International Situation – Finland

March 17, 2022
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Proletarians of all countries, unite!

International Situation – Finland

This article handles questions of NATO and Finland, based on articles published on the website Punalippu by Finnish comrades. And bear in mind the just and correct thesis of Chairman Mao “Three worlds are delineated”, reject the revisionist Three Worlds theory of Deng Xiaoping. It should work as an addition to our latest publications regarding the international situation, ”Annotations…”, ”World Scene” and ”Our Position…”

Finland, as a relatively weak and second ranked imperialist power has a role among the imperialist powers as a ”neutral mediator” between the superpowers. It is a North-European country that shares a 1340 kilometer border with Russia and is located on the shores of Baltic sea, with a population of 5.5 million. Formerly part of Sweden and then tsarist Russia, it gained formal independency in late 1917, and saw a revolutionary civil war spark in January 1918, inspired by the Great October Revolution in the conditions of deep crisis in the young bourgeois republic. This revolution was repressed with brutal white terror and decades of fascism, but was never crushed, instead left the Finnish working class with valuable lessons. From the 1950s onwards, Finland developed strongly as an imperialist country, with Finnish monopolies in especially ICT, wood-, chemistry- and metal-industries dependent on the plundering of oppressed countries. Their stance not to choose sides but to bargain with both the superpowers has created the term ”finlandization” in western politics for being sissy.

As the enclosing of the encirclement of Russian imperialism by Yankee imperialism, the sole hegemonic superpower, is developing, and as its counterpart the attempts of Russian imperialism to get the initiative by offensive actions inside their defensive situation to break this encirclement. This is seen at the moment in Europe especially in Ukraine. At the same time, Yankee imperialism is talking about developing its relations to NATO-”partners” that include for example Finland and Sweden, and the reaction in Finland is painting horrific pictures justifying increasing militarisation and reactionarisation with the ”threat of Russia”. However, at the same time, Finnish imperialism also wants to portray its president as a ”Putin-whisperer” as he was dubbed in some ”western” medias. In the example of Finland we can see that even though the imperialists are preparing for the next world war they are not yet capable of starting one, and this is why they still need ”diplomacy”. War is the continuation of politics with military means, likewise politics is war without the use of military means.

The president of Finland, Sauli Niinistö, received a phone call from the president of Yankee-imperialism, Joe Biden (supported and elected by the renegade and revisionist Bob Avakian and the so-called RCP-USA) in the end of January. The presidents discussed the situation in Ukraine, as a continuation for the talks they had in December via phone. Also the commanders of the armies of these states have held discussions. Such frequent calls are unusual, and a sign of changing international situation as well as a portrayal of the role of Finlandi.

In October 2021 the North Atlantic Council, the highest organ of NATO visited Finland for the first time, which is also a sign of changes in the international situation as well as the position of Finland. The main focus was the meeting between the head of Finnish imperialism, president Sauli Niinistö, and the general secretary of NATO Jens Stoltenberg. The visit included also meetings with other Finnish bourgeois politicians and ministers and an inspection of the Guard Jaeger Regiment of the Finnish army by the NATO-representatives. The main themes of the meeting were ”the building of international peace and stability” as well as building even better relationships to the partners of NATO. Jens Stoltenberg talked about the changing international situation in the press conference of the meeting: according to him these partnerships with different states are becoming more important as the ”environment of security” is becoming more ”challenging”. Especially he talked about Russia and China, and these were raised as the main threats for the current ”pax Americana” – the nuclear superpower Russia and the social-imperialist power China.ii This is an expression of the decay of yankee imperialism and they are aware of it. In an attempt to secure its position as the sole hegemonic power in the world today, it has to increase its military power and military presence all over the world, to secure itself from contestants and other threats to its decaying reign.

This is the very Yankee-plan luring Putin and Russian imperialism into the trap of the war of aggression against Ukraine, thereby weakening them and subordinating their NATO-allies under their predominace, now declared as the stronger unification of NATO and EU facing the invasion. Have clear, that the unity between the imperialist is passing and relative and the contention is absolute and permanent.

