The Programme of the Communist Party of Finland

To the Reader

We are living in an era of rapid changes and developments, of serious dangers and risks. All around us, we see prosperity and well being, but at the same time great misery, inequality and violence. So much that the future of humankind is threatened.

Finland, Europe and humankind as a whole are faced with choices of crucial importance. Life cannot go on as before. It is indispensable to look for alternatives and developments on a different basis. There is no time to be wasted, because so many problems are alarmingly exacerbated.

We communists trust in the human being. We trust in people's ability to solve problems, to work together, to love and to create something new. The knowledge and awareness of people regarding many issues have grown. We understand that good will alone is not enough to build a better world. In order to eliminate problems, we need structural social changes, planned action and - as experience has shown - also a resolute struggle against the power of big business, capitalism and against the political Right.

We want to build a Finland, a Europe and a world that is free of the power of money, free of unemployment, inequalities, threats of environmental destruction and wars. Our goals are a democratic Finnish welfare society, a democratic Europe of solidarity, a new human civilization, socialism and communism.

I What kind of world are we living in?

Economies, sciences and cultures have been developed by people in a way, which offers possibilities for general well being, knowledge and progress. But nevertheless, one fifth of the world's population consumes more than four fifths of world's production. The gap between poor and rich continues to grow.

Poverty, unemployment, disease, underdevelopment and the subjugation of women deprive the majority of humanity of the possibilities to enjoy a life of human dignity. Every day tens of thousands of children and adults starve to death.

Irrevocable changes or changes, which are difficult to repair, such as climate change, deforestation, desertification, melting of glaciers and disappearance of numerous species, have occurred or continue to occur affecting nature. Increasingly serious environmental catastrophes threaten us, unless the modes of production and the consumption habits are radically changed.

The world witnesses endless wars. Even though disarmament agreements have been concluded, the arms' race as well as the development of AMD and nuclear weapons accelerates. The United States and NATO are ready to pursue their goals by means of war, including a first nuclear strike.

It is a question of sustaining the preconditions for human life, for the survival of humankind.

Is humankind heading for destruction?

Is there any hope and chance of changing the course of development? Or is humankind heading towards barbarity and destruction?

The course of events is not inevitable, nor independent of people. Many new solutions have been reached thanks to the labour movement, the national liberation movements, peace movements, women's movements, environmental and other citizens' movements. But their achievements are now threatened.

Capitalism has developed productive forces and changed people's lives in an unparalleled way. At the same time it has subjugated the human being, nature and production to private profit-seeking. Capitalism is incapable of taking into consideration the needs for the development of human beings, of society and of the world as a whole. It has generated enormous forces of violence and destruction.

The concentration of production and capital has led to the formation of supranational monopolies that have a decisive position on the market and in the life of society. Capitalist circles and the elites of the Great Powers have united their strength internationally. They use their power and dominate others through the "Group of Eight", the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and international blocks such as the NATO. Their aim is to take control over the United Nations in order to pursue their goals.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union and of the community of other countries that had been building socialism, the imperialist forces have been aiming at broadening and consolidating their supremacy on the world scale, using different means, such as control of capital movements, technology dependence, supremacy in communication, corruption of key groups and dictate by right of superior force. If these means do not suffice, they are ready to resort to military force and violence in order to safeguard the power and the privileges of the big corporations and of the wealthy minority.

The imperialist centres compete for markets, natural resources, technological supremacy and influence. The economic significance and the influence of Asia on international developments have grown. The USA, particularly, is trying to compensate for its lost economic supremacy by military supremacy. Imperialism has become more belligerent and aggressive.

The European Union aims at uniting the resources of big companies and member States at transnational level into a close federal State, which pursues the Union's goals, if needed by military means, in cooperation with NATO.

Its aim is to improve the competitiveness of European big business by reducing labour costs and social expenditures, by deregulating national legislations, accelerating monopolization and strengthening the position of European capital in the race for control over energy and natural resources.

