The Finland IWW Regional Organizing Committee has been chartered by the IWW administration for Europe. The charter was issued by the delegate council of the IWW WISE-RA (Wales, Ireland, Scotland & England Regional Administration). The Whatcom-Skagit Branch congratulates and welcomes the Finland Regional Organizing Committee (FINROC) as the latest international section to be formally charter as a Branch of the union. The IWW already has an inspiring historical reputation within Finnish labor history, this latest initiative demonstrates a significant development to the revival of radical unionism in the region as well as the international working class struggle.
If you are interested in some history of rebel Finnish workers in the NW corner of the USA, here are two great reads. The Red Coast by Aaron Goings is a history of Finnish Wobs and socialists on the coast of Washington State, and their communities in the first few decades of the 1900s. Many were expatriates from Russian imperialism. The other is a huge novel, Deep River, by Karl Marlantes. The book, based in part on the authors’ family history, tells of an ex-patriot Finnish woman and her family (the Koskis) who flee the Russian occupation and settle at the mouth of the Columbia River in 1904. She joins up with the IWW; one of her brothers becomes a logging capitalist. Lots of IWW history. Also a very powerful novel portraying a brave and indomitable woman. Highly recommended to all.
Industrial Workers of the World Whatcom-Skagit Branch 