this moment they are looking for a someone to say that this madness needs to stop. And Left in general is not sending this message to them.

Also, the national security and the relations with Russian and the question of NATO-co-operation are alarming citizens. Our government is instigating insecurity and taking more hostile attitude and actions towards Russian.

In this situation it is alarming that Left alliance, formally very anti-NATO party, seems now be taking actions that are not clearly against war and for peace. We have heard that many of their members, also members of parliament have been talking about so called” plausible defence of Finland” when the government is planning to spend billions of euros to new NATO-compatible fighter planes.

These kinds of talks are very alarming, and it would be nice to hear what the official opinion of Left Alliance towards these fighter planes is and also to our relationships with Russian in general.

So, the situation in Finland and in Europe is ready for leftist initiatives and there is a huge need for strongly leftist politics. It is a shame if the left is not able to respond to this need. This would be the most important thing to work with in our upcoming parliamentary elections, EU-elections and possible provincial elections in Finland.

Tiina Sandberg
General secretary of CPF
Brussels, 30.09.2018