The EU entails a shrinking of democracy through greater freedom of the market and concentrating of major legislative powers in the hands of supranational bodies, ever farer away from the citizens. Within the EU, the power of big companies and big member States continues to grow.

The converse side of the free market is growing unemployment, poverty, inequality and environmental destruction. Social differences, which already had been levelled down to some extent, are again becoming more accentuated. Ignoring the needs and the possibility for the majority of people to exercise some influence generates alienation and insecurity, which in turn prepares the ground for the extreme right, nationalism and racism. On the other hand, this generates resistance and calls for the development of cooperation between the trade union movement, citizens' movements as well as leftwing and progressive forces at European and world level.

The end of confrontation of the two systems in Europe has not brought about peace or stability. Militarism, nationalism and racism get bolder in Europe. Eastern Europe is being transformed into a zone of social dumping. The collapse of the Soviet Union has encouraged the rightwing to intensify attacks against democracy, the labour movement, the public sector, the ideals of equality and solidarity.

Lessons from the collapse of the Soviet Union

Through the ages, people have been dreaming about justice and aiming at freedom.

The October Revolution in Russia was the first in history to open the road for building a socialist society free of exploitation. The Soviet Union and the other countries that had been building socialism have been pioneers of job security and achievement of many other basic rights. They proved that running the economy does not necessitate capitalist supremacy.

The Soviet Union played a central role in saving humankind from fascism in World War II. The countries that had been building socialism contained the violence of imperialism. They encouraged and gave their support to the labour movement and national liberation movements.

But in these countries that had been building socialism, State and Party bureaucracy, and at certain phases even terror, came to power. Many principles of socialism and basic human rights were violated in these countries. During the 1930s Stalin's terror also brutally affected members of the CPF, who were persecuted by White Finland. The negative elements were fed by the fact that the building of socialism had to be started in underdeveloped and very difficult circumstances. Wars and arms race, isolation and external pressure only added to the difficulties. The countries that built socialism were not able to perform a qualitative renewal in line with the increasing demands of democracy, of the educational level of the population and of the scientific-technological development.

Did the failure of building socialism in the Soviet Union and in some other countries prove that socialism is not possible? Or what lessons did it teach, particularly to us communists?
- It proved how decisively important it is to build a form of government genuinely based upon the rule of the people, and to guarantee democratic rights and individual freedoms. It is not enough to take power. The state machinery and the party cannot replace the citizens' power, their awareness and activity.
- The methods of revolutionary policy should be in harmony with the objectives. If events run out of the control of the people, they tend to turn against the people.
- State ownership is not the same as collective ownership based on workers' self-government. Nor can it replace market-driven demand and supply as an instrument of social planning.
- The development of the productive forces should be based on sustainable development as well as on technology and a way of life that save natural resources and environment.
- Under socialism the national and the international dimension are closely interlinked. Building socialism calls for progress in the democratisation and humanization of the international system.

The collapse of the Soviet Union did not mean the death of the developed communist movement inspired by the ideals of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Vladimir Lenin. It has not made void the achievements of the struggle carried on by communists and other leftists in different countries, often in very difficult circumstances. There still exist countries the aim of which is building socialism. Movements rejecting capitalism and aiming at socialism are rising again.

But violent upheavals have given us communists a reason for fundamental reappraisals. And not only us. Generally it is a question of setting an alternative to the present state of affairs and prospects for a different type of development. Because problems cannot be solved only by distributing growth, doctrines of the social-democrat welfare state are in a crisis too. The neo-liberal subjugation of everything to the market and to the right of the strongest threatens to lead to catastrophe. A new way, a way of the 21st century towards socialism is needed.

II Finland today

By their work the Finns have built and through numerous struggles renewed this country. But well-being and opportunities are unequally distributed. As a result of neo-liberal policies conditioned by the market, inequality has started to grow again.

The means of production and wealth are for the most part subjugated to the control by big business and a means of profit seeking for capitalists.

