Our blue and white national flag celebrates its 90th anniversary today. The law determining the Finnish flag as the familiar blue cross on white was made on 29 May 1918. It is said that the blue represents the numerous lakes of our country whilst the white represents the snow in winter that blankets the landscape (an alternative, more controversial view, would say it represents the victory of the whites in the civil war). The cross design represents unity with the other Nordic countries.
My flag is flying high outside my house today, as it is outside homes, apartment blocks and on public buildings throughout the nation. It’s a symbol that represents all Finnish people.
And yet historically, it has been the role of an organisation called Suomalaisuuden liitto (Finskhetsförbundet – Finnish alliance) to give information on Finland’s flag to the public. This organisation is a Finnish extreme right nationalist group that has, in recent years, become yet more extreme. These days, under the chairmanship of the controversial Heikki Tala, the organisation campaigns for the elimination of Swedish in Finland. Even longing for a future where Åland is Finnish speaking. According to Suomalaisuuden liitto, there is a campaign to ‘Swedify’ Finland – apparently this is being carried out by us Swedish speakers with help from Sweden’s government (the suggestion is so self-evidently ludicrous it’s not even worth making further comment upon). In the past, the organisation received a grant from the state to fund its work in promoting our national flag. Finally, after many protests from politicians from both language groups, the parliament voted in 2002 to end this subsidy. This came after a scandal where it turned out Suomalaisuuden liitto was absolutely refusing to give any information on Finland’s flag in Swedish. The move to increasing extremism has been largely because of extreme right wingers taking over positions of power in the organisation. Even former chairman Martti Häikiö said that “the association has ended up in the hands of the mad fundamentalists”. Today, the organisation has slightly over 1000 members.
Why do I make this point? Still, on the morning of Independence Day (6 December) it is Suomalaisuuden liitto who has the honour of organising raising our national symbol, the flag, at Tähtitorninmäki – Observatorieberget in Helsinki. This is usually done in the presence of the President of the Republic. In my opinion it is time for this to end. A more unifying group should be chosen. Finland’s flag is a symbol of the entire Finnish people. To have a group of extremists who are openly intolerant against one group in society organising the raising of a flag that represents everyone is deeply inappropriate and offensive. The President of the Republic’s presence also affirms recognition that this group is somehow appropriate and representative. I think this December, in our 91st year of independence, and 90th with our national flag, it’s time to invite a more unifying group to organise the raising of our flag. Perhaps veterans from the wars, today’s military, representatives from cultural life (maybe from the Finnish, Swedish and Sami language groups together). The options are numerous. But certainly not a group that represents only the views of a very narrow and small xenophobic minority.
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Thursday 29.5.08 at 21:08
JL
What an absurd and slanderous post. SL is extreme rightwing and xenophobic? Who do you think buys this nonsense? One may disagree with Heikki Tala’s confrontational style, but SL is an old and respected organization and its goals are popular and entirely mainstream among the Finnish-speaking population (and probably more than a few independent-thinking Swedophones too).
SL does not espouse extreme right or xenophobic views or wish to “eliminate Swedish” in Finland. Tala has repeatedly stated that he wants Finland’s language legislation to be harmonized with the Nordic countries. Now, if you think that Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland are run by xenophobic far right governments, your assessment of SL’s ideology is correct, but otherwise you’re full of it.
SL’s subsidies were slashed because SFP wanted to silence an organization which publicly criticized the status of Swedish in Finland. SL refused by principle to provide services in Swedish, which served as an excuse for cancelling the public funding it had been receiving. Unlike you claim, the Finnish-speaking parties were in no way scandalized by SL’s actions, and the idea that an act of parliament (instead of just an administrative decision) was passed to strike down the subsidy is laughable.
SL was founded more than a hundred years ago at a time when Finnish-speakers were systematically discriminated by Swedish-speakers in Finland. We’ve come a long way since then, and SL has played an important role in democratizing Finland’s language policy. That SL is still at it today is a symptom of the fact that there are lingering injusticies in the ways Finnish- and Swedish-speakers are treated. Whatever enmity there exists between the majority and the minority is primarily caused by unjust policies such as mandatory Swedish. If Swedish was made a voluntary school subject, as SL wants, most of the enmity would vanish overnight.
