The Communist Party of Finland (, SKP; , FKP) or New Communist Party of Finland (, USKP; , FNKP) is a Marxist-Leninist political party in Finland. It was founded in the mid-1980s as Communist Party of Finland (Unity) (, SKPy; , FKP(e)) by the former opposition of the old Communist Party of Finland (1918–1992). The SKP has never been represented in the Parliament of Finland, but the party has had local councillors in some municipalities, including the city councils of major cities such as Helsinki and Tampere. The 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 taken control of the party. The courts later ruled all the expulsions illegal.

History

The opposition inside SKP 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 chairperson, after which the opposition did not participate in (or was left out of) the SKP central committee. The opposition was also known as "the taistoists".

The founding of SKPy The central committee of the SKP expelled eight opposition district organizations from the party 13 October 1985. Also, 494 other basic organizations and 17 city or regional organizations were expelled 13 June 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 11 June 1987. SKP then re-expelled these same organizations in its 21st party congress (12–14 June 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.

On 26 April 1986, a meeting of "the representatives of SKP organizations" was held in Tampere and those present elected a new central committee. The leader of the new central committee was Taisto Sinisalo, former vice chairman of the SKP and the most well-known figure of the opposition, who already had led Committee of SKP Organizations founded in November 1985. In the SKPy's 21st party congress Sinisalo was re-elected. Yrjö Hakanen and Marja-Liisa Löyttyjärvi became the vice chairmen while the former SKP chairman Jouko Kajanoja was elected party secretary. In his congress speech, Sinisalo told that the suffix "unity" meant "strong intention to gather all the forces of the SKP". The congress, however, also was heading to future and building of a new party, or "rebuilding" as they thought it. Before the name SKPy was adopted the party was known in media as the unity or Tiedonantaja group.

SKP and the Soviet Union SKPy was very committed to the Soviet Union and the political line of its Communist Party (CPSU), which was going through great changes during Gorbachev's time. SKPy supported perestroika but criticized those who claimed to have been "Gorbachevist" even before Gorbachev's time. SKPy claimed SKP to be anti-SU and tried to give the Finnish people as positive a picture as possible of that country. When SKP split the monetary support from Soviet Union was halted and, for example, the very profitable publishing deals of the SKP had gone to SKPy. Gorbachev's CPSU, however, had relations with both parties.

KTP splits from SKPy In the late 1970s, the opposition of SKP began to split as those supporting a more traditional version of Marxism–Leninism began to criticize opposition leaders. When it was decided that SKPy would not be registered as an official party, some communists protested and demanded registration. They thought SKPy was clinging to the unity slogan in a situation in which it no longer seemed realistic. In the 1987 party congress, these people were warned by the SKPy leadership but they chose to ignore the advice and oriented themselves toward founding a new party. Communist Workers' Party – For Peace and Socialism (Kommunistinen Työväenpuolue – Rauhan ja Sosialismin puolesta, KTP) was founded early in the year 1988. Founders of KTP felt to be securing the existence of a Marxist-Leninist party in Finland while criticizing SKPy for being revisionist and supporting Mikhail Gorbachev. The most famous figure in the new party was probably Markus Kainulainen, a longtime SKP district secretary of Uusimaa and a former MP.

The founding of Left Alliance Esko-Juhani Tennilä, a member of the Parliament of Finland, was elected new chairman of SKPy 22 October 1989 when Kajanoja decided to resign while strongly criticizing his comrades. Tennilä has later told he took the job to secure that the founding of a new united left party would not be sabotaged by his own party comrades many of which were quite critical of it. The Left Alliance (Vasemmistoliitto) was founded in spring 1990 and members of SKPy and its electoral front Deva also joined even though prejudices were very high on both sides at this point.

Dispute over double membership Members of the Left Alliance (LA) disliked that many of their members were also members of the SKPy. It was thus decided that SKPy members couldn't participate in the LA's electoral lists, even though they could be members. Because of this, Tennilä also had to quit his job as party chairman when joining LA group in parliament. Yrjö Hakanen was chosen Tennilä's successor. The dispute over double membership, as it was called, led to many SKPy members leaving LA and relations between the two parties got even colder. On the other hand, many former SKPy members were actively participating in LA.

The "new" SKP In its 1993 party congress (August 28–29), SKPy oriented towards founding a new officially registered communist party and drafting of a new party program. A new party logo was also introduced to mark renewal. It was suggested that a congress to continue SKP's work should be held and that happened next year (November 26–27). In the congress, the suffix "unity" was dropped from the name as SKPy now considered to consist of all those comrades who wanted to have an independent communist party. An athletic club was made the basis of new organization and renamed SKP. The decision split the party as some supporters would have preferred SKP to have a lesser role as "Marxist forum" of some kind. Leadership of Left Alliance was also not pleased with those plans. SKP would have wanted to stay inside LA but that wasn't possible and the parties split in the spring of 1994. SKP wasn't however "re-registered" until 1997. There was some confusion, as the new SKP didn't accept responsibility for debts of the old one, which had gone bankrupt.