Today too, distribution of the value and surplus created by workers, is decided in the class struggle where labour and capital, exploited and exploiters, subjugated and subjugators are confronted.

A new phase of the capitalist development

The capitalist development of the economy has led to concentration and monopolisation of capital and production. The market is controlled by big corporations and banks, which are in many ways interlinked among them and with the State mechanisms.

At the same time, the social nature of production is emphasized by the scientific-technological development, internationalisation and the need for sustainable development. The contradiction between the social nature of production and the private profit seeking is growing.

Capitalists aim at increasing profits by producing on the cheap, quicker and more. As a consequence, the capital invested in means of production tends to grow quicker than the demand for labour. This is the main reason why capitalism creates unemployment. The biggest profit from productivity of labour is reaped by big business, the profits of which have grown considerably.

The accumulation of capital and the restriction of the purchasing power of the majority of people repeatedly lead to super accumulation and crises. When the economy is not guided by people's needs but by usurping surplus value, it leads to production and money circulation for their own sake . The share of speculative financial capital that is disconnected from production has exploded and it subjugates to an increasing extent the rest of the society. Likewise, the swelling of non-regulated money flows and imaginary capital markets has increased the instability of the world economy.

Capitalism has moved from the traditional forms of big industry, mass consumption and state regulation to a new stage of development, which is characterized by the increasing economic importance of information and sciences, a growing share of financial capital, the segregation of the market, supranational integration, fierce competition for energy resources and exceeding the endurance capacity of nature.

Big business aims at combining market-based flexibility and supranational management, the implementation of which is referred to the State. At the same time, capital aims at reducing labour costs making blue and white-collar workers from different countries compete among each other.

In Finland, about ten major groups control almost half of industrial production, exports and companies' R&D activities. The ownership of big companies is becoming international and entire industrial branches have been transferred under foreign majority ownership. One single multinational corporation in the electronics sector controls a major part of the economy.

Technological development takes place one-sidedly, on the conditions of big business. This development repeatedly violates the protection of people and nature. The dominating position hold by the wood processing industry and the related metal industry is responsible for the large energy consumption in Finland.

Mass unemployment and precarious jobs, the lack of housing at affordable prices, the depopulation of the countryside and widespread poverty show how the market controlled by big business and neoliberal politics deprive many people of the possibility to have a decent life, how they break human relations and shatter people's hopes. This means wasting resources, on the reverse side of which one finds casino economy, export of capital and bragging consumption. Human needs are inferiorated to the market.

Neoliberalism stigmatises the public sector for being "too expensive and inefficient". However, the public sector often functions more efficiently than the private sector, produces necessary services, diversifies economic development and increases the possibilities for citizens to have a say. In its search for profit, neoliberalism tries to privatise the most profitable areas of the public sector, to transform the remaining areas into market-driven sectors and otherwise reduce the role of public control.

Cuts in municipal and State expenditures, privatisation and EU politics break up public services and the social security system, which were jointly built thanks to the cooperation of the Left and the Centre. This threatens the income of the unemployed, of the elderly, of families with children and of many other social strata. The livelihood of a growing number of people depends on social income transfers and public services.

Along with the increasing importance of the mass media, education, science and culture, these areas experience growing commercialisation, concentration of ownership and internationalisation. The development of the mass media has increased the possibilities of following what is happening but their concentration in fewer and fewer hands restricts the freedom of speech. Opportunities to study and enjoy culture are unequally distributed. While the progress in working life and society requires comprehensive all-round education, the understanding of entities and cooperation, the educational system and the mass media emphasize fragmented knowledge, competition and a way of thinking according to which "everybody is the architect of his/her own fortune".

Power is concentrated in the hands of a few

Universal suffrage, municipal self-government, the right to strike and many other democratic rights have been achieved as a result of struggles waged by the labour and civic movements. But this has not changed the character of the State into the representative of equal citizens and the architect of the common good.

