For a long time, Swedish-speaking Finland has been associated with primarily bourgeois politics. Traditionally this identity – and the history of Swedish-speaking Finland – has been presented and understood as more or less uniformly bourgeois. In a new anthology titled ”Klasskamp på svenska: aktörer, idéer och erfarenheter i 1900-talets finlandssvenska arbetarrörelse” (“Class Struggle in Swedish: Actors, Ideas, and Experiences in the Finland-Swedish Labour Movement of the 20^th Century”) several scholars show that socialism had strong Finland-Swedish proponents. The focus is on individual lives from Swedish-speaking Finland that challenged the ongoing bourgeois construction of the Finland-Swedish identity during the first half of the 20^th century. The socialists were viewed as a threat to the political and material interests of the Swedish-speaking bourgeois class. However, these individuals belonged to two minorities, being both socialists and Finland-Swedes. They based their socialism on striving for an equal society without class or minority oppression. The Finland-Swedish labour movement also contributed considerably to making Finland more bilingual and to the recognition of the social needs and interests of the Swedish-speaking minority. Perhaps the labor movement had a greater importance for Swedishness in Finland than bourgeois voices have been willing to admit?

The book will be presented at the seminar on 17 May 2022 by Matias Kaihovirta, who is one of the editors, and by the co-authors Aleksi Huhta, Mats Wickström and Yasmin Nyqvist.

Please click the link below to join the seminar: 

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86339349785?pwd=M0ZsTmJNNldEelVoblI0bENQT3I0dz09