Nordic Film Series: "To My Son in Spain: Finnish Canadians in the Spanish Civil War"

Finlandia University's Nordic Film Series, a free event open to the public, will feature two viewings of "To My Son in Spain: Finnish Canadians in the Spanish Civil War," with writer Dr. Saku Pinta available for questions. This documentary features the story of Jules Päiviö (1916-2013), who was the last surviving Canadian volunteer of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battallion of the “International Brigades”.

Nordic Film Series: "To My Son in Spain: Finnish Canadians in the Spanish Civil War"

Finlandia University's Nordic Film Series, a free event open to the public, will feature two viewings of "To My Son in Spain: Finnish Canadians in the Spanish Civil War," with writer Dr. Saku Pinta available for questions. This documentary features the story of Jules Päiviö (1916-2013), who was the last surviving Canadian volunteer of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battallion of the “International Brigades”.

Finnish Miners versus Ivy League Capitalists

Finnish immigrants were recruited to work in the copper mines of Michigan by Boston capitalists intimately associated with Harvard. Boston capitalists defined the culture of capitalism in the United States. They extended their culture across the continent as they acquired mines and railroads. Finnish workers encountered Ivy League capitalism in Michigan, Minnesota, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Arizona—often with the same interrelated group of capitalists. The two groups continually met in explosive confrontations in Montana, Michigan, Minnesota, and Arizona. To the Ivy League capitalists, Finns were terrorists who threatened the American social order. For the Finns, it was a war for social justice. In my presentation, I will trace the experience of Finnish workers in corporations controlled by Ivy League capitalists from the first strike at Calumet & Hecla in 1873 to the Red Scare of 1919-1921.

Radical Verses: Aku Päiviö's Literary Influence on the Finnish Working-Class

Aku Päiviö was one of the most influential voices of the Finnish labor movement in North America—a poet who also wrote plays and novels, and an editor who worked for a variety of newspapers across the United States and Canada. During the height of the Finnish socialist movement from around 1904-1916, Päiviö published a number of poems that identified with the actions and ideologies of the working-class. He also edited for newspapers such as Kansan Lehti and Raivaaja, further extending his literary reach. Despite his prodigious publications and influence, however, little of Päiviö’s writing has been translated into English. This paper celebrates Päiviö’s legacy with some English translations of his poems, specifically those commemorating the 1913-14 Michigan Copper Strike, and illuminates how various thematic and structural relationships in these poems relate to the ideologies and movements of the time.

Building the New Society in the Shell of the Old: Finnish-Canadian Hall Socialism and the Canadian Industrial Unionist Support League

The literature on Finnish immigrant working-class movements in North America frequently makes reference to the phenomenon of "hall socialism," so-called because of the central position that the socialist or labor hall occupied in the political, associational, and cultural life of many Finnish communities throughout the twentieth-century. In the 1930s, over 80 such Finnish halls were spread across Canada, and many people associated with these halls vigorously supported the mission of organized labor. This paper will examine the history, ideas, and practices of the Industrial Workers of the World-influenced Canadan Teollisuusunionistien Kannatus Liitto (CTKL; Canadian Industrial Unionist Support League), and its connections to Finnish Canadian hall socialism. The paper will consider the role of the CTKL in supporting workers' struggles, the significance of the hall as a part of the infrastructural bedrock that sustained this support, and the broader interaction between social and radical organizing commitments.

Toward a Better World: Finnish Utopian Communities since 1972

The utopian communities of Finns are linked to world history and the great ideological foundations behind numerous utopian endeavors. In the paper, Finnish utopian communities will be described, compared, and contrasted by their ideological backgrounds and in a global context. In addition, the reasons for the dissolution of these settlements are analyzed. Even though the Finnish utopian communities are not often mentioned together with More's Utopia, or with Fourier, Owen, Cabet, or Oneida, they have an interesting history reaching back to the 1792 “New Jerusalem” plan in Sierra Leone. While the best-known Finnish utopian ventures are Sointula in Canada (1901-1905) and Colonia Finlandesa (1906-1940) in Argentina there were, however, almost twenty similar Finnish ventures around the world based on nationalism, utopian socialism, cooperative movements, “tropic fevers,” and religious ideas.

Työmies and Pappi: A Critical Look at the Finnish Socialist Federation and the Suomi Synod in Early 20th Century Michigan

At the dawn of the 20th century, the burgeoning influence of the Finnish immigrant socialist-unionist movement collided with the authoritative, conservative nature of the Suomi Synod. While the Synod, headquartered in Hancock, Michigan, was attempting to recreate the Finnish state church in America, the quickly radicalizing immigrant socialist-unionist movement was attempting to convert the masses to a materialist message of class struggle manifested by then current conditions in Michigan’s Copper Country and industrial America. The most persuasive voice of class struggle for immigrant Finns at this time was the Finnish-language newspaper Työmies (The Workingman) published in Hancock. Caustic editorials on religion, critical examinations of Christian orthodoxy in translations of Marx and Kropotkin, and ribald cartoons lampooning members of the Synod clergy and laity all demonstrated the overwrought interactions between Työmies and the Synod. This paper will highlight these tense interactions through analysis of doctrine, ideology, and imagery by delving into the primary historical record to reveal the vast gulf between two of the major institutions in early 20th century Finnish immigrant social life.