The State maintains bourgeois hegemony and guarantees the continuity of the capitalist system. It hides the inequality and class contradictions based on private ownership of the means of production. At the same time the State is the target of the struggle waged by various vested interests and forces.

Power in Finland is concentrated in the hands of a small elite formed by the major owners and directors of banks and corporations, the Confederation of the Finnish Industry and Employers, the central ministries, the President of the Republic as well as the top officials of the European Union and the State. This elite also accepts the support of trade union leaders who adapt themselves to the market ideology.

The most important decisions are made within a small circle. The role of Parliament often is only to rubber stamp these decisions as an expression of general approval. The central media present these decisions as a realization of "common good", "economic necessity" and "international competitiveness". The central role of the State in the adjustment and satisfaction of social interests has led to the coupling of numerous political parties and interest organizations with the State machinery. It has turned them away from their members and civic society.

Finland as a peripheral area of the European Union

Due to internationalisation, Finland is linked increasingly closely with the rest of Europe and the world.

International relations, division of labour and cooperation are becoming increasingly important. The economy of Finland depends to an ever greater degree on foreign trade. Culture and science are positively influenced by international exchange and immigration. Security is becoming an increasingly common and worldwide issue.

However, as a peripheral area of Europe, Finland has fallen into a more and more subdued position. Transferring matters to a greater extent to the decision of the market and supranational bodies of the EU narrows decisively democracy and the right to national self-determination. The implementation of EU politics has become the main task of the State. At the same time State forces and big business are intertwined at a new, supranational level.

The neoliberal politics of the EU as well as the Economic and Monetary Union maintain unemployment, increase pressure to impair the working conditions, undermine the financing of public services and intensify privatisation. The consequence of this is greater inequality in the distribution of wealth between genders and regions. The EU has accelerated the closing down of farms and the depopulation of the countryside.

The Union aims at consolidating the position of European capital in the global race for natural resources, markets, scientific and technological supremacy. It pursues the interests of large corporations and of the wealthy minority at the expenses of developing countries.
The foreign and security policy of the EU will subordinate Finland's security interests to the politics of the Great Powers by which the EU aims to strengthen its position, particularly at the expense of developing countries. The militarisation of the EU couples the Union with US-led NATO, international arms industry and imperialist policy of force.

The Common Security Policy and the military activity are in blatant contradiction with the principle of Finland's military nonalignment and couple our country with NATO. EU membership weakens the possibilities to take care of our national interests in relation with Russia and is in breach of traditional cooperation between Nordic countries. In the worst case it may turn the Eastern frontier of our country into a borderline between two military powers with nuclear capability.

Interests of big business and the majority of the people are in contradiction

The relatively stable growth of capitalism, the extension of the state's social functions and rather peaceful international developments already created the illusion that the class contradictions had come to an end. But this has not happened and the contradictions between social classes are again accentuating.

The working class, wage earners, who do not own the means of production and who enjoy no independent position at work, occupy a key position with regard to economic and social development.

The share of traditional factory and building workers has decreased. The working class has grown larger, especially in the service sectors dominated by women's labour. Work is done more often than before in small units, by subcontractors, part-time or fixed term workers, free lancers and also by the self-employed. Continuous unemployment and precarious jobs have become a widespread problem. In particular, young people and immigrants face difficulties in finding work.

The level of workers' training, education and know-how has risen along with the scientific-technological and social development. The share of knowledge control and of intellectual work has grown too. But many changes take place in contradiction. While some workers now enjoy greater independence at work and better working conditions, most of them have to work at an accelerating pace, while work is fragmented and employment security is weakening. Opportunities in terms of access to information and training are spread unequally. Labour markets are to a large extent segregated on the basis of gender and this maintains inequality of women.

The educated class has become more significant because of the scientific-technological course of development. The number of those with a technical education and of those with university degrees employed by the State or local authorities has grown. Most of them enjoy a status similar to that of the working class. Because of its power, big business restricts independent, creative work and adds to the insecurity of the intelligentsia.

