The organisation of the Revolutionary Communist International in Finland, Vallankumoukselliset Kommunistit (Revolutionary Communists, VK) held their annual congress on 16-17 May in Helsinki. This was the first regular congress after its founding congress last year. It marked the next step forward for our young Finnish organisation.
Comrades came from all over Finland, and were joined by guests from Stockholm, Canada, and the international centre of the RCI in London. Overall, the congress was attended by 36 comrades, three of whom were guests or sympathisers interested in joining us. We received greetings from sections and groups across the RCI: the USA, Yugoslavia, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Poland, the Netherlands, Britain, Canada, and Taiwan.
We have now reached a membership of 40 comrades, and our goal is to get to 60 members by the next congress.
Revolutionary fervour and the thirst for Marxist theory were evident throughout the weekend. As a sign of this, we sold €704 worth of revolutionary literature and merch. We also raised a further €348 from the snacks table. During the financial collection, we raised a total of €2,075, which is a new record. This will go towards our goal of hiring our first full-time revolutionary. For this, we are now aiming to raise the average membership donation to €50 and to collect €20,000 as quickly as possible.
We will also send a good chunk of the money raised in the collection to the International to help build the party of world revolution.
The 2026 VK congress was, all in all, a great success. The political discussions were of a high level, and wherever you went in the venue, you could hear comrades discussing our perspectives, the tasks of our organisation, and Marxist theory.
Despite this, it is clear that we also have a lot to learn. Organising an event like this is no simple task. It requires careful preparation, in which there is still room for improvement. The concrete responsibilities of each comrade require explanation and more preparation in advance, in order to make the event flow even smoother than it did.
We also gratefully received greetings to our congress from a representative of the Worker-communist Party of Kurdistan, who delivered an inspiring speech on the need for solidarity between all workers regardless of national boundaries, in a world which is becoming increasingly dangerous for workers across the globe. Capitalism has brought humanity to the brink of catastrophe. Our Kurdish communist comrade explained that only the international, organised working class can bring an end to this horror and crush this rotten system.
World in the grip of chaos
Capitalism is in crisis internationally. During the past year, we have already witnessed revolutionary explosions throughout the world. Finland is part of this system of capitalism and imperialism, and cannot untangle itself from it. The organic crisis of capitalism has reached Finnish shores, and there is no going back.
The congress began with a discussion on the current world situation, introduced by Victor Murray Vedsø from the International Centre. The current imperialist hegemon, the United States, is undergoing a relative decline, whilst Chinese imperialism rises. In its desperate rearguard action against an emboldened China, the bourgeoisie in the US feels the need to shore up its influence in Latin America. It is also tightening the screws around its client states, such as the weak, panicking European imperialists.
The introduction on world perspectives, as well as the contributions to the discussion afterwards, covered a wide range of themes, including the imperialist wars in Ukraine and Iran, the quickly degenerating relations between the US and Europe, as well as the plummeting confidence in the bourgeoisie and its institutions among workers all over the world.
Europe is being crushed between the two great powers, the US and China. Using the artificially inflated ‘threat of Russian invasion’, the European ruling classes are ramping up weapons production, the fruits of which will inevitably be turned against the European working classes – the capitalists will defend their private ownership of the means of production by any means necessary.
Every euro spent on weapons production is a euro taken away from the living standards of the working classes. The questions of militarism and austerity are in reality only one question: ‘who controls the means of production of any given society?’ The accelerating arms race will only mean further attacks on the concessions that have been won by the working class in the previous historical period, which were wrenched away from the ruling class through bitter class struggle. Weapons production will therefore only mean the ramping up of the class struggle in Finland and internationally.
Crisis in Finland
From the world situation, the discussion moved on to the situation in Finland. As is the case everywhere else in Europe, the Finnish bourgeoisie has been unable to solve a single problem posed by the financial crisis of 2008. Struggling under a mountain of debt and a prolonged crisis, the Finnish bourgeoisie has now set its sights on dismantling the welfare state.
When the next government is formed after next year’s elections, which will most likely be led by the right-wing opportunist Social Democrat Antti Lindtman, the current level of austerity will seem like child’s play. All the parties in parliament are committed to ‘adapting the state finances’ as they call it, which in reality will only mean safeguarding the bourgeoisie’s profits at the cost of a declining standard of living for the workers of Finland.
The current bureaucratic leadership of workers’ organisations have no solutions to offer. They impotently complain about the ‘rotten values’ of the capitalists while not lifting a finger to defend the working class – who they are meant to represent – from these assaults. As they try to get the economic crisis under control, attacks from one government after another will only sharpen the social crisis in Finland and further the radicalisation of young people and workers in the future. But on the basis of their crumbling capitalist system, the ruling class – nor the whimpering trade union and Social Democrat reformists tailing them – has no other option.
After all, it is the degenerate capitalist system, not the actions of this or that government, that lies at the bottom of the continuing austerity.
From this we must draw the conclusion that we are tasked with building an organisation that, on the basis of Marxism, can explain the underlying reasons behind the current crisis to the workers and youth. That organisation that must channel the rage and bitterness developing under the surface of Finnish society against the class enemy, the capitalist class, and to the crushing of their system. We are determined to achieve this end and we will accept nothing less.
Selling Vallankumous and revolutionary finances
Armed with a freshly sharpened understanding of the crisis of capitalism across the world and in Finland, we organised a sale of our paper, Vallankumous (Revolution), with all those in attendance at the congress.
This was a grand success. In a couple of hours, we sold 28 issues of Vallankumous, three pamphlets, and a copy of Alan Woods’ brilliant book, The Venezuelan Revolution: a Marxist Perspective. In addition to this, we managed to get the contact details of two people, one of whom attended our evening event right after the paper sale.
In the evening social, we organised a collection and raised a further €2,070 to finance our revolutionary organisation. We did our utmost to convince our newer comrades on the necessity of bold revolutionary finances.
The International and the tasks of Finnish communists
Comrade Ela Lindell from the Tampere branch spoke on Sunday about the current tasks of Vallankumoukselliset Kommunistit in Finland. They require a disciplined approach from every single member. The question of growth is intimately tied up with the political level of the organisation. To break through our current plateau in membership, we need to become even better at explaining our perspectives and theory to the youth, the students, and the workers. Only in this way, by connecting Marxist theory with their personal experiences, can we convince the best elements to join our organisation.
The congress heard reports from the work of different branches in Finland, and comrades from Sweden and Canada provided us with vitally important practical experiences on how to conduct work among the students in universities. This will be our next important task in the planned Autumn offensive of 2026.
Forward to victory!
We stand at the dawn of a new, tumultuous historical period of revolution and counter-revolution. The earlier, relatively stable era of class peace is well and truly over. The crisis of capitalism in Finland will put into question all that the Finnish workers are used to taking for granted, all the blessings of the ‘Finnish welfare state’.
The deeper the bourgeoisie cuts with austerity, the more violent the inevitable social explosions will be. The question is not whether a revolutionary situation will arise in Finland; the question is only when our organisation will be put to the ultimate historical test, and whether we will be ready for it when it comes. History will present its bill to the hated ruling class of Finland and the world, and they will be made to answer for their crimes against all the workers and the oppressed.
Comrades! Let us double our determination and vigour in our struggle for the liberation of the working class of Finland, armed with the revolutionary optimism that is based on scientific socialism, the theory of Marxism!
Let us build for the Finnish workers the revolutionary leadership demanded by historical necessity. No obstacle is too large to surmount if we only rely on the traditions of our organisation and the armoury of Marxist theory.
Down with capitalism!
Down with imperialism!
Workers of the world, unite!
