Communist Party of Finland (Unity)
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Communist Party of Finland
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| Finnish name | Suomen Kommunistinen Puolue |
| Swedish name | Finlands kommunistiska parti |
| Abbreviation | SKP |
| Chairman | Juha-Pekka Väisänen |
| Founded | 1984 (SKP organizations) 1986 (SKP Unity) 1994 (new SKP) 1997 (registered) |
| Split from | Communist Party of Finland |
| Headquarters | Helsinki, Finland |
| Newspaper | Tiedonantaja |
| Membership (2013) | 2,000-3,000 |
| Ideology |
Communism Marxism Soft Euroscepticism |
| Political position | Left-wing to Far-left |
| European affiliation | Party of the European Left |
| International affiliation | International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties |
| European Parliament group | None |
| Colors | Red, Gold |
| Parliament |
0 / 200
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| European Parliament |
0 / 13
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| Municipalities |
2 / 8,999
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| Website | |
| www |
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Communist Party of Finland (Finnish: Suomen Kommunistinen Puolue, SKP) is a Marxist political party. It was founded in the mid-1980s as Communist Party of Finland (Unity) (Finnish: SKP (yhtenäisyys), SKPy) by the former opposition of the old Communist Party of Finland (1918–1992). SKP is not represented in the Finnish parliament, but the party has local councillors in some municipalities, including the city councils of Helsinki and Tampere. SKP claims 2,500 members.
The party has been officially registered since 1997. In the 1980s, when the opposition and the organizations it controlled were expelled from the SKP led by Arvo Aalto, the SKPy, however, chose not to register since they considered themselves the real SKP and claimed Aalto had illegally stolen the party. The courts later ruled all the expulsions illegal.
The internal conflict of Finnish communists began in the mid-1960s, when the party led by the new chairman Aarne Saarinen, began to modernize the party line / outlook. A minority of the party cadre didn't accept this and they accused the SKP leadership of being revisionist. SKP didn't break up in the 1960s and the party was formally united until the mid-1980s. After the 20th party congress in 1984 things, however, changed as Arvo Aalto was elected chairman, after which the opposition didn't participate in (or was left out of) the SKP central committee. The opposition, which was also known as “taistoists”, called supporters of Aalto “axe liners”.
The central committee of the SKP expelled eight opposition district organizations from the party October 13, 1985. Also, 494 other basic organizations and 17 city or regional organizations were expelled June 13, 1986, which the expelled then dubbed “Black Friday”. The opposition considered the actions to be against the law. They took the conflict to courts and because of minor technicalities Helsingin Hovioikeus court overruled SKP's decision June 11, 1987. SKP then re-expelled these same organizations in its 21st party congress (June 12–14, 1987). However, a week before this happened, the newly founded SKP (Unity) held its own “21st” party congress. The ambiguities in the expelling process and the opposition's firm belief in its own cause gave it the justification it needed and they considered SKPy to be the real SKP. They claimed Aalto had illegally seized the party with “paper members”. SKPy was never taken to the official party register of Finland as the party considered that to have been voluntary resignation and admission of SKPy not being the real SKP.
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