The weakening and privatising of public services negatively affects the well-being of families with children, retired persons and in general of people with low income. In addition, they minimise women's opportunity to achieve an equal and independent status. Because of the low level of their pensions and because of the lack of services, a growing number of retired people are deprived of their right to enjoy a secure old age. Inequality in terms of health care, housing and education grows. Poverty and inherited indigence have become a serious problem.

Work carried on by farmers mainly on their family farms constitutes the basis for our country's food supply. Their difficulties have been aggravated by the agricultural policy of the EU, the debt burden and the conditions dictated by monopolies. The largest part of farms had to end their activity or is in danger.

The number of small businesses has increased. But the situation of many of them is one of dependence and subjection, pressed by banks, wholesalers, big companies and the State bureaucracy.

In general, the interests, aspirations and hopes of the majority of people run up against the power of big money. For this majority to develop awareness of the community and similarity of interests is not something that will happen by itself. It is made difficult due to diverging experiences, to employers efforts to make workers compete and to split working communities, to the shortages regarding levels of trade unions organising and activity, to the bourgeois mass media and to consumerist life style promoted by market forces. Many experience insecurity, powerlessness and isolation.

One of the difficulties is the lack of equal opportunities of access to the mass media and social activities. The opinions of the leftists, trade union and civic movements are discriminated against and their activities are hampered. Working people and the have-nots are set against each other on the basis of prejudices against other people, other ethnic groups and cultures. Many people are discouraged because they feel the underpinning competition, because human dignity is trampled and the moral is broken.

III The left-wing alternative

The serious problems regarding the development in Finland and the world cannot be solved if politics are allowed to be taken over by the market and if they are reduced to the power game of politicians.

We need policies where human beings are not tools, but are the policy-maker and its raison-d'être. We do not imagine that we could offer ready-made recipes and plan everything in advance. We want to seek and implement alternatives together with other people, trade unions and civic movements and political parties who desire change.

The CPF wishes to develop common action against neoliberalism and big capital in order to change the political line, to expand the rights of working people and the poor, to restrict the power of big capital, in favour of sustainable development and peace and to pave the way towards socialism.

Democracy

The developing of the modern economy and society depends on the developing of the abilities and initiatives of people as workers as well as citizens. The biggest obstacle to this is the power of big business. For the rule of the people to become true, the power of the small minority owning the means of production must be broken.

- Active participation and the exercising of one's influence develop only when the freedom of speech, transparency of the decision-making, right to strike and other democratic rights are guaranteed. Sovereign citizenship has to be extended to working life so that workers have the right to obtain information and participate in the decision-making of companies, institutions and administrations. For these possibilities to participate and to exercise influence, democratic decision-making procedures must be guaranteed within political parties, trade unions and civic organizations. Nobody can be discriminated against on the basis of gender, origin, language or any other reason.

- In State-level decision-making, the system dominated by the government has to be changed so that Parliament is developed into an active organ of democracy and that the influence of the civic society is strengthened. Municipal and regional self-government must be developed by increasing their resources, by developing proximity democracy and by decentralizing decision-making.

- Democracy has to be extended to economic life so that it will not remain without a material basis. This requires numerous measures reaching from increased transparency of the economic decision-making, the development of the co-operative system, up to social ownership and democratic management of the main industrial and energy sectors and the nationalization of banks.

- The increasing importance of information, its control and communication emphasize the need for democratisation of the mass media, for training and education, research and culture. Everybody must have access to culture and personal development. The status of the minority languages and multiculturalism must be secured. The domination of commercial media controlled by big corporations must be abolished. The share of alternative and confronting coverage in the mass media, for instance the possibilities for the trade unions and civic movements to inform, must be increased.