Finland has a special value for NATO especially in the question of Russian imperialism for historical and geographical reasons. Stoltenberg defined the tasks of Finnish imperialism very clearly in his speech:

1. to uphold a strong and NATO-compatible national army (for example, Finnish imperialism recently made the biggest purchase of arms in its history, and spent almost 10 billion euros to buy 64 yankee fighter jetsiii);

2. to develop diplomatic relations to Russia in favour of Yankee-NATO. The Finnish comrades wrote that Finnish imperialism serves NATO best if it does not join it but if the NATO-partnership just keeps getting tighter. This is shown also for example in that the president Niinistö, who used to be a open promoter of NATO-membership, was quaking about ”dialogue”.

The comrades remind us of the words of chairman Gonzalo: ”The more they speak about peace, the more they are preparing for war.” In the very moment the warmongers of different kind rabble-rousing frothing at the mouth, but we shall never forget this very true admonition of Chairman Gonzalo. Sure, the situation is serious, but this won’t change when the yelping and barking peals out.

The head of Finnish imperialism, president Sauli Niinistö, talked about the contradictions among the imperialists, especially between Yankee-imperialism and Russian imperialism in his traditional New Year’s speech. This speech again reinforces what was written earlier: Niinistö declared that Finland, as part of the EU, would be ready for severe actions against Russian imperialism if it were to attack Ukraine. After these words he highlighted the importance of dialogue and diplomacy. Regarding the question of NATO-membership, he just said that Finland would decide on its own and it will remain a possible option.iv This shows the dilemma of a second ranked imperialist power subordinated not only under the Yankee-superpower, but also under the bloodthirsty Huns sharpening their knives.

This position of Finnish imperialism as a ”peace keeper” and a ”neutral mediator” between the superpowers is its position among the imperialists as the Finnish bourgeoisie is relatively weak militarily and economically. Its economy by GDP is much smaller than its neighbour Sweden, and smaller than the other Nordic countries Norway and Denmarkv. As an exporter of capital, it is far behind these neighbouring countries. Of its GDP, Finland uses 1,3% (2018) to military, which is slighly more than Sweden and Denmark (both 1% of their GDP) but slightly less than Norway (1,6%)vi. Finland has a conscription-based army, and military or civil service is mandatory for every fit-to-serve male citizen, and optional for women. In an international comparison made by the website Global Firepower, Finland ranks 59th of 140 countries in the ranking in 2022, behind other Nordic countriesvii. Finland participates in eight so-called ”crisis control operations” side-by-side with Yankee imperialism in oppressed countries around the world. The law allows Finland to have maximum of 2000 troops participating in these operations at a time.viii This ”crisis controlling” as part of the quest of Finnish imperialism for ”international peace” are nothing more than participating in imperialist plundering on the side of the sole hegemonic superpower.

The bourgeoisie in Nordic countries want to potray themselves as peaceful and diplomatic, their states as great examples of equality and wellfare. Especially Sweden and Finland boast with their neutrality, as they are not officially NATO-members, even though it is quite clear that they work closely with Yankee imperialism and are part of the ”West”. The Finnish bourgeoisie wants their state to be viewed as ”the superpower of peace keeping” – bringing stability and peace to the world by the might of ”dialogue”. In comparison to other Nordic countries, Finnish imperialism has a unique role when it comes to Russian imperialism due to historical and geographical facts, and especially as it is not officially a NATO-member. This role is also acknowleged by Russian imperialism by ”warning” Finland (and Sweden) not to join NATO or face the consequences. Considering the recent development and the fact that there is the Nordefco (Nordic Defence Cooperation) and the EU’s NBG (Nordic Battlegroup) this warning seems to be quite ridiculous.

As stated earlier, being ”the superpower of peace keeping” is due to the fact that Finnish imperialism cannot actually compete neither with the superpowers nor with stronger imperialist powers, but it still nevertheless has its hands in the blood of the peoples of oppressed nations, as this ”peace keeping” is just maintaining the peace for the imperialists to exploit. By this dealing with the superpowers Finnish imperialism as a second rank imperialist power is looking to secure its position in order to get its share of the spoils.