Thursday 29.5.08 at 21:42
Jonas
SL was a respected organisation in the past when it was under different leadership. It has certainly done good work for the Finnish speaking culture in previous decades. It’s sad its been captured by such extremists.
Just go to their website to see what I wrote is true these days.
SL’s subsides were not slashed just because of SFP. Many Finnish speaking politicians (for example many in the SDP) were strongly critical of the organisation’s new direction. Lipponen critisised them. I remember Kimmo Kiljunen being very vocal in critisising SL.
A few years ago when the FST programme Obs did an article on them, they crashed the Obs website by bombarding it with messages in Finnish.
Here’s some quotes from SL’s english section of their website:
“WARNING: A hostile office, probably Swedish, forges e-mails as if the mails were sent by us. ”
That actually made me laugh. Automatically blame Sweden.
“After World War II, a linguistic truce reigned in Finland, during which Swedish-speakers unscrupulously took advantage of the benevolence of the Finnish-speaking bulk of the population. Numerous statutes concerning linguistic minorities were made ever more favourable for Swedish-speakers. In addition to those, the school reform conducted in the 1960’s still included compulsory Swedish”
So, 300 000 of us managed to buly 4,5 + million people and their representatives to vote for these things in parliament. Interesting. Or could it be that actually most people are pro-equality and fairness.
“The EU non-discrimination principle, according to which the linguistic rights of the Swedish-speakers in Finland apply also to the full extent to Swedish nationals on our soil, brought an additional bonus to the Swedes. Sweden, however, does not grant corresponding rights to Finnish-speakers in Sweden. (There are over 500,000 Finnish-speakers in Sweden against 293,000 Swedish-speakers in Finland.) This discrepancy will result in Sweden’s re-claiming Finland, simply by taking unilaterally advantage of EU rules”
I see, so there is a plot apparently by Sweden to take over Finland. Riiiight. And apparently it’s some how the fault of Swedish-speaking Finns as to what the Swedish government decides to do or not to do in Sweden.
“In the Continuation War, no more bravery was to be expected from the Swedish-speakers, ready to save their own skin at the cost of Finns”
I see, our fault the we lost the Continuation War as well. That statement is probably amongst the most offensive on the SL website as it implies Swedish speakers are somehow traitors just because they speak Swedish, which is pure and utter rubbish.
There are more, but I can’t be bothered to list them.
Thursday 29.5.08 at 22:19
Lysse
That statement is probably amongst the most offensive on the SL website as it implies Swedish speakers are somehow traitors just because they speak Swedish, which is pure and utter rubbish.
It’s not pure and utter rubbish. It’s the same as racism. If they wrote on their website the same kind of thing about black people, they would be in serious trouble. I always think it’s strange somehow that to say vitun hurri is somehow way more acceptable than vitun neekeri. Both are bad in my opinion.
It’s also weird that that campaign for Finns living in Sweden to have more rights. But then the say it is wrong that Swedes who move to Finland would have rights to use Swedish. Surely they should be using the Finnish example as good practice in their campaign for rights in Sweden! Hypercritical.
Essentially they are just language racist. But yes, 1 100 members. Not so many. To be honest, they get way, way way more coverage in the Swedish language media (because their remarks are offensive) than in the Finnish language press. We should just ignore them like the Finnish mainstream does. They’d be better starved of oxygen.
Friday 30.5.08 at 17:09
hankeit
What an absurd and slanderous post. SL is extreme rightwing and xenophobic? Who do you think buys this nonsense? One may disagree with Heikki Tala’s confrontational style, but SL is an old and respected organization and its goals are popular and entirely mainstream among the Finnish-speaking population (and probably more than a few independent-thinking Swedophones too).
I’m kind of worried how anyone can find Suomalaisuuden liitto mainstream! I remember they said Finnish speakers should treat Swedish speakers in the same way as Lalli treated bishop Henrik!
From the mouth of Mr Tala:
Edessä on suomenruotsalaisuuden mustan kirjan kirjoittaminen ja hurrien tekemisten totuuskomissiokäsittely
On todella valitettavaa, että suomenruotsalaisen hegemonian murtaminen ei näytä onnistuvan ilman suoraa toimintaa
Suomenruotsalaisuus perustuu epäisänmaallisuuteen
So, they are really moderate! HAHAHA. Like Lysse said, if he said the same kinda thing of immigrants, they would be in court.