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English
summary
The common theme of the articles published in this year’s issue of Työväentutkimus
is that of leisure time. The choice of this theme defines our position within
the debate which has been raging throughout this year in the Finnish media and
which has focused on the crimes committed in the name of Communism, and on
Communist history and morality. Any narrow view limited to the criminal aspects
of Communism conveniently hides the incontestable achievements of the labour
movement, just one of which is the increased amount of leisure time for wage
earners, time which in the last few years has again come under threat with the
advance of globalisation. So what did workers actually do in their free hours? In his article,
Erkki Vasara offers an insight into the leisure activities of the labour
organization members at their Workers’ Community Hall. This was “their” hall, a
home from home for activists, a real source of pride, a visible and tangible
reminder of the thousands of hours of voluntary work they had put in. The
culture of the Workers’ Halls flourished from the 1920s right up to the 1950s
when it began to fade with the advent of television, commercial youth culture
and opportunities to pursue wider interests. Hanna Kuusi devotes her article to unravelling the Finnish myth of the
“working man’s Saturday”, the working-class drinking culture the whole object
of which was to drink to a standstill every weekend. In the 1950s researchers
engaged in the study of alcoholism became aware of the problem and advocated
restrictive and corrective action to moderate drinking habits. Later it was
discovered that weekend drinking combined with the ritualistic use of alcohol
throughout the week was in fact just as commonplace among the higher social
classes. Prohibitions and restrictions on the other hand funnelled working
class drinking into alcoholic weekend bingeing and can now be interpreted as
one form of patronizing class politics. Hannu Itkonen sets out to examine to what extent the official programme
of the Workers’ Sports Federation (TUL) has defined the leisure-oriented
physical culture of the Finnish working class throughout the country’s
independence. Up to the 1960s leisure time activities were inseparable from
class organization whereas by the 1970s and 1980s we begin to see the influence
of social policy planning. The Workers’ Sports Federation supported the
development of leisure time subsidised by public funds. During the last decade
the Federation has made its mark by differentiating between aspects of physical
culture, emphasizing the importance of sport for children and young people, for
instance, as well as distinguishing between fitness- and health-specific, and
leisure-linked physical education. Matti Halmeaho’s article is an account of the lesser known early years
of the career of the well-known Finnish singer-songwriter Veikko Lavi. Despite
his considerable popularity in the early 1950s, Lavi did not find it easy to
earn a living and was obliged to undertake long tours to all sorts of primitive
venues where working people might be found. In addition to the thematic articles, Pekka Lehtinen examines Helsinki’s
town planning, its ideals and their practical implementation in the
working-class Kallio district. Juha Koskinen in his turn writes about the
travels to Finland and to Europe of the Swedish “Communist” D. Forssell. Koskinen
also explores more extensively the influence of journeymen on the diffusion of
socialist ideas in the 19th century. Finally, Työväentutkimus also provides résumés of dissertations,
as well as book reviews and information about current events organized by the
Institutions of Labour Heritage in Finland (Työväenperinnelaitos) (http://tkm.fi/heritage.html)
and the Finnish Society for Labour History (Työväen historian ja perinteen
tutkimuksen seura) (http://www.helsinki.fi/jarj/thpts/). Translation: Marja Kivisaari |