As can be seen, Yankee imperialism is enclosing the encirlement of Russian imperialism little by little, and in this it needs these ”partnerships” for one part as preparation for war, but also to keep up ”dialogue”. For wartimes all sides act quite talkative – struggle and collusion. The imperialists are conspiring against the peoples of the world, to exploit and oppress vaster and vaster masses of people in the conditions of deepening general and final crisis of imperialism, conspiring against each other in an attempt to keep ripping higher and higher super-profits from the backs of the masses, arming themselves in their weakness.

The Finnish comrades conclude: ”True internationalists are against the partnership of Nato and Finland, as it means participating in the sharing of the spoil of imperialist plundering, to fatten the Finnish finance capital with the blood of the oppressed nations.” The principal contradiction of the epoch is between oppressed nations and imperialist superpowers, though the main contradiction may change for a period, this will go back to be expressed as such because it is the historically main contradiction until imperialism is swept of the face of the Earth by the proletarian world revolution. It is necessary to understand that the greatest weight of the masses is in the oppressed nations, and imperialism and exploitation will be swept away by the revolutionary movement of the two big forces: the international proletarian movement and the national liberation movement: the first corresponding to the proletariat that is world-wide and the second is the one who is generated in the oppressed countries, both forces have to be directed by the proletariat through its Communist Party to carry out the new democratic and socialist revolutions, as appropriate, as part of the proletarian world revolution. The struggle against imperialism in imperialist countries has to be deeply united with the struggles in oppressed nations; it has to be based on true unity in struggle against imperialism. Comrade Stalin says: all campaign of unmasking, of pacifist propaganda is but a game that serve to show who is the enemy, nothing more, but this does not prevent the war, the war comes because it has its own laws, it is never stopped by these propagandists. Therefore Chairman Mao tells us that the problem is the revolution because either the revolution makes the reactionaries disappear and therefore also the property that generates the war, or the war strokes up the revolution; but the center is the revolutionary life, it is the peoples war. Therefore, the revolutionaries in imperialist countries have to struggle side by side with the revolutionaries in oppressed nations against the imperialist at home, opposing these plots of the imperialists, they have to struggle in politicising, mobilising and organising the masses, struggling for the reconstitution of Communist Parties in every country, waging people’s war against the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie in their own countries as part of and in service of the world revolution. The revolutionaries have to oppose the militarisation and reactionarisation practiced by ”their” bourgeoisie, whose spearheads are turned against the proletariat and oppressed peoples of the world.

Nota bene: This general assessment does not counterpoise the necessitiy of defining the principal enemy of the peoples of the world (Yankee-imperialism) and the principal enemy in a very moment (Russian-imperialism in the case of the war of aggression against Ukraine). In this sense we highlight and reaffirm:

Down with the war of aggression of Russian imperialism against Ukraine!

Peoples of the world, unite against the imperialist warmongers and their lackeys!

Down with Yankee imperialism, the main enemy of the peoples of the world!

Support the Ukrainian people!

Down with the imperialist war! Proletarians and peoples of the world, unite!

ipunalippu.noblogs.org 20.1.2022: Biden soittelee Sauli Niinistölle

iipunalippu.noblogs.org 27.10.2021: Jenkki-Naton johto vieraili Suomessa

iiihttps://www.hs.fi/politiikka/art-2000008464967.html

ivpunalippu.noblogs.org 02.01.2022: Sauli Niinistön uudenvuodenpuheesta

vhttps://www.statista.com/statistics/685925/gdp-of-european-countries/

viavascent.com 15.11.2017: Data Stories: How Nordic Defense Spending Compares to the Rest of Europe

viihttps://www.globalfirepower.com/country-military-strength-detail.php?country_id=finland

viiihttps://puolustusvoimat.fi/web/kansainvalinen-kriisinhallinta/kriisinhallintaoperaatiot