Welfare society

In Finland there are sufficient resources to guarantee every person living in this country the right to work and to welfare and this is an obligation.
Mass unemployment, the development of people's needs and economic changes pose major challenges to the development of living conditions. Responding to these challenge entails an investment in the most important element of the economic and social development, i.e. the human being.

- A basic security system must guarantee a decent income without useless bureaucracy to every unemployed, student, retired, sick, handicapped person and to every other person who cannot receive such income from a different source. Poverty, unemployment and homelessness must be eradicated.

- Public services must be developed in such a manner so as to guarantee everybody's right to health, education, culture and a level of care that is indispensable to ensure a decent human life. In particular basic services must be organised as public services equally available for all. A special culture and service management must be created to cater for special needs, whereby services' users and employees participate in the refinement of these services and workers high professional skills are taken care of.

- Overall working hours have to be reduced to six hours per day of 30 hours per week. This is possible thanks to the increase in productivity and by virtue of a more equitable distribution of the results of work. The shortening of the working hours should be carried out without squeezing workers even more, but by creating new jobs.

- Income distribution and taxation structure have to be made more equitable. The tax burden of the low- and middle-income groups has to be eased. But the tax burden on the large corporations, on capital income, on large-income people and connected to the wasteful usage of energy and natural resources has to be tightened.

- In order to achieve gender equality, it is necessary to dismantle the segregation of the labour market into "men's and women's jobs" and to develop public services. All kinds of gender-based domination as well as numerous forms discrimination against women on sexist grounds have to be abolished.

- Municipal and state enterprises and organisations should be made into forerunners in the field of employment, democracy and environmental protection. They play a significant role in the diversification of production structures and regional development. Also, large-scale private enterprises should be imposed similar social and employment obligations as a precondition to any social support for their operational environment.

- Building a welfare society means ensuring self-sufficiency in production of basic foodstuff and a guaranteed viable development of the countryside. A growing part of the agricultural subsidies should be allocated to environmentally friendly and organic farming and to the promotion of cooperation between farmers.

A democratic and solidarious Europe

Well-being and security of the Finnish people is in many ways linked to the development of Europe as a whole.

The developments in Europe can be steered by citizens' needs and decisions only when cooperation takes place on a democratic and equal basis. Such cooperation and peoples' right to self-determination do not stand in opposition to each other. Both are based on internationalism as the rule of the people and both require restricting the power of capital.

The position of Finland and the requirements of Europe's development call for the establishment of an environment based on cooperation allowing all European nations to live together and in peace. Finland has traditions in promoting this kind of cooperation.

- The foundation of European cooperation should be, not the freedom of capital and competition, but guaranteeing citizens' basic rights. The neoliberal standards of the European Economic and Monetary Union must be abandoned. Giving priority to employment, basic security and environmental protection means that the economy must be placed under democratic control.

- Instead of increasing centralized, supranational decision-making in the European Union, the decision-making power of citizens, trade unions and civic movements and elected members of Parliament should be strengthened. This entails disengaging from the EU and building such a Europe that does not give precedence to markets and capital power over human beings and nature.

- It is necessary to build an equitable society open to all European nations. In this connection Finland is given numerous opportunities in cooperation with other Nordic States, Russia and the Baltic States.

- Europe must not be developed into an economic and military fortress against the rest of the world. Europe has to assume its responsibility in the solving the worldwide problems, avert xenophobia and racism and give assistance to developing countries.

- Finland should be kept out of NATO and EU military operations. Finland and Europe must be forerunners in the field of disarmament and freeing the world of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction.

Responsibility for the future of humanity

Internationalisation concerns more and more directly and more widely every person, all peoples and all spheres of life. The nationally restricted or Euro-centric view should be replaced by a great project of building humankind, which will open a road to a more humanistic civilization.

Worldwide cooperation and solidarity are indispensable for humankind to be able to solve its aggravating problems and to survive.

- The danger of war and violence has to be excluded from international relations. Although power politics has strong positions, the threat of common destruction and the increasing international interdependence create possibilities for restraining forces of war. Security cannot be increased by armaments or by military alliances because it is a question of common security based on cooperation.

