MB

The Finland situation is very promising from a leftist view. Finland’s political system is mostly dominated by six parties: the Green Party, similar to the Greens here; a Social Democratic Party. which is like the Labor Party; the Left Alliance, which is the communists and socialists. This is the Left.

On the other side, you have the Centre Party, which was like the Farmers’ Party but doesn’t really have an economic definition, so sometimes they join coalitions with left-wing or right-wing parties; you have the National Coalition Party, the right-wing business party; then, lately, you have the Finns Party — which used to be called the True Finns, which kind of gives you a hint of what they’re about. They’re like an ethno-nationalist party, though they will deny that.

In 2015, the top three parties in Finland were conservative: in order was the Centre Party, the National Coalition Party, and then the Finns. They came together and formed the center-right Bourgeois Government (which is what they actually call their governments). Combined, the three parties have about 60 percent of the public behind them.

The Finns join the center-right party that’s mostly interested in austerity of various sorts — trimming down wages and benefits, increasing competitiveness of exports, which also means trimming down labor costs and making people work longer and cutting vacations.

When the Finns join that government, their support just collapses. It goes from over 20 percent to less than 10 percent over a year or two. If you read the Finnish newspapers, the consensus is that they are basically supported by blue-collar people who are also racists. But ultimately, they don’t want a party that comes in and cuts their wages and benefits even if the party is racist and satisfies their anti-immigrant tendencies.

Their support base looks at the Finns Party and says, “You’re a traitor to the working class — to hell with you.” Only left parties picked up voters as the ethno-nationalist party declined.

This shows that even people who are have very bad views on immigration and diversity — if they get screwed on just basic pocketbook issues, they jump ship and go back over to their old homes in the Left.

That’s a good sign for the American context, especially because Trump and the Republicans are not going to run a government that benefits working-class people. His base is going to get disillusioned and be open to supporting a Bernie-style candidate or someone like that who speaks to their issues and actually intends to follow through with them, instead of just using them rhetorically and then abandoning them once they get into office. So it’s promising.