The Socialist 14 February 2018

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Big political strike against Finnish government's attack on unemployed

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Big political strike against Finnish government's attack on unemployed

Helsinki tram, photo Smiley.toerist (Click to enlarge)

Edmund Schluessel, Sosialistinen Vaihtoehto (CWI Finland)

Helsinki was at a standstill on Friday 2 February when a strike by the transport union AKT quickly escalated into national action against the so-called 'active model' of unemployment.

Under the active model, unemployed people are required to prove they have worked in casual, often underpaid jobs or taken hard-to-access training courses in order to continue to receive social security benefits.

A march from AKT's headquarters in Kali fed into a mass demonstration where 15,000 people filled Senate Square, despite the closure of almost all public transport in Helsinki and heavy snowfall.

Across the country, not only transport workers but construction and manufacturing unions were on strike, with a tenth of Finland's workers - 200,000 - downing tools.

Sosialistinen Vaihtoehto saw that the mood for a political strike in Finland was increasing months ago, with loud demands for one resonating with participants in September's Kommunizma demonstration against the right-wing government.

The strike took place at a time when political tension has increased further: negotiations between national unions and employers on the 2018 pay agreement are grinding on with difficulty.

Unions are rediscovering their voice, proclaiming the active model to be in violation of the competitiveness pact signed between unions and the government two years ago.

Union members need to seize this moment and push, from the ground up, for their unions to escalate action: now is the time for a general strike against the active model, against austerity, and against all the government's attacks on workers, the poor and the oppressed.

Certainly the active model is the right target: hated by a majority of the population, it is explicitly being used to force unemployed workers to take low-paying, precarious jobs and then go through a maze of bureaucracy just to receive enough money for food.

As unemployment rates in Finland have scarcely changed from 9% since 2011, while bread lines continue to grow, the government clearly does not have any more interest in getting people to work than its two predecessors did.

Resistance

Who, then, can lead this resistance? Left Alliance leader, Li Anderson, received enthusiastic cheers from the crowd in utter contrast to her party's second-from-last showing in the presidential election.

Recent polls say Anderson is hugely popular among left-wing voters and the general public. Anderson's popularity however, like that of New Zealand's Labour prime minister Jacaranda Arden, is largely based on public image rather than a record of action.

The re-election of Sauli Niinist- as president at the end of last month was a sign of the weakness of the Social Democratic party and the Left Alliance.

If the Left Alliance, which has ties to the most active unions in Finland, can seize on the mood and mobilise workers, students and the unemployed into a mass movement against austerity, they will certainly send a shock wave across Finnish politics that will sweep aside both the government and the soft layers of the opposition and open up space for even more radical voices.

However, if the Left Alliance refuses to present a clear socialist programme - full funding for unemployment benefits, a programme of job creation and a sliding scale of wages to ensure people's jobs and pay do not depend on the casino games of the market - they condemn Finland's workers to further austerity.

Sosialistinen Vaihtoehto says:

Escalate the fight against the Active Model: build for a general strike!
Stop all attacks on government benefits and public services. No job cuts, no benefit cuts, no privatisation!
For a mass workers' party on a clear socialist programme - unite workers, students and the unemployed for a mass movement against austerity!