Finnish People's Democratic League

Finnish People's Democratic League (, SKDL; , DFFF) was a Finnish political organisation with the aim of uniting those left of the Finnish Social Democratic Party. It was founded in 1944 as the anti-communist laws in Finland were repealed due to the demands of the Soviet Union, and lasted until 1990, when it merged into the newly formed Left Alliance. At its time, SKDL was one of the largest leftist parties in capitalist Europe, with its main member party, the Communist Party of Finland, being one of the largest communist parties west of the Iron Curtain. The SKDL enjoyed its greatest electoral success in the 1958 parliamentary election, when it gained a support of approximately 23 per cent and a representation of 50 MPs of 200 total, making it the largest party in the Eduskunta.

SKDL joined several Finnish governments. The first SKDL minister was Yrjö Leino who took office in November 1944. After the 1945 parliamentary election SKDL was a major player in the Paasikivi III coalition with social democrats and parties of the centre, and in 1946 SKDL's Mauno Pekkala became the prime minister. The Pekkala government led the state until summer 1948, after which the SKDL didn't participate in any coalitions until 1966. The late 1960s governments, led by social democrats and including centre, were called popular front by the SKDL. The party left the government in spring 1971 but returned in 1975. Kalevi Sorsa's third coalition was the last one SKDL was in, until December 1982.

Organisation A person could be aligned to the SKDL through its basic organisations or as member of the "community members" which were the Communist Party of Finland (SKP), the (1944–1990), (1944–1965), (1946–1952), the Socialist Unity Party (SYP) (1946–1955), the (1965–) and the Democratic Youth League of Finland (1967–1990). During most of its existence, the SKDL had over 50 000 "own" members. In addition to the community members, tens of different nationwide organizations were controlled by the SKDL members, see for example the People's Temperance League.

The supporters of the SKP constantly had a majority in the SKDL, thus it was regarded by many as a communist front. The SKP members often attended two consecutive meetings to decide on the same issues. However, not even socialism was mentioned in the party programme until the late 1960s. The number of communist party members amongst the SKDL MPs constantly increased from 1945 on, even though many prominent left-wing socialists and former social democrats had joined the alliance in the 1940s.

One of the few organized non-SKP forces in SKDL was the Socialist Unity Party (SYP) which was founded mainly by former social democrats in 1946. The small and marginalized SYP left the SKDL in 1955. However, most of the socialists inside the SKDL chose not to follow the decision made by the party chair Atos Wirtanen. They remained members of the SKDL through its basic organisations. In the early 1970s, a Joint Committee of the SKDL Socialists was formed but it never developed an organisation and remained a loose coalition.

Publications was SKDL's party organ from 1944 until 1956. SKDL also published many regional daily newspapers. In 1957 Vapaa Sana was merged with the SKP organ to launch Kansan Uutiset, which was the organ of both parties until 1990. Kansan Uutiset still appears. Since 2000, it has been a member of Left Alliance.

Leaders Chairmen

K. H. Wiik1944Cay Sundström1944–1946J. W. Keto1946–1948Kusti Kulo1948–1967Ele Alenius1967–1979Kalevi Kivistö1979–1985Esko Helle1985–1988Reijo Käkelä1988–1990    General secretaries Tyyne Tuominen1944–1949Yrjö Enne1949–1952Hertta Kuusinen1952–1958Yrjö Enne1959–1961Mauno Tamminen1962–1965Ele Alenius1965–1967Aimo Haapanen1967–1977Jorma Hentilä1977–1984Reijo Käkelä1984–1988Salme Kandolin1988–1990

Electoral results

Parliamentary elections

Election Votes % Seats +/- Status 1945 398,618 23.47% New 1948 375,538 19.98% 11 1951 391,134 21.58% 5 1954 433,251 21.57% 1958 450,220 23.16% 7 1962 506,829 22.02% 3 1966 502,374 21.20% 6 1970 420,556 16.58% 5 1972 438,757 17.02% 1 1975 519,483 18.89% 3 1979 518,045 17.90% 5 1983 400,930 13.46% 9 1987 270,433 9.39% 10

Local elections

Year Councillors Votes Share ofvotes 1945 2 496 275 324 1947 2 005 314 156 20,4% 1950 2 517 347 102 23,04% 1953 2 546 406 324 23,10% 1956 2 272 353 967 21,2% 1960 2 409 432 146 22,0% 1964 2 417 470 550 21,9% 1968 1 770 382 882 16,91% 1972 1 731 437 130 17,48% 1976 2 050 494 920 18,45% 1980 1 835 456 177 16,64% 1984 1 482 354 582 13,15% 1988 1 209 270 532 10,29%

Presidential elections Indirect Year Popular Vote Electors Candidate Electoral Vote Votes % First round Second round Third round 1950 338,035 21.4 67 Mauno Pekkala 67 colspan=2 1956 354,575 18.7 56 Eino Kilpi 56 colspan=2 1962 451,750 20.5 63 Paavo Aitio 67 colspan=2 1968 345,609 17.0 56 supported Urho Kekkonen of Centre 201 colspan=2 1978 445,098 18.2 56 supported Urho Kekkonen of Centre 259 colspan=2 1982 348,359 11.0 32 Kalevi Kivistö 32 11 1988 286,833 9.6 26 Kalevi Kivistö 26 26

Direct Year Votes % Candidate 1988 330,072 10.7 Kalevi Kivistö

None of the party's own candidates were elected President, although Urho Kekkonen was elected both times when SKDL seconded him.

See also Kaisu-Mirjami Rydberg Communist Party of Finland

References