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82 NOVEMBER MOVEMENT
Finland has always had a strict control system and a very institutions-oriented policy. In the 1960s Finland had
four times more prisoners than the other Nordic countries despite a comparable crime rate. 0.4% of the
population were institutionalised in mental hospitals, the joint highest number in the world with Ireland and
Sweden, and the number of detentions for drunkenness was ten times higher than it was in Denmark.
Conscientious objectors, including Jehovah Witnesses, served 2 years and seven months in a closed camp,
homosexuality was illegal, people with unpaid child support payments were sent to labour camps as vagrants,
and alcoholics’ institutions were based on compulsory treatment. Institutional discipline was extreme, even in the
reform schools, and there was a lot of homelessness.
Social scientists around the world published books and articles on the sociology of deviant behaviour,
which was mainly directed at the controlled groups mentioned above. Startling research articles were also
published in Finland, especially by the Finnish Foundation for Alcohol Studies and the Finnish Research
Institute for Criminology. In 1966 the University of Helsinki Student Union (innovation no. 20) organise d a
series of five panel discussions about e.g. prisoners, people with mental health problems, vagrants, work -shy
or homeless people and alcoholics, and a new wave of polemic pamphlets also began to appear. A group of
sociologists, lawyers, writers and physicians published a book on compulsory treatment (Pakkoauttajat,
(Beware of Care)), edited by Lars D. Eriksson. The book really put the cat among the pigeons and set the
scene for an intensive debate in the media about institutions and compulsory treatment , and the prevailing
social welfare and control policy received a lot of criticism. Radical associations had already been founded in
other Nordic countries to defend prisoners’ interests.
On 7 November 1967 a Finnish control policy association, the November Movement, was founded to help
improve the standing of all the groups mentioned above. The development of the association got a boost from a
national scandal when 40 homeless people died of exposure due to the closing of a 500-bed night shelter earlier
that year, and it gained a lot of publicity on 6 December 1967, the 50th anniversary celebration of independent
Finland
– at the same time as President Kekkonen was hosting a party for the county’s elite at the presidential
palace, the November Movement invi
ted all of Helsinki’s homeless people to the Student House for sausages
and beer. Around 500 men came to hear the rousing speeches and protest songs, and the event received as
much if not more attention as the president’s gala. There were three stewards at the event, including Paavo
Lipponen, who later became the Finnish Prime Minister and Speaker of the Parliament. A short time earlier an
abandoned paint warehouse had been transformed into a 1000-
bed night shelter, where society’s most
marginalised members slept in coffinlike wooden boxes. The country was celebrating, but the misery was
palpable. On Independence Day the November Movement also published its list of the 50 evils of Finnish society.
The movement was divided into three subject-related working groups which organised demonstrations,
compiled background information, wrote memoranda, edited books, started research projects and established
shadow committees. Proper public committees were also established, most importantly the Committee for the
Basis of Social Welfare, and the members also succeeded to some extent in realising their plans to take over
leading positions in public administration. They invited artists and politicians to institutions and organised
debates before the upcoming election.
People who were subject to institutional control and domination also participated in the movement, although
most of its thousand members were young academics.
The November Movement was one of the most visible Finnish single-issue movements in the 1960s, along
with the unilateral nuclear disarmament peace organisation the Committee of 100; Yhdistys 9, which mapped
gender roles; the pro-Third World movement Tricont; and the Traffic Policy Association called Marjority, which
criticised the prevailing car culture and promoted efficient public transport and better conditions for pedestrians
and cyclists.
The November Movement was active from 1967 to 1971, during which time its aim was to promote the
foundation of specific interest organisations (innovation no. 14). This resulted in the founding of the Finnish
Gypsy Union in 1967; the Finnish Conscript Union, the sexual equality organisation Seta and the Organisation
for Psychiatric Rehabilitation in 1970; the Finnish Central Association for Mental Health in 1971; and the Union
of Conscientious Objectors in 1974. It took a little bit longer before the Homeless People’s Association and the
Y-Foundation, which constructs and provides accommodation for needy single people (innovation no. 62), were
founded.
Klaus Mäkelä, th
e author of the movement’s declaration of principles, has stated: “The salient principles of
the movement illustrate not only social indignation, but also a strong, social scientific belief in reason. Many of
the activists were affiliated to political part
ies, but the movement itself was clearly independent.”
He continues however: “in the ideological seminar organised in autumn 1969 the younger generation
criticised the older one for petty bourgeois reformism in a manner that anticipated, in many respects, the
forthcoming confrontations of the 1970s.” The new generation wanted to eradicate poverty from the whole world
instead of merely tinkering with Finns living in extreme poverty (innovation no. 22).
The November Movement was wound up in 1972 as it had accomplished its mission. It had mobilised new
organisations, influenced the public authorities and changed public opinion.
Ilkka Taipale
– Member of Parliament 1971–1975, 2000–2007
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