''Eteenpäin'' (English: ''Forward'') was a

Finnish-language Finnish (endonym: or ) is a Uralic language of the Finnic branch, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official languages of Finland (the other being Swedish). ...

daily newspaper launched in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1921. The paper was the East Coast organ of Finnish-American members of the

Communist Party USA The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...

. The paper moved to

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...

in 1922 and to

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in 1931. In 1950 ''Eteenpäin'' was merged with the Communist Party's Midwestern Finnish-language daily, ''

Työmies ''Työmies'' (The Worker) was a politically radical Finnish-language newspaper published primarily out of Hancock, Michigan, and Superior, Wisconsin. Launched as a weekly in July 1903, the paper later went to daily frequency and was issued und ...

'' (''The Worker'') to create ''Työmies-Eteenpäin'', which continued to be published from

Superior, Wisconsin , native_name_lang = oj , nickname = , total_type = , motto = , image_skyline = Tower Avenue.jpg , imagesize = , image_caption = Downtown Superior , ima ...

into the 1990s.

Publication history

Political background

In the summer of 1919, the

Socialist Party of America The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of Ameri ...

(SPA), amidst much acrimony, split into three parts at its

1919 Emergency National Convention The 1919 Emergency National Convention of the Socialist Party of America was held in Chicago from August 30 to September 5, 1919. It was a seminal gathering in the history of American radicalism, marked by the bolting of the party's organized lef ...

. Two new Communist Parties were established, with the moderate Socialist "Regulars" retaining control of the old party name, logo, and assets. In the run-up to this landmark party convention the SPA's governing National Executive Committee had suspended six large foreign language federations for having officially endorsed the

Left Wing Manifesto The Left Wing Manifesto is the name bestowed upon two distinct programmatic documents of the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party during the factional war in the Socialist Party of America of 1919. The first document, the "Left Wing Manifesto ...

around with the soon-to-be Communist Party dissidents were organizing their forces. This action, coupled with the revocation of the state charters of "left wing" dominated states such as Ohio, Michigan, and Massachusetts, deprived the left wing of its voting majority and assured the Regulars of victory at the convention in Chicago. This heavy-handed action taken against the non-English-speaking section of the Socialist Party came at a severe cost, however. Even though the Finnish Socialist Federation (SSJ), long regarded as one of the strongest bones in the Socialist Party's body, was not one of those endorsing the Left Wing Manifesto and thus incurring the NEC's wrath, many in the organization were sympathetic to the

revolutionary socialist Revolutionary socialism is a political philosophy, doctrine, and tradition within socialism that stresses the idea that a social revolution is necessary to bring about structural changes in society. More specifically, it is the view that revoluti ...

pronouncements of the Left Wing Manifesto and were disgusted by the actions of the NEC. At its 6th National Convention, held in

Waukegan, Illinois ''(Fortress or Trading Post)'' , image_flag = , image_seal = , blank_emblem_size = 150 , blank_emblem_type = Logo , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_type1 = State , subdivisi ...

from December 25, 1920 to January 2, 1921, the Finnish Socialist Federation after much heated debate voted 16-5 to withdraw from the Socialist Party of America and to continue instead its existence as an independent organization. Upon learning of the decision of the Waukegan Convention to separate the Finnish Socialist Federation from the party, Socialist Party Executive Secretary

Otto Branstetter Otto Franklin Branstetter (1877–1924) was an American socialist official. Branstetter served as executive secretary of National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party of America from 1919 until shortly before his death in 1924. Branstetter wa ...

immediately set about reorganizing a new Finnish Federation for the Socialist Party, an idea which had much support among the branches of the more moderate Eastern District of the Finnish Socialist Federation. In August 1921 a convention was held in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, home of the Eastern District's daily newspaper, ''Raivaaja'' (''The Pioneer'') and a new Finnish Socialist Federation organized.Tim Davenport
"Finnish Federations,"
Early American Marxism website, Corvallis, OR. A large percentage of the Eastern District of the old Finnish Socialist Federation left that organization and joined the reorganized Finnish Socialist Federation affiliated with the SPA, bringing with them their newspaper, ''Raivaaja.'' The independent SSJ still had three regular and well established newspapers — the daily ''Työmies'' (''The Worker''), published in the Upper Midwest, and the weeklies ''Toveri'' (''The Comrade'') and ''Toveritar'' (''The Woman Comrade''), published in

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. Despite this fact the radical Finnish-Americans of the East still felt they needed a newspaper published at a closer proximity to cover news of local concern and to this end they launched a new publication entitled ''Eteenpäin'' (''Forward'').