- Human activity must be adapted to fit ecologically sustainable conditions. Of course people cannot live without interfering in the functions of nature, but they must not do it by taking an indifferent, instrumental attitude to nature. Natural resources and non-renewable energy sources should be saved also for the coming generations, environmentally friendly technology and recycling of natural resources should be encouraged. This requires changes in economic structures and also in the ways of life of us all.

- It is necessary to establish a more equitable international economic order. It means cancelling to a great extent the debts of developing countries and breaking the power of supranational banks and big corporations. Economic relations and development cooperation should contribute to the possibilities of developing countries to develop their own independent scientific-technological resources and to embark upon a path of diversified development meeting the needs of these people.

- The activity of the United Nations should be democratised and developed. The status of the UN General Assembly in relation to the Security Council should be strengthened, the share of developing countries in the Security Council should be increased and civic movements should be given wider possibilities to exert their influence. Great powers should be prevented from using the Security Council and other UN agencies as an instrument for pursuing their own interests. It is necessary to establish a new financing system within the UN in order to channel the resources more equitably and to restrict the power of supranational capital.

- Science and culture should be the common property of nations. Solving global problems should be made a key issue in the scientific and cultural development. Resources should be transferred from the military research to the peaceful development and environmental conservation. People in developing countries should be given better and more opportunities of studying, new technologies adaptable to these countries and the share of developing countries in international communication should be promoted and supported.

Socialism

Under capitalism, great progress has been made in the fields of the economy, science, technology and culture. In the wealthiest capitalist countries the material standard of living of quite a few people has risen - as a result of work done and struggles carried on by working people.

But the power of big capitalist enterprises and financial institutions forms an obstacle to the reasonable, equitable and ecologically sustainable development of Finland. Also, the biggest dangers and risks that humankind is faced with are related to the capitalist method of production and to the logic of capital, by which this production is determined. Capitalism is a barrier to human freedom, to people's well-being and a threat to the future of humankind.

Movements aiming at socialism have experienced frustrations and setbacks but replacing capitalism by a fundamentally different society and development is more indispensable then ever before. The ideals of socialism are alive, because it is difficult to imagine future prospects of human dignity and happy life without these ideals. They are living in the movements that struggle for people's rights, equality and freedom. It is possible to see also today that broadening of people's own decision-making power, fighting unemployment, combating ecological threats such as climate change, overcoming the distress of developing countries and securing peace require solutions aiming at socialism.

Socialism as an ideal and a goal guides us Communists in our everyday activity. But socialism does not mean only values and policies pursued in its name. Socialist revolution means new economic and power structures achieved as a result of the struggles waged by the working class and the majority of the people, which promote the building of a welfare society based on the rule of people, of a democratic and solidarious Europe as well as of a new civilization.

Socialism means fundamental changes in people's attitudes to work, power, nature and to other people and nations. Socialism does not mean that all private ownership should be abolished, but it does mean that various forms of the social ownership of the means of production are given central importance so that the market can be subjected to meet people's needs and development made ecologically sustainable. It is a society of highly developed productive forces.

While under capitalism the human being exists for the sake of production and private profit is the purpose of production, under socialism the purpose of production is the development of people's rights, possibilities, abilities and culture. While under capitalism material wealth harnesses the personality of the human, under socialism wealth first of all means the development of the personality. Along with the development of socialism, unemployment and the sharp contrast between work and leisure time starts to disappear. Socialism is quite a lengthy development period as a result of which a Communist community will be born, in which the free development of every individual is a precondition for the free development of all.

