Raivaaja
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| Format | broadsheet |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Raivaaja Publishing Company |
| Founded | Jan. 1905 |
| Language | Finnish (Finnish and English in later years.) |
| Ceased publication | 2009 |
| Headquarters | 164 Elm St. Fitchburg, Massachusetts |
| OCLC number | 13677702 |
| Website | raivaaja |
Raivaaja (English: The Pioneer) was a Finnish-language newspaper published from 1905 to 2009 in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, by Raivaaja Publishing Company. For the first three decades of its existence the publication was closely associated with the Socialist Party of America (SPA). In 1936 as part of a large factional split in the SPA, the former Finnish Socialist Federation severed its connection to become the "Finnish American League for Democracy," with Raivaaja remaining the official organ of this remodeled organization.
During its final years the publication included both English language and Finnish language content. It was last edited by Marita Cauthen from 1984 until its termination in 2009. Today the not-for-profit Raivaaja Foundation still runs a website and an online bookstore.
The history of the broadsheet newspaper Raivaaja (The Pioneer) is traceable to an earlier publication, Pohjan Tähti (The North Star), which was started in the Finnish-American enclave of Fitchburg, Massachusetts by a private entrepreneur, Alex Heisson, who sought to launch a profitable publication to serve the community's large and growing Finnish-speaking population. Taking a calculated political risk, the aspiring capitalist publisher hired a talented socialist editor, émigré Finnish newcomer Taavi Tainio. For a time the alliance seemed to be working, with the profit-seeking, nominally socialist publication quickly growing to a circulation of nearly 4,000. By the end of the year differences over the function and goals of the paper led to Heisson terminating his outspoken editor.
The popular Taino's firing led to a spate of organizational activity by local Fitchburg socialists, who sought to establish a new publication with a more definite socialist orientation under Taino's direction. A mass meeting was held on January 1, 1905, at which it was decided to move forward with such a venture, and a board of directors was elected. Fundraising was begun, reaching the $100 mark by the end of January, and a room was rented to serve as the provisional office for the new publication — ironically located directly across a corridor from the office of Pohjan Tähti in an office building in downtown Fitchburg.
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