Formation

''Eteenpäin'' was launched in

on May 25, 1921 under the editorship of Elis Sulkanen, until recently the editor of ''Toveri.''Dirk Hoerder with Christiane Harzig (eds.), ''The Immigrant Labor Press in North America, 1840s-1970s: An Annotated Bibliography: Volume 1: Migrants from Northern Europe.'' Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1987; pg. 214. In an effort to reduce expenses, the publication moved from New York to

in 1922. There was also a name change of the publisher at this time, with the initial "Bothnia Press Inc." giving way to the "Eteenpäin Co-operative Society." The paper was typically four pages in length and strongly ideological in its coverage of the news. There was some limited Finnish presence in the underground Communist Party of America — a shade over 400 dues-paying members by the end of 1921. This number was quite limited and its expansion difficult, however. In the estimation of Finnish Communist leader John Wiita (best known by the pseudonym "Henry Puro"), may Finnish-Americans were suspicious of illegal revolutionary propaganda activities, which they considered outlandish.Kostiainen, ''The Forging of Finnish-American Communism, 1917-1924,'' pg. 119. ''Eteenpäin'' editor Elis Sulkanen, himself a participant in the underground Communist movement of 1920-1923, similarly noted that most radical Finns had no desire to join the underground organization, instead seeking to participate in a legal organization realistically participating in the actual politics of the United States. It was not until the establishment of the above ground and "legal"

Workers Party of America The Workers Party of America (WPA) was the name of the legal party organization used by the Communist Party USA from the last days of 1921 until the middle of 1929. Background As a legal political party, the Workers Party accepted affiliation fr ...

(WPA) around New Year's Day of 1922 that Finnish radicals entered the communist movement en masse. The main body of the Finnish Socialist Federation ended its year of independent existence and joined the new WPA as a group at the time of the organization's founding convention, held in New York City. The Finns soon comprised the largest component of the WPA, outnumbering native English speakers and representing 40% of the total party membership by 1923. ''Eteenpäin'' became a part of the WPA at this juncture and it remained a Communist Party publication throughout its nearly three decades of existence.Armas Kustaa Ensio Holmio and Ellen M. Ryynanen,
History of the Finns in Michigan
'' Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 2001; pg. 298.

Development

''Eteenpäin'' had a circulation of nearly 7,300 in 1924. By 1930, its press run averaged just shy of 11,000 copies per issue. A number of leading figures in the radical Finnish-American political movement were editors or managers of ''Eteenpäin'' over the years, including original editor Sulkanen (later the author of an encyclopedic history of Finnish-American socialism), William Marttila, Toivo Vuorela, Onni Saari, K.E. Heikkinen, and John Wiita (Henry Puro). In 1931, the publication moved to

, where it was published by a new holding company called "American Finnish Publishers, Inc." The publishers of ''Eteenpäin'' also issued a number of other Finnish-language radical publications over the years, including a

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

theoretical magazine ''Viesti'' (''The Message''), a magazine directed at women called ''Työläisnainen'' (''The Working Woman''), and the annuals ''Punainen Kalenteri'' (''Red Calendar''), ''Vappu'' (''May Day''), and ''Työmiehen Joulu'' (''Worker's Christmas'').

Merger and legacy

In 1950, ''Eteenpäin'' was essentially dissolved when it was merged into ''Työmies,'' with the "new" joint publication (called ''Työmies-Eteenpäin'') being published from ''Työmies

Superior, Wisconsin , native_name_lang = oj , nickname = , total_type = , motto = , image_skyline = Tower Avenue.jpg , imagesize = , image_caption = Downtown Superior , ima ...

offices. This paper continued through 1995, when it was replaced by the English-language publication, ''The Finnish-American Reporter.''"Tyomies Society (Superior, WI), Records: Finding Aid,"
Immigration History Research Center,

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

, Minneapolis, MN. ''Eteenpäin'' has been preserved almost in its totality. Microfilm of ''Työmies-Eteenpäin'' (1950–1995) is available from the

Wisconsin Historical Society The Wisconsin Historical Society (officially the State Historical Society of Wisconsin) is simultaneously a state agency and a private membership organization whose purpose is to maintain, promote and spread knowledge relating to the history of N ...

at the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

References