Our goal is a new civilization and a new society where the following features prevail:
- Humanism in which the human being is the aim of social progress and architect of his/her own history;
- The right of workers' and working communities to decide about the results of their work and distribute them equitably, which requires forms of public ownership of banks and of the major means of production;
- Rule of people and broad self-government based on democratic rights, such as the freedom of speech and expression, free elections, right to strike and rights of political parties and civic movements;
- Implementing basic rights of every individual, full employment and equality between genders;
- Right to national self-determination, international cooperation on equal basis and worldwide solidarity;
- Ecologically sustainable development;
- Just and lasting peace;
- Technological, scientific and cultural development for the benefit of the human being and as common wealth of humankind as a whole.

IV Co-operation

As long as there have been exploited and subjected people there have also been dreams about a better society and a better world. The CPF carries on these traditions of humanism, democracy and revolution.

We do not accept that people should submit to their fate or that the end of history is the fate of humankind. We trust in possibilities of reason, individual and social responsibility, cooperation and solidarity.

Many others seek for new solutions too. This is seen in leftist and progressive movements, trade union activities, the efforts by workers to expand their possibilities to make their voice heart, peace and solidarity movements, environmental movements, tenants' activities as well as the development of alternative way of living, of education and humanistic culture.

Experience shows that forces of change grow out of initiatives and cooperation at grass-root level. Politics will not implement radical reforms unless citizens themselves are decisive policy-makers. Cooperation between leftist and progressive parties and people, directed against big capital and the Right, is needed as a channel of political influence in civic society.

The objectives of trade union and civic activities and of political cooperation are becoming increasingly international. Also in international activities our point of departure is openness to cooperation with all those sharing similar goals. As communists, we feel a close solidarity with communist parties and anti-capitalist left-wing parties of other countries.

Common and coordinated international action of the labour and civic movements is needed more then ever. Without such action it is not possible to successfully develop and carry out different alternatives to the increasingly international power of big capital and of the European Union. Without such action it will not be possible to face the challenges of pan-European and global development.

V CPF - a party of the future

Many people experience that political parties are election machineries, which are alienated from citizens and use power as an instrument against citizens' interests. And there is a good reason for this.

We want to build a different kind of party.

The CPF was born of the lessons drawn from the old workers' party and the 1918 revolution of the Finnish working people. Although it had to operate underground and its members were persecuted, the Party defended the cause of peace, the people of Finland, democracy, socialism and humanity. Following its legalisation after the wars, the CPF and the people's democratic movement started paving the way to a new political direction and a policy of. The CPF has been at the origin of numerous democratic and social reforms.

We shall carry on these activities. A change in the situation in Finland and elsewhere in the world necessitates new evaluations and conclusions. Building a different party is our response to the crisis of the party system, which is alienated, from citizens and their aspirations. At the same time building a new type of Party means to learn from past mistakes, for which the CPF has paid a heavy toll in the form of a split, defeats and losses.

We call on people to join in and build such a CPF, which will be a better instrument and a stronger support for people's activities for their rights, against capitalism and all type of exploitation and domination, for a free society.

In Finland we need a party, which the working class and other subdued people perceive as their own party, which is on their side, and defends them in all situations and does not play games at their expense.

We call on people to develop Marxist criticism of capitalism as well as to develop the theory of socialism so as to make them a more influential actor in the activities of workers' and civic movements.

The development of Marxist and Leninist theory is necessary to study the complex and contradictory reality, to synthesise the experiences drawn from class struggles and to change the society and the world.

We call on people to build such a CPF, which will be open to the opinions and experiences of its members as well as of other people. This also is a precondition for developing the political line of the party and safeguarding its unity.

The Communist Party is not a discussion circle of people who are always right; not a mechanism with a top-down structure. We need the party as a democratic party of revolutionary action.

We call on people to build a CPF whose action combines patriotism and internationalism. In the world which is becoming increasingly internationalised and which is torn by conflicts, it is necessary to understand the international character of the working class as an ever wider responsibility for the future of the globe.

For all these reasons we repeat today the words of the Communist Manifesto:
Workers of all countries, unite!

(Adopted in the Congress of the CP of Finland 1994 and changed in the Congress 2007)