The Copper Country Strike of 1913-1914 in Finnish Newspapers

The purpose of this study is to take a closer look at media response in Finland concerning the 1913-14 Michigan Copper Strike and depict how the strike was presented in the Old Country and its main newspapers. I shall take a closer look at the 1913-14 issues of Työmies (social democrat), Helsingin Sanomat (liberal), and Uusi Suometar (conservative) for ideological views of the strike. Furthermore, and in terms of close reading and cross-referencing, how did these newspapers in Finland see the strike and the strike’s outcome? Editorial notes and letters from the public shall both be included. Special attention will be given to the notions of transnational solidarity between Finnish-American and Finnish labor activists.

Lessons Learned from 'Hall of Socialism': Juxtaposing Finnish-American Radicalism with Today's Protest Movements

Historical accounts of revolutionary movements oftentimes occlude the pleasures of countering hegemony or criticize the “frivolity” of what is perceived to be non-political activities. However, turn of the century Finnish-American socialist theater clubs and early twentieth century Finnish-American communist halls and their uncounted social groups and activities prove to be a rich resource in reconsidering the importance of acknowledging and understanding the role that pleasure has played and should play in political protest. Finnish-American radical activities, especially those condemned already at the time as hall socialism, are important historical precedents to today’s alter-globalization student festivals and protest concerts, midnight raves

Social and Political Issues and the Finnish Deportees from North America

An important issue in both Canadian and United States immigration history has been the control of immigration, which includes possible quotas, immigration laws as well as denying entry, and finally, the deportation of immigrants. This paper is based on information that is available on the deportations of 167 people, most of them young adult males. Many assume politics was a key motivation for deportation. However, Finnish Americans were rarely deported for political activities. The paper discusses a few interesting cases of political deportations both during the interwar years, and after the Second World War. The information is mostly based on the correspondence between the authorities in Finland and the United States and Canada, available at the Foreign Ministry Archives in Helsinki, Finland. Special attention is directed to the social and political background of those people and of special interest are the specific reasons, social or health problems, which seem to be the basis of most deportation decisions.

Finnish Americans and the Farm Revolt of the 1930s

Farm protest in the United States attracted widespread attention in the 1930s as militant farmers interfered with foreclosure sales, demonstrated at county court houses and state capitals, and blocked highways and stopped trains to prevent crops and livestock from going to market in an effort to raise farm prices. The best known of the protest groups was the Farmers Holiday Association, which was formed in 1932. Prior to the Holiday, however, a left-wing group organized by Communists in 1930 known as the United Farmers League (UFL) gained an initial following in the cutover country of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, northern Wisconsin, northern Minnesota, and parts of the Dakotas and northeast Montana. Finnish Americans dominated the UFL in the Upper Midwest and in a few locales in the Dakotas. Evidence for this high level of influence comes from the fact that the head of the Communist Party’s Agrarian Department was Henry Puro, a key figure in Finnish American Communist circles and a member of the Party’s Politburo. This paper will focus on Finnish American involvement in the UFL and, to a lesser extent, the broader-based Farmers Holiday movement.

'Työmies?': Finnish Canadians in the Economy: A Historiographic Overview

Finnish immigrants are often seen as labor activists, even “radicals,” and key players in the “left-right” political divide, thus indicating a real presence on the “other” side of the economy. How did successive historians build these now-standard views? This paper takes a sweeping tour of writing on Finnish Canadian workers, tracing the evolution of these assessments. Archives and histories provided basic notions of “the” Finnish Canadian and were key sources as professional scholars – many Finns themselves – began their work. In Canada, new academics – Varpu Lindstrom most prominently – wrote about women, arts and culture, intellectual activity, and the impact of Finns as “exceptional” historical actors in socioeconomic terms. But, have historians of Finnish Canadian workers built a convincing case? Examination of Finnish Canadian “economic” historiography offers insights into the Finnish Canadian “story,” and the nature of generalization in immigrant and ethnic history.

Finnish Fighting Words: Printing the Työmies Translation Project

The Työmies translation project involves the translation of that newspaper’s accounts of significant events from Michigan’s 1913-1914 Copper Strike. Työmies was a Finnish-language newspaper, published in Hancock, Michigan, whose socialist-unionist perspective on the strike differed markedly from that of the local English-language newspapers. This project is the first time significant portions of Työmies have been translated into English. In June of 2013, the presenter printed the translation of the Työmies account of the strike’s first day on a hand-operated Chandler & Price platen press. Thus, the presentation describes this unique project: the translation itself, the presenter’s search for necessary type and equipment, and the printing of the broadsides. The presentation will include a history of Työmies and the Strike, with an emphasis on ways in which human culture and language is reflected in the material culture of printing.