Organization Chairpeople 1986–1988 Taisto SinisaloPoliittinen kalenteri: SKP:n hajotuksesta puolueen uudelleenrekisteröintiin. in Kolme kirjainta. SKP:n yhdeksän vuosikymmentä Marxilainen foorumi 43 (TA-Tieto 2008), p. 154–164. 1988–1989 Jouko Kajanoja 1989–1990 Esko-Juhani Tennilä 1990–2013 Yrjö HakanenCV (www.yrjohakanen.fi 2008) 2013–2022 Juha-Pekka Väisänen 2022–present Liisa Taskinen General secretaries 1986–1988 Jouko Kajanoja 1988–1990 Yrjö Hakanen 1990–2010 Arto Viitaniemi 2010–2013 Juha-Pekka VäisänenEroon korruptiohallituksesta ja rahalla ostetuista kansanedustajista (SKP 2010) 2013–2016 Heikki Ketoharju 2016–2018 Petra Packalén 2018–present Tiina SandbergVice chairpeople 1986–1988 Yrjö Hakanen 1. vpj. 1986–1987 Marita Virtanen 2. vpj. 1987–1989 Marja-Liisa Löyttyjärvi2. vpj. 1988–1989 Esko-Juhani Tennilä 1990–1991 Kristiina Nieminen 1991–? Kirsti Kasnio 1994–2004 Riitta Tynjä 2004–2007 Kaija Kiessling 2007–2013 Lena Huldén 2013–2016 Emmi Tuomi 2013–2016 Pauli Schradrin 2016–2019 Miguel López 2016–2019 Susanna Rissanen 2019–2022 Liisa Taskinen 2020–2022 Mervi Grönfors 2022–present Jiri Mäntysalo SKP has a nationwide organization consisting of 14 district organizations. The central committee has 41 members and the politburo 10. The organ of SKP is Tiedonantaja, which was founded in the 1960s. Tiedonantaja was also the organ of Deva during 1986–1990. The editor-in-chief is Marko Korvela since 2012. SKP also has some local papers.

As the SKPy considered itself to be the real SKP, it also had the same organizational structure. It was based on Leninist principle of democratic centralism and the party rules of 1958 (modified in 1978).

Deva – SKPy's electoral front While SKPy was never officially registered, its supporters founded an electoral front Democratic Alternative (, syllabic abbreviation: Deva). Those MPs of Finnish People's Democratic League (, SKDL, a front organization dominated by SKP) who were against expulsions were expelled from SKDL and they found the parliament group of Deva. Deva was SKPy's SKDL and it was supposed to attract some democratic allies. The small Socialist Workers Party (, STP) didn't join Deva but it had members on the DEVA list. Young supporters of SKPy and Deva founded Revolutionary Youth League (, VKN) which was Deva's youth organization. SKDL's Socialist Student League (, SOL) also joined. Deva was led by actress Kristiina Halkola.

In the 1987 parliamentary elections, Deva got 4.3% of votes and four MPs. In the 1988 presidential elections, Deva candidate Jouko Kajanoja received under 2% of the votes. Not even all members of SKPy supported Kajanoja, who was the party chairman. Deva was closed down in 1990 after Left Alliance was founded and most of its members joined the new party.

Party congresses

21st party congress of the SKP(y)5–7.6.1987EspooParty congress of the SKP(y) (party conference)27.8–28.8.1988TurkuParty congress of the SKP(y)18–19.5.1991LahtiParty congress of the SKP(y) (party conference)28–29.8.1993HelsinkiParty congress for the continuation of SKP26–27.11.1994HelsinkiExtraordinary party congress of the SKP31.8.1996HelsinkiParty congress of the SKP6–7.6.1998HelsinkiParty congress of the SKP19–20.5.2001TurkuParty congress of the SKP15–16.5.2004VantaaParty congress of the SKP9–10.6.2007HelsinkiParty congress of the SKP15–16.5.2010VantaaParty congress of the SKP8–9.6.2013VantaaParty congress of the SKPTBD 2016TBD

Elections

Electoral results

Parliament Election year # of overall votes % of overall vote # of overall seats won +/- as part of Democratic Alternative (Deva) 1987 122,181 4.2 as part of Left Alliance (Vasemmisto) 1991 274,639 10.1 1995 310,340 11.2 3 as Communist Party of Finland (SKP) 1999 20,442 0.8 2003 21,079 0.8 0 2007 18,277 0.7 0 2011 9,232 0.3 0 2015 7,529 0.3 0 2019 4,305 0.14 0 2023 3,044 0.10 0

European Parliament Election year # of overall votes % of overall vote # of overall seats won +/- as part of the Left Alliance (Vasemmisto) 1999 236,490 10.5 as Communist Party of Finland (SKP) 2004 10,134 0.6 2009 8,089 0.5 0 2014 5,932 0.3 0

ResultsMunicipal council Year Councillors Votes 2000 14 10,460 0.47% 2004 16 12,844 0.53% 2008 9 13,986 0.55% 2012 9 11,174 0.45% 2017 2 7,600 0.3% 2021 0 2,073 0.1% 2025 0 